back to the dealer...

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Thu Jul 18, 2013 9:30 pm

with the 'ol lexus.

this time, for an actual problem and not a recall. nasty sounding startup grind/rattle. this has only happened a few times, so probably only hopefully thinking that the dealer with perform the TSB without seeing it first hand. we'll see.

EvilHorace...have you seen a lot of these issues? sounds like it's fairly common in the 06/07 models (mine is an 07). i never heard of it before on the lexus forums, but then again, i never looked.

TSB: http://www.lexustsb.com/questions/201/T ... ld+Startup

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Zj3xm-LhWqs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

at 0:14 is the exact thing i get. according to the TSB it's 6+ hours of labor?

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Thu Jul 18, 2013 9:43 pm

Sounds like the starter isn't releasing properly, but that's just a guess.

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 7:27 am

I had something similar on my Toyota - ended up replacing the starter, but I also heard it when my battery was about shot.

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 8:56 am

EvilHorace...have you seen a lot of these issues?

Yes. If you're past the 70K mark, it'll be twice that warranty time so 12 hours labor.
The job takes at least that much time too. Unless your water pump's been changed before, it'll probably need that too as they commonly leak now with pink crust all over the pulleys.

Parts for that aren't cheap either. (Intake cam gears).

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 5:19 pm

i'm still under the powertrain warranty by time and mileage, so i should be covered. i read on a few forums that people were quoted $2K+ for out of warranty work. oof!. i was just glancing through the TSB and it said 6.0 + misc other time. sounds like a lot of work. mine is super low mileage (under 16K). i was just thinking about selling it, but wouldn't feel right doing so without fixing this first. it is very infrequent, so hopefully i can get it reproduced or fixed without them hearing it. then i can list it.

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 6:03 pm

Should be in luck then. I thought you had over 100K on your car but wow, 16K? You hardly drive that.

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 8:22 pm

yeah, i don't drive much in general...maybe 7-8K per year total. with two cars, it splits it up. part of that is due to living close to work, the other from travel, etc. i do try to drive it more lately though.

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 12:36 pm

well, no luck at the dealer. they said they would need to reproduce in-house, as well as run diagnostics on it when it was having the issue. of course, the issue is just that 1 sec noise and that's it. the service writer started describing how it couldn't possibly make that noise without associated drivability issues, which doesn't match up with the TSB, but he didn't seem interested in hearing more about it. oh well. he said it was either "piston slap" or just a "harmless draining of the oil from that pressurized system". the googlez tells me otherwise, but I wasn't going to argue at that time. my powertrain warranty is good for one more year, so it will either be sold by then or i'll just live with it unless it starts doing it every time (so they can see it).

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 7:26 pm

Well, the noise has no further diagnostics or causes drive-ability issues whatsoever so the writer was incorrect in telling you that.

If you were to leave the car there overnight, would an experienced tech their be able to hear it when it starts? If so, that's all there is to it. It makes the noise or it doesn't, period. We get those on occasion but to date, I haven't yet had to do one but others at our dealership have.
I've heard the noise on cars when customers aren't complaining about it too, usually cars with much higher mileage than yours or cars that ran very low on oil such as RX 350s when their rubber oil cooler hoses blow.

For warranty, I do know that it has to be duplicated, they can't just take a persons word on it, TSB or not. If they did, everyone would be doing that.

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:43 pm

yes, i agree about the having to duplicate it part. makes sense, as of course i could be wrong and then they just replaced something for no reason. i was just annoyed by how he dismissed it and ignored my reference to the TSB and youtube video to show him exactly what to look for.

unfortunately, it's very sporadic, so i've only heard it a few times. i didn't get lucky and have them hear it there (though it won't do it when warm anyway), so i'll just have to let it ride.

one other annoying thing that came out of the trip is their confirmation of massive tire wear on the car. a set of michelin super sport tires with only 3K miles on them are at 6/32. dang! i don't drive that crazy. from 10/32 new to 6/32 in 3,000 miles? this is daily driver stuff...not a track car. the tires are summer tires, but have a tread warranty, so i'll be checking on that too. i think they make you wait until it hits 2/32 (safety be damned!) before prorating them though.