Engine valve springs

Yes, your connecting rod can get bent from bad valve springs, but it's unlikely. And you should've asked the technician how did he know your rod was bent due to Hydro lock?

When valve springs go bad they allow the valve to float, which hits the top of the piston at top dead center. Most times it will punch a whole in the piston and sometimes break the head of the valve off. If your engine was revving at high rpms when this occurred, then it is possible the rod would get bent. But there would have to be evidence of this happening inside of the cylinder. (broke valve head, damaged piston/cylinder walls, etc.)

For hydro lock to occure car would need to have been driven through standing wter deep enough to enter air intake and into engine. Car would stop running at that time. If this did not happen then Dealer trying to get some cash. If valve spring broke as to reason for recall then valve would drop into cylinder and damage piston and/or rod. Again engine would stop immediately. Did this happen? Ask for a service representive from Lexus to look into claim.

The technician claimed that there were water in the lower engine compartment. The car was still running, although with a lot of shudders, when delivered to the garage. The rough engine performance was described in the recall letter by Lexus.

bent valves, hole in the rocker arm etc i agree.

Thank you all very much for the input. I will look into speaking to Lexus reps immediately.