A different Advisory at Service this year

[Barry14UK]

Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder so I guess is view Technicians take about need to replace some components.

Last year a local garage passed my RX450h without any advisory in MOT but shortly afterwards at service Lexus Dealership said the rear brake discs and pads needed replacing.  (I did buy the replacements but didn't put them on yet for several reasons that I won't go into here).

This year car again passed MOT without advisory at same garage and following service at same Lexus dealership there was no mention of the worn rear discs and pads (which had served another 4000+ miles in the interim), however an advisory was issued at service for replaceing the rear trailing arms due to bushes beginning to delaminate - this for in excess of £1300 as Lexus only supply bushes in the trailing arms they said and it took a long time to fit.

I only do about 4K miles a year at present, although this is likely to go up a little more in future, so the car has only recently gone past 50K miles.  It is however 8 years old, so I suppose some degradation of the bushes is inevitable.  Anyway, I will take a look underneath in the spring.  I believe it is possible to buy aftermarket bushes (don't want the poly ones), and get these pressed into the existing arms. I wonder if anybody else has done this?

[Malc1]

I’m sure AfterMarket could be available as they are with many other models !

Q. Presuming your car isn’t benefitting under any sort of Lexus warranty scheme ? 

I’d be very wary of simply acting on the “ advice “ of the Lexus Dealer mechanic as that seems to be pushing you into probably excessively expensive unnecessary “ fixes “  

Does your independent MOT station also do servicing ?  If so then I’d be inclined to simply ask them to do it all in the future …… if you can bear to forgo the Lexus Service stamp in the book …… if you’re keeping this 8 y/old car then I’d be inclined not to worry about the sans Lexus stamp in the book …… it might happily and sensibly save you £’000s 

Just my simple view 🤔

Malc 

[katabrontes]

Looks very sensible to me.  My Toyota and Lexus have never been near an official main dealer.

[Normski]

Had the exact same advisories on the fronts and then the rears this year when the RX went into Lexus. THANKFULLY both times covered under warranty (which unfortunately has now finished).

It annoyed me massively that they don't replace the rubber parts and you have to replace the WHOLE part. They have this approach on a number of other things that affect other models too (I remember my GS300 also suffering).

As the cars get older it's this kind of thing that will effectively write them off. Appreciate all parts have a finite life but these things are consumables IMO. 

[RONNIE W HODGEKINSON]

1 hour ago, Malc1 said:

I’m sure AfterMarket could be available as they are with many other models !

Q. Presuming your car isn’t benefitting under any sort of Lexus warranty scheme ? 

I’d be very wary of simply acting on the “ advice “ of the Lexus Dealer mechanic as that seems to be pushing you into probably excessively expensive unnecessary “ fixes “  

Does your independent MOT station also do servicing ?  If so then I’d be inclined to simply ask them to do it all in the future …… if you can bear to forgo the Lexus Service stamp in the book …… if you’re keeping this 8 y/old car then I’d be inclined not to worry about the sans Lexus stamp in the book …… it might happily and sensibly save you £’000s 

Just my simple view 🤔

Malc 

Think Your Right Malcolm...

[Malc1]

There’s recent Posts here about the availability of “ PolyBushings” from a company in ? Bournemouth maybe ! 
just the perishable bits ! 
Don’t know how successful it all is tho 

I’ve replaced( well my Indy mechanic has ) lots of expensive whole arms from Amayama over the years at about 50% of Lexus / Toyota prices ….. all marked Toyota originals too …… on the Ls400 they have an inordinate long life thankfully ….. up to 200k miles 

Good  luck going forward 

Malc 

[Barry14UK]

Thanks for replies.

The 3 year extended warranty expired awhile ago.

As regards Poly v Rubber bushes, this debate came up when I was an active member of a BMW forum.  Generally speaking, the view was that Poly bushes were easy to insert,  however, among other things they gave a stiffer ride.  Some of the rubber bushes on my E39 are liquid filled and have to be pressed in in a precise position.  In the end, as I did the work myself, as it was not very much more expensive buying the affected arms with correct bushes already inserted.  Including Lemforder, which BMW generally use, there are replacements available from some other well regarded names so prices are more reasonable. So if I do feel replacement on my RX450h is called for, I will check what alternatives bushes are available separately and within arms and would appreciate any further info on what anybody has used.

I think I could do most, if not all the servicing on my car, just as I have on nearly all my previous cars,  but get a Lexus Dealer to do the service Battery health check. It rather depends on how my arthritic back is and who I can find to do specific jobs in need, rather than a fixed price service. 

 

 

 

[Spock66]

Personally speaking if it's not an MOT advisory I would not worry about it, yes there will be some wear but clearly not excessive or else it would be an MOT issue.

[Bluemarlin]

2 years ago Lexus gave me an advisory note about front control arm bushes, with a cost to replace of over £2k.  Since then I've given them a periodic spraying of silicone lubricant and they haven't mentioned them in the subsequent 2 services.

[Barry14UK]

I think it goes to show it's worth having a good look before giving Lexus carte blanche to fit replacement parts particularly where these are costly.

[Greisingel]

On 11/11/2023 at 3:04 PM, Barry14UK said:

Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder so I guess is view Technicians take about need to replace some components.

Last year a local garage passed my RX450h without any advisory in MOT but shortly afterwards at service Lexus Dealership said the rear brake discs and pads needed replacing.  (I did buy the replacements but didn't put them on yet for several reasons that I won't go into here).

This year car again passed MOT without advisory at same garage and following service at same Lexus dealership there was no mention of the worn rear discs and pads (which had served another 4000+ miles in the interim), however an advisory was issued at service for replaceing the rear trailing arms due to bushes beginning to delaminate - this for in excess of £1300 as Lexus only supply bushes in the trailing arms they said and it took a long time to fit.

I only do about 4K miles a year at present, although this is likely to go up a little more in future, so the car has only recently gone past 50K miles.  It is however 8 years old, so I suppose some degradation of the bushes is inevitable.  Anyway, I will take a look underneath in the spring.  I believe it is possible to buy aftermarket bushes (don't want the poly ones), and get these pressed into the existing arms. I wonder if anybody else has done this?

The problem with MOTs and garages in general. Complete lack of standardisation mixed in with a dollop of taking the p*ss

In Germany theu have the TÜV (Technischer Überwachungsverein). It's stringent – but very accurate (they actually measure things). While it can mean you can't wing it with a dodgy garage, by the same token, you cannot fail even if close (you'll get advised in a detailed report). There's no TUV here – instead an MOT centre attached to a garage – nice conflict of interest nonsense. The UK is what the UK is a rip off joint.

[GMB]

I got a bit annoyed when they kept calling me to say that there were outstanding issues with my car. There were none.

Tyres half worn - what's wrong with that?

I would always recommend a second opinion.

[Neilo]

Wonder if a Council MOT Station would give a more unbiased test with them having no interest in any repair work. I have one nearby but never tried it.   

[Boomer54]

17 minutes ago, Neilo said:

Wonder if a Council MOT Station would give a more unbiased test with them having no interest in any repair work. I have one nearby but never tried it.   

I didn't know there was such a thing. Must have a look now.

[Neilo]

3 minutes ago, Boomer54 said:

I didn't know there was such a thing. Must have a look now.

https://www.carveto.co.uk/mot-check/council-centres/

[HPS13]

1 hour ago, Greisingel said:

In Germany theu have the TÜV (Technischer Überwachungsverein). It's stringent – but very accurate (they actually measure things).

What is different about the German version compared to the UK (apart from the German test is only carried out once every 2 years)?

Thanks

[Boomer54]

40 minutes ago, Neilo said:

https://www.carveto.co.uk/mot-check/council-centres/

What do you know, we have one.

[Greisingel]

2 hours ago, HPS13 said:

What is different about the German version compared to the UK (apart from the German test is only carried out once every 2 years)?

Thanks

Far stricter. Regionally controlled. Entirely impartial. You won't have that nervous sensation as you take your car to a UK garage wondering whether you'll get unfairly stiffed.

[HPS13]

3 hours ago, Greisingel said:

Far stricter. Regionally controlled. Entirely impartial. You won't have that nervous sensation as you take your car to a UK garage wondering whether you'll get unfairly stiffed.

Thanks for your message. Could you expand on what the differences are that make it 'stricter'? I was previously an MOT tester in the UK (nearly 20 years ago!) and I'm genuinely interested in what the differences are. It sounds like you have had some bad experiences with MOT's in the UK. I personally don't get concerned when I take a car for an MOT but I understand others may. You are entitled to ask the tester to put the car back on the ramp and show any items which may have resulted in a fail. 

I couldn't find a list of testable items for the German test, only that it provides a report at the end. 

[Greisingel]

Never understand how advisories come and go year in year out between different UK testers.

The reality is German GOV standards are stricter in most areas (it's the German way).

Of course standards vary between testers – some are more scrupulous than others. I did ask for a UK MOT re-inspection a few years back as I was not convinced brake lines were "on the way out". Was told to fill out a VT17 and pretty much clear off if I disagreed. The small independent garage was a complete mess. Oil everywhere on the ground, what looked like miserable working conditions (in Winter) for staff – not good

Testing I assume is in general getting more detailed as a result of increasingly complex engineering, electricals, ECUs, Battery tech, sensors etc etc. I get that. I'd be interested to know which country's average car age is the newest. Certainly driving in Switzerland (their TUV is the apparently even more strict MKV) I was gobsmacked at the new-car/model prevalence on roads. At least here you'll get people like me driving 18 year old Toyotas.

The MOT in the UK for me is more of an industry and less of a perfunctory safety test. Maybe its me but I don't trust the industry any more. And I take a buffers care of my car. I am sure you were a diligent MOTer. My problem is with the oversight. And I accept a ruling if the car is unsafe in any way so long as I feel it is certainly tested so.

Quite interested to know more about https://www.carveto.co.uk/mot-check/council-centres/ I have no love for UK councils but there's no conflict of interest...ie a garage next door to the MOT test bay waiting to take on your repairs (without asking you, of course – not allowed to do that).

https://automation.omron.com/en/ca/support/training/courses/tuv-functional-safety-engineer-certification-training-english

 

[Bluemarlin]

On 11/15/2023 at 4:13 PM, Greisingel said:

There's no TUV here – instead an MOT centre attached to a garage – nice conflict of interest nonsense. The UK is what the UK is a rip off joint.

It's not always a conflict of interest, or a rip off. I have a good relationship with my local garage, who would rarely fail my previous car, and instead just give me a heads of anything that might become an issue next time.

Presenty I use Lexus for MOTs, but mainly because I have service plan and extended warranty, but it's always worth having a friendly local garage for MOTs and ad hoc stuff.