KurtK

Hey Gang!

After racing up hills etc i get the slight odor of burning oil and fumes. dealer said leaky head gasket and for only about $1300 it can go away but besides a occasional smell or burning oil no real big deal. Your thoughts?

AYEmike

any smoke coming out of the exhaust? any gray smoke?

macd7919

iTrader: (10)

Mmm....did the car overheat while you were racing around? It's pretty rare for these cars to blow headgaskets.

If they told you it had a leaking headgasket and then told you it wasn't really a big deal that throws up lots of red flags right there. If it's leaking, and you continue to drive it, it will just get worse. If it gets too bad it can leave you stranded somewhere, idk about you but catastrophic failure would be something I would be very concerned with but then again I'm not a dealer.

Anyways, it honestly doesn't sound as though it's a headgasket issue. How many miles does the car have on it? Light smoking/oil smell on a high mileage car can also be valve seals among other things. Give us some more details on the symptoms and we can get it sorted out for you.

ldlexus

$1300 to fix a head gasket?? Wow, that's hella cheap if its true. I thought I had a head gasket oil leak too and I called the Lexus dealer and gave me an estimate for $3600. I took the car over to the Lexus dealer for repair and found out that it was only my valve cover bolts were not tight. Cost me $80.

JeffTsai

iTrader: (1)

If your engine is high mileage, it might just be some oil leaking past the rings. To see if your headgasket is bad or not, open up the radiator cap when the engine isn't hot. See if there is any traces of oil. If the gasket is really bad, then you will have a cappuccino looking liquid inside the radiator.

FrankT

Are you sure you don't mean to say, VALVE COVER GASKET?

I bet you a dollar it's them...