IS250 head gasket

[RNUK]

No. the 42k one is on the shelf at a specific Japanese breakers up in Derby. It's the cheaper option with longer warranty, but I have to get the car up the Derby, about 2.5 hours up the road.

Third option is sourced from a breakers down the road from me and will be delivered for fitting at the indi.

The Motorsport company is Datam Motorsport, just down the road from me. They will only get involved in the fit if they can fit it as really busy after trace season and I can source an engine.

[Shahpor]

Ahh, ok.  So you source the engine and Datum fit it for you (assuming they have the time)?

[RNUK]

I think that's the best bet. Middle of the road labour costs and piece of mind that someone like that had worked on it. Just gotta get the right engine now.

[Linas.P]

6 hours ago, Shahpor said:

I'm sorry Linas, but I don't agree with this at all.

There is nothing particularly special about the V6 fitted to the IS250, so if it is run without adequate cooling, it will fail just like any other engine.

Doing a service is no guarantee against component failure.  Lets says that a coolant hose suddenly fails 5k after a service.  Is that the fault of the garage?  No, it is probably down to the fact that the car is over 10 years old and has almost 110k miles on it.  No matter how well a car is engineered, age and usage will enviably increase the likelihood of parts breaking.

The only time you can reasonably expect a garage to be at fault is if a part they are suppose to inspect fails in such a way as to prove that it demonstrated signs of impending failure visibly at the time of the service. 

Yes and no... I agree there is nothing special about it, but for me it is still not clear why it was running without adequate cooling?!

First of all they did last service which included replacing water pump and coolant, and few other bits. Basically, quite major service.. there is good chance they forgotten to tighten something.

Even though it is 110k miles... can you just point me out to another thread of IS250 with blown head gasket?...

And you right, if engine was not properly serviced, low on coolant, low on oil... it is just normal engine.. it will fail, but that is not the case here - Service was done 5k miles ago.. Assuming they did everything right.. what can really go wrong in 5k miles?

[Shahpor]

Well, I have asked what the car did with all its coolant, but until that is resolved, I think it is a little unfair to blame the garage.

It is quite possible that the failure had nothing to do with the service.  Like I said before, a service is no guarantee that the car is or will remain fault free.  As you know, workshops have checklist of items they will tick off depending on the level of the service they are carrying out.  They do not check everything.  And even then, most checks are only visual.

If the car really did dump all its coolant very quickly (which is what appears to have happened here), then it is likely a catastrophic failure that probably wasn't visible 50 miles before, let alone 5000.  An example would be what I stated happened to me earlier, which is a split radiator hose.  Since it appears that it was cut by a broken fan blade, there would have been no sign of any failure beforehand.

Anyway, this is all speculation, and we are getting off the point slightly, which is how to best help Tony deal with the situation.

[RNUK]

Anyone used Nippon Auto Spares in Derby?
 

They are offering the 42k donor I mentioned above. They are offering it, in the car with a 3 month guarantee for around £2000, including picking up the car from here and taking it up to Derby!.

Seems to good to be true to me considering the fitting cost from them is a third what I have been quoted elsewhere. But, I've looked and can't find a bad word about them! Just wondered if anyone had any dealing with them?

[johnatg]

I haven't used them, but that sounds like a good deal to me. Fitting cost element shouldn't be too horrendous - should only take a day or so. They will be glad to get some return on an IS250 engine - demand for them must be only slightly higher than zero. Make sure the warranty is in writing!

[johnatg]

PS - Ask them to record the engine number - pretty much invisible once fitted, and you are supposed, at least in theory, to notify DVSA.

[mk_lon]

On 12/14/2016 at 11:06 AM, RNUK said:

Confirmed. Head gasket blown. 

Waiting on a price for parts, but it's £1500 labour I have been quoted

Sorry to hear about your head gasket, I found this recon engine on eBay for £700, perhaps this could help;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/222330931368?lpid=122&chn=ps&adgroupid=13585920426&rlsatarget=aud-295856144804%3Apla-75952154106&adtype=pla&poi=&googleloc=9045988&device=c&campaignid=207297426&crdt=0

[johnatg]

And plenty of similar items!

That isn't a recon - just an engine pulled from a breaker - in fact it's still in the original car in the pic! With a broken auxiliary belt and a fancy air intake - wonder how much they want for that?

Re recon engines - I suspect that the bottom has fallen out of the engine recon business. Gone are the days when most cars needed a rebore and head job at 40K miles. Most engines nowadays will reach 100K miles and more with only a modicum of maintenance. For most that will be 8-10 years by which time the car will be worth buttons and due to be thrown away anyway. Quality cars such as IS250 will reach way more than 100K - probably 200K or more with proper maintenance and especially if they are motorway cruisers.

So there's a steady supply of good(ish) engines (for all cars) from write offs - as I said before, it doesn't take much damage to write off a car more than just a few years old, and almost no demand, except the rare case where something catastrophic has happened.

[Vintagesixtysix]

I've never used this place in Derby....... but I will be about 10mins away from them on Wednesday this week coming.

Happy to go and have a general nose about if helps?......see what kind of operation it is.

I'm not a technical guy though....so cannot offer any appraisal of the engine.

Sent from my iPad using Lexus OC

[RNUK]

So a quick update on my car... it's back! 😁

Got a donor engine from Nippon in Derby. It's running absolutely fine however the dashboard is lit up like a xmas tree (see attached) with Check VSC. I've read a few threads and some say not to drive it, some say that a good run will cure it.

Its sat and not run for over 3 weeks so could it just need a run? I'm more than happy to give it an hour or so on a run this evening, but want to make sure I'm not going to do any damage by doing so?

 

[Linas.P]

It really depends. Who ever fitted the engine should check whenever it is safe to run or not. VSC ckeck can mean many thing, you need to check codes and see whats what it is e.g. one I run out of fuel and when got back with canister the VSC check light was on, after driving a mile it was gone and never seen it again.

As your engine was off the car it would well be something as simple as fuel sensor, showing some errors, but it can be anything else.

[is200 Newbie]

No amount of running the car will get rid of the lights - they are illuminated to tell you there's an issue.

Best to scan the errors with a reader - they may all be associated to the engine being replaced and if you reset the codes they may not come back on again but I would check the codes to assess what to check before drivingit.

Why didn't the garage that installed the engine rectify the issue - I am sure that the lights showing would make it an MOT failure

[Verbout]

VSC, vehicle stability control, as said above you need to read the codes, I've known it come on due to low voltage in the Battery, or bad connection at the Battery.

I would argue it's quite safe to drive the car if everything feels and sounds ok, i.e. all parts are screwed together properly.

Cars with VSC do go into safe mode I believe when there is a problem with the system.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101013212250AAjq4wi

Post 666. The devils work.

[RNUK]

Starting to think this car is cursed now! Driving it back to garage to get diagnostic done this morning and someone drove into the side of me 😡

[Verbout]

44 minutes ago, RNUK said:

Starting to think this car is cursed now! Driving it back to garage to get diagnostic done this morning and someone drove into the side of me 😡

Did that cure the VSC issue? No!

[madasahatter]

That is terrible bad look you are having. Some people should not be let loose on the road.

[Verbout]

14 minutes ago, madasahatter said:

That is terrible bad look you are having. Some people should not be let loose on the road.

Are you referring to the OP, it's not clear.

[madasahatter]

1 minute ago, Verbout said:

Are you referring to the OP, it's not clear.

No the person who was not paying attention to what they are doing.

[Shahpor]

Well that's unlucky.  Hopefully damage is not too bad?

[RNUK]

hahaha that was my first thought 

Sadly, the VSC issue persisted 

[RNUK]

1 minute ago, Shahpor said:

Well that's unlucky.  Hopefully damage is not too bad?

 

[Verbout]

1 minute ago, RNUK said:

hahaha that was my first thought 

Sadly, the VSC issue persisted 

Hope the rest of the new year shows a marked improvement. :)

[RNUK]

1 minute ago, Verbout said:

Hope the rest of the new year shows a marked improvement. :)

Not holding my breath