I hope I'm describing this correctly. Just returned from a family vacation in Destin, Florida. My 07 GX went into limp mode with the dash lit up. No Lexus dealer in site so I made it to an independent mechanic about 30 minutes away. Luckily he was a former Toyota mechanic. Diagnosed problem as some kind of secondary air injection system failure. Showed me where the fan had chipped and sent blade debris down the line.

Was an $1,800 fix, not counting the rental car, an extra day of missed work, etc. Mechanic gave me all the old parts along with a very detailed repair report and told me to call Lexus. Apparently, this engine, also used in the Tacoma, is prone to this failure and Lexus/Toyota can, at their discretion, reimburse some or all of the repair expense.

Anyone have anything they can share with me that may help before I call Lexus? The mechanic felt there was a good chance Lexus would assist, I am skeptical.

Thanks.

 

Wow, that sucks. I've never heard of this happening. Good luck and I hope your dealership is better than my local joint.

BTW-This engine was widely used in USA in many toyotas including the land cruiser, sequoia and tundra but never put in the tacoma.

 

Thanks, the Tacoma/Tundra error is mine, not themechanic's. He talked like he'd seen this before and it was well known to Toyota. We'll see what happens.

 

that air pump burried inside the manifold is a **** poor design

 

I had the same thing happen. I bought a pump from Napa for around $110.00 if I remember. Search the forum and you will find my thread.

 

Lexus / Toyota will NOT reimburse you. This has been an ongoing problem since I owner a couple of 1st gen Tundras (same engine as our GX). And FYI a Tacoma NEVER had a 2uzfe V8.


Location:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gx-...-air-pump.html

Cheap fix:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gx-...tch-stuck.html

 

When you say it went into "limp mode" do you mean just a check engine light? or was it actually running differently?

 

limp mode is when it runs poorly, very poorly

 

Limp mode meant it wouldn't go above 35 mph while I drove 30 minutes in bumper to bumper beach traffic to a repair shop. $1,800 later (cheap by what I've read) I was back on the road. The mechanic, who used to work at a Toyota dealership, said there's a plan for Tundra owners(same engine) to help them offset the cost of this awful repair. He wrote up detailed notes to share with Lexus and gave me me all the parts.

I doubt Lexus will help, which is ironic since it appears I'd get some relief if I were a Toyota customer.

 

Do a thorough search of this site. I read a post a couple of months ago. I think the topic was air pump. The member had the same problem. The Lexus dealer wanted $3-4K to fix the problem. He knew of the Tundra issue and complained to higher and higher levels at Lexus until they agreed to pay for the problem. His reasoning was Toyota pays for this for Tundra owners, why wouldn't Lexus, a Toyota company cover the same issue on the same engine? Give it a try, you have nothing to lose.

Good Luck!

Marty

 

Thanks, Marty. My conversation with Lexus didn't go well. When I mentioned that Toyota was assisting some of their customers on a case by case basis he told me essentially that the GX and Toyotas were different engines. I asked him to repeat what he said to make sure I heard him correctly, then googled it on my iPad while he was talking just to point out they do share parts/engines.

He pointed out, correctly, that I was out of warranty to which I snarkily replied that the "Relentless Pursuit of Perfection" apparently ends at 80,000 miles. I was lucky I found a former Toyota mechanic who got me back on the road for only $1,800 as opposed to paying Lexus twice that.

Bottom line, he was doing his job protecting the company and denying a problem even existed and I was doing mine trying to get any kind of relief for the bill, not to mention the two day rental car, missed work and spending almost a day of my vacation at a shop instead of the beach.

 

Try to find the post. That person elevated it to the regional level at Lexus. He stated that Toyota had extend the warranty coverage on that part till I believe 150,000 miles.