Great Mechanic

[akewlguy]

675 bucks.

My mechanic is the best, but I did not tell him to change the tensioner and pullies. So I suspect it was not done, but not sure since I did not pick up the LS.

Well its so nice to have an awesome mechanic who is fair and honest. If you need an awesome mechanic in SE CT let me know.

[Dust]

That's kinda expensive, anyone can be a "nice guy" and put on a smile for that money. :P

[Sweet95LS400]

That sounds like a great deal to me, the Lexus dealer quoted me $1400 for the same work. But they also "visually inspect" everything else on the car looking for other items to replace and make money on.

[akewlguy]

I guess it depends on which part of the country your from. In CT it's $75 an hour for labor. Cheers... Of course if I did it myself it would have only cost about 250 in parts. Also Serpentine belt and a few other extra's were changed. So I am happy. GO UCONN!

[branshew]

That's kinda expensive, anyone can be a "nice guy" and put on a smile for that money. :P

What??? I'd like to know where you live if it's cheaper there. Considering what has to be done to get to the TB & WP on these cars and the fact that it includes the 2 parts, I'd say that's a good deal.

I was recently quoted $1200 P&L from an indy to replace TP, WP, tensioner, and pulleys and $1800 from Lexus for the same.

...the Lexus dealer quoted me $1400 for the same work.But they also "visually inspect" everything else on the car looking for other items to replace and make money on.

The only thing that my dealer likes to "visually inspect" is my wallet. That's why I try to stay out of there.

[sha4000]

That's kinda expensive, anyone can be a "nice guy" and put on a smile for that money. :P

the only place you can get it cheaper is if i did it for you at your house if not that is a good deal. thatsat least a5-6 hour jod in labor plus the costs of materials so i say thats a good deal

[akewlguy]

Honestly I expected between 800 and 1000 so I was pleased with this price. The only bummer is the fact the mechanic did not replace the tensioner or pullies. What does the tensioner do? The pulleys move with the serpentine belt (keep it in line)?

[wandawoods]

Honestly I expected between 800 and 1000 so I was pleased with this price. The only bummer is the fact the mechanic did not replace the tensioner or pullies. What does the tensioner do? The pulleys move with the serpentine belt (keep it in line)?

he did not replace the timing belt pullies/tentioner? or tentioner for serpentine belt (lexus calls it drive belt)? they are totally different parts. also, drive belt pully is easy to replace, but the tensioner driving the pulley is very difficult to change out because bunch of overlaping pieces, including alernator, must be removed 1st!

a bad drive belt tensioner makes noise, however, it's really not that critical. in fact, I will worry more about whether he has changed the 2x CAM seals & 1x Crank seals or not! otherwise you are looking at 6~8 hours labor to replace the leaking seals down the road.

[Dust]

Thanks for the input, but I guess I forgot to add that I never had that service done yet, so I assumed it was expensive. Brooklyn dealer here in New York charges you 105 an hour for labor, so yeah that is way too much. Makes me wanna think twice about buying a used car next time. But then again leasing a brand new BMW which guarantees you a 4 year free maintenance never really has problems since its brand new ( except for the oil change and maybe new breaks depends on their life. I guess either way you can't win. But the only positive thing we can get out of this, these cars do last forever and I would pay that money because we care. :)

[sapper_daddy]

hey fellas i went in and got a quote at my lexus dealer ship here in New Orleans so here we go

timing belt and water pump replacement along with tensioner and idlers ~1100

valve adjustment~616

rack replace~414

anyone need the numbers just pm me or reply on this thread

[blake918]

hey fellas i went in and got a quote at my lexus dealer ship here in New Orleans so here we go

timing belt and water pump replacement along with tensioner and idlers ~1100

valve adjustment~616

rack replace~414

anyone need the numbers just pm me or reply on this thread

I'd avoid that service dept like the bubonic plauge. You should call the BBB on them for quoting $616 for a valve adjustment LOL; if you move at a dying turtle's pace, it would still take well under 3 hours. I know you drive back and fourth between Jennings and NOLA, so LeBlanc would be a better choice. They are honest and disgustingly polite. They are about 5-10 minutes from i10 on Airline. Lex of NO service is a joke.

[JPI]

That's kinda expensive, anyone can be a "nice guy" and put on a smile for that money. :P

That is a good deal indeed. He is paying for the expertise, anyone can do a timing belt job and water pump for $300. Would the car run after the repair? I doubt it!

JPI

[DJ Hellfire]

That's kinda expensive, anyone can be a "nice guy" and put on a smile for that money. :P

What??? I'd like to know where you live if it's cheaper there. Considering what has to be done to get to the TB & WP on these cars and the fact that it includes the 2 parts, I'd say that's a good deal.

I was recently quoted $1200 P&L from an indy to replace TP, WP, tensioner, and pulleys and $1800 from Lexus for the same.

Agreed! I drive a Hyundai Elantra and the dealer quoted me over $500 to do a timing belt only and it's only an inline 4 cylinder. So what I did was bought an OEM timing belt from ebay for $50 cheaper than the dealer charges, then had them put the timing belt in while they were changing the headgasket which was warranteed. So I still ended up paying $260 in labor just for them to change the belt, and they were already in there. $675 for that on an LS is a steal!

[akewlguy]

Will the valves tap or someting if they need adjustment?

My LS was taken care by Lexus for all service through 75k. Since then it was more of a side mechanic... Now I am at 100k and the belts, timing and water pump were changed. Tooooo bad I did not post this before or else I would have changed everything else including the pulleys, tensioner and gaskets. I guess in 30k he can rip it back apart for 300k and fix those parts.

You guys rule and thanks for all the awesome feedback! Next time before I repair I will do more research.. Great news tomorrow I get the LS and the chick. Life is great if your an LS owner!

[sapper_daddy]

hey fellas i went in and got a quote at my lexus dealer ship here in New Orleans so here we go

timing belt and water pump replacement along with tensioner and idlers ~1100

valve adjustment~616

rack replace~414

anyone need the numbers just pm me or reply on this thread

I'd avoid that service dept like the bubonic plauge. You should call the BBB on them for quoting $616 for a valve adjustment LOL; if you move at a dying turtle's pace, it would still take well under 3 hours. I know you drive back and fourth between Jennings and NOLA, so LeBlanc would be a better choice. They are honest and disgustingly polite. They are about 5-10 minutes from i10 on Airline. Lex of NO service is a joke.

humm thanks for the info blake i'll them soon, i had the dealer ship here in jennings quote me 300 dollars max, to change timing belt and water pump if i brought my own parts, that's not a bad deal either, i know some of the mehcanics too, lemme know what you think

[branshew]

humm thanks for the info blake i'll them soon, i had the dealer ship here in jennings quote me 300 dollars max, to change timing belt and water pump if i brought my own parts, that's not a bad deal either, i know some of the mehcanics too, lemme know what you think

Interesting......

I've never known ANY dealership that would install mechanical or electric parts that were furnished by a customer 1) because they are losing money on the parts sale, 2) beacuse they're not OEM spec and they can't/won't provide any warranty on the parts, and 3) to avoid any possible headaches that will pop up if the parts prove defective or are wrong.

[Thienn]

Bought my parts from Park Place Lexus Plano (Timing Belt -Water Pump -Timing Belt Idler Pulley L -Timing Belt Idler Pully R -Timing Belt Tensioner -Drive Belt, Thermostat, cam seal all the seals/gaskets, etc...) for around $475). My mechanic backed out of the job so I brought the car to Hoffman Lexus in Hartford, CT and they charged me 6 hours to do the job (I think at $89/hour so the total labor was about $600) So YES, dealers will do the job if you give them OEM parts. By the way, my car (1996 SC400) had 113,000 mile at that time and the TB still look real good but i glad I did it cause you will never know.

[akewlguy]

Hey that is not a bad deal for 6 hours.. Enjoy! Mine is running great...

[sapper_daddy]

humm thanks for the info blake i'll them soon, i had the dealer ship here in jennings quote me 300 dollars max, to change timing belt and water pump if i brought my own parts, that's not a bad deal either, i know some of the mehcanics too, lemme know what you think

Interesting......

I've never known ANY dealership that would install mechanical or electric parts that were furnished by a customer 1) because they are losing money on the parts sale, 2) beacuse they're not OEM spec and they can't/won't provide any warranty on the parts, and 3) to avoid any possible headaches that will pop up if the parts prove defective or are wrong.

yeah the belt tensioner and pump are lexus and the idlers are an oem brand too

[blake918]

humm thanks for the info blake i'll them soon, i had the dealer ship here in jennings quote me 300 dollars max, to change timing belt and water pump if i brought my own parts, that's not a bad deal either, i know some of the mehcanics too, lemme know what you think

Sounds too good to be true!! I'd have them do it asap before they change their minds! LOL

[sapper_daddy]

yeah the only thing is that they won't give me a waranty but like i said i know most of the mechanics and there is one in particular that has 20 plus years with toyota ONLY and he's really good the others just really suck all around and turn out crappy work........sorry if any of them are reading this. so that's why i kinda am scared to let em do it, there is a place in NO called express lane auto i think and they advertise timing belt changes for like 375........i want to call them some time and see what kind of warranty they offer. i really want to do it myself because it doesn't look that hard but EVERYONE i know says not to. i mean hell like 5 mecahnics in my town said they just didn't WANT to do it