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All:

I am in a depressed state of mind right now.....My 1999 GS400 is out of commission. I was coming home from taking my father to the emergency room early one morning during a severe rain storm and ran into some high water. The water was high enough to get onto my hood and into my air intake. Needless to say, the intake sucked the water in like a vaccum. When I got home I notice a loud "tapping" sound coming from my engine. The following morning I took it to a local Toyota dealer (I know the service manager and shop foreman) and right away I was told I bent some piston rods. I have the insurance to cover it, but they want to replace the engine altogether vs re-build it. The problem I'm having is that I don't think they will be able to find one that was comparable to mine (I only have 73K miles on it). So here are my options:

1. Get an engine with more miles on it (the insurance company has offered a life time warranty on any one that it finds and installs)

2. Have my engine rebuilt (through the dealer) with only a 12 month warranty

Which direction should I go? What is the risk I take with the dealer just rebuilding it?

Thanks for any feedback.

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Since your car is out of warranty anyway, I'd rebuild it. The warranty Lexus gives you will be honored including labor for 12 months. If you go with the used engine, sure is has a warranty for life. The engine itself may have a warranty, but typically not the labor involved to diagnose or repair any problem that may arise in the future.

You need to get the details of the "lifetime" warranty before you make your decision. Also, talk with the Lexus people to see what is covered if they were to do the work. Also find out if they are just going to "repair" the damaged parts of the engine or completely dissassemble and rebuild the entire thing. If they only repair it, they will only cover the parts that they have replaced.

A Lexus-rebuilt engine should be as reliable as a brand new engine, provided all OEM parts and procedures are used to rebuild it. A used engine is just that; used.

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Since your car is out of warranty anyway, I'd rebuild it. The warranty Lexus gives you will be honored including labor for 12 months. If you go with the used engine, sure is has a warranty for life. The engine itself may have a warranty, but typically not the labor involved to diagnose or repair any problem that may arise in the future.

You need to get the details of the "lifetime" warranty before you make your decision. Also, talk with the Lexus people to see what is covered if they were to do the work. Also find out if they are just going to "repair" the damaged parts of the engine or completely dissassemble and rebuild the entire thing. If they only repair it, they will only cover the parts that they have replaced.

A Lexus-rebuilt engine should be as reliable as a brand new engine, provided all OEM parts and procedures are used to rebuild it. A used engine is just that; used.

Thanks for the opinion. I think will do as you suggested and get the full details on what "life time warranty" means to the insurance company. One reason I'm gun-shy about the used engine route is because the insurance adjuster found an engine (2000 model with 44K miles) that I was suspicious about. I ran the vin number and guess what? It was a 1998 model that was registered to an owner in (you guessed it) Louisiana last year in Sept. right before Katrina. I'm still waiting for them to find one that's suitable for me.

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My insurance company is trying to find a low milage used one that has a clean history (see my previous post). They found one in Mass. but don't know if the history is good on it. I'm almost afraid they won't rebuild it. The costs will be too much....they may total it and cut me a check!

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My insurance company is trying to find a low milage used one that has a clean history (see my previous post). They found one in Mass. but don't know if the history is good on it. I'm almost afraid they won't rebuild it. The costs will be too much....they may total it and cut me a check!

This would be an option to consider as well. If you get another car, all the possibilities of what may happen with your current one dissappear.

In my case, I still have my '98 and it still does not start properly from time to time. It has 110K miles on it now and still has to get a timing belt and water pump among about $1,000.00 of other things. Besides working on the problem with the starting in my own shop, I've had it to two Lexus dealers. The dealers collectively had it in their care for over thirty days and neither has offered one iota of help with it. I am definately considering a new vehicle just because I'm tired of the hassle.

A note on rebuilding. IMHO, an engine can be rebuilt. I know I can do it and do it properly to the finest tolerances. I only know this because I know my capabilities and limitations. I also have at my disposal several machinists that I trust. If I were to faced with such an undertaking and had another viable solution rather than rebuild, I might just take the other road. In reality, it's an older car and even if it had a newly rebuilt engine, it would still be an older car.

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yes finding a good machinist these days is tough, at least around here. i know one, that is very good, but because of that he's running about 60 days behind on engines and that's for common vehicles.

The engine that was found in Massachusetts is being shipped to me. Carfax indicated that the car that the engine is coming from was involved in minor accidents. So this is the route I'm going. I hope it goes well as the dealer will do the work for me.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Have them replace it with a 4.3L V8 or the new 4.6L V8

Well, I got my car back yesterday and I must say I'm pleased with the work the TOYOTA (not Lexus) dealer did. The engine that my insurance company found was supposed to come from Mass. but ended up coming from California. It turned out to be 1998 w/85K + miles on it (instead of a 2000 w/72K + miles on it). So far so good....I guess time will tell. What problems do you think I may have (initially)?

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  • 1 month later...

Have them replace it with a 4.3L V8 or the new 4.6L V8

Well, I got my car back yesterday and I must say I'm pleased with the work the TOYOTA (not Lexus) dealer did. The engine that my insurance company found was supposed to come from Mass. but ended up coming from California. It turned out to be 1998 w/85K + miles on it (instead of a 2000 w/72K + miles on it). So far so good....I guess time will tell. What problems do you think I may have (initially)?

So far so good on my engine replacement. Although I'm pleasantly surprised that this older engine (1998 w/85K+ miles) appears to be getting better gas milage than my old one (1999 w/73K miles). How is this possible?

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  • 5 months later...

Have them replace it with a 4.3L V8 or the new 4.6L V8

Well, I got my car back yesterday and I must say I'm pleased with the work the TOYOTA (not Lexus) dealer did. The engine that my insurance company found was supposed to come from Mass. but ended up coming from California. It turned out to be 1998 w/85K + miles on it (instead of a 2000 w/72K + miles on it). So far so good....I guess time will tell. What problems do you think I may have (initially)?

So far so good on my engine replacement. Although I'm pleasantly surprised that this older engine (1998 w/85K+ miles) appears to be getting better gas milage than my old one (1999 w/73K miles). How is this possible?

It has been some time since you posted about how your Lexus is doing? Any report? I recently registered with Lexusownersclub.com because I too have a similar problem. My '98GS400 has been diagnosed with possible bent piston rods or valve arms. This is a mystery to me how it happened since the car was, and always has run perfectly.

I have a couple of questions for you if you'd be so kind.

1. How was your insurance able to help you out in this matter? My car has been covered the whole time since it has stopped running.

2. How much (ball park) should I be expected to pay for a small block engine replacement as suggested by the Dealer?

ps I can't stand taking an out of warranty luxury car to the dealer - they'll get you every way they can it seems. When I originally towed it in - they chargeed me a $110 initial diagnostic fee. Then after they had it a couple of days they wanted to charge me $330 on top of that just to "further" diagnose the car. They told me that I had very low compression which was a sign of possible bent piston rods or valve arms and suggested to my personal/private mechanic that I had run the car extremely hot for a long period of time - which wasn't the case - I am not an idiot and love my Lexus but I am super frustrated as it sits in the driveway and I am in need of advice. By the way, after paying the $110 initial diagnostic fee to the dealer I had the car towed home - trust issue - after all, my private/personal mechanic had already sort of told me the same thing and suggested I take the car to the dealer because he wasn't getting a read from the computer and thought the dealer could help me more which hasn't been the case. Any advice you could give would be exponentially appreciated. Thanks!

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Toyota replaced mine after they messed up my timing belt with a engine with 30k on it. I had 85k at the time. It has been a year now and so far I have had no problems.

Was this something you had to debate with them for? I don't understand how the timing belt being off can destroy an engine.

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RM911, Sorry for the delay in response....I am still a happy camper with the work that the TOYOTA dealer did for me. I've had no issues and my car runs as good as it did prior to the replacement. Question? I know how my piston rods/arms were damaged, but how were yours? I can't imagine this happening unless you went through what I did OR you had low oil pressure. As for your questions:

1. I have 'comprehensive' coverage. This coverage on my insurance covered the damage done to my car by unnatural causes or non-collision. I was very fortunate to have this added to my policy.

2. Cost on your block engine will be VERY expensive to do. This is not to mention the concern of warranty coverage on the work done. You'd be hard pressed, if at all, to find someone to do the work and have a good extended warranty. The labor alone will be astronomical! I remember calling and asking my LEXUS advisor about the very same thing and all he said was that would be more than the standard 80% damage cost of repair vs. your car's worth....Meaning the insurance company would simply write it off as a loss. I then asked point blank how much it would cost to just put a brand new motor straight out of the box (he said that they actually had those available) and he told me you'd be looking at about $17K!!!!! Yes, I said $17,000 (not a typo). He said the route that my insurance company was going was the best route.

With all this said, I'd recommend you do what I did. By the way, who is insurance carrier? This may make a difference.

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