Chucky P

Update on the ES 350 that Lexus wanted $5k to fix. First was the dealer misdiagnosis of the problem as they thought they saw some oil by the timing cover. Christian Bros did everything but drop the engine and could not find a leak anywhere on the engine. They put some blacklight dye in the engine oil, and after a 500 mile recheck, the car still passed with flying colors. The warning to other owners is to watch for oil drips, and monitor the oil level. As one poster said, it is a nuisance leak. Should you notice lots of oil drips, or excessive oil level dropping, then it likely needs to be fixed. Hard to imagine that Toyota/Lexus would have used a silicone sealer for a gasket on a critical piece that is so ridiculously hard to replace or fix.

Update: Dealer highlighted what appeared to be a timing cover leak on the ES 350 and quoted $5,200 repair. Took it to a Christian Bros shop for second quote. Manager said he was familiar with this "common" issue on the 350 engines as his wife's (RX?) 350 is also leaking. Quoted less to fix, but wanted to check if there was an actual leak before dropping engine. Added dye to oil, ran it hard. Tore down part of the engine to get a closer look and examine. Did not find a leak anywhere. Put it back together, checked it all out, ran it hard again (1/2 tank gas used), etc. No leak was found, and said car runs excellent. Said to run it 400 miles and bring it back to recheck for any leaks via visible dye test. Upside - three techs working on it all owned a 350 also. He didn't charge her anything for all that work. Seems there is a common problem in the 350 engines with a leaking timing belt cover. The good part is the 350 engines have a metal timing belt that DOES NOT need replacing every xxx miles or years. Which is a good thing as it is buried in the lower engine, not easily accessible unless you drop the engine basically. However, the weak link is the timing belt cover leaking since there is no physical gasket, rather a silicone sealant was used for the gasket. There is no easy or temporary fix as many have tried. Main problem is access to several bolts on the timing cover are buried under the oil pan which requires the engine to be dropped to remove oil pan to fix. Not sure what the final resolution for this 350 engine issue is that is also found on other Toyota models with the 350 engine.

Water pump is a relatively inexpensive item considering the labor cost to replace it is same as a new timing belt - EXPENSIVE. Should as a rule of thumb always be changed out when a new timing belt is replaced.

Lady friend has an almost spotless, fully loaded 2013 ES 350, 115k miles, book value between $15-20k. She followed the 120k service recommendation and took it to dealer for servicing. After $1,100 in charges, they also discovered a slight timing belt cover leak problem in the checklist - quoted $5200 to repair it. Full workup - drop engine, repair, etc. She is going to do it since a used dealer certified RX would cost 35k and up, meaning $6-7k annually till paid off.