Life After Oil Gel

[Greg W]

My RX300 2002 engine gelled: very pleased with the worked performed! They took the entire engine apart, cleaned it, put back together....NO CHARGE! with 64,000 miles

At 160,000 miles, I'm told that I need a new Engine due to "oil Starvation", $7,500.00. Couldn't explain "why or how" the problem occured. I think something was missed, although it had to be a minor detail, bought this car to a pre-mature death. They complemented me on how clean the inside of the engine is/was. I always took it to get an oil change every 5000 miles, ALWAYS, never missed.

My last 3 cars with mileage:

Nissan 4x4 truck, 250,000 miles

Ford Taurus wagon 185,000 miles

Volvo S70, 200,000 miles

I know how to take car of a car, look at the mileage from my other cars.

this is garbage that this engine froze.....Lexus' best friend and worse enemy is their reputation. I thought I'd get a car an drive it to 300,000 miles, great reputation! But for it to die and say it happens, no way, Lexus's reputation to Toooooooo Good!

Lexus did nothing for me!

[blk_on_blk]

Yeah, a lot can happen to an engine over 160,000 miles. You could have had a slight imperfection in a component over time that finally showed up and lead to oil starvation... or your screen got clogged, or a clog somewhere else in the system. Either way, sorry to hear about the failure.

Although, $7500 is ridiculous! If your lower end is frozen from oil starvation, I would recommend sourcing a good used long-block (the full lower assembly including block and heads) and have a reputable shop do the swap. You should be able to find a nice, decent mileage long block for around $650 or so (probably less), then change it out of your vehicle (you keep all your intake equipment, fuel injection, etc.). We had an engine fail in our old ES300 (uses the same 1MZFE engine) and our shop was able to source multiple nice used long blocks in our area. They chose the one they liked and did the swap. The car was perfect after that... and nowhere near $7500. Take it to a good indie shop and get a quote for a long-block replacement. For most good shops, this is a straightforward job.

[Filehorse]

I'd place my bet that this failure is somehow related to the disassembly Lexus did at 64,000 miles. Of course there is no way to prove that. Have they told you what bearings were affected? Main bearings? Rod bearings? If so, how many? If all (most) bearings were affected then you have to look at the oil pump or the oil passages to and from the filter - any of which should have given you the RED Low Oil Pressure idiot light. Yours is the first engine I've heard anyone say died of a lubrication-related failure in years. These things just don't happen with any regularity anymore. Regardless, all that is academic now. Before I would let Lexus relieve me of $7,500 for a new engine, I'd be looking for a "previously enjoyed" engine. Between Lexus and Toyota, there are millions of copies of that engine available. I just don't see putting a new engine in a vehicle that has that much mileage and is pushing 10 years old. Also, I'd find me a good independent shop that specializes in Lexus and/or Toyota and get some quotes from them as to what they could do for you. I promise you it'll be a LOT less than your friendly Lexus dealer wants to install their engine. Out of curiosity, for $7,500 would you be getting a new short block or some type of factory remanufactured engine? Inquiring minds want to know.

I feel your pain. I dropped $3,200 this week to have the transmission completely overhauled in my 2000 RX300 AWD. It has 165,000 miles on it. The planetary gear set disintegrated. The independent transmission shop told me they see a lot of that same failure in these transmissions.

Let us know how all this plays out.

[lenore]

You wonder if they really dissassembled it. or just threw cleaner at it and there was still sludge in the pan, which starved the oil pump...Also was synthetic used or dino.? The commute has a lot to do with it too. If the engine never really gets warmed up (short commute under 5 miles) than moisture could have been the culprit...That is what happened to my Neighbors highlander engine even though oil had been changed religously... by the way the planetary gear failure Is what I was told was failing at my local independent...Hope he put in the new steel carrier with six gears instead of 4.