heyheyhey

OK I've been having some problems with my car lately...
I have a huge dilemma right now. I just drove 1000 miles home for thanksgiving vacation. On the way I hear a lound Clunk and I hear something scraping on the ground and see sparks coming out the back of my window. I pull over and my driver's side muffler was 20 feet behind my car totally ripped off...

I feel like the most unlucky bastard right now...

After this happened I had to drive 200 miles because it was 3 in the morning and my destination wasn't that far away. Once here I went straight to the dealer in to fix this problem.... Here are the symptoms after this happened:
1. I have no driver's side muffler
2. My VSC is off and i have a Check VSC notification on my tach display.
3. My check engine light is on.

Went to the dealer and they have no exhaust parts due to it being the thanks giving break and they are not able to get it fixed until next week.
I need to go back for work on Sunday, so I can not wait around.
I spoke with several maintenance guys, even non lexus maintenance friends and they told me it should be alright to drive it, it just might be annoying (soooo loud) and you may need to drive with the windows down/cracked so I avoid Carbon Monoxide.

Here are my questions.
1. Do you agree that it should be safe to drive 1000 miles with no left muffler?
2. Does the VSC Check notification relate to the muffler or exhaust system at all or? or do you think the muffler might have damaged something else when it came off?
3. Will warranty even cover this?

carlos

iTrader: (1)

how on earth did your muffler just fall off? this is being covered in your warranty?

benlee02

yes it would be save to drive without the exhaust. Just make sure not to drive without it for too long.

RedLine78

Did you tried asking the dealer to take one of the muffler off one of the IS the have in the lot and they install a new muffler on that muffler when it comes in?

omgitsroy

iTrader: (1)

you can have your muffler totally off and still be runin~

Tuxlex

It's safe as long as you keep your window cracked open.
You want to be careful that no carbon monoxide fumes
get into the car. This is especialy important if you are driving
at night or on a long trip. The fumes will make you drowsy.

Dj_AmtraX

iTrader: (2)

The dealer don't have a loaner for you? The last time I had my old ES300 serviced, they didn't have a loaner on site so they rented me a car. I would talk to the general manager about this.

The pen is your friend when you want to get something done at the dealer.

Good luck!

IRCRomeo

Perhaps the dealer thinks it was an accident, IE ran over something, and not a waranty issue.

BlitzIS350

take it to the next nearest dealership to see if they have the parts in and if they have a loaner for you. what kind of dealership have no loaners???

Bichon

Would you like to buy a brand new car that was cannibalized for parts to repair someone else's car? Sheesh, I wouldn't even want to buy a car that was test driven, much less had the exhaust system removed and replaced. If the original poster made this request, I'd hope the dealer would be ethical enough to say "no".

As others have suggested, I'd ask for a loaner, and pick my car up after it was repaired.

JoesIS250

wouldnt chance driving that many miles ....get a rental and have the dealer reimburse you for the cost ?? its not your fault they dont have the parts ...this is if they do the work under warranty of course

heyheyhey

Loaner would be useless for me because I have to drive back home by sunday... even if I did get a loaner I'm not going to be back here for a while... I'm visiting relatives for thanksgiving.

It seems like everyone is at a consensus that it is safe enough for the ride back... One interesting thing is that the muffler being off caused the VDIM to deactivate because according to the service guy when the air gets in the sensors it wil deactivate it....
It scared me half to death when I fish tailed out of a normal turn that i'm used to with the VDIM on, they say once the muffler is fixed it should fix the VDIM problem too... Its pretty fun to have a Loud fishtailing car for the time being though.
Thanks for the advice guys!

Fiko18

show us some pictures

Evitzee

Still not clear to me how the muffler 'just fell off'. I have a hard time believing the system just worked its way loose by itself. Do you remember running over something, or backing up over something? A couple of months ago I was driving along and saw a carcass of a very young deer in the road. I forgot for a moment I was in the IS instead of my Subaru which has greater ground clearance, and I ran over it. Heard a clunk, and I pulled off the road expecting to find something out of whack. Fortunately no damage to the undercarriage, but I keep a wary eye out now for any 'stuff' lying in the road. The ground clearance is relatively low, especially for a Lexus.

socalJD

Not to mention a Sport pkg IS with the Ground Effects front lip . . .