97 2.5 TL, 67K

Just yesterday I went for a harmless and otherwise innocent oil & filter service at the dealership. The service person and I struck a conversation and before I knew it I ended up agreeing to pay for a "Top Engine Flush" at $99. Hmmm.. now after $140 down (after taxes) I am wondering if anybody knows what I spent my money on. Really, what is the top engine flush? The job code on my receipt was 05ACZ.

Oh by the way, on a related matter - driving back the car drove much smoother and felt very responsive at the gas pedal but I noticed that the temperature gauge was erratic. It shot up and then back down. This was around luch time and after driving back to my work, I let it sit and cool till evening and before I left work, I looked under the hood. Needless to say my radiator and the overflow bottle both were empty. I am not sure how "empty" the radiator is but definitely I can see the aluminium fins and no coolant. Perhaps a good time to call the friendly service person at the dealership

 

I have no idea what the hell the dealer did to your car but i can take a wild guess...

What they did is take off your valve covers and probably lubed everything under your hood... kinda de-greasing your car and greasing it back up... here's a link to a lexus forum that talks about a top engine flush...

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums...showtopic=8030

If anyone else actually knows what a top engine flush is... please help us out... i want to see what exactly this is... they might ask me if i want one when i get my Valve Adjustment... but i need to call the dealer if our cars even have this option...

 

Thanks spooky3ce.

Looking further at my invoice, they used the following items:

08732-9008 Top Engine Cleaner
08732-9009 Throttle Cleaner

Googled these part numbers and found

http://www.hondalac.com/service/Bulletins/x01-004e.pdf

for 08732-9009

and some other posts on a honda forum for 9008 - Top engine cleaner. But still beats me as to the exact procedure performed.

 

Found this on a GM forum:

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/main...e/cleaner.html

They state the objective of Top Engine Cleaning as:

To remove any carbon buildup from the cylinder head combustion chambers, valve train and possibly the outside of the fuel injectors.

So, GM or Acura, this should apply equally for any carburated internal combustion engine (I would think).

That should explain a smoother response of the vehicle when I first drove it after this procedure. If anybody has further information, I would like to invite their comments.