About a year ago, after hearing many good things on here from members such as @JeffKeryk I test drove and fell in love with a clean 1 owner, dealer maintained GS 350 F sport AWD, w/93k miles. I performed a pretty thorough inspection at the time and did not find any evidence of any leaks of any kind, though I will admit I did not boroscope under the intake.
Towards the end of the summer and about 4k miles later I noticed the coolant resevoir was down near low and I had to add about 12 or 14 ounces of coolant to top it off. I didnt think too much of it at the time, as I looked around and didnt see anything obvoius. I figured maybe it had just always been low and I had somehow overlooked it when I inspected it.
After just recently finding a mouse nest in the engine compartment of my wife's Avalon, I figured it would be a good idea to check the the Lex since it has been tucked in for the winter in the same garage. I did find a nest, but then in cleaning it out and looking for any other remnence or damage, I found dried pink crust in the V of the block under the intake.
I had already bought the coolant planning to do all the fluids on the car this spring since it will be coming up on 100k miles. The car has the original coolant, as dealer stated its 10yrs or 120k miles before its needed to be changed and car was just under 10 years old when purchased.
I contacted a few shops in my area, including my go to indi shop, and nobody wants to touch it. It sounds like it is an engine out project that requires many hours of labor. Per the Car Care Nut, you can't mill the heads due to the timing potentially being thrown off on the 2gr series engines either, so I am also concerned about the job being done right. I had a local dealer quote a range of $7 - 9k without seeing it.
It looks like used engines are in the $3 - 4k range without labor, and to be honest they all "look" horrible with dirt and surface corrosion compared to the one in the car now, which is almost clean enough to eat off of. It would also have an unknown maintenance history and i am concerned it could end up with a similar issue.
That said I really love the car, but am truly disappointed to encounter such a serious problem on what was touted as being such a reliable vehicle. I am looking for any advice as to how you guys would move forward in this situation.
If anyone could recomend a reputable shop in the CT area that might be willing to do the job that would also certainly be appreciated.
I will post up some pics when I get a chance.
Towards the end of the summer and about 4k miles later I noticed the coolant resevoir was down near low and I had to add about 12 or 14 ounces of coolant to top it off. I didnt think too much of it at the time, as I looked around and didnt see anything obvoius. I figured maybe it had just always been low and I had somehow overlooked it when I inspected it.
After just recently finding a mouse nest in the engine compartment of my wife's Avalon, I figured it would be a good idea to check the the Lex since it has been tucked in for the winter in the same garage. I did find a nest, but then in cleaning it out and looking for any other remnence or damage, I found dried pink crust in the V of the block under the intake.
I had already bought the coolant planning to do all the fluids on the car this spring since it will be coming up on 100k miles. The car has the original coolant, as dealer stated its 10yrs or 120k miles before its needed to be changed and car was just under 10 years old when purchased.
I contacted a few shops in my area, including my go to indi shop, and nobody wants to touch it. It sounds like it is an engine out project that requires many hours of labor. Per the Car Care Nut, you can't mill the heads due to the timing potentially being thrown off on the 2gr series engines either, so I am also concerned about the job being done right. I had a local dealer quote a range of $7 - 9k without seeing it.
It looks like used engines are in the $3 - 4k range without labor, and to be honest they all "look" horrible with dirt and surface corrosion compared to the one in the car now, which is almost clean enough to eat off of. It would also have an unknown maintenance history and i am concerned it could end up with a similar issue.
That said I really love the car, but am truly disappointed to encounter such a serious problem on what was touted as being such a reliable vehicle. I am looking for any advice as to how you guys would move forward in this situation.
If anyone could recomend a reputable shop in the CT area that might be willing to do the job that would also certainly be appreciated.
I will post up some pics when I get a chance.
is original 
, so is the entire cooling system.
