On Sun July 15th, my mother was driving her 2007 RX350 when the entire car started severely smoking on the road. At this time no engine indicator lights came on (No CEL, Low Oil, Temp, etc). Other motorists had to honk at her to alert her that the car was failing and that she should pull over. Since she was only a few miles from home, she proceeded to take the car home. By this point, the car had lost at least several quarts of oil and we could hear mechanical noises from the engine (engine knock?). Even then, no indicator lights were on the car. The smoke was so heavy there were oil droplets on the exterior of the car.
After covering the garage floor and pushing the car in, we took a closer look. The drain plug, oil filter, coolant, fan works, all looked normal. However there was massive amounts of oil all over the subframe and bottom of the car. From the top of the hood it looked like it was at least leaking from the midpoint (head/block or valvecover) section as there were pools of oil evident on top of other assemblies. Below that it was a wild guess to see if it was the rear main or anything else, as it was so messy. Nothing to indicate that the car was struck by anything or a hose came off etc.
We decided to take it to the dealership as we weren't sure if this was due to a defect or not. The dealership did take the situation seriously but promptly reminded us that we were outside the powertrain warranty by miles. The car has 80k on the odo. However, no serious work has ever been performed. We change oil, top off the fluids and changed the brakes. So this is where it gets interesting.
After a day of inspecting the car, they determine this is not a common occurrence and state that they do NOT know what the cause is. What they DO know is that the rear main seal totally failed (would leak massively when fresh oil poured in, car off) and that were is a leak from the valve cover. This is their official line. They then proceeded to ask my father to authorize them for 25 hours of work (over ~4000) to pull apart the engine and figure out what else is wrong, without guaranteeing any assistance from the dealership or corporate.
Were currently at the stage in which their master mechanic has told us that the situation is a big deal, and very uncommon, but is also covering the dealerships !Removed! by saying it all depends on what corporate says and that we most likely will be spending a large amount of money to fix this even with corporate pitching in and splitting it two or three ways.
As to the relationship with the dealership, our family has bought 3 lexuses, two of them from this particular dealership from 2000.
Can anybody give us any advice in terms of alternative options, filing safety complaints, or getting additional help from corporate?
Would we have more help from another dealership?
Can we still trust the engine?
Has this happened to anybody else with the same car?
By the way this is in the Bay Area.
