Hi All,
I wanted to post on the forum to help out my brother-in-law, and he owns a 2016 Lexus IS 200t and has about 72,000 miles on it. Essentially, the car overheated on him 3 times at freeway speeds. He took it to a Lexus dealership and the diagnosis was: "found head gasket leaking coolant" and quoted $8,000 for parts and labor. We took his car to a local shop for a second opinion and they found no issues. They performed a road test, leak test, compression test, and computer diagnostics. I also learned that this particular Lexus model has two thermostats. It's very RARE for a car this new and a Lexus vehicle to be exhibiting this issues as it's been maintained and nothing else has gone mechanically wrong with this car. Therefore, I am reaching out for help to determine if anyone else has experienced this problem or has information that this is something this Lexus model is plagued with this issue. I did come across a video on YouTube that appears to show it's a faulty water pump, so I am wondering if anyone thins this is the issue. I just don't want him to spend more money on trying to fix this car. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIHDp09brMQ&t=46s
Thank you.
Gio
We took his car to a local shop for a second opinion and they found no issues
did they have any explanation for the overheating?
The Lexus dealership stated, "Verified concern found head gasket leaking coolant. Recommend tear down." They did not have any explanation for the overheating. The independent shop said it could possibly be the other thermostat malfunctioning (as there's two on this model), but I'm wondering if it's actually the water pump, as shown in the video. I should add that they replaced one of the thermostats and it did overheat during the road test, but the car was fine afterwards. It's a mystery at this point. The car doesn't overheat within city driving. It's not leaking coolant at this time. The car also didn't overheat on the way back home, which requires driving on the freeway, so it's just odd as to why this is happening randomly.