Water Pump And Front Suspension Bushes Fixed Under Warranty? (Rx400H)

[tom123]

Just took my car for a 'Winter Health Check' at a main Lexus dealer. Report came back with 'Leaking water pump' in red (£395) and 'Lower arm bushes worn' (both sides) in amber (£1121.16). Just wondering if these will be replaced under the approved used Lexus warranty?

Car is 2005 RX400h with 86,000 miles, bought from a main Lexus dealer 1 year ago with a 2-year Lexus warranty included.

The service advisor was quite vague and non-committal about arranging the repairs as soon as I mentioned the car was still under warranty, and asked me to phone him next week. Would have thought it would have been easier to start the process there and then.

Does the water pump have to be replaced at 90,000 miles in any case? If so, I will need to get the pump replaced ASAP under the warranty if this is possible.

[ColinBarber]

Water pump should be covered under warranty. Bushes are a bit more debatable as that could be considered wear and tear.

The water pump doesn't have a replacement interval specified. It should be replaced if and when required. 90,000 miles on a hybrid could be a lot less than 90,000 on a standard petrol engine as the engine may not be running for quite a number of those miles and also not idling when stationary. When my timing belt was replaced at 100k miles the water pump was fine and didn't need replacing.

[tom123]

Water pump should be covered under warranty. Bushes are a bit more debatable as that could be considered wear and tear.

The water pump doesn't have a replacement interval specified. It should be replaced if and when required. 90,000 miles on a hybrid could be a lot less than 90,000 on a standard petrol engine as the engine may not be running for quite a number of those miles and also not idling when stationary. When my timing belt was replaced at 100k miles the water pump was fine and didn't need replacing.

Thanks for the reply. Got confused as seems lots of people replace the water pump at 90,000 miles when having the timing belt service done to save on potential future labour costs. Wonder if the garage will give me a discount on getting the timing belt done at the same time if the warranty company is paying for the labour to get to the water pump.

[nelmo]

Call me cynical but £1100 for worn bushes? Bushes are rubber protectors and cost about £20 - do they have to dismantle the car to get to them?!

Water pump leaking? Have you noticed that you need to top up the coolant recently? Is it really leaking?

Excuse my cynicism but 'Winter Health Check' sounds like 'Christmas Tips for Lexus Mechanics' - make up a few hard-to-check 'problems' and generate some work.

If it's a non-Lexus warranty, you may have problems getting that paid out but hopefully all will be ok.

[tom123]

Call me cynical but £1100 for worn bushes? Bushes are rubber protectors and cost about £20 - do they have to dismantle the car to get to them?!

Water pump leaking? Have you noticed that you need to top up the coolant recently? Is it really leaking?

Excuse my cynicism but 'Winter Health Check' sounds like 'Christmas Tips for Lexus Mechanics' - make up a few hard-to-check 'problems' and generate some work.

If it's a non-Lexus warranty, you may have problems getting that paid out but hopefully all will be ok.

They accidentally gave me their price parts list along with my invoice, looks like the total cost is for two arms plus labour. Part is 'L48068-48020 SUSPN.ARM.LOWER' £230.58 (inc. VAT) each. Water pump 'L16100-29085' is £117.79 (inc. VAT).

Agree about the 'Christmas Tips,' they must make a big up front loss on the Winter Health Check (which includes fuel treatment, air con clean/1 litre oil top-up, washer fluid etc.). Took them over an hour.

Mine is the Lexus warranty, so I always get these cheap Spring/Summer/Winter etc. checks done in the hope that any potential problems can be picked up and dealt with before the warranty runs out. But I could see his demeanor change when I told him that my car was under warranty, not sure if it's because they get lower rates from warranty repairs, or because he was worried the repair might not get approved. Once had an engineer from the warranty company come to the dealer to examine the car before a repair (about £900 cost) was authorised. Who's to say what they could be looking for!

Did notice that the coolant is somewhere between the min and max levels, and not all the way to the top like the brake fluid etc. Haven't seen any pink fluid anywhere though, but haven't looked that hard.

[ColinBarber]

Thanks for the reply. Got confused as seems lots of people replace the water pump at 90,000 miles when having the timing belt service done to save on potential future labour costs. Wonder if the garage will give me a discount on getting the timing belt done at the same time if the warranty company is paying for the labour to get to the water pump.

They shouldn't give a discount but the cost shouldn't be much at all as all the labour would be for changing the water pump, you should just have to pay for the belt itself.

[billgatesisaconman]

Some good advice from Colin & Neil ...

If it has a Lexus warranty I would want the pump changing free of charge & would pay only for the belt (it being nearly due)

As Colin mentioned the bushes are debatable, if they aren't covered, they look ok & your not having any problems,

I wouldn't replace them until they came back on an m.o.t. or failed & would get somewhere with a lower labour cost to replace them, I would think you only need change the bushes not the arm's ...

On a similar note I only did this "health check" once on a shogun, came back as needing a replacement upper front drivers side wishbone due to worn bushes at £680 (it squeaked when you stood on the sidestep) ..

5 minute check it was ok & a squirt of silicone & it was fixed (I never changed it & it passed 7 m.o.t's afterwards)

I never went back to Mitsubishi Oldham ...

[tom123]

Thanks everyone for all the good advice.

Will push them to get the water pump done under the warranty, and ask to pay parts-only for the timing belt. If they won't do that, I will try another dealer.

I spend my time between the West Midlands and South West, so have been to 3 different Lexus dealers. The best one by far is Wolverhampton, who never seem to come up with a bunch of things that need replacing each visit and will actually fix things if they can (e.g. they repaired two seized calipers during a service instead of telling me they needed replacing).

[billgatesisaconman]

I would stick with Wolverhampton if you are confident in them,

rear calipers ... lol ... been there m8, got 2 years out of freeing them up, d/s eventually siezed solid though, keep a check that your rear wheel assemblies aren't getting hot ...

... hope you get sorted m8

[tom123]

I would stick with Wolverhampton if you are confident in them,

rear calipers ... lol ... been there m8, got 2 years out of freeing them up, d/s eventually siezed solid though, keep a check that your rear wheel assemblies aren't getting hot ...

... hope you get sorted m8

Thanks. I would have preferred the dealer to have just told me the calipers (front pair) needed replacing since I still have the warranty, but at least it shows they're honest.

One of the rear calipers was replaced by the previous owner, and I had the other one replaced under the warranty after a 'Summer Heath Check' at a different dealer found the sliders were sticking.