SW03ES

AllI'm saying is what I have been told by LOC members that have had the gelling issue and tried to get the engine covered. All Lexus was interested in were reciepts verifying oil changes being done similarly to the reccomended scheduled maintenance, no mention of testing oil at all. I don't have a car affected by the gelling issue so I don't have the letter from Lexus. All I have are the real-world experience of these members. It appears that indeed all they need are reciepts to honor the warranty. Also I've never been to a garage that didn't present me with a work order stating everything that was done, the date and the mileage.

It would be interesting to gather samples of each brand of gas and have them analyzed to figure out if there's a difference in the detergent amount...

Lexus requests reciepts for oil and filter purchases and/or reciepts from recycling stations for the dumping of used oil.

Yes the mirrors should absolutely dim with the rearview BUT I don't think they dim when you manually dim the mirror. Leave it on auto and see if they work. Ask the dealer to show you, show you another LS400 that is the same way.

Best of luck to you man, sounds like it might just turn out in your favor. Keep us updated! You might be rollin in an 04 LS430 when this is all done LOL

Naa you should be able to switch.

Not neccisarily. Why would Toyota spend out of pocket for an air filter that they'll never be able to charge the customer to replace? Plenty of parts and fluids etc are better than OEM. mb- All I'm saying is that Lexus is not easy about covering the engine. They require that you provide proof in the form of written reciepts that the oil has been regularly changed. It is up to them to decide if the amount of reciepts you have provided is adequate or not. If you can't provide reciepts then they won't cover the engine. Proof that the oil was changed every 12k miles is not going to fly, and they're not going to be interested in your oil analysis. All I'm saying is why is stretching the oil change out to 12k miles worth the possibility of this hassle? I'm not saying you can't stretch oil changes out to 12k miles, I know people who use Amsoil and wait 20k and never have any adverse problems come up in the oil analysis. I'm just saying on a car like the 98 ES300 with a well known sludge problem that results from drawn out oil changes with an extended warranty from Lexus that states they will cover the repair as long as the owner can produce reciepts satisfying their idea of what is regular maintenance its just not worth the possible hassles down the road.

Lexus does reccomend that the oil be changed on 5,000 or 7,500 mile intervals. According to people that I've talked to when requesting the engine be covered after gelling this is what they look for, evidence that this service was done. If its not then they may or may not on a case by case basis pay for PART of the replacement. The only way to ensure that they will pay for ALL of the replacement is to change the oil every 5000 or 7500 miles. Thats all I'm saying.

They will not pay for engine repair if you can only demonstrate evidence of 12k drain intervals. The burden of proof is on you, they don't have to prove that you didn't maintain the vehicle, you have to prove that you did. I've seen more than my share of ES owners get screwed over the oil gelling because Lexus didn't feel their efforts were "enough". If you drain the oil at least every 7500k like they say then they have no position to take other than to give you the free engine replacement. You can sue them for it... My only point is I think its foolish to risk having to fork out $10,000 for an engine or having to go through the hassle of litigation to save a few bucks and 30 mintes every 4-5 months to get the oil changed. Its just not worth it.

Normally I would agree with you, but not when you've got a vehicle on an extended warranty from Lexus because of engine failure issues caused by improper drain intervals. We've seen engines torn down for sludge with 7500 mile intervals, why is your car any different? I would do 5k drains just in case I ever got gelling to ensure I didn't have to pay for the engine replacement. If you ver SHOULD get gelling, Lexus isn't going to be interested in your oil test results, they're going to want to see evidence of the car being maintained according to their maintenance schedule. No evidence, no free engine.

That shows me a better picture of what happened. It was stolen and probably stripped. One of the components they always steal is the instrument cluster on these cars because its optitron and they are expensive. That explains the not-actual mileage title, the cluster was replaced with one with a different mileage. I agree, not as bad news as it could have been.

I use Mobil 1 with no problems changed every 5k miles with a Lexus filter. as for waiting 12k miles, I definately would not do that. I agree that oil changes are a hassle, but so is shelling out $10,000 for a new engine because it has gelled and your 12k oil changes have voided Lexus' replacement warranty. The 02+ ES is supposedly reworked to avoid gelling, but IMO 12k miles is just way too long to go for an oil change. A synthetic change at a good quick lube place costs $50 and takes 15 minutes, its hardly a drag on your life. Its a cheap and not time consuming and protects your $40,000 purchase. I run two businesses and I don't have trouble finding the time to get my oil changed every 5k miles.

12k miles between oil changes is super dangerous considering the gelling problems on the 97-00. That voids Lexus' special extended warranty covering engine replacement...

Couple problems though. 1. Do you have another master key? 2. Your ES is older and the key is not a full fiunction remote like his 2000 ES.

Actually the shape of the headlights is exactly the same, its only the reflectors inside that have changed ;)

Got to see a lawyer. What the dealership did was definately underhanded, the question is was it illegal. Unfortunately businesses do all kinds of nasty *BLEEP* to customers that is perfectly legal and there isn't anything the customer can do about it after the fact.

I don't think so, thats a pretty involved job that includes getting information off of the ECU (such as the true mileage) and programming it into the new unit. Plus I believe its pretty difficult to get to and requires dismantling most of the dash.

Unfortunately you must have at least one master key in order to procure another one, if not then they have to replace the ECU computer. $1600 seems like a lot for that though, i've heard between $5-800. I've been meaning to buy a third spare key and keep one in my safe deposit box at the bank to avoid ever having to do that. The car only comes with two masters, I have one and my fiance has one. You wouldn't think you'd loose both but I've read plenty of threads where it happens. The price we pay for added anti-theft features. I wonder if you can just program a non-remote master key into the car off of the valet key. Hell, it would cost you less to install an aftermarket keyless entry system and just use the valet key as your ordinary key. I think the problem is in programming the keyless entry part of the key, since the valet key will start the car it has the transponder in it... Sorry :(

Any chance the bumper could be repainted?

Not much you can do short of hiring a lawyer and going after the dealership. If they did not sign some sort of damage waiver then IMO you're totally screwed as they can say anything, even that you were aware of the previous accident when you purchased the car. The odometer rollback could be your saving grace. Tampering with a vehicle's odometer is a federal offense and will not only put the owner of the dealership you bought the car from out of business, it could cost him everything he owns in fines and could even put him in jail. The feds don't screw around with odometer fraud. If you can have someone attest that the odometer was rolled back and extrapolate the mileage out to show it must have been this dealer that did it then you have a bargaining chip. Its also possible though that the mileage rollback was simply a mistake pertaining to the accident that resulted in the salvage title. If the instrument cluster were damaged in some way then it would be replaced, most likely with a salvage unit. Now, they can program the odometer to read the correct mileage but if they can't get it off of the destroyed cluster they have to either guess or leave it like it is (0 or whatever mileage was on the salvage part). Carfax works by seeing mileages that don't make sense in the car's history and flagging that. For instance if the car is inspected at 35,000 miles in June and then at 23,000 miles the next year, something is wrong and Carfax flags that. You should be able to see all of that on the carfax sheet. This is MUCH more likely than odometer fraud because odo fraud today is almost unheard of. Digital dashes are harder to rollback, the true mileage is stored in the PCM or ECU that is imprinted with the car's VIN, and watchdogs like Carfax mean the perp is almost certain to get caught. This is going to be very difficult though, especially almost a year after the sale took place. get the car looked at by a body guy and get a signed statement from him. You can also have the odometer compared to the master reading from the PCM and get a signed statement from whoever does that. Then I would go see a lawyer for a consultation and see what they say. My guess is its a flood car, flood cars are totalled and issued salvage titles but after they're repaired it can be very hard for anyone even a experienced body tech to know it was flooded. Thats my guess. That sucks man...

Also bear in mind that you rarely get the asking price, thats the price before negotiation...

I meant the car skeemer saw ;) I've seen some pretty weird cars with canvas tops lol, Mercury Sables etc. Old people with money can be weird, I'm surprised it didn't have a continental spare and wire wheels ;)

You can but its probably not neccisary because of the coated leather.

My guess is it was simply an ES with an aftermarket canvas top. Not a convertible but a canvas top similar to what they do to Lincolns and Cadillacs etc. That would make sense about the elderly driver as they're the ones that usually go for that sort of thing. The SC430 doesn't have a canvas top anyways ;)

Weird, I guess it is a regional thing