kimberly

Hello fellow Lexus owners, We had a little problem on our Lexus ES330. The front dash pad has little bumps and uneven surfaces. We are still in warrenty, so the dealer would like to replace the dash pad free of charge. Has anyone done this? Is this pretty safe to do not to hurt other parts of the car? Thanks for your advice. Kimberly

Thank you all for your advice. I did call the insurance company, they told me if it is repairable and not in the driver's vision, they will cover the repair cost. We will start the repair work. Thanks, Kimberly Mike, that would be the windshield. kimberly, It depends on how bad and how big the chip is. Call you dealership and see who they outsource their glass replacement, too. Then call them directly. Have them assess the chip. Some chips can be filled, but if the shop is not that good, then you have a sealed eyesore on your hands. In my case, I had a very small chip but it went all the way through. They replaced the entire windshield. Check with you insurance company too, alot of times this is covered for safety reasons. steviej

Hello Lexus Owner, We have Lexus ES330, recently one rock chip flew to the front glass shield and chipped it. Should we need to change the whole window or to repair that part? Any advice is appreciated. Kimberly

Hi all, I would like to thank everybody who helped us on this issue. We toured two shops and found out the exact ways they do things. I do learn that it is not supposed to repaint the bumper on top of the previous paint as it will be too thick to crack. To do our job right, the technician said it should strip the old paint out, then repaint, but the estimate person only said to sand the little area, primer, than paint the small area, blind out to the entire bumper, then clear-coat the whole bumper. We felt not comfortable what they will do. We decided to leave it alone. Lexus will remit the repair amount to us. We saw a RX330 rear door and bumper paint all falling off after the collision, found out how thin that paint is. The tech. told us the paint can not exceed the max mils, otherwise will easily crack. We will enjoy our car now. Kimberly

Hello all, Finally we had time to go to the Kuni Cadillac collision center to get the repaint quote. The technician told us the painting process: 1. Open the trunk to loosen the bolts and clips and get the bumper off. 2. Sand and primer the damaged area, use computerized paint mixing machine to get the paint based on the car color code formula. Tint the paint to match the color on the car as close as possible. 3. spray the paint only on the damaged area, then clear coat the entire bumper, then heat up the bumper for about 200 degree for about half an hour to let it dry. 4. Polish the area where dirt might get on it. 5. Reinstall the bumper, some clips may be damaged due to unasembling the bumper, they will put Lexus factory clips on. I talked to a technician working on Lexus cars for 18 years, he told that the bumper color is always a little different from the body color as bumper is made from plastic while the body from metal, they adhere the paint little differently. He said that the repaint is going to be softer than the factory one as Factory use 300 degree baking process. He did say it should be as durable as the factory one. If they only paint the damage area (it might be like an apple size maximum as the scratch area is smaller than a phone key size), they also have life time warrenty on the work if the patch ever showed up differently from other area of the bumper, they will redo it for free. They quote this job for $400. Lexus of Portland will pay it. We may check other shops to see the difference. Kuni owns Lexus of Portland. They have %40 work for Lexus cars, the other part is for BMW, Cadallic, and SAAB. I think that they should be pretty good. Thanks, Kimberly

I didn't have mine redone even though Lexus was paying for it. Now that it has been done though it would have been okay to let them do it. One thing though, find your own shop to do the work.

Thank you all for sharing your experience with me. Very likely we will leave it alone, after all, it is a bumper. But it just felt not good. We will still go to the body shops to do some research and learn more about the repainting work. Next time when we buy a new car, we will check everything before driving out of the dealer lot. This is our third new car, we never checked the exterior thinking a brand new car from factory should be PERFECT. Experience gained this time when we buy the most luxurious car at Lexus. Another question is, if we do not touch up as it is hard to do, will it erode over time? The service maanger said it will not as it is made from plastic material. If we wax the area, will it protect it from further damage? Thanks, Kimberly :)

Thank you all for responding my question. We will check out at Cadillac service to see how good they do on repainting work, then make a decision on what to do. Lexus will be paying the repaint work. As they are very small little chips, we might let it go if repaint is not a good idea. Our only concern is if the new paint will fade the same way as the factory paint. Any experience is welcome to help us make decisions. Thanks again for your time.

Hello fellow Lexus owners, We just bought a brand new Lexus ES330 after Christmas, it only has 50 miles on it. My husband found out an area around the middle of the rear bumper skin with three little hard paint chips off. The color of the car is Sonora Gold Pearl. We took the car to the service, the manager told us to repaint the bumper by Cadillac service department, which is approved by Lexus. I would like to get your advice on how to pursue this. 1. Will the repaint turn out to be good match over years? Will it do some damage on the car after the bumper is reinstalled after the repaint? 2. Shall we ask a new car as the car only has 50 miles on it, hardly driven. We do find another car on the show room floor, which has similar damage on the rear bumper, we guess it might be a delivery flaw. Thanks for your advice. Kimberly