Cautionary tale! Total Oil Loss!!

[Bob Seery]

Hello,

 

I just want to warn fellow RX350 owners of a dangerous problem they may potentially have.  The other night I was almost home when I smelled oil burning.  I got home and found the whole front of the engine and underside of the passenger side of the car covered in oil.  I feared the worst.  Had it towed to Lexus.  Turns out it was an oil cooler line that had ruptured.  ALL your oil goes through it.  The factory line (on a 2010 at least) is rubber.  The replacement is steel.  (p/n 15757-31020)  I asked if there was a recall, but was told that there was no recall, but "it's something we recommend when we have the car in for other service".  I do most of my own service, so I was never told this...  So, if you have not had this cooler line replaced yet, have it done asap (or at the very least inspected).  If I were further from home the results could have been much worse.  RX350 has 98,000 miles on it, has had all recommended service and been garaged..  The whole job with the line,  gaskets and new oil was $940.

[Lexus Owners Club]

Wow!  expensive lesson learnt although you shouldn't normally need to replace steel lines, especially as oil pressure is not that high (compared to power steering) but always pays to check I guess

Also lucky the engine didn't destroy itself and you noticed the burning smell

[Bob Seery]

2 minutes ago, Lexus Owners Club said:

Wow!  expensive lesson learnt although you shouldn't normally need to replace steel lines, especially as oil pressure is not that high (compared to power steering) but always pays to check I guess

Also lucky the engine didn't destroy itself and you noticed the burning smell

Indeed!  But just to clarify, The stock cooler line has a rubber section in it--that is the part that started leaking.  The replacement is all steel.  It has a corrugated section of steel tubing (all one piece) where the rubber section was on the original part.  So now that is is all steel, it should last a good long time.

[RX400h]