Valve Spring Recall - Mishap?

coneybiller · March 7, 2011

Well I bought my 450h SE-L in december and have been enjoying it very much! I had noticed that if the heaters were on and car was left at idle for a long period, that I would get a very harsh smell of burning oil in the cabin! I looked under the bonnet and because of lexus' determination to no let anyone tinker, by placing plastic covers over just about everything, I could not see anything wrong! Anyway, I took my car for its service last friday and notified them of this burning smell so they could investigate the problem.

I received a phone call from them telling me that i had a very severe oil leak from the engine somewhere but it was so bad that they cant tell where its coming from! He told me that he had checked the history of the car and the valve spring recall had been carried out in septemeber by Lexus of Stoke. He said they should have a 12month garantee on all work carried out! He then told me to find a 450h with that much oil on is very rare as they just don't leak oil whatsoever! So clearly they must ahve done something wrong when it had the recall! He said they he would ring stoke on monday (today) and let me know what they say! I'm still awaiting the phone call now, but im very sceptical about what stoke are going to say. I mean surely if they had any sense they would turn around and say that it could of happaned at any time, and its nothing to do with them!

I'm a bit worried now! Especially as it could potentially be a headgasket failure if they have taken the cylinder heads off to replace the valve springs! I cant afford to have it fixed if stoke tell me where to go!

:crybaby:

Cheers

Ben

wendle · March 7, 2011

Hi, when you brought your car in December did you buy it from a Lexus dealership, if so I would have thought you would have got a years warranty with it so what ever the outcome you shouldn’t have to pay anything

coneybiller · March 7, 2011

Unfortunately not! I have a private warantee so maybe that will cover it if the worse comes to worse!

Rang lexus of cheltenham and they said they would ring me back in 10 - 15 mins... that was over half hour ago! Grrr!

dave1 · March 8, 2011

Unfortunately not! I have a private warantee so maybe that will cover it if the worse comes to worse!

Rang lexus of cheltenham and they said they would ring me back in 10 - 15 mins... that was over half hour ago! Grrr!

Was the car purchased from a dealer of any sort, even non franchise, or privately?

tonyricha · March 8, 2011

Unfortunately not! I have a private warantee so maybe that will cover it if the worse comes to worse!

Rang lexus of cheltenham and they said they would ring me back in 10 - 15 mins... that was over half hour ago! Grrr!

Was the car purchased from a dealer of any sort, even non franchise, or privately?

When my 450h had the valve job done on the re call I was told they do not remove the cylinder heads, compressed air is pumped into the cylinders to prevent the valves dropping when the collets are removed to allow the springs to be changed so that should not be the cause of gasket failure, good luck and please keep us informed.

coneybiller · March 9, 2011

Rang them today and they told me they had been in talks with lexus of Stoke and they will carry out the work but are waiting to hear back from them as to wether they will do it in Stoke or pay for Cheltenham to do it! So I'm happy with that! Just hope that they flatbed my car to Stoke if that's the case as don't want the excessive mileage on my car for their mistake! The teamleader reckons it's probably the rocker cover gasket that has been pinched causing the leak but can't be sure! Either way it's a fairly big job!

Shall keep you posted on the progress!

Cheers

Ben

coneybiller · April 7, 2011

Well I took my car to Lexus of Stoke and good as Gold they gave me an IS250 F Sport for the day while they repaired it! It took them a little over 4 hours to complete the job but it's all fixed now so I'm happy! Cost me around £20 to get there and back and a night off of work but other than that it wasn't too bad! The oil leak is fixed, I drank all the tea I could drink. I got free orange juice a cereal bar AND a pot of jelly beans for my return journey haha

my mpg seems to have gone up as well! I don't quite understand it, its risen on my weekly trip to reading at the same speed to 32.4mpg from 22.6mpg! so I haven't the foggiest what happened there! Cant complain though!

All good!

Thanks Lexus! B)