Who Is Right Me Or The Dealer

[u04921]

I have an ongoing problem with my brakes. Here is the story.

1. I bought this car used. It had 34K miles on it. I ran buyers inspection at the lexus of tacoma. I was told that this car had been serviced at Lexus of Tacoma and never had any problems. They told me that 30K miles service was due.

2. I brought the car to Lexus of Bellevue to do 30K service. They brought my attention to brakes pulsation. It was strange that it hadn’t been brought up at the buyer’s inspection. After a while I asked Lexus of Bellevue to fix the problem and paid about $600 to replace the pads and resurface the rotors. The brakes didn't work quite smooth from day 1 after the fix and in 2 months the pulsation was back.

On a side note on the 30K service LB (lexus of bellevue) recommended me wheel alignment even though wheel alignment was a part of the upcoming (in two weeks) recall and they knew about it. I didn’t do wheel alignment though but I got a feeling that LB was trying to sell me unnecessary service.

3. I brought the car back and I was told that the pads were faulty and LB replaced front rotors and pads on the warranty. However even after that the braking wasn’t smooth. The brakes had clicking sound on low speed and at times I still felt vibration which increased over time. 4K later I brought it again (note that pulsation came back earlier, maybe in 2.5K). I’ve been told that I must “live on hill”, “the IS350 has a brake system that’s very easy to overheat, and it’s not like on other cars”. I also pointed out that there is a knocking sound as when I slightly turn right. I suggested (I’m not a mechanic though) that it might have smth to do with the fact that my brakes go bad so quickly. I was told (customer representative John) that it was the tires. John showed me a small bulge on my right tire which I made parking at a really slow speed. He sounded 100% sure, so I replaced the front tires even though they were good for 10-15K. Guess what? The knocking sound was still there. I brought the car back and now the customer representative suggested that was a wheel bearing problem and estimated the repair cost for $700+.

4. I testdrove Lexus IS250 and the brakes were smooth, I never had this smooth brakes on my IS350 even after the second repair

All in all my customer experience with LB is horrible.

1. Buyers inspection didn’t unveil the brakes pulsation

2. Selling me services I don’t need (wheel alignment). Though it’s a small issue

3. Cannot fix my brakes.

4. Forced me into replacing front tires even though the problem was with a wheel bearing

What would you do in my place?

[NicLX470]

I have an ongoing problem with my brakes. Here is the story.

1. I bought this car used. It had 34K miles on it. I ran buyers inspection at the lexus of tacoma. I was told that this car had been serviced at Lexus of Tacoma and never had any problems. They told me that 30K miles service was due.

2. I brought the car to Lexus of Bellevue to do 30K service. They brought my attention to brakes pulsation. It was strange that it hadn’t been brought up at the buyer’s inspection. After a while I asked Lexus of Bellevue to fix the problem and paid about $600 to replace the pads and resurface the rotors. The brakes didn't work quite smooth from day 1 after the fix and in 2 months the pulsation was back.

On a side note on the 30K service LB (lexus of bellevue) recommended me wheel alignment even though wheel alignment was a part of the upcoming (in two weeks) recall and they knew about it. I didn’t do wheel alignment though but I got a feeling that LB was trying to sell me unnecessary service.

3. I brought the car back and I was told that the pads were faulty and LB replaced front rotors and pads on the warranty. However even after that the braking wasn’t smooth. The brakes had clicking sound on low speed and at times I still felt vibration which increased over time. 4K later I brought it again (note that pulsation came back earlier, maybe in 2.5K). I’ve been told that I must “live on hill”, “the IS350 has a brake system that’s very easy to overheat, and it’s not like on other cars”. I also pointed out that there is a knocking sound as when I slightly turn right. I suggested (I’m not a mechanic though) that it might have smth to do with the fact that my brakes go bad so quickly. I was told (customer representative John) that it was the tires. John showed me a small bulge on my right tire which I made parking at a really slow speed. He sounded 100% sure, so I replaced the front tires even though they were good for 10-15K. Guess what? The knocking sound was still there. I brought the car back and now the customer representative suggested that was a wheel bearing problem and estimated the repair cost for $700+.

4. I testdrove Lexus IS250 and the brakes were smooth, I never had this smooth brakes on my IS350 even after the second repair

All in all my customer experience with LB is horrible.

1. Buyers inspection didn’t unveil the brakes pulsation

2. Selling me services I don’t need (wheel alignment). Though it’s a small issue

3. Cannot fix my brakes.

4. Forced me into replacing front tires even though the problem was with a wheel bearing

What would you do in my place?

My 09 IS350 is getting close to 20k miles and the brakes are still perfect.

The brake system for the 350 is oversized for the bigger engine and should not warp as bad as you say, especially in fewer than 3k miles.

The only thing I can think of that would make this happen is if a caliper is bad and sticking. So it is not releasing all the way making the rotor overheat and warp.

[beginner]

Certain dealers do not have integrity. Try another Lexus dealer. I have a trustful body shop to take care of minor works and only bring my car to dealer for major service. This way I have second opinion to cross check their works.

I interacted with a Toyota dealer that overstated the problems to make profit from me. Not criticizing the Toyota brand it is just I always have Japanese cars.

[F-Sport77]

The front tires on these cars wear pretty quick and usually feather the inner edges causing road noise that is very similar to the sound of a damaged/worn wheel bearing. Sometimes replacing the tire may be necessary to ensure that the noise is not from worn tires. The bearing/hubs used on the IS do not always have visible slack or excess movement when inspected after curb/impact damage, this noise gets worse over time (sometimes thousands of miles)while it slowly self destructs. Happened to me once after getting carried away in a parking lot, put 15k on it before the bearing got really loud and it was very obvious that the wheel bearing was the cause. I don't know what is wrong with your brakes, sounds unusual to warp them that often. I get the typical pad click when backing then going forward or the other way around, but I have not warped the rotors yet (36K now).