sandlex

I don't know how long the garage will take to strip the engine and get back to us, to let us know what its actually going to cost etc The car had done about 120,000 miles up until now, but you don't really think about these things till they happen. We had it earmarked for service back in August, but then I bust my leg and was out of action for 5 weeks, then the guy was on holiday, and from there things just drifted. Unfortunately my mechanical skills are next to zero, and its my wife who does the driving ( my sight isn't my greatest assett ). I think the local garages here just didn't want to have a Lexus on their hands for some reason, none of them even considered taking it in. Garage was just on the phone there for first report.!! He said it was the timebelt that had gone along with the tensioner and the cam belt was down to about a 1/4 of what it should have been. He says he now needs to strip the engine down further to see how many valves have gone. Doesn't look good does it?

I've read an earlier thread on here about Cam belts. Ours just went this morning when we tried to start up. Apparantly its going to cost £800 - £1000 to get things fixed. We had to get it towed to a specialist garage 15 miles away as none of the local garages ( Buckingham ), had the required tools required to service a Lexus. Moral of the story is to get your Cam belt checked if in any doubt. Its very costly if it"goes" This is a "Y" reg car and it was my wifes sons, but he hasn't a clue when the last cam belt was fitted. Now waiting for "official" report from the garage. Keeping fingers crossed its not needing a new engine, otherwise it could be a scrapper.