Coil Replacement/mini Toyota Rant

[tmastres]

Ok, after my third coil failure in 18 mos. I decided to go ahead and replace the remaining 3 coils with the new 90080-19016 version. The three that I needed were numbers 1 and 3 in the back and number 6 in the front. Well obviously number 6 was a breeze but numbers 1 and 3 were a !Removed!. I was able to get them replaced without removing any other parts. It did take about an hour and a half but it was definitely do-able. I have large (but not really large) hands and I'd say that anyone with any bigger hands than me would be SOL, Its very tight back there.

Now for the rant. Since these are Toyota parts (it says Toyota right on the label) I called the nearest Toyota dealer to me which is a scant 4 miles form my house. The price was $106 ea. with the emphasized caveat that if I were to put these Toyota parts into Lexus (Gasp!) there would be no warranty on the parts. OK this is absurd, but what can I do. I call the nearest Lexus dealer which is 32 miles away and I'm told that the same part is only $90. Yes, folks thats right $16 dollars LESS at the Lexus dealer. Besides that the Lexus parts dept is open 7 days a week and offers free junk food, soda, comfy chairs and a 52" plasma screen for the kids while mom and dad scope out new Lexus's. OK some I'm

getting a bit off topic but I really resent the fact that Lexus and Toyota pretend to be different companies. I can see if there was a Lexus dealership in town with the Toyota dealer but this is just too much.

[djspawn00]

I personally would've tried an online vendor... irontoad, sewell, carsontoyota... just to name a few.

[tmastres]

I personally would've tried an online vendor... irontoad, sewell, carsontoyota... just to name a few.

Not a bad idea at all. What you likely would have found though is that Lexus dealers tend to be pretty uniform in their parts prices unless they're trying to clear parts out. I didn't try Sewell but ironically I did try Park Place (both in Texas). I've bought from Park Place before and they were the same price as I paid locally. Well, sort of locally. I would have saved a bit by not paying CA tax but I wanted the parts ASAP. I also called a couple of other SoCal Lexus dealers and found the same price there as well. Thats when I tried the Toyota option. Again I didn't try Carson Toyota but I did check at the GrandDaddy of all Toyota dealers Longo and they we're very similar. What surprised me was my local Toyota dealers price and their (no warranty) caveat. Iron Toad was about $12 cheaper per coil but to get faster shipping it would have eaten most of the savings.

I also found several non-toyota replacements for the coil but I wasnt willing to risk it as I really don't want to do this again.

[djspawn00]

is coil failure common? I hope not because it sounds pricey.

[tmastres]

is coil failure common? I hope not because it sounds pricey.

I wouldn't call it "common" but it occurs often enough to have several thread on this and the "other" Lexus forum. I look at it like this, if you have over 90k on your RX and have never encountered it then don't worry about it. IF it happens once, then just go ahead and replace them all because its just a matter of time. I've heard that there was a problem with the original model coils 90919-02234 and that they would sometimes fail for whatever reason. These were the models I've pulled out of my RX. As I understand it the new part (ones I used)are the 90080-19016. I have no idea what got changed but there you have it.

I hope you never have to replace yours but its really not all that hard (though you're right its not exactly cheap!) The annoying aspect, of course, is where you are when they go out.

[grouch]

I spoke to my Lexus mechanic about changing plugs. He said the easiest way was to remove the plastic trim around the W/W's and the hardest thing was to remove the wiper arms. This will give you all the room you need. I haven't tried it yet, so it's only hear say at this time, but I figure he's changed a lot of plugs and coils in the past.