A friend of ours bought a used '99 Lexus RX-300 after her husband totaled her '97 4-Runner. She's had the "new" truck about a year. On August 24, she took it into her selling Lexus dealership's service department in Riverside, California for routine maintenance, which included draining the radiator and installing fresh antifreeze/coolant. She's pretty anal about having servicing done on time and according to the "severe service" recommendations, so she trusted the Lexus dealership to use the right fluids. I'd never looked under the hood so I asked her to pop it today when she came over to visit us. To my horror, new and bright in the overflow bottle, was green fluid! I asked her to dig out the owner's manual since I had no idea when Toyota went to its long life red antifreeze/coolant. Neverhtelss, the manual clearly specified Toyota Long Life Antifreeze/Coolant. She had the receipt in the glove compartment and it specified that the Toyota juice had been installed. (Don't even fantasize that the delaership's happy-merry workers bothered with distilled water...) She was charged $35.00 + tax for TWO gallons of Toyota Long Life Antifreeze/Coolant and got who knows actually how much and whose borated, phosphated, hydrated-silicates green-snot-of-death that the slimy Lexus dealership's service manager or parts manager probably orders for less than $4.00/gallon on a commercial account. (The manual specifies that the cooling system capacity on that vehicle is 9 1/2 quarts, so she's missing a partial jug with 3 1/4 quarts.) I told her to have that fluid drained and refilled with Toyota's real McCoy no later than one year from the install date. (She's not the kind of person to raise a well-deserved ruckus.) One more reason I do my own servicing when possible...
Lexus Dealer Ripoff
- Thread starter Ray H
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Her letting them walk all over her just reinforces the behavior and encourages them to do it to her and other people in the future. I would be all over them like flies on sh*t. I would probably have a little fun while I was at it and catch them in a few lies as well.
I agree. Though I think if it were me, I'd just email Corporate, detailing the scam and invitng them to send a zone rep to check out my vehicle. Given Lexus' (Toyota's) vaunted reputation for attention to customer satisfaction, I'll bet they'd be all over that dealership "like flies on sh*t", too, and without me ever breaking a sweat. (Wouldn't be hard to catch 'em in the act by having someone from Corporate, preferably female, pull in for a cooling system service, either. I'd love to be a fly on the wall if the dealership tried wiggling out of that...
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Speaking of Toyota coolant. I was hoing through my 04 repair manual on my 4runner. This is what it states to use. Kinda a mouthful
Use only Toyota long life coolant or Ethlene glycol based non silicate, non amine, non nitrate, non borate coolant with long life hybrid organic acid technology.
Use only Toyota long life coolant or Ethlene glycol based non silicate, non amine, non nitrate, non borate coolant with long life hybrid organic acid technology.
Sounds much like Dexcool. Here's something I previously posted:
DexCool uses two organic acids: sebacate and 2-EHA (2-ethylhexanoic acid).
Recently Honda and Toyota both changed to an extended-life OAT coolant-made with sebacate but no 2-EHA. Sebacate isn't quite as effective in combating corrosion at lower pH levels, but the Japanese aren't concerned with cast iron engine blocks so they don't consider this a problem.
The Honda and Toyota OAT formulae are no-silicate but add a dose of phosphates to provide fast-acting aluminum protection, especially against cavitation erosion/corrosion.
Honda specifically recommends against 2-EHA and high silicates in replacement coolant, and that looks like good advice for Toyota as well.
The Japanese spec coolants are sold only by Toyota, Lexus, Acura, and Honda dealers - none of the American companies have decided to formulate a coolant that way. The recommendation of the independent radiator shops' trade association is to convert to G-05.
Totally apart from the merits of which coolant formulation is better, if the dealer represents that they've used one type of coolant, which sells for a premium price, and then, having been paid for the premium stuff, installs a cheaper, different fluid, then there's a simple name for what's been done: FRAUD!!!
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