cognus

I am in the haggling process on a pair of '09 RX's; either/or. I have read as much as I can find about common maladies as prep for the pre-sale inspection which I hope happens Monday. Replacement of the steering rack is fairly common on these models unless the leak is caught early. I won't know until inspection, but assuming the worst for pricing purposes, what have you folks paid for the steering rack replacement including the culprit lines etc? I read that it can run $1500 to $3000, a pretty big spread for the price of these vehicles.

I appreciate your guidance. Good vehicles, just needing a few patches of known issues.

c

ToledoRX

I don't think you have to replace the entire steering rack if there is a leak, only the power steering pump and the line. I remember it used to cost about $900 at the dealer a few years ago.

Depending on who you are buying it from (i.e. dealer or independent used cars place) I would try to find an independent shop to inspect if first to determine if it has to be replaced first before shopping around the repair and replacement cost.

Lexuswiz

iTrader: (1)

I just replaced my rack maybe 2 weeks ago. It had the notorious Toyota rack leak from the passenger side, you could see fluid push out of the boot. My pump was fine. I had the same issue on my last Highlander didn't even think about it when I traded it for the RX, should have saw it coming.

I'd say I'm in the hole $600 for it. This a rebuilt rack from Detroit Axle, rebuilt tie rods, new fluid, and a few new lines (mainly by the passenger subframe).

DennisMik

You can view the service history of things done by a Lexus sealer. But it is a round-about way. First, you need the VIN. Then you have to go to https://drivers.lexus.com/ and sign up as the owner of the car in order to view the history. There are no charges involved and you don't have to prove that you are the owner.

cognus

appreciate these replies. I had thought the job, at worst, would run as high as $3K but looks like I would be done at less than $1k. And i don't know if it is a problem yet, its just the seller is not interested in inspecting, so I will need to do it. I guess this problem shows up at various mileage readings from all I gather, from young to old.

then, there is this oil cooler issue: https://www.carcomplaints.com/Lexus/...e/engine.shtml
That one is a bit scarier: did any of you pre-emptively deal with these lines? And does anyone know if this was an issue of bad parts from supplier, or of assembly errors?
Basically sounds like a sudden leak occurs and oil loss can be great enough to stop the show.

I have no fear of these, I am just trying to get a handle on what the "must do' list is once I acquire

DennisMik

the oil line thing is bad design, possibly coupled with sub-par parts. There is a metal replacement line available now-a-days, from both.Lexus and aftermarket suppliers.

I replaced mine before it leaked. I got mine from a Toyota dealer It is part # 04004-29131 and consists of the metal pipe and 2 gaskets. The best price I found was $52 at
https://toyotaparts.mcgeorgetoyota.c...ota/0400429131 but this was last year.

If you do it yourself, you need a Torx socket, a # 8 I think.

ToledoRX

No I never had to deal with the oil cooler issue (mine is an RX330 with the older 3.3L V6 though). But from the description, the parts to replace it doesn't seem expensive and you can probably find an independent shop that can do the work for $100-200 if you want to be proactive and replace it on your own. Or you can keep an eye out for oil leaks and oil pressure while you're driving.

ToledoRX

Yes - you can also log in with the VIN to check if rack has already been replaced by the dealer. That site only works if the maintenance was done by the dealership service department though.

DennisMik

This seems to be the way it works, but the fact is that anyone can enter things to the history, I enter the things that I do myself into my car's history file.