[jhsmith]

Power steering failure on a 2007 Lexus RX400h derives 42V power from its 280V hybrid battery to drive electrically assisted power steering. Besides the dealer, are there any independent shops in Fairfax / Loudon that understand these systems?

[BlackTalon]

Matt Curry is a hybrid guru. I believe his Craftsman shops can deal with many hybrid issues/ repairs. They have a handful of locations now, including one in Merrifield.

[jhsmith]

Interesting results on this repair. Craftsman diagnosis matches diagnosis I got from Toyota Factory OBDII reader software. Craftsman quoted about 22 hours. AllData says 14 hours. Lexus dealer quoted 5 hours. This is a pretty big disparity that I'm still trying to understand. Only downside to the dealer is they will only install new parts and not rebuilt. I'm still looking for a shop that knows how to replace it in 5 hours and will use a rebuilt part. There must be a trick to changing this in a reasonable amount of time.

[racer]

Whats the cost difference between new and used parts? Seems a big labor/time disparity among the 3 (5hrs-22hrs? - Seems like 944 clutch replacement.. Factory quotes 12 hrs, i am sure many do it in less and more time depending on experience etc). Guess the dealer's done this a few times? maybe its a frequent fail point per age/mileage? knows the tricks etc. On the plus side, installing new parts means a factory warranty?

[Chopper Dropper]

Many shops will only use OEM parts for warranty reasons.

[jhsmith]

New rack is an eye popping $2100. Rebuilt one is $572.

From what I've read online, the original toyota manual called for subframe and engine removal. An update to the manual has instructions for simply lowering the subframe a few inches to get it out.

[mlytle]

have you talked with the folks at craftsman about the labor difference and the manual update? give them a chance to requote if you have not.

[jhsmith]

I spoke with them when I picked up the car. They quoted it by whatever computer they were using and it gave them the 22 hours (although I looked up alldata and saw 14 hours so perhaps that was a padded number...). I told them that their alldata number was off and that the dealer had said told me but they did not offer to come down in price on the quote. But after I explained how to do the repair they did offer to charge actual time but wouldn't guarantee what that time would be.

Toyota dealer gave me a written quote for $1000 labor plus parts and will let me use a rebuilt part ($572). So a $6000 repair bill just became a $1600 repair bill.

According to the dealer, you don't have to remove the engine nor the subframe. Just loosen the subframe and drop it a little bit so that you can reach some bolts that are blocked by it.

So kudos to the local Toyota service department (Koon's in Tysons). I was really happy with the experience there.

[Vicegrip]

Not surprised......

Thanks for the follow through on this. Is but one data point on 2 service providers but the methods and negotiations are enlightening for all.