bmurakami

Just found out we have the valley plate leak in our 08 IS F with about 86k miles. I’ve read about people getting credit from corporate Lexus to help cover some of the cost. How have people gone about doing this? I plan on calling them tomorrow but I want to be sure on how I approach this. We are quoted for about $2k in total cost.

flowrider

iTrader: (9)

Couple of threads you may want to meander through:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...ley-plate.html

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...exchanger.html

Lou

ALexusF

iTrader: (2)

WHat dealership did you call?

I just spoke with Motor City Lexus and the SA had no idea what I was talking about. Said in his 3 years hes serviced 8 ISF's and never heard of this repair. They quoted me 2.9-3.5k and he used labor with removing the intake manifold as the "rough estimate". I almost want to tow my car anywhere but there at this point.

Also opened up a case with corporate lexus, waiting for them to give me a call regarding if they'll help me.

F_Throttle

I tried going through corp myself, but they turned me back to the dealer. Assuming the dealer confirmed the leak already, your SA should be making the assistance request on your behalf. They also are the ones that certify what it is that's wrong with the car.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

Maybe you need to ask them why they used the same sealant for the valley plate as they used for the timing cover when their own service manual says it needs a different sealant. Or better, have your attorney ask that question. Might get it completely covered.

Toprawman

I tried going through my dealership to get corporate on board to help with my Valley Plate leak. I was told that my F would have to have a dealer service history for corporate to step in. My car does not have a dealer service history. So that is my story.. My quote from the dealer was 3K.

jdmek998

Yea usually they will help when the vehicle has been dealer serviced. But normally they will not assist if there is no history.

LexusfanVA

iTrader: (1)

My experience with my 08 was that under extended warranty I thought it may be leaking(and didn't use warranty on anything else) so I had them check it twice. Nothing was found. I had done a few oil changes at the dealer and was always nice to my service advisor and he was a good guy to talk to. At 80k miles last January a month past warranty I had no heat in winter at idle. No visible leaks. I had a shop do a pressure test and confirm it was valley plate leak.

Took it to Lexus and paid the $150 or so for them to reach the same conclusion.(FYI any diagnostic charge goes toward the repair quote). I called corporate and pushed them to help. At first they gave me the "we've never ever heard of this" but I had a few members case #'s in hand who had the same issue as well as the forum sites. They bumped it up the chain and called my SA at Lexus. He was nice enough to say I was a good customer and corporate agreed to pay all labor costs if I paid for the parts. SA quoted me parts and I talked him down and told him if he could help I'd do a transmission service too while they had it. My out of pocket total cost came down to $450 or so all in, though more than $250 of that cost was the tranny service. It was originally quoted at $1700ish for just valley plate leak fix.

You have nothing to lose by pressuring them and reminding them that this is a common issue and mentioning that you've owned multiple Lexus's. My mothers 13 300C Chrysler recently blew a tranny at 50k miles past warranty in 2019 and FCA was kind enough to pay for over half of that repair as well. Good luck.

F_Throttle

^ similar situation. I was under extended warranty and brought my car in several times over the course of years to check for my low coolant. I had low coolant during the car's 40-100k mileage. The only thing that saved me with respect to corporate, is that I have different Lexus dealers and SAs documenting "possible Valley Plate" in each of my service records but they all wrote they couldn't 100% confirm without taking it apart. Only until recently, a mechanic confirmed the leak and actually wrote on the service that they could confirm without needing to remove intake manifold.

p.s. I do have a long service record at Lexus.

ThisSideUp

I'm not thrilled to say I'm now dealing with this same valley plate leak issue... 2010 with 110k miles.
A bit of a gap with the service history but there's still plenty there - apparently not good enough though.

Lexus corporate was initially acting like they didn't know about this issue, and now its not their fault due to the age/out of warranty/service history or whatever else they could think of.
Still in progress so fingers crossed. I was quoted $1600