OldTrout

Thanks guys for the continuing interest and suggestion. I'm not giving up! I am presently editing my letter following advice from friend who has some experience of complaints. He suggests sending to CEO in Japan with copy to UK CEO and mentioning that some LOC members have had shock absorbers replaced under warranty. I will add that there has been vigorous discussion of failure of Lexus to address known problems like shock absorbers and damaged reputation. Lexus dealers and The Warranty Company may well be independent but they all use the Lexus logo so any misbehaviour counts against the Lexus brand. I do not have details of previous work done on my car. I will try and find out if shock absorbers have been replaced before. If they have, then they have failed twice in 113k. John ps Why do we use "shock absorbers" rather than "dampers"?

I have a Nokia 3210 and a 5310 with hands-free set, car charger and one mains charger not sure which phone they are for. If they can be used by anyone email me off list. Yours for just the postage. John

Thank you to those who have posted on some of the other threads about dampers, reliability, failure to acknowledge a problem etc. Very good and interesting reading. I hope somebody at Lexus will take notice. I have written a letter to Lexus UK CEO but I don't know who he or she is or the address. (I've searched at Companies House.) If anyone knows a name and address could they PM me please? John

Indeed! According to the Lexus Claims Manager at The Warranty Group, a failure of one damper <100k miles is a manufacturing defect if the other three are OK. If the other three have also failed as in your case this perhaps suggests either a really bad batch of dampers with defects or maybe inadequately specced dampers in the first place? The failure statistics would be very interesting. Enjoy your Christmas Dean. All will soon be fixed with your car and you can enjoy it. John

I don't have any noises like that. I await your post after they have been done on the 28th. I think the driver is much more aware of noises than the passenger. I am quite deaf but hear the transmission at low speeds. In particular when car comes to a halt the noise reminds me of a tube train stopping. Others have said a lift stopping. I though the car was really quiet when I first got it but it now seems less so although it is actually just the same. I thought a quieter car (had the 2nd. gen GS before) would enable me to hear my wife better. However I still don't hear her any better as she has adjusted to the quieter environment by dropping her voice.....

Dean: Delighted all your shock absorbers are going to be done and not at your expense. As someone who has driven a couple of thousand miles with failed shocks and not noticed any noise, could you describe the noise for me please? I haven't noticed a willowy feeling either. Perhaps I am just an insensitive driver? John

Fixed! Removing the unit was easy as the three nuts were only finger tight! That might explain an poor earth but I suspect there is an earth wire in the feed. With the unit out the problem became clear. The turn indicator bulb was not clicked into position because the wires to the LED unit fouled a little and probably trying to twist it into position had pulled the wires loosening the plug on the stop/tail LED unit. I pushed the plug home, ensured the wires allowed the turn bulb to click into position and refitted the unit. I can understand why the nuts were only finger tight as they are not easy to get at with even a small spanner/socket. Perhaps the assembler of the offside unit did not have his/her little spanner that day. The nearside unit is tight. It can all be done through the little hatch which is just as well as I could not see how to get the trim out. Thanks for your help John. A bottle of single malt would be winging its way to rural Herefordshire if only I knew where. John ps. By the spare while there is a black thing with a cable plugged into it on a white bracket - see photo. What is it?

Thanks John. It is both the side light and the brake light but only on offside. Why no warning on the dashboard? Tail light much more important than a brake light. I will check for volts on the feed tomorrow. Are LED failures common on the Prius? If Prius was £186, Lexus price is going to be nearer £400 I fear. Turning out to be an expensive year. I did look at the warranty this evening. Another grey area I suspect. Main part of warranty excludes "light bulbs" which is understandable. But LEDs are not bulbs in the conventional sense and should have lifetime of many 10,000s of hours not 1000s like a filament lamp. Interestingly, all "lamps" are MOT protected parts. However so are dampers so it may not mean anything. Perhaps I should go and get an MOT? John

NemesisUK: that figure would be very interesting especially if combined with mileage. Shapor: We left it with me saying I would ask others in LOC to email him with permission to look at their cases with me. However on listening to the conversation againI doubt this would do any good unless somebody was over 113k miles. And yes I too would like his answer to your second point. It seems he thinks the changeover is less than 113k and I am thinking this may be the best route to follow. I wonder if Lexus are aware that the company that offer warranties on their cars think 113k miles is beyond the useful life of dampers on one of its flagship cars? cruisermark: It is indeed a strange sag. I think deanflyer's car had two dampers replaced before it was handed over to him so I guess the dealer covered that cost. Still one has to ask why two had to be replaced before 80k miles. everyone: thanks for all your encouragement and support. I had a letter this morning from the General Manager, Customer Care Centre at TWG saying "I am glad we resolved your complaint, however if you fell we have not addressed all of your points then please get in touch and we will do our utmost to conclude matters to your satisfaction." I will be in touch with him and also with Lexus Customer Care. Are the dampers on the GS300 just the same? Do they fail as often or even reach the end of their useful life. In the if any of the readers of this thread can help with my other active thread I would love to hear. John

Another update: The Warranty Group (TWG) did indeed ring me back a couple of days after I asked to escalate the problem. I spoke to the Lexus Claims Manager at TWG. He reiterated the engineer's report. We exchanged views for a while and I mentioned the other successful claimants. He said he needed the permission of the claimants to discuss other cases with me. However he then said that with his experience of nine years in the job a claim for one damper at <100k miles seemed very different to him from a claim for all four at 113k miles. One looks like a manufacturing defect as the other three dampers were OK; the other a case of dampers having "reached the end of their useful life". To me this implies that the design life is about 113k miles. The design life of the car 450h must be much higher a fact he agreed with as the 450h was a "flagship model". Many years ago Jaguars had a design life of 150k miles. I would be surprised if Lexus was less than 200k. In which case my dampers failed prematurely. Would other owners agree? John ps. I think the consensus on this forum is that the dampers are under specced on the 450h due to its greater weight and that is a design shortcomming.

I have a couple of questions about the brake lights on my 2007 GS450. (It may be on the forums somewhere but I can't find anything.) 1) My old 1998 GS had a warning light come on if any bulbs failed. My offside brake light is not working but I have no warning light to tell me. Why not? 2) The owners manual says take it to “authorised Lexus dealer or repairer, or other duly qualified and equipped professional to replace it" and does not even list the bulb is its list of types and wattages in the manual. What is so special about this light? I have never though that changing a light bulb was beyond my skill set. Until now perhaps? John

Covers underneath for aerodynamic reasons? John

Another update: Having heard nothing I rang the The Warranty Group this afternoon. A very helpful person looked up my details from my registration number. The independent engineer has reported that the shock absorbers have failed due to "in service wear and deterioration of the piston rod seals* so that's why the claim has been rejected". (Has a shock absorber ever failed for any other reason?) I assume she was reading the report. I mentioned that others have had shock absorbers replaced under warranty but was told that every claim is considered individually. As I was dissatisfied she offer to escalate the problem. Someone will ring me back. Interestingly the original claim on my record was 1st September. (Service was on 25th. August so very slow on part of Swindon Lexus.) This begs the question why my complaint was not upheld on the grounds of "data protection issues" and "we have no record". No mention either of the original reasons I was given for rejection of claim. Also why was I not informed of the decision? Was anyone ever going to tell me? Ownership of a Lexus should be hassle-free. That's one of the reasons we buy them isn't it? Letter to CEO Lexus UK? John

Dean, I see its MOT expires on 4th. February. Are Lexus Dereby going to do fresh MOT before you take delivery? John

Dean, Has it got two keys? Sounds as if it would have but check and bargain if necessary. Indispensible if car will be used by two drivers of different physical size as your key can be associated with all your settings of seat, steering wheel and wing mirrors, and the other key can be associated with the other driver's settings. Whichever key is used when driver's door is the first door opened will cause all the settings for that key to be set. This is really important feature for me but descriptions rarely mention it. Sadly for reasons I don't understand the rear view mirror has to be set by hand. Other cars can adjust automatically, why not Lexus? John

Dean, The extended 2 year warranty for £1095 certainly covers all the hybrid stuff. If the dealer warranty is the standard Lexus warranty the hybrid stuff will be covered. I don't know what this £56 warranty is that GSLV6 mentions. Yours looks terrific. Almost as nice as mine was before three of my four corners were swiped John

Update: Went for independent assessment today at Swindon Lexus. One hour there, four hours waiting, one hour back. Assessment took just a few minutes and confirmed that the dampers were leaking. Waiting time would have been reduced to under an hour by better communication. Am I picking up a common thread here? I now await the written report and the response of the Warranty Group. I hope the response will be positive and the replacements can be done before we pass the four month point. Damper problems aside I wafted back very pleasantly

Lots of us on this forum are very happy with our 450hs. £8k will easily secure a lovely one with a Lexus extended warranty which covers the expensive stuff. Even the boot which I though I would find way too small has not been a big problem. Just need to think harder what you want to take with you. To be fair most of my building work is now done and I no longer have children to taxi about. Town journeys OK and longer trips are great. John

Thanks Chris, That now makes five owners who have had replacement dampers under warranty. I have mailed each of them (I hope!) to get details which I will use if necessary with assessor. Let's hope that the original refusal was just due to bad communication and incorrect information. John

I am puzzled too. The service sheet has the leaking dampers statement but perhaps they want to see for themselves. Maybe they have issues with Swindon Lexus service dept.? Or are they hoping that now there will no sign of leaks as there is no fluid left? If they just gave me all the money they are spending the job would have been done long ago.

Update I have not yet written to Lexus but tried phoning the warranty company. (I prefer email to phone as I my deafness makes the phone difficult. However they don't respond to emails.) After some discussion with the man who wrote the letter I quoted here on November 2nd. I was transferred to "claims" for more discussion. The outcome of this discussion was that I will be taking the car to Swindon Lexus on December 7th. for the claims assessor to assess. He/she will then write a report and I will be informed in a couple of days or so. Of course this is 3 months on from the service at which the problems were noted but I assume that once dead, dampers stay dead. I would like to take with me the details of the two LOC posted who said they had dampers replaced under warranty. I will try and email them off list. John

Yes I asked Swindon Lexus dealer to send through details which after a second asking they did allegedly. I emailed the Warranty Group to confirm they had received the details but I have received nothing. (My appeal went to the Warranty Group.) I think part of the problem might be that claims are usually done by phone when the faults are found. Swindon Lexus had not serviced my car before and probably didn't know it was under warranty (although my desire to have car serviced and then extend the warranty should have given them a clue). They did not make a claim allegedly until the following week and I wonder now if they did if WG say they have no record. However, whatever the reason the customer should not suffer for the failures of the system. Other claims are agreed and the repairs done very quickly - sometime even the same day. My faults were spotted at the end of August and I have still got nowhere. Time to write to Lexus I think. What address do I use? John

Don't get too carried away with efficiency figures. If the electricity comes from a fossil fuel burning power station with an efficiency of say 40%, then 90% of 40% is not dramtically greater than 35%. The power station does operate at steady efficiency and it may do a better job of cutting pollution although its pollution is all in one place. John

I seem to remember cars whose brake lights were less bright at night. Why does the CT not do this? John

Steve, I agree completely with royoftherovers. My 450h is 2007 and my experience of short journeys with longer ones occasionally is exactly as he describes. My longer ones can be up to 4 hours without a break and I can do this without problem. In my previous gen 2 GS300 I would stop every hour or so to stretch. Do it! You will love it. John