Hi! a '98 ES 300 owner living in Calgary AB here! Just want to add my engine sludge story.....
I purchased my car from a wholesale car dealer (don't do that again) last year for about $28,500, (fair price I thought for all the options) and noted from the warranty manual the vehicle had received its maintenance from Lexus Don Valley in Toronto. So I looked at the engine, the tail pipe (both clean) drove it around, and bought it. I assumed (wrongly) that if Lexus was servicing it since original ownership, it was a) in good shape and B) there would be no problem about their honoring the rest of the 115000 Km drivetrain warranty (it had about 67,000 km when I bought it). It had come off a lease.
5 months later the engine just died. Lexus at first would not honor their warranty, saying the engine had not been serviced regularly, but later when I showed that I had made oil changes twice in that time, they paid for EVERTHING!! towing (50 miles) cab fare, and rental of a replacement vehicle for 3 weeks. They had to replace the entire engine block, including pistons and all the moving parts, so now I have a '98 with a new engine. Total cost was about $7500. Lexus says that there was a period within the original ownership where the oil had not been changed for approx. 30,000 km.
I am impressed with Lexus/Toyota for their work and service, but I have heard subsequently that this 3 L engine has a reputation for gelling up, regardless of how often it is serviced. I heard from a mechanic in Toyota's Tennesee plant that the engine was tweaked to get more HP for use in the Sienna in '98, and now burns hotter. That's when this problem started surfacing, and Toyota has since developed a secret warranty that addresses this problem.
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