chingwa14

I agree with the age factor as I'm dealing with a leak now at just over 80K. Likely culprit is like all people said about the plastics as it's subjected to the high number of thermal cycles that causes the plastic to deteriorate.

Just on the fence about replacing the water pump, hoses, thermostat while the radiator is being done as well...

CFAI

I have a '13 that just had its radiator replaced at the dealership about 8 months ago.
SERVICE: RADIATOR
DESCRIPTION:~|~REPLACE RADIATOR ASSY ~|~CRACKED ~|~REPLACED LEAKING ENGINE RADIATOR AND TRANSMISSION COOLER LINES.
I just looked under the hood yesterday and I don't see any radiator fluid in the tank. Anything I should try to look for before I bring it in tomorrow AM? I don't see any pink residual anywhere - but it is just a surface glance. Should I put water in the tank, or should I just keep a jug in the car incase it starts to overheat on my way to dealership? Obviously I won't drive it until then.

ASE

Best to baseline ... so replace all of the above ... then you are good-to-go for many miles to come.

gx460z2011

Top off radiator and fill overflow bottle.
Pink coolant is preferred. Distilled water OK if that's the only option.
It shouldn't run out fast enough to need to fill on the way unless its leaking right onto the ground.

CFAI

Thanks - I got it to the dealership. Still under extended warranty so not sure if I want them to find a major issue, like valley leak, so longer term fix gets paid for by Lexus, or to just find just a lose hose or something.

CFAI

Dealership: "Water pump leak and we noticed Timing Chain Cover Oil Leak" Both will be covered under Lexus warranty (glad I got that VSA). They will also replace the drive belt while doing the work as a courtesy. Anything else they should repair/look at? Advisor indicated that the small coolant leak (turns out radiator was still full of coolant - it was just low enough that I couldn't see in the reservoir when cold). was due to the water pump leak- that make sense?
M

gx460z2011

Is this a Lexus extended warranty? Warranty coverage on your 2013 is impressive.

Having the timing cover covered under warranty is AMAZING. I'd say it was well worth your trip!
Can't think of anything else other than asking them to verify the valley plate is not leaking since the timing cover job gets them most of the way there.
Oh, also check each idler/tensioner pulley while they have the belt off.

Glad to hear it was only a very small leak and not actually low on coolant. I expected for the radiator to be low you'd see the leak on the ground.

CFAI

Thanks! Yes. It was a 3 year Lexus VSA on top of the 2 year CPO. I still have a little over 4 months left on it. Obv not always the right move, but I think CPO with an multi year extension can make sense if you are buying a CPO Lexus when it is close to its max eligible age. So my '13 was manufactured Dec 2012 - so over 6.5 years old when I got it. So when I was considering if I wanted to buy an extension, I estimated (very roughly) the likely repair costs for a GX460 up into its 12th year (based on the repair costs of the two other Lexus I have had, adjusting for inflation and the higher costs of the GX460 vs the IS250 and RX300) I then somewhat arbitrarily cut that value in half and used that amount as my max amount to spend on the VSA. After negotiating with a few dealerships I got my price from the dealership I bought the GX from.

So tensioners/pullies. Anything else like spark plugs or similar wear and tear items that it might be easier for them to replace while in there? Thanks so much for the input/suggestions!

gx460z2011

I might have missed it, but what is your mileage?
Yes the coil packs have to be removed for this work so you are slightly closer to a plug replacement. But they are good until 120k (or more).

CFAI

I have about 108,000 on it. We put on about 48k of those.

gx460z2011

Easy! Tons of life ahead. I can't think of anything that we didn't already discuss.

I'd ask them the cost to change the spark plugs while they are in there since it should be slightly reduced labor.
FYI I bought my GX recently at 240k and it had original plugs! They were actually far better than I expected. So they will probably last a long time.

texas008

Probably time to replace the thermostat if it is still original.
btw, wondering how much the extended warranty costs?
Thanks,

CFAI

Picked it up yesterday - so didn't ask about replacing thermostat. Had them double check for valley plate leak and they said it was all good. Service advisor at the Lexus dealership that did the work said total job would have been around $4k if I had to pay out of pocket, but I imagine that cost will vary by shop. I guess the time chain cover leak is more labor intensive job than the valley plate leak.

@texas008
The price and nature of Lexus extended warranties will depend on:
1) Is it extension of original warranty or of an existing CPO warranty.
2) Number of extra years it covers (I think for CPO that is from 1 to 5 extra years on top of the 2 CPO years)
3) Max miles driven - this is only for extensions of the original warranty as the CPO warranty allows unlimited miles.
4) How well you can negotiate (this will be a function of how many dealerships are in your state). The price I paid was a few hundred less than others I had been quoted.
Limitations: It is my understanding that extensions can be purchased only while the car is still under Lexus warranty and you can only extend for the type of warranty it is under. SO you can not get a CPO extension to an original factory warranty.
Up to each person to see if it is worth for them. Personally I prob would not extend the original warranty if I bought a new one. I also prob would not consider an extension of a CPO for a much newer CPO Lexus, unless I got a very good price on an extension. For me the the best time to consider one is if buying an older CPO with some miles on it and then going over all the known issues with the car and seeing how close you are to the likely age/milage of being in the zone where those events might be more likely to occur.

Lexicon1

What was the cause of the drop in radiator fluid level?

CFAI

Water pump.