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2006 w/83500 miles
Driving home this afternoon the VSC, VSC OFF & Check Engine lights came on.
A few minutes later my temp gauge went to full Hot then to midway then to Cold where it stayed.
About 10 miles later white smoke & coolant smell at a red light.
Immediately pulled over.
plastic line out of the radiator exploded!
WTF?
I am sorry this happened to you but your engine may be damaged because you didn’t stop immediately.
You should have stopped when the lights came on.
you REALLY should have stopped when the temperature gauge went to hot.
when the gauge dropped back down, it meant the hot water was no longer touching the temperature sensor.
at that point the engine didn’t have enough cooling water and in the last 10 miles you may have caused severe damage to the aluminum engine.
lets hope you get lucky and only need to replace the radiator.
2006 w/83500 miles
Driving home this afternoon the VSC, VSC OFF & Check Engine lights came on.
A few minutes later my temp gauge went to full Hot then to midway then to Cold where it stayed.
About 10 miles later white smoke & coolant smell at a red light.
Immediately pulled over.
plastic line out of the radiator exploded!
WTF?
I too would have kept driving if my VSC, VSC OFF & Check Engine lights came on. You see many people on this forum with VSC lights coming on. Check Engine light is normally emissions. It looks like your radiator cap failed to hold the pressure and released the coolant (causing the white smoke) and it melted the hose. That is also why your temp gage went to hot. I can't explain the lights coming on beforehand.
Let us know how you make out after replacing your radiator.
Bob
I'm thinking the water pump took a dive.
That would explain excessive heat and pressure in the radiator.
We'll see Monday or Tuesday when the shop gets to look at it.
I assumed VSC/VSC OFF/CEL was a SW or sensor issue. They popped on when driving 45-50 miles an hour.
When the Temp gauge did its dance I assumed SW or sensor issue.
Car has been typically trouble free and not driven like a sports car.
Lexus has the VSC Lights come on when the check engine comes on. They do that, so you are more apt to look down at your dash. The more lights on, the more obvious it is.
Almost anytime you read on this board someone's check engine light came on, they will also say the VSC lights are on.
It is a bummer about your situation. Hopefully everything will work out. The SC430 has a bad habit of getting hairline cracks in the plastic part of your radiator. Under pressure they can blow off, like in your car.
I too would have kept driving if my VSC, VSC OFF & Check Engine lights came on. You see many people on this forum with VSC lights coming on. Check Engine light is normally emissions. It looks like your radiator cap failed to hold the pressure and released the coolant (causing the white smoke) and it melted the hose. That is also why your temp gage went to hot. I can't explain the lights coming on beforehand.
Let us know how you make out after replacing your radiator.
Bob
Bob, hot coolant will never melt the hose.
remember, this is the hose that transfers hot coolant from the radiator to the plastic tank every time you drive the car.
I'm thinking the water pump took a dive.
That would explain excessive heat and pressure in the radiator.
We'll see Monday or Tuesday when the shop gets to look at it.
I assumed VSC/VSC OFF/CEL was a SW or sensor issue. They popped on when driving 45-50 miles an hour.
When the Temp gauge did its dance I assumed SW or sensor issue.
Car has been typically trouble free and not driven like a sports car.
Thanks.
It certainly could be a water pump but also could be a cracked radiator tank, like Darryl said.
My independent shop was replacing a sc430 engine with a wrecking yard replacement. Steve the owner said the temp sender is mounted on the radiator not the engine and when the radiator failed the motor overheated bad enough to hurt it
All the more reason to pull over immediately if the temp guage goes hot. Considering the age of the vehicles and the price of a Denso radiator probably makes sense to go ahead and preemptively replace the radiator.
Diagnosis: Radiator failure due to the nipple to the overflow tank breaking, also possible contributing cause was disintegrating radiator cap. Leakdown test all good so no head gasket damage.
Replace radiator, cap, thermostat, flush & fill, oil change & cabin air fliter + labor: $1650.00
Apparently the nipple becomes brittle over time even though they are reinforced with metal inside the plastic nipple and just shear off.
The shop said they've hit them when replacing an air filter and had them snap off.
Seems like this radiator nipple is a poor design by either Lexus or Denso or both.
Having owned many Lexus with well over a million KMs traveled, I'm not prepared to say "bad design". I've not had that failure and it's certainly rare.
After all...it's only plastic with many, many heat cycles plus age can deteriorate almost anything....especially plastic.
08-03-19, 11:53 AM
Radiator Blow Up
