Coolant Leak after recall work (Air Injection Pump & Valve) by Lexus Dealer

[DispersedCamper]

I took my 2011 Lexus GX460 to Lexus Dealer to work on the Air Injection Pump & Valve replacement recall. I also asked them to change engine oil.

After the recall work, they have told me my coolant is leaking very badly (9 on a scale of 10).

I drove the car from Oregon to Bay Area which is almost 400 miles over the mountain range. I had checked my coolant level 2 days after this drive and there was no loss of coolant. Then my car sat for 1 week on my driveway, again with no sign of coolant leak on my driveway. Then I took my car to dealer and now it is leaking coolant pretty badly. After driving 40 miles within city, my coolant level dropped halfway down between Full line and Low line. I have refilled, and even overnight it dropped its level and left mark on my driveway.

The dealer rejects any wrong doing and claims the work for the recall is not related to any area that could cause a coolant leak.

Technical question:
Is dealers technical claim correct? Is there no way that the air injection recall could have caused a coolant leak?

Admin question:
How would you go about this problem? How to prove or disprove any wrong doing by dealer?

Thanks in advance!

 

[HVLA]

Unfortunately this is going to be a he said/she said situation.

That being said you should definitely try to escalate this with the manager/owner of the dealership. Lexus has a pretty good reputation for treating owners right. It would also be interesting to know specifically where the coolant is leaking from.

 

[Acrad]

IMO.. just coincidence if root cause on leak is the coolant valley… the intake plenum exposing the coolant valley plate isn’t removed for that service campaign

https://lexusgxor.com/_media/general:special_service_campaign_jlg.pdf

 

[DispersedCamper]

Thanks for the replies!

Searching for this recall work on youtube, I have found one user mentioning this: ".... and really helped me out with fixing my coolant leak by replacing my intake manifold gasket. Thank you!"

How come the intake manifold gasket is related to a coolant leak? If they are related, they must have removed the intake manifold and it could cause a coolant leak if put together erroneously.

link to the youtube video:
Title: How to Replace the Secondary Air Injection Pump and Check Valves on a 2002-2009 Lexus GX470

 

[Acrad]

Here is a good thread on the coolant valley leak repair on the 460

DIY Coolant Valley Leak Repair

The coolant valley plate leak is a potential issue that arises on the GX460 platform (and other 4.6 L V8 1UR-FE engine equipped Toyota's and Lexus's) as the mileage gets to around 100K. A key sign that your GX suffers from this issue is a low coolant condition and coolant running down the...

forum.ih8mud.com

You can see between that thread and the PDF I linked to how much less work is involved with a SAIP repair. There is no need to remove the intake manifold for the SAIP repair.

Keep in mind the GX 470 has the air pump under the intake manifold.. different animal.. it was moved to an easy location in the front near the power steering reservoir on the GX 460

 

[r2m]

First off, have you been able to identify where the leak is?
Second, it is possible if it's a hose or the plastic on the radiator, that it just gave out (cracked/broke) during that service, even if no one ever came near it.

With all due respect to all the great and valuable folks who post, but why is everyone jumping to a valley leak? Albeit, I can't make out the location in the photos very well but does it truly look like that's were it's coming from in his pictures?

 

[DispersedCamper]

I have not been able to locate the leak location. The dealer put “valley plate coolant leak” to the report. Local mechanic said it’s leaking in valley between cylinder heads. I don’t believe either mechanic focused to check whether the leak was coming from a cracked hose.

The dealer’s tech on the phone today argued that the coolant is engineered to get hard when dried and stop small leaks. It may just happened to be the case that it no longer could hold it and start leaking.

The tech also told me they have seen the leak before starting with the recall work. But I find it hard to believe. Why would they not notify me about the leak before starting the recall work assuming they really have seen it beforehand. Isn’t that the practice among mechanics? They also handed me the keys and expected me to drive away with coolant level below “Low” with a car that’s leaking coolant 9/10 on their scale. Things just don’t add up for me to gain their trust.

For me, it is hard to believe that this happened by coincidence with the major recall service.

Tomorrow, I’ll be meeting with the Lexus tech and they will show me photos. I’ll keep you updated how it goes.

Do you have any good argument to support the case that their wrongdoing might have caused this?

 

[Acrad]

Coolant Stains on rear bell housing like that almost always end up being coolant valley leak on the 460.

You could use a borescope camera to look under the intake manifold.

I do find it unacceptable they didn’t report this to you during the recall work though as they admitted seeing it.

 

[jonshonda]

Purely coincidence. No reason to blame the dealer even though I would have likely thought the same based on the timing. Very common leak on the GX460

 

[evolute]

I agree with above, this is more than likely the coolant valley plate based off the location(same place on mine). The difference is I had months of coolant level drop before mine looked as bad as your pictures.

 

[aztoytec]

That coolant leak has been building up for awhile. When was the last time you had the truck inspected? Probably first time at this dealership too.
Just because they touched it doesnt mean they broke it. Purely coincidence....