99 Lexus LS 400. Belongs to my son. Has lots of moderately loose front-end parts, none dangerous yet. Engine and tranny are smooth, no bad signs. 180k miles.
Fix the front end? $1600.
Sell it? Drive it until it is bad enough to be dangerous, then junk it?
What do you think?
Can you replace the car with one that’s as good as this one would be after fixing for $1600 ?
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Who is paying for this repair ? If the son is then he might as well start making his own decisions and did he ask for advice or just inform you of this problem . Also has there been a second opinion made which is always a good idea. 1600.00 is not a large number in the world of vehicle repair .
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A typical decision point. In general, Lexus cars are very durable and 400,000 miles plus is quite common for these cars.
My advice is see what shape the rest of the car is in. If it’s pristine, I would go for the fix after determining if the $1600 is an accurate estimate.
If a 1999 Volkswagen with the same miles required this I would junk it.
A friend once junked a perfectly good Mazda 626 with only 70,000 miles on it because it needed a $4000 transmission. He would have been better off to go for the repair.
IMHO, it is already dangerous. But, again my opinion, $1600 would be well worth it.
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I forgot to say that although it runs beautifully, there are oil leaks from the engine. I don’t know exactly where, but the alternator was soaked with oil.
Not a big deal if its the valve cover gasket.I would ask a few more independant shop for an estimate on the repairs.Also, the crank seal could be the source of your leak…very common on this model.