Very Bad Experience At Lexus Oxford

[mazi]

Dear Forum Members

Main thread regarding the problem of GS 450h is here

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/101751-2006-gs450-h-check-pcs-system-warning-trainagle-light/

I am sharing my experience here in this thread and need suggestion from existing Lexus users what to do.

I am literally disappointed by the Lexus service centre info, the knowledge their technicians have and the way they treat their customers.

Brief History

I bought a used vehicle from Auto Trader privately ( I have been a Loyal Toyota Prius user fro the last 4 years and am 100% satisfied with Toyota brand,just thought Lexus is s premium brand and be better in every respect from Toyota. Unfortunately the services I have received and far less than what I have received form Toyota.

My Lexus was due for a fuel pressure recall and was showing these errors since I bought the

car so I booked it with Lexus Oxford at 09:30 today for diagnosis, Hybrid Battery health check and the recall

The errors were as follows

T/M Error

Check PCS System

Warning Triangle light was onCruise Control was not working

I have written all the DTC errors that I have seen during these days and handed to the Service Manager and was told that my car will be done in 4 hours and can be collected. I dropped the car and went to the Oxford Town centre along with my family.

I rang at 13:30 to inquire whether my my car is ready for collection but was told that the service team is busy no one is there and will give me a call back.

I rang 5 times and was told that someone will ring me as they have left the message but all in vain and i did bot received any call.

I decided to go to the Lexus Oxford Service centre and wait there, as no one is actually telling me whats happening/ going behind the scenes and how more time they need.

On my arrival I was told that Fuel recall has been done, and regarding the rest of issues technician can't do anything as there are no faults recorded , so I need to bring the car again after driving 1000 miles or when warnings , DTCs, error codes appear again.

I humbly told them that I have clearly mentioned error codes and have mentioned that check PCS light only comes when the vehicle starts acceleration and exceeds 18MPH but was told that they have not driven the car so cannot see any problem with it , In this whole conversation it was mentioned that during the diagnosis they found that injector no 5 is misfiring ( which was strange
as the car was fine before the recall and but after recall injector 5 is misfiring)

I told them that when I brought the car in the morning it was running perfectly fine without ant misfire and DTC,

Again I was told that they can't do anything, I asked to have a word with the technician but was told that he is busy in diagnosing another car and will be free after 1.5 hours.

I was told to rebook the for more time i.e 2 days , so I booked the car for August 3rd , 2015 ( that was the earliest they can provide me a replacement vehicle)

I was shown the way out where my car was parked.

The moment I started the car and drove , it started shaking and juddering badly. I went back to the service centre to tell them all about this and was told that they have told me that my Injector no 5 was broken (WHICH TO ME LOOKS LIKE IT WAS BROKEN BY THE TECHNICIAN DURING THE FUEL PRESSURE RECALL) I confirmed whether its safe to drive or leave the car , `gentlemen
went to inquire and on return told me that it can be driven but can cause damage to other parts due to misfire but don't have replacement car until 3 August,

I have no other choice but to leave the service centre as it looked to me I am banging my head against the wall.

I came back home and asked a friend of mine to put the Official Techstream software.I have attached the image showing all the cylinders are misfiring.

I am shocked that if this the level of service quality offered to the customers and even the technicians don't know what they are doing they don't listen to the customer complaints , they don't check what customers have asked to check and don't test drive and diagnose the car before handing over it
to the customer.

I brought the vehicle in the service centre in the running condition and took the vehicle out of the
service centre that was misfiring and shaking . I took day off from my job and and wasted my whole day.

Is this what Lexus offers to its customers, I am really shocked if this is what they do?

At the end I was told that I will need replacing the one injector.

Injector set L23209-39155-C0 = £414.28 + VAT

Labour 2 Hrs @ £105 = £210.00 + VAT

Total = £624.28 + VAT

This will be in addition to the work that will need to be done for which I booked the car initially.

After todays bad experience and the time I have spent in Lexus I am in a perplex regarding

Whether to take the car back Oxford service centre on August 3rd as they have already ruined it?

Who is responsible for misfire on all the 6 cylinders?

Who will pay the cost of this repair?

Who will compensate me for my whole day?

Whether the car with misfire on all 6 c cylinders is safe to drive?

As misfire is on all the 6 cylinders changing one injector will suffice or will need changing all the 6 injectors?

I am carless at the moment what needs to be done?

Hope someone will guide me in the right direction.

Thanks

Mazi

[ColinBarber]

I would advise you either speak to Lexus GB customer relations or the dealership manager to voice your concern and to resolve the issue.

Depending on type of misfire it is very common for a single cylinder misfire to be misreported or to appear multiple times across some or all of the cylinders. This is especially the case if a misfire is related to an injector/fuel issue rather than due to a lack of spark ignition. Their diagnosis is therefore probably correct - who is responsible and how it gets resolved is where your focus needs to be.

[mazi]

Thankd for the reply.

I have sent emails to all the concerned and will speak to them in morning.

Anyone else has faced the same problem after the fuel pressure recall.

The important thing is as I was getting the car checked by for other codes using Techstream and have never got any DTC for misfire and strangely after they have done the recall the error mesage , engine management light appeared.

Also how far I can go in getting this issue resolved if they dont admit that they have done anything wrong as I have no experience with Lexus before and after todays experience I have lost trust in Lexus :(

Please can someone tell me is it possible to replace the connector on the Injector instead replacing the whole injector?

I will be extremely thankful for further suggestions.

Thanks

mazi

[Connoisseur]

I really feel for the situation you are in and hope it gets sorted. Though a private buy of a 9 year old complex car like a GS450h, with 148,000 miles done (as posted elsewhere) is always going to be a high risk purchase. Did you also post that the first code read on the car a few days ago using Techstream (not at Lexus) showed no fault codes? To be fair to the dealer, might they just be in the same position?

The issue with the misfire/injector is a true bummer, and I hope Lexus Oxford can help you more. At the same time was wondering when was the car last serviced by a Lexus Dealer, or at all? If it hasn't been well maintained (such as the taped up cruise laser sensor unit) then on a 9 year old car that has done 148k (with an uncertain service history?) parts will fail, it happens on all cars, whether Jaguar/BMW/Audi or Range Rover, or Lexus.

I hope Lexus Oxford can help, and that their customer treatment next time is more what you expect; but, given the totality of issues the car has, getting it fully fixed could cost you many £000's, at or away from a Lexus Dealer. Might you just be throwing good money after bad?

Good luck whatever you decide...

[mazi]

Connoisseur

Thanks Connoisseur,

The day I bought the car I have bought all the service parts spark plugs, filtters and oil from Lexus and service was done a garage at Toyota.

Everything was fine, except for "Check PCS System" message on the dash and cruise control ( I was happy with that but thought to get it properly diagnosed by Lexus Technicians

That was the basic reason I booked with the car with the Lexus that they will help me in diagnosing the fault, I thought to go for the recall also other wise I have to go again and here it looks my decison was wrong, I should have waited for teh recall letter to come and in the meantime only suffice for the diagnosis of the Warning messages.

Except for these issues which I have encountered today , the car was perfectly OK.:(

I am really disappointed by the fact if something has gone wrong by Lexus technician instead of openly admitting the fact , they are trying to make a scenario that its not their fault , The worst thing is that they have not even test driven car after doing the fuel pump recall (I they have test driven either they should have fixed the problem or not allowed me to to take the car home but they used diplomatic words like its not OK to take the car but if you want you can as we dont have the replacement vehicle. What a service.

:( :( :(

[PhilipK]

I am really disappointed by the fact if something has gone wrong by Lexus technician instead of openly admitting the fact , they are trying to make a scenario that its not their fault ,

I'm not making excuses for Lexus Oxford, but are you certain that their technician actually did do anything wrong?

We're talking about a 9-year old car, with 148,000 miles and an uncertain service history here, and some evidence of bodging under the bonnet. Who knows what might have happened to the car in the last 9 years. Perhaps your expectations are a little unrealistic and you might have been better off buying a newer car from a dealer which would have been covered under Lexus's used car warranty?

[mazi]

Hi Philip,

I know that its not a brand new zero meter directly ordered from factory Lexus GS 450h with extended warranty, what I am trying to say is that I have given them car with X problems and they gave me back with X +1 problem. I was not watching them what they were doing and they can make any story that whether injector was broken when I bought the car or since when the previous owner bought the car, or due to to the reason thar dont have Lexus service history The fact is that it was running perfectly fine even after the changing the spark plugs. The problem arised when I drove back it back from Lexus service centre. When It went the Lexus service center it was perfectly fine.

Its just like Mr ABC goes to GP/Hospital for cure of 2 conditions and by giving either giving wrong medicine / misdiagnosing or doing unnecessary opertaion they send MR ABC back home with one additional problem and say that due to your are X numebr of years old you can have this problem, instaed of admiting its reaction of some medicine :)

Lexus been a victim of Lexus Service Center

[ColinBarber]

If the fault was introduced as part of the work then it was either because the mechanic damaged the part or that the part was already damaged/poorly repaired and couldn't withstand the normal work being carried out. On the surface it seems like a mechanic trying to cover up a mistake, which happens all too often across the industry.

One the other side it is also common for owners to bring in vehicles to have something minor looked at, with a more major fault already know by not disclosed with the sole aim to trying to get a free of charge fix by claiming 'it was fine before your mechanic touched it'.

I can't give an opinion either way.

[noby76]

does Lexus not carry out a pre car check before they ork on a car and post car check after they are done with it? even my local quick fit garage do a pre car check before they touch/drive your vehicle. this would have indeed confirmed if the misfiring was a result of the technicion doing the recall job or if it was already there before the car was brought in for diagnosis.

[mazi]

Thanks everyone for replying.

Prework and post check is different thing.

To me it looks they have not even started the car for few minutes and the recall work done .

Any ways I don't know what will happen as I have received a reply from customer relations that they have contacted principal at Lexus Oxfor and he will contact me . But keeping in view yesterday's experience I called them 6 times and no one called me back.

Let's see how it goes this time.

[cruisermark]

maz sorry for the problems you are having with your car and bad service from the dealer - giving your car back misfiring expecting you to drive it away is very bad service - the dealer should have the car picked up and faults rectified.

[mazi]

Thanks Mark,

Every one is feeling sorry for me except Lexus looks like now its being a victim of RED TAPISM.

I received an email from Customer Relations that Lexus Oxford Principle will contact me (they have not given me any specific day or time) but still , looks like the whole Lexus Oxford team is use to of these. :( :( I had a much better impression for Lexus.