Valley plate leak... repair costs and garage recommendations

[Jezpatel]

Hi all,

My isf has got the dreaded coolant Valley plate leak. Just wondering if anyone can recommend a garage to get the Valley plate leak repaired. 

I Welcome any recommendations, we are based in South London, but willing to travel to the right garage.

Also approx how much have you paid to get your Valley plate leak repaired?

Thanks in advance

[Mr Vlad]

Hi Jez. I'm no ISf owner and I've not heard of this issue but blimey a poor design. 

Found this video for you so as you know what's involved. A competent mechanic should be able to do this job. Hope this helps.

 

[4969_LXS]

Westfield in Rayleigh, Essex have done a few valley plate repairs recently on ISF's. I'd give them a call

[Jezpatel]

@Mr Vlad thanks for the link. I've seen that before actually. I think I'd prefer to use a mechanic that has performed the job previously.

 

@4969_LXS thanks for the recommendation I'll contact them.

[EP80]

Sorry to hear Jez. Hope you don't mind me asking but where did you notice symptoms of this? I am assuming coolant level on the bottle was getting lower but how did you confirm it's definitely the valley plate? Asking for my own information, just in case this happens to me too. 

[4969_LXS]

@EP80the tell tale sign is seeing dried pink coolant on the bellhousing of the transmission when you look underneath.

[EP80]

19 minutes ago, 4969_LXS said:

@EP80the tell tale sign is seeing dried pink coolant on the bellhousing of the transmission when you look underneath.

Thanks, that would make sense, I used an endoscope to look around the engine on mine and fingers crossed haven't noticed anything yet and nothing visible underneath. I did wonder though if a leaking water pump would give similar symptoms. I know that there can be a dried pink line about the "valley" if there has been a large build up.

Interesting to see this happening in the UK, as it seemed to have long been thought the weather being much colder here than some parts of the US, was why it didn't happen. I suspect it might just have been the vast difference in sample size. 

[4969_LXS]

@EP80 endoscope is perfect for catching it early, If it's on the bell housing that's when it's filled the area under the inlet manifold of coolant and its overflowing. From reading around it's due to the pink coolant eating away at the sealant they used on the valley plate. Coolant also gets acidic as it ages. The car care nut on YouTube has done a video of it and recommends changing the coolant every 2 years. This effects every UR block including the LC500, its a case of when rather than if unfortunately. 

 

[Jgtcracer]

3 hours ago, 4969_LXS said:

@EP80 endoscope is perfect for catching it early, If it's on the bell housing that's when it's filled the area under the inlet manifold of coolant and its overflowing. From reading around it's due to the pink coolant eating away at the sealant they used on the valley plate. Coolant also gets acidic as it ages. The car care nut on YouTube has done a video of it and recommends changing the coolant every 2 years. This effects every UR block including the LC500, its a case of when rather than if unfortunately. 

 

It’s scary if it’s going to affect every F-car and LC500.

 God dammit!!!

[Womble72]

Westfield motors at Rayleigh looked after my ISF, couldn’t recommend them enough, Ian and Chris are excellent and so is Andree who has his own ISF…….. 

[Mr Vlad]

Well 4969 that's very interesting info regarding the pink coolant used by Lexus turning acidic after just a few years. Blimey Lexus surely know about this and should have the coolant change in the service schedule every two years.

One wonders if it affects the V6's?

[4969_LXS]

@Mr Vlad I believe the 2GR-FE V6 doesn't have a valley plate arrangement. It can suffer from head gasket seepage but thats a bit different 

[Jezpatel]

Hi all

Thanks for the recommendations. Sounds like westfield are the way forward.

In response to an earlier post, I had noticed that the car was losing a bit of coolant slowly.. I called my mechanic to have a look at it, he poked around and then found a bit of coolant residue in the middle of the V.

 

 

[ubersonic]

On 5/5/2023 at 8:41 PM, Jgtcracer said:

It’s scary if it’s going to affect every F-car and LC500.

 God dammit!!!

It's a design flaw with the UR series of engines in general so also affects the LS460, GX460, etc.  It's much more prolific in the USA than Europe/Asia (and was originally though to be an issue specific to the NA climate), I'm actually surprised the yanks haven't started a class action against Toyota/Lexus yet.

[Jgtcracer]

2 hours ago, ubersonic said:

It's a design flaw with the UR series of engines in general so also affects the LS460, GX460, etc.  It's much more prolific in the USA than Europe/Asia (and was originally though to be an issue specific to the NA climate), I'm actually surprised the yanks haven't started a class action against Toyota/Lexus yet.

I was hoping that behind the scenes Toyota had done some work to remedy this.  I’m aware that it’s not exclusively an F-car issue but do wonder whether it’s going to affect a % of all engines.  Obviously with America having far more of them then we are going to hear about it and no one complains when their car doesnt have the problem.  I’ve been doing some research this evening regarding the pink vs red coolant argument and am not convinced yet so will stick with pink super long life for now.

 Anyone spoke to Lexus UK about this yet and where we stand regarding 10yr warranties?  Even if they don’t officially acknowledge it, they must know it’s a problem if some US owners are getting repairs from Lexus US FOC.  ISFs have had issues in the US for a decade so you would think that the later cars would have been sorted!

[ubersonic]

1 hour ago, Jgtcracer said:

I’ve been doing some research this evening regarding the pink vs red coolant argument and am not convinced yet so will stick with pink super long life for now.

The Pink/Red in an F argument is... how to phrase this nicely... It's ******** spouted by people grasping for answers to a question they don't full understand.  The red coolant from the 90s is just an older/inferior alternative to the pink that's been standard for the past 20 years.  The Pink is superior in every way in an F, you would only want to drop down to the red if you had say an MK3 Supra with a brass radiator as newer coolant doesn't have inhibitors in for copper/brass corrosion.

 

1 hour ago, Jgtcracer said:

ISFs have had issues in the US for a decade so you would think that the later cars would have been sorted!

Problem is, nobody knows what the cause of the issue is, Toyota/Lexus included, it shouldn't be happening but it is.  The sealant on the VP shouldn't be failing hence why they're using it on cars coming off the production line today, but it is.  If the issue is Toyota/Lexus's fault then they should (IMO) offer to fix it on all cars in warranty or not, but if the issue is something else (I.E previous owners topping up the coolant with some they got from Costco or Halfords which has degraded the sealant over time) then the onus is less on them, but then the manual doesn't say never to use off brand coolant so if that's the issue it should have.

*EDIT*

It does actually specify "Toyota Super Long Life Coolant or similar high-quality ethylene glycol-based non-silicate, non-amine, non-nitrite and non-borate coolant with long-life hybrid organic acid technology", so the manual warns not to use the red coolant.

[Jezpatel]

Just thought I'd update you all. Valley plate leak all fixed now. Westfield done it, highly recommend them and will use them again in the future.

 

Thanks to everyone that contributed.

 

Jez

[Pielight]

On 6/18/2023 at 7:19 AM, Jezpatel said:

Just thought I'd update you all. Valley plate leak all fixed now. Westfield done it, highly recommend them and will use them again in the future.

 

Thanks to everyone that contributed.

 

Jez

For future reference, what did they charge for sorting it. Thanks

[Jezpatel]

Hello. I won't post the price on here as I understand it can vary depending on how easy the bits and pieces they have to remove to access the Valley plate come apart. 

 

[Pielight]

2 hours ago, Jezpatel said:

Hello. I won't post the price on here as I understand it can vary depending on how easy the bits and pieces they have to remove to access the Valley plate come apart. 

 

Ok no worries