The Cost of Luxury Hybrid Cars: A Repair Nightmare

When it comes to luxury hybrid cars like Lexus, owners often face a daunting reality when something breaks down. The cost of repairs can be astronomical, and finding qualified mechanics who are willing to work on these complex vehicles is becoming increasingly difficult. This is due in part to the fact that Lexus does not have the same aftermarket support as Toyota, which makes it harder for independent mechanics to diagnose and repair issues.

The problem with hybrid cars like the Lexus is that they use an Atkinson cycle engine, which is considered a high-voltage system by many mechanics. This means that specialized tools and training are required to work on these engines, which can be expensive and hard to find. Furthermore, the head gaskets on some of these engines have been known to blow, which can lead to costly repairs.

One example of this is Ronald Laurent's experience with his father's Lexus engine. The engine was knocking at 230,000 kilometers, but when he took it to the service center, they only agreed to replace everything except the head gasket for $5,500. This may seem like a reasonable price, but it highlights the challenges of repairing complex hybrid engines.

In reality, replacing an entire engine is often necessary, which can be a costly proposition. Many mechanics are not experienced in rebuilding engines and may take shortcuts that can lead to further problems down the road. In fact, some mechanics have reported that they have had to replace entire engines within a year of the repair, due to poor workmanship.

The issue with hybrid cars is not unique to Lexus, however. Other manufacturers like Kia also struggle with repairing complex systems like those found in their Neon models. The problem is often a result of inadequate training or experience among mechanics, who may be more focused on completing repairs quickly than doing them correctly.

In many cases, the solution to these problems lies in understanding the basics of engine repair and taking a methodical approach to diagnosing and fixing issues. This includes checking for ground faults, inspecting fuses and relays, and ensuring that all electrical connections are secure. However, even with proper training and attention to detail, repairs can still be time-consuming and expensive.

One common issue encountered by many car owners is the failure of the crankshaft position sensor, which is often used to trigger the ignition system. This can lead to a range of problems, including no start or cranking, but no ignition. In some cases, the problem may lie with the sensor itself, while in others it may be related to issues with the wiring or the harmonic balancer assembly.

For many car owners, the solution to these problems lies in seeking out experienced mechanics who are familiar with the complexities of modern engine repair. While this can be more expensive than taking your car to a dealership, it is often worth the extra cost to ensure that repairs are done correctly and thoroughly.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enrev up your engines well here's some interesting news from some of my old stomping grounds in york ontario people are using apple air tags to help steel cars they got little tags and it traces you can find where things are they're magnetic things they're sticking them on people's cars at airports or whatever and then they follow it back to their home and when they're sleeping they steal their cars well you know sometimes maybe you don't want everybody to know where you are they're tiny little things they only cost like 29 bucks the thieves go to public places parking lots wherever and stick them on and then they can follow them see where they live they're targeting high-end cars now this just isn't every day they say well there's an expensive one let's see where they live and then they come by later and they follow it with their air tag information on their apple phone and they steal the car now of course if you have an iphone there's ways to look to see what's going on but let's face it many people don't have iphones i don't have an iphone i'll never buy one i don't like apple products so overpriced junk as far as i'm concerned the androids blow them away with their capabilities and lower prices once they put it on there on your car and if they do then look around and find it but north york toronto people are stealing cars using them i thought canadians were honest people now here we go the japanese and honda they have a practical solution to self-driving cars to help make them work better they've launched a pilot program to monitor lane markings on the actual road if you've ever had a car that goes by lane markings you'll notice one thing the system completely falls apart when the lane markings aren't there that are wrong we were driving between rhode island massachusetts a bunch when i was in rhode island and there was a section of road that they were working on both my wife and i were whining where's the road lanes because they didn't paint them right and some of them the lines were painted crooked some of them were on the side some of them were in the middle of the lane now are humans going to figure it out well yeah we're just guessing this is pretty much the middle of this side right well the computers can't do that so what honda's system is doing they're monitoring all the road lanes and then they want to get a relationship with the governments that maintain the roads to say okay this section here you got to fix that because your markings aren't right even for people with regular cars i'm all for honda doing this so they can paint the road so everybody can drive safely and see the roads the way they're supposed to be because i mean they're in massachusetts to see so many lane markets that were wrong pointed in the wrong direction half were there half weren't there as we all know the government needs monitoring if you want to keep them going because it's extremely inefficient and if nobody's watching what the workers are doing believe me they'll do whatever they want now honda's starting it in ohio you might wonder why the heck are they doing in ohio because honda's got a big deal going on ohio they're big factories there where they test things a big giant track i've been i've driven on the tractor that's why they're doing it in ohio they're gonna use four grades for the lane marking system green yellow gray and red green and yellow means ideal to good gray means there are no markings and red means needs repair i think they need to add another one there are markings but they're in the in correct direction they're going to find some of those too then they sent all this data to the ohio department of transportation wishing for something that may never happen that way but at least you could say they got the information about it right they know that's that bad and you can always play it forward too like if somebody gets wrecked on the line markings are wrong then they could go to the dad and say you guys knew about it didn't fix it so that would maybe kick them in the rear end to make them actually do it correctly so kudos to honda for actually doing a practical solution for semi-autonomous driving instead of just all talk they got some real action going here zoe says how do i choose a vehicle diagnostic scan tablet which brand is best i could spend hours giving you the pluses and minuses of hundreds of different types of scan tools depends on what you want to spend to begin with let's say you don't mind spending 150 to 250 bucks those anova scan tools are probably the best i n n o v a i believe the o'reillys now sell them as their house brand they're excellent for that kind of money you get a really lot of information on the other hand they also have 50 to 80 scan tools maybe that's all you need for as far as you're going to go it depends on how far you want to go and just realize one thing about scan tools the law of diminishing returns applies with a bullet as to get more expensive you get less and less extra things i have a machine that can decode keys right these do your keys you can make keys with it all right the thing costs 2500 bucks and yeah it can decode keys i got a 1200 machine that does just as much but it doesn't do decoding keys if you're not going to code keys do you care no of course you don't care right so in your case look at the anovas and if you're curious like i said i believe the o'reilly auto parts stores it's their name house brand that they sell now the anova decide and they're very open-minded people they might say go plug in your car see if you like it if you don't try another one they're very open-minded at those stores because they want to sell you stuff and they're honest so you could actually try it out at the store and not well i bought it on ebay and i don't like it but i can't get my money back no no it's the advantage of those stores winnimanx saws have you heard about problems with 2008 lexus rx 400 hybrid i purchased a used made in japan 2008 lexus rx 400 hybrid all-wheel drive with 250 000 kilometers on it i don't know if the odometer has been tampered with what do you know about these cars lexus makes excellent cars they're higher maintenance the parts cost a fortune give you an idea of my wife's 300 v6 lexus brake master cylinder cost me 150 bucks on the 400 some of the brakemaster cylinders you got to buy assemblies some of them are 15 to 1900 just for the part you add into that a hybrid system that is extremely complex and expensive i'm not a fan of people buying these things used you got 250 000 kilometers on it when something breaks you're gonna absolutely cramp in your pants when you find out what the cost is for those things lexus they don't have the aftermarket that toyota does it's a hybrid car a lot of the parts you gotta buy at the dealer and a lot of people won't even touch hybrid cars i know excellent mechanics all over the country very few of them will touch work on hybrid cars because they don't want to get involved with the liability of high voltage things could happen that they need all these special tools even something as simple as a toyota prius the hybrid systems they use an atkinson cycle engine some of them the head gaskets blow i can't find anybody who'll work on the engines because they say we don't work on atkinson cycle engines and the toyota dealer the one guy that had one they wanted 5 500 bucks just to do a head gasket job you know that used to be like 800 jobs but nobody will touch them outside the dealer they don't have the equipment that have the experience realize you're getting into another world when you're buying a luxury hybrid as it ages it can get very very expensive to repair even though it's a lexus and it's well made ronald laurent says yonder is replacing my dad's engine in an old oven entra for free it was knocking with 230 000 kilometers he went to the service and said they're gonna replace everything except the head he was happy now he might get another hundred thousand kilometers would you say this is rare well they have to because there's a law for them they had to recall a bunch of those engines and here's the stinker of the whole thing they're replacing the whole engine except the head hey how come they're not replacing the head it's worn basically a worn part going on new parts not the smartest thing you might as well replace the whole thing but that shows how cheap they are i have had customers with kia's neon dice have the engines repaired like that within a year they blew up again because they didn't do such a hot job putting them back together again understand one thing these days not that many mechanics actually rebuild engines so they got guys rebuilding that don't have that much experience doing it and they're told hurry up and get it done we're not getting paid this is a free job right not exactly the scenario for rebuilding an engine they're supposed to take their time do it correctly and really in the real world if you had a car with 250 000 kilometers on it you're rebuilding the engine you would not reuse the hat you'd put another header you rebuild that you will put the old head on top of it what the heck total nonsense they're doing a half-assed job let's hope that it lasts but like i say i've had customers that had that rebuild done within a year the engines broke again because they did such a crappy job i had the same thing happen with customers subarus where they had to theoretically replace all the valve springs on these subaru boxer engines because they didn't build them right and guess what they broke within a year because they didn't fix them right when they put them back together again and then they just said well we did it under the warranty there's no warranty for the warranty warranty so the best thing is to get a toyota honda where you don't have to take the engine apart and fix it whether they do it for free or not ask them what the warranty of their work is this time and it probably won't be much it says i have crank but no start in my vehicle fuses and relays are good injector circuit had continuity but there's no rpm during cranking it has no ignition help in many cars these days the crankshaft position sensor is what's used to trigger the ignition they don't have distributors anymore it's all done by computers the crankshaft position sensor first sometimes the sensors go bad sometimes the wires go bad and sometimes like on american cars where they're on the front pulley the teeth of the pulley get broken and then they don't read and you got to buy a new harmonic balancer assembly because that part breaks that's now you crank the engine look at the harmonic balancer if you see it wobbling around that's your problem that could also be computer failure ground wiring check all the ground wiring because realize all those computer circuits work on ground fault so if the system isn't grounded right the computers can't get the power through and you won't have any ignition try it something as simple as a crankshaft position sensor because it often is on many modern day cars when you lose that you don't get any spark because the computer doesn't know when to fire the spark so if you never want to miss another one of my new car repair videos remember to ring that bell you\n"