Chick155

Hello,

We purchased our lexus in Feb last year so it is still within the 1yr warranty it came with from the dealer.

The car is just over 3yrs old and the fan started to make a very loud noise over Christmas so I took the car to the local dealer.

They have told me the Head Gaskett is about to go so the car has to go in be stripped down tomorrow. They tell me this is a known problem on the IS220 so there should be no problem getting this fixed through Lexus.

My previous car was an Alfa 156 and due to countless problems and huge amounts of money spent it was traded in for what I thought was going to be a very reliable Lexus.

I am now concerned my lovely car has been a bad purchase and I have now just gone from bad to worse in the car stakes.

Has anyone else heard of this problem in the Lexus 220s from 06-09 plate? Also does anyone else know of any known problems with this car that I have not been told about.

I have always wanted to own a lexus and I currently fell a little bit let down.

Hello LisaDarren,

I have owned my IS220D for a little over a year now, it's a 2006 model and I have indeed got the headgasket problem. I have to say Lexus in Poole so far have been good to us. My husband owns his own garage so, naturally, we were going to find workshop space and time to try and repair the car ourselves. When we telephoned Lexus to get the parts, they explained that this fault is covered under warranty if we wanted them to do it for us. So this morning, I have dropped off my Lexus to them and they will keep it for about 10 days and it should come back fixed. Being in the trade ourselves, I have to say we purchased our Lexus for the same reason you got yours. All I would say to you is please don't be disheartened. In the grand scheme of things, every manufacturer suffers faults at some point and it's how they rectify them that matters. Lexus have extended the warranty for this particular fault to 110k miles in order to try and get as many people sorted out as they can. I haven't had any other problems at all and I know plenty of other Lexus owners locally who bring theirs into our garage for servicing and MOT's and every one of those owners talks about the general reliability of this make of car.

I certainly think you could do a lot worse and certainly the Alfa's are not known for reliability! We see all sorts in our garage as we are an independent, therefore my recommendation would be to stick with it, once repaired I am sure you will be happy with it year after year.

Good luck.

Have got my car back now, after quite a wait, which I must say I was warned of.

Engine removed, head off, gasket out. Head twisted, so new one fitted with new gasket. New EGR valve and 5th injector and quite a few other parts replaced too. All of this work covered by the extended warranty offered by Lexus (mentioned earlier).

First decent run this weekend doing 260 miles. All went well, car feeling good again. Drove at various styles to see how the engine responded. All was good and despite the periodic heavy throttle use I was getting 44mpg.

Personally, I have nothing but praise for the way Lexus have resolved this problem. Well done Lexus..... for listening and responding in the right way.

The Dashboard 'crack sound' was sorted too.

I am very happy to read your comments here today Normski - I too live in Wimborne and have this morning dropped off my IS220D Sport to Lexus in Poole for this problem to be fixed by them as they told us when I called them to order the parts (we were going to fix ourselves) that they have indeed extended the warranty on this model because it's a known fault. I have been paranoid about what to expect and whether I will get a massive bill if they try and get out of it so I can't thank you enough, reading your comments has really put my mind at rest.

I am also now looking forward to getting my car back next week and driving it again once it's all fixed :-)