general engine question - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

wambus · 08-20-2009, 10:25 AM

I have a friend who is in need of assistance. The problem he has is with a Lexus - I thought I might try asking for your thoughts on this since you all are quite knowledgeable and experienced with "stuff". He has posted a question on the Lexus forum, but I don't know if anyone goes there much. I will paste his post in here:

"Have a 94 LS400 that had an oil change at Jiffy Lube. Oil ran out due to loose filter and engine overheated and made loud noises. When oil put back in engine it ran briefly but overheated again. Found no coolant in reservoir. Been told water pump and timing belt need to be replaced but not as a result of oil loss. DOES THIS SOUND RIGHT????? Could the oil loss and overheating cause the water pump failure and timing belt damage? What other problems may occur?"

It seems a rather odd co-iky-dink that all this stuff crapped out at the same time the engine pumped out most if not all of the oil... He did not see this coming because the guages in his car work intermittently - his first recognition of the problem was when the car started making noises.

If anyone can offer a suggestion as to what to do, it would be appreciated.

midwestmk2 · 08-20-2009, 02:39 PM

Check the oil agian..Is it brown?.You may have blown the head gasket.. Or worse it could be a cracked head..Could be many problems for real..Hope the best for you..

***bgrieger*** · 08-20-2009, 10:22 PM

They are unrelated to a point. A waterpump run without water will eat the seal and may leak/fail. The timing belt is flat wrong, but as they said, it is an unrelated need to replace.

Things like bearings, shims, gears and shafts are damaged by lack of oil. overheating has it's own set of problems. Get your friend to get a second opinion on what is needed and why. Once they determine the cause, if required your friend can take the findings back to jiffy lube and see what they will do to rectify what oil and heat related problems are written up. If they refuse to help at that point, it is up to him, but I would ask if they stock lubricants like KY 'cause my lawyer/a small claims summons may be visiting.

supra saiyan · 08-22-2009, 05:48 AM

Get a lawyer and try to get Jiffy Lube held responsible for messing up an oil change. I've heard too many stories of those kids forgetting to tighten an oil plug, oil filter, overfilling, and even dropping cars from the lift.