It’s a big chunk of change, but headgaskets are expensive to replace, especially on V6 engines. They’re a lot of work.
It’s long been my belief that a car’s value to its owners is far different than its value to Kelley BB (or NADA, or whatever). It’s true value to the owner is greatly affected by (in addition to its overall condition) how well it meets the owner’s needs and how well the owner likes it. If it’s in overall good shape, and it’s a car you like that meets your needs, you need to compare the cost of the repair with the cost of replacing it. The repair is $2500*, but the cost of replacing it with one that you like as well might cost you $300/month or more. The payback period becomes just over eight months, a very attractive figure. Every month after that is gravy.
*the reason for the asterisk is that you should expect that there may be addition expenses for miscellaneous, and there is the risk that there’ll be a need for some additional work once the heads are removed that cannot be determined until that happens, such as perhaps milling of the heads. Your payback period becomes longer, but the principle is the same.
On the other hand, a blown headgasket a great excuse to get your better half to let you get that new Porsche…
Update on 4/12/2017 Took the car to a mechanic who specializes in Lexus cars. Had them check for head gasket issues. They kep the car for 3 days and said this is NO head gasket or engine block issue. They also could not find the problem. So I am back to square one. Has not overheated since Sept 16 but hasn’t been hot yet either. So now I have decided to replace some items with original Toyota parts today.
New Thermostat–even though it was replaced in 9/16
New Coolant Temperature Sensor----this had not been replaced yet
New Radiator Fan Relay I am not sure if this is the same thing in my list ---- accessory realy 1 ea wells
Also had someone suggest water pump but I did have that replaced in 2015.
Since no one can get it to overheat, it was suggested that the minute it overheats this summer to have it towed immediately to the mechanic so they can see the issue. Normally I have let it cool down and then took it to the mechanic. If there any any more suggestions, let me know. I asked the mechanic about testing with an infra-red gun and was told that this isn’t done anymore because with this car, it does have different temperatures with different cores. I have not had the radiator replaced but that may be next. Take it to a readiator shop and have them look at it.
Not sure if it has already been done, but since you are in parts replacement mode – and the parts you mention are good ones to try, might well fix the problem – but w/a 16 year old car, if the radiator hasn’t already been replaced recently, I think I’d replace that part too. Radiator replacement is not an overly expensive repair bill, definitely way less than the head gasket job. Good on you for not doing the head gasket without a second opinion. Once all the parts are replaced ask your shop to do a cooling system pressure test, just to be certain there is nothing undiscovered. The cooling system must hold the designed pressure, otherwise it will always overheat eventually. hmmm … what else? … well, if I had this problem myself, I think I’d replace the water pump with an oem part too, especially if the prior replacement wasn’t done w/an oem Lexus or Toyota part. And I’d probably ask the shop to measure the radiator fan speed, make sure it is spinning at the spec’d rate. Best of luck, hopefully you are on track to a solution.
IT HAS FINALLY BEEN FIXED! After doing all of the items I have mentioned previously, it still over heated. It started overheating more often and not only in hot weather. I finally got it to my mechanic as it was starting to overheat again. It turns out the fan(s) were off which is why it was overheating. He looked at several things but when he moved the fuse box which was under the hood, the fans came on. I got a new under hood fuse box from the dealer and we replaced it. In fact, I have 2 of them and replaced both. Once the old one was off, you could see that it was burned near some of the fuses underneath it. I guess it was causing a short and was getting worse and worse until it got to the point that moving it did not work. It was replaced about 2 weeks ago and everything seems fine. The mechanic said he is now 100% sure this was the problem. It is very unusal for a Lexus to have this problem. I wanted to post this because I do not want anyone to go through what I did for almost 2 years.
