Rachelle Grossman

My wife has a 2017 Lexus NX200T with 100k miles on it. Engine had a ticking sound and we brought it to several places to get an opinion. First place said it sounds like a lifter on the #3 cylinder and w Engine had a ticking sound and we brought it to several places to get an opinion. First place said it sounds like a lifter on the #3 cylinder and we would need more time and money to diagnose the problem. Took it to Cedar Park Toyota for a second opinion and the technician sent us a video saying he would recommend we replace the engine! What? Toyota/Lexus engines don’t fail at 100k! Total cost to replace with a used engine is $8400! So, we went for a third opinion. Shop said Toyota/Lexus engines don’t fail at 100k. They recommend doing more testing to isolate the problem. Spoke with a family member who works at another Toyota dealership and his exact words where “we just don’t see Toyota/Lexus engines fail at 100k”. A few weeks later check engine light comes on. Code P030- Misfire detected cylinder 3. I am very handy and can fix things, but these days I have more money than I do time. So, figured the Toyota dealer would be our best option. Since I didn’t want to spend $8400 on a used replacement motor and I still wasn’t convinced that our motor needed to be replaced. I got on Google and spent about 7-10 minutes reading articles and forums. So, I decided to look under the hood. Popped off the engine cover, unscrewed one bolt, removed the #3 coil (which was covered in soot), then went to remove the spark plug and it was loose, not even hand tight. 5min into the job at this time. BTW had the spark plugs replaced at the Lexus dealer 18mths ago for $600! I proceeded to remove the other 3 coils and plugs and did a compression test on all cylinders. I’ll be dammed everything checked out fine! Reinstalled the same plugs and coils and the check engine light went off and the ticking on #3 cylinder went away. Keep in mind this whole process took less than an hour. I don’t usually write review, but I felt this one was necessary. We were about to replace a perfectly fine engine with a used engine for $8400 per the technician’s recommendation. I hope this was just an isolated incident and doesn’t happen on a regular basis. I would have been more than happy to pay shop time to try an isolate the problem, but I wasn’t given that option. I spoke with one of the service managers at Toyota Cedar Park and they were nice an apologetic and said they would talk to the technician. I think the lesson here is always get a second opinion or third and hope people will have more integrity in their work. Replacing an engine is a lot more shop hours then popping of the engine cover and inspecting the #3 cylinder where they determined the problem was. Wow! Loose spark plug problem solved! More

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