Hi Everyone,
I am looking at a 2001 RX 300 that is for sale, 107,000 miles. It has had major engine repair, but not sure what happened to the motor. The owner said that the engine stopped and that he heard knocking sound, I looked at the $3,000 repair bill and it looks like they did some work to the heads(machine shop cost part of the total). My question is this, is this a interference motor, in other words if the timing belt is not changed and it breaks, will the pistons and valves hit each other?
The car drives fine and goes up through the gears fine with good power, but the motor is not real quiet, it has some noise on the top end(valve/cam area) while it is idleling. Also the the engine light is on, the car was not repaired at a Toyota/Lexus dealer...... after the repair was made to the motor, the mechanic took the car to the Lexus/Toyota dealer and the light is still on, they (the dealer) could not find the cause for the engine light to come on(so the current owner told me). The engine light does not scare me, I work with a "Electronic Specialist" and he is sure that there must be a code, will this work for a code reader http://www.amazon.com/Equus-3100-Innova-Ca...c/dp/B000EVWDAK ?
Thanks,
Chuck