Head Gasket Problems And Egr Cooler Valve

[harveykeane]

Hi All,

I hope someone can help or atleast offer some advice.....

I took my car to Lexus at the end of Feb this year as I suspected my head gasket was playing up..

I was told that it was but also the engine had twisted and that would need replacing also at a cost of £6500.

As I had my full service they said that it was covered under there warranty, thankfully!!

Now my problem started.

The car went in on the Wednesday and came back to me Friday lunchtime, all sorted according to Lexus.

When I drove it, the car was smoking worse than it was when it went in. They had it back and I was told that it was steam.

I had it back for another week and it was still smoking fairly badly when it was idling.

They had it back and told me that it was unburnt diesel and they needed to change the particular filter.

They did this by telling me they had another car going to auction and they could reduce the cost by taking it of the auction car and putting it on mine. so I said ok do it. But it doesn't look like it has been changed as the bolts to it don't look like a spanner has been near!!

Yesterday, my car took ages to start and when it did, there was a vast amount of white smoking out of the exhaust. Coolant all over the engine, No hot air from the heater.

They told me today that it was the EGR Cooler Valve at a price of £3500 to replace.

I don't think they did the initial job properly....

Any ideas??

Thanks in advance...

[normski2]

Sorry to hear you are having problems matey.

Don't think your engine will be twisted but the 'Head' may and probably will get twisted.

If they have changed the Particulate Filter (DPF) that should not lead to white smoke being emitted.

Can't believe the EGR Valve can be £3500, thats just plain barmy. Did you pop an extra 0 on there by mistake?

Have a good look through and read as many posts as you can find relating to Head Gasket issues on this forum. There are many to read and you will learn a great deal...it will be worth your time.

Let us know how you get on when you go back again. Incidentally...which dealership have you been visiting?

[steve2006]

Makes me wonder if your "New" engine came from a donor vehicle they happened to have before going to auction!

What ever they have done they haven't done it right, DPF sounds like BS and so does the EGR cooler.

Get back to them and tell them to sort the job out once and for all, ask for proof of the claimed engine replacement and compare engine numbers on your V5C to see if the engine has actually been replaced.

Ensure you get a courtesy car and keep it until they have done the job properly and that you are satisfied that is the case.

Normally I would not name and shame but please post up the dealership involved as I feel they deserve the bad publicity.

[harveykeane]

Thanks for the replies... No I didn't pop another 0 on for good measure!!

They quoted £3500 for the job. Today I phoned Lexus in Birmingham and Manchester for advice and to ask them the price of this job. They told me it would be around 9 hours labour at £100 and the part is £669 = £1569 + VAT Total £1882.

I spoke to Lexus head office to ask them to explain why there is a difference of £1680.

The dealer I spoke to told me that I was allowed some good discount on the job... yeah £1680!!

I was also told that this EGR cooler should have been changed as part of the head gasket and engine.. In fact I should have had a new complete engine fitted to the car inc turbo, gearbox etc....

I don't even have a hire car to drive.

Complete bodge all round.... Cov

[normski2]

Go back and demand they get this sorted properly.......in a polite fashion of course.

OK so I don't have the 220 d here now (my son has it some 90 miles away) but I don't remember any cooler facility linked to the EGR. It is a doddle to remove and thoroughly clean it and refit it. I have done it 5 times now...it's peezy. If I work like a prat I can rinse it out to an hour.....get on with it and 30 mins tops. £3500!!!!!! Someone is taking the p***here big time.

I should explain...the EGR is the Exhaust Gas Recycling Valve. It just recycles exhaust gases to be burnt again...keeping the environment clean and all that. It is just a valve that opens and closes.

Oh, and "coolant all over the place and no heater" that's enough to scare the crap out of me...go back my friend and demand they get this sorted. Keep a log of all conversations and problems as they arise. Hopefully you will not need this....but if you do it could be invaluable.

[harveykeane]

Apparently, I was told today that this isn't a part that should have been fixed as part of the head gasket problem, it is a separate entity.

The £3500 price is now for all 3 EGR valves and for the pipes and bolts etc and there is no "goodwill" gesture allowed on this as it is out of warranty.

They stated that this problem was probably happening before the head gasket blew and there was nothing else they were prepared to do on the subject.

I won't be going back to Coventry again!!

[marjohn]

It's quite a while since I posted anything, but I thought I'd throw my pennyworth into the mix.

I bought my IS220d SE-L in 2006, new out of the box, a lovely car,what more could you ask for, and I really did like it.

It had the usual stuff done under warranty, 5th injector new water pump etc.

In February 2010, it had done 51000 miles, and was almost four years old when, hey presto I'm told the head gasket was leaking, fairly obvious really as the expansion tank was blowing pink foam!, I was also getting whitish smoke, not always, but on cold mornings until it warmed up. Fortunately, it was under a Lexus extended and they replaced the short block and all appeared well. As the car was four years old a few weeks later AND had just had an engine rebuild I did not extend the Lexus warranty again, but took out a Warranty Direct policy. Over the next two years, it went back to the dealer twice for smoking issues, they could find no problem and told me it was quite normal for them to smoke!!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, earlier this year it went in for it's 90k service, and I informed them it was becoming a problem to start when warm, and was sometimes tricky when cold and smoked like a chimney! This they could not replicate, basically because they did not bother to get the engine warm. I then contacted WD and told them of my starting issues and smoking. With WD, you can pay more to have all work carried out at a main dealer or just use their network garages which is what I chose to do. In the car went to a local garage who did all the checks, even one of the mechs taking the car home with him to catch the problems, which he did! Further examination proved it to be low compression on cylinders 2 & 3 due to worn cylinders.

Now, if that was a NEW short block that Lexus fitted in 2010 would you expect the cylinders to be worn? I emailed Lexus UK and was basically told, tough, we only guarantee parts for 12 months.

To cut to the chase, a FULLY rebuilt tall engine ( that's the head and the block ) is in the process of being fitted and it's cost me £1500, less than our dear friends at Lexus would have charged and WD are picking up all of the labour costs and half of the parts, only half of the parts as the car is now seven years old, I think you can work that out, in total the repair bill will be around £5k+. My thanks to Warranty Direct.

I hope to get another year out of the car after this, and then it will be chopped in. I will NEVER buy another Lexus, in fact I will never touch a Toyota either. I have tales of attempted rip-off's by another dealer and just generally shoddy standards and after-care.

It's a great shame as the IS220d had so much potential, a real threat to the executive German diesels, but Toyota-Lexus really screwed it up.

Years ago, I had a BMW 320 that had a problem with the aircon thermistor, there was a shortage of them said the dealer they are on back order and they would call me. after 3 weeks I had heard nothing and called the dealer, still on back order. I rang BMW and spoke to their customer services dept who told me there was no shortage. Within ten minutes of that call, the dealer was on the phone to me begging me to bring the car in that day to have the item replaced. They did not want to do it as it was a time consuming job, but BMW UK made them jump, THAT'S what I call customer service.

I think Lexus should have a little latin added to their logo...'Caveat emptor'