driving through water

[barry mason]

I have owned my RX450 H for 9 months.  Its 8 years old, and has just clocked 100,000 miles.  It came with a full Lexus service history, and everyone I spoke to said that having a relatively high mileage car wouldn't be a problem as they rarely developed mechanical faults.  Just under a month ago I was caught on a B road in torrential rain, and the road ahead was flooded for 50 yds or so.  I  watched a Ford Fiesta drive through it slowly, and gauged the the water depth to be no more than 4 to 6 inches max.  So I took it nice and steady, maybe 10 mph. As soon as I reached the other side the dreaded "HYBRID SYSTEM WARNING" light came on.... On the Monday morning I took it into my local garage, who are pretty experienced with electric and hybrid vehicles. They checked the batteries ; all fine, but they couldn't trace the fault code for one outstanding system.. So next part of the saga was to take the vehicle to the Lexus Main dealer in Cheltenham.. At this point, worried about the rapidly escalating bill, I contacted my insurers, Direct Line, who seemed happy to accept the claim as ' accidental damage", but the claim would be subject to a vehicle inspection by one of their own engineers.  I have heard today that they have declined the claim as they could find no evidence that water caused the damage.   I am now faced with a bill for a complete new electric motor and transmission, which will be around £6,000 .  The engineer phoned to say the they had found lots of metal fragments in the oil, causing the motor to fail..  I find this all highly suspicious ; the odds of having the HYBRID FAIL light come on after 100,000 miles , immediately after getting the bottom of the car wet are so unlikely... Lexus did offer a discount on the purchase price of the motor however... is this a problem common to this model I wonder ? ( I found Lexus promotional photos of RX 450's being driven through far deeper water too.)  

[Zotto]

Not so sure that your troubles come from crossing a little flooded area,  it seems that problems are related to lubrication of transmission: has your rx been regularly serviced  with transmission oil change?

[olliesgrandad]

1 hour ago, Zotto said:

Not so sure that your troubles come from crossing a little flooded area,  it seems that problems are related to lubrication of transmission: has your rx been regularly serviced  with transmission oil change?

Does the transmission require oil changes or is it 'sealed for life'?

 

 

[Guest]

I have personally never heard of this being a problem with the RX,i live in a rural area and often go through standing water on B roads and have never had an issue in my four years of ownership.

[Zotto]

10 hours ago, olliesgrandad said:

Does the transmission require oil changes or is it 'sealed for life'?

 

 

Transmission needs regular maintenance, not much oil like in traditional automatic with torque converter, but in my last service at 60.000 km. they changed ATF (4 liters): may be it is not strictly necessary, but at least I would change ATF after some years .

[Texas]

As a side note, whenever I read about people having problems with their cars after driving through flood water I can't help think that if it were to happen to me ( not likely as I would rather drive an extra 10 miles to avoid!) then I would try and seek the help of a paint spraying garage that had a paint curing oven and pay for some time for the car to be placed inside said oven to try and dry things out a lot quicker/if at all if left naturally at this time of year, like I said just a thought and wondered if anyone had ever done this.

paul m.

[jumbojake]

could the raid external cooling of the engine cause a clearance problem.. resulting in quick wear?

[Lager shandy]

Why not take out the extended lexus warranty .its a fully Lexus service vehicle .£950 2 year then get it done under warranty .

[Mr Vlad]

That's enough of an experience to P anyone off Barry. Because of metal fragments found then in no way was going through water responsible for what happened. It was purely coincidental. 

Where did you buy the car from? Maybe you can have some compensation from that dealer if a year long warranty was given at the time of sale.

6k is almost half the price of your car. At worst it would be financially better off to spend 6k or a lot more on another car.

[Herbie]

3 hours ago, Lager shandy said:

Why not take out the extended lexus warranty .its a fully Lexus service vehicle .£950 2 year then get it done under warranty .

Erm... Because that's fraud?

I don't know of any warranty that would fix a pre-existing problem and to claim it wasn't pre-existing is folly when it's here in this forum for all to see.

[Lager shandy]

Ha ha herbie now when you take out your lexus extended warranty where does it say re existing faults when the greedy salesman takes your money .

[olliesgrandad]

1 hour ago, Lager shandy said:

Ha ha herbie now when you take out your lexus extended warranty where does it say re existing faults when the greedy salesman takes your money .

Clearly Herbie like many other people here doesn't relish going to prison. 

[rich1068]

Special Lexus prison.

[Passerby]

pretty sure that the transmission failure and your trip through water are unconnected. If water had got into the transmission then I would have expected emulsified oil. Suspect it is just coincidence but a very unusual failure for an Rx450. If you have a purchase warranty then it's time to make a call, if not, I would investigate getting a unit from a breaker if you have a good garage willing to do the fitting, Lexus main will not entertain that option.

[Lager shandy]

Well it looks like your out of luck ,I recommend to everyone else walking the no warranty line if your rx suddenly dies with the message of death check the hybrid warning message .have your car recovered to your home address the phone lexus take out the warranty then have the car recovered to your local Lexus dealer a week later saying the car The died show your extended warranty policy and just leave it too them jump in your lexus courtesy car and think yourself lucky .

[Barry14UK]

6 minutes ago, Lager shandy said:

Well it looks like your out of luck ,I recommend to everyone else walking the no warranty line if your rx suddenly dies with the message of death check the hybrid warning message .have your car recovered to your home address the phone lexus take out the warranty then have the car recovered to your local Lexus dealer a week later saying the car The died show your extended warranty policy and just leave it too them jump in your lexus courtesy car and think yourself lucky .

Regardless of the moral/legal aspect, the wide adoption of this practice would lead to an increase in the cost of warranty for all.

[Lager shandy]

I'm sure your take the moral hi ground the next time your having a part replaced under warranty after writing to lexus demanding they do so or say hey guys this ones on me .Saving us all money in the end if you pay for the warranty before a repair arises or after you have paid your money and so entitled to your repair .So get  of your hi horses and help the little guy who's made a mistake .People are not perfect oh wait are we ,we did buy a Lexus . Now if everyone is reeling back in horror ,then just show some balls and demand admin I leave the forum and I'll go and you can glow in the glory happy Xmas.

[Herbie]

I have no idea what you're ranting on about Alan but perhaps you've had more than a 'Lager Shandy' this afternoon?

What you're suggesting is exactly what is happening in the car insurance industry with 'crash for cash' claims - something that supposedly adds about £50 per year on to the premiums we all pay.

I have no desire to make my warranty payments suffer the same fate.

[stringbender]

16 hours ago, Lager shandy said:

 Now if everyone is reeling back in horror ,then just show some balls and demand admin I leave the forum and I'll go and you can glow in the glory happy Xmas.

I assume you are aware of private medical insurance. This can be very handy for those of us who are "getting on a bit". They make it very clear that existing conditions are excluded from the benefits of the policy. You can't take out a policy after you've broken your leg and then expect them to cover it. That's ridiculous !

[barry mason]

On 12/13/2019 at 7:29 PM, barry mason said:

I have owned my RX450 H for 9 months.  Its 8 years old, and has just clocked 100,000 miles.  It came with a full Lexus service history, and everyone I spoke to said that having a relatively high mileage car wouldn't be a problem as they rarely developed mechanical faults.  Just under a month ago I was caught on a B road in torrential rain, and the road ahead was flooded for 50 yds or so.  I  watched a Ford Fiesta drive through it slowly, and gauged the the water depth to be no more than 4 to 6 inches max.  So I took it nice and steady, maybe 10 mph. As soon as I reached the other side the dreaded "HYBRID SYSTEM WARNING" light came on.... On the Monday morning I took it into my local garage, who are pretty experienced with electric and hybrid vehicles. They checked the batteries ; all fine, but they couldn't trace the fault code for one outstanding system.. So next part of the saga was to take the vehicle to the Lexus Main dealer in Cheltenham.. At this point, worried about the rapidly escalating bill, I contacted my insurers, Direct Line, who seemed happy to accept the claim as ' accidental damage", but the claim would be subject to a vehicle inspection by one of their own engineers.  I have heard today that they have declined the claim as they could find no evidence that water caused the damage.   I am now faced with a bill for a complete new electric motor and transmission, which will be around £6,000 .  The engineer phoned to say the they had found lots of metal fragments in the oil, causing the motor to fail..  I find this all highly suspicious ; the odds of having the HYBRID FAIL light come on after 100,000 miles , immediately after getting the bottom of the car wet are so unlikely... Lexus did offer a discount on the purchase price of the motor however... is this a problem common to this model I wonder ? ( I found Lexus promotional photos of RX 450's being driven through far deeper water too.)  

 

[m4rkw]

On 12/14/2019 at 12:10 AM, olliesgrandad said:

Does the transmission require oil changes or is it 'sealed for life'?

"Sealed for life" just means they tried to keep the on-paper maintenance costs low at the point of sale. It *does not* mean the transmission will run forever without any servicing. Sealed for life means exactly what it says - sealed until the fluid's burned up and that's the end of its life!

[barry mason]

Oil change is specified at 60,000 miles.   I assume that this was done, as the car has a full Lexus main dealer service history.   

 

[Silversalmon]

3 hours ago, m4rkw said:

"Sealed for life" just means they tried to keep the on-paper maintenance costs low at the point of sale. It *does not* mean the transmission will run forever without any servicing. Sealed for life means exactly what it says - sealed until the fluid's burned up and that's the end of its life!

Ah, the thorny issue of the transmission fluid. My 2010 450 has 92000 miles on the clock. I asked the dealer about changing the TR oil and he said not to bother. They'd never had problems on the 3rd gen even with 200k on the clock. I spoke to a transmission specialist who was initially willing to do the wok for 175 + VAT but then told me he couldnt as he couldn't source the filter. Just asked another TR specialist and he said not to bother unless i was hard on the transmission, ie towing or serious off roading, neither which I do so I'm just going to leave it alone. Managed to squeeze in 2 more years warranty for a car a shade under ten years old so i have two years comeback anyway. Has anyone on this forum ever changed their tr oil? I'm curious Thanks and a safe and problem free 2020 to all ont he forum

 

Ed in Glasgow

[m4rkw]

7 minutes ago, Silversalmon said:

Ah, the thorny issue of the transmission fluid. My 2010 450 has 92000 miles on the clock. I asked the dealer about changing the TR oil and he said not to bother. They'd never had problems on the 3rd gen even with 200k on the clock. I spoke to a transmission specialist who was initially willing to do the wok for 175 + VAT but then told me he couldnt as he couldn't source the filter. Just asked another TR specialist and he said not to bother unless i was hard on the transmission, ie towing or serious off roading, neither which I do so I'm just going to leave it alone. Managed to squeeze in 2 more years warranty for a car a shade under ten years old so i have two years comeback anyway. Has anyone on this forum ever changed their tr oil? I'm curious Thanks and a safe and problem free 2020 to all ont he forum

I would definitely change it. 50k is the ideal time but it's never too late. Take it to somewhere that knows what they're doing and get a proper service. If they use the word "flush" - walk away. And I definitely wouldn't trust any dealer's opinion - they're in the business of selling you a new car. If your transmission goes out at 150k and you're in the market for a new vehicle, that's good news for them.

[Passerby]

The 100k Lexus service that I have just had done included a transmission fluid change. They did try the 'sealed for life' line on me but didn't clarify what 'life' was.... Feeling lucky?