Doublebase

Lol! Yes I've heard that one before, never from a Lexus tech, but from somewhere else.

Unsober1

I was at the local dealership and heard that directly from the salesman. I think I spoke to the manager and service advisor that day too. Everyone was in agreement that the 430 was the peak of the lexus engineering.

But that was back in 2006. I don't think I have heard anyone at the dealership say it since

Doublebase

When I was at the dealer a month ago getting my recall done, the service writer told me they do "nothing" to the LS 460's...just change the oil and it will make it to 200k... while still feeling amazingly close to a new car. I never asked him about the 430's, but then again I imagine they see less and less of them now that they are old. I don't know if I believe the guy, but he didn't seem like he was blowing smoke up my butt either.

SW17LS

The only reason my Lexus mechanic (independent mechanic but he was a Lexus master tech for 15+ years) prefers the 430 from a reliability standpoint is control arm failures. He said everything else is just as well built and reliable.

rspralli2

CAN I GET AN AMEN, i had all of my control arms replaced up front upper and lower, (LUCKILY I HAD A WARRANTY) hell i didn't even know they were bad, that's how smooth the vehicle is, it just makes you feel like your at home but in the car, TOTALLY SATISFIED

rspralli2

Preach my brother

dal20402

Good thread for a first post.

Bought my silver on black 2008 SWB (with only 43k miles!) in California last Friday, and promptly drove it 800 miles home to Washington the same day. 800 miles in a day sucks no matter what car you're in but the 460 made it super pleasant. And it's one of the only cars out there where I'd drive a seven-year-old example 800 miles straight out of the dealer's shop, in 100-degree weather, without a second thought.

The steering feels just a bit looser than I think it should, so I'm going to have the control arms checked out, but even with that it got 29.5 mpg on the trip and is my dream freeway car.

jainla

That's really all they can complain about? And to be fair it's the bushings that fail not the arms themselves. Jeez we are lucky.

Ask a BMW E65 owner what they spend on maintenance once the warranty runs out. I think they would WISH the only thing they had to worry about was the control arms.

Or ask a Mercedes W220 owner about the fabulous feature where the air spring control unit freaks out and trashes all 4 of the air springs (at $1100 a pop). Or the coil packs that fail ($3k each please). Or the transmissions with the dodgy ECU inside the housing. I bet they won't be so flippant about trashing Lexus now.

To quote that fashion movie: "everybody wants to be us."

Doublebase

Yeah he probably has a point, but I'll take the control arm "problem" over most other things. I can deal with suspension issues...those parts are available in the aftermarket for reasonable cost. Just reading about control arm issues lately, I think I may have something going on on my drivers side. I get the ever so slightest noise on rough pavement at high speeds. I do get that occasional "click" on braking, but I've only heard it a few times and I'm starting to get this slight shimmy at 70mph. So I imagine I'll need control arms.

The funny part is I checked them, they seemed fine, it would certainly pass a vehicle safety inspection and if I didn't know any better I'd probably drive 30k miles with them like that and not be able to tell any difference. In fact who knows how long I've been driving with them like this? I put the car on the alignment rack a month ago and it was all in the green, perfect.

I'm going to look at it like this...the car has no timing belt to replace, I'll save $1,200 bucks right there. I'll take a very very close look at what arms I think need replacing and I'll replace THEM. I won't replace all of them, does that make me a bad person? Lol. And I'll buy them on eBay. If I spend more than $300 I'll be very disappointed in myself - and I'll continue to put my 30k miles a year on the car (hopefully without an issue).

Doublebase

That's what I mean, if this is the major "issue" with this car? Beautiful. I think mine need to be replaced, but the only reason I know that is because of how informative this site is, otherwise the thing drives so smooth I never would have known. I'm getting the same "symptoms" you and others are experiencing, yet I've looked at the bushings and checked it on an alignment machine and it was perfect. I did see one crack in one bushing (lower driver's side), so I'll concentrate on replacing that bushing with an aftermarket part. I did put a bar to it and it seemed ok, but I'll give the whole side a thorough inspection.

Let me tell you what it feels like on most cars when control arm bushings are gone...the steering will wonder from side to side. You will never get the wheel to properly track in the center. The whole car will shift over bumps, and kind of jump off its direction. You will hear loud "clunks" and "clinks". You also will wear an edge off your tire and the car will pull. But this is normal stuff - this happens to cars all...the...time. All the time. I think the reason why it's news on the LS is because of what the dealers charge to replace ALL of them...all 8 of them. Meanwhile now you can buy them aftermarket for a fraction of what a dealer charges. And I'm just trying to imagine how hard an owner of a Honda would laugh if I said, yeah you have a bad control arm...I'm going to replace all of them, and all the ball joints too...your bill will be $2,500. Or if I did that to a guy who owned an Impala.

swfla

iTrader: (1)

Not disagreeing with you or the tech. I love my 460 and hope it lasts many miles without much work. But the mechanic's 200k statement is just an opinion and not a fact. There just aren't enough that've reached the 200k mark yet to make it a fair statement. Just like enough control arms haven't been changed to know if the replacements will last longer.
You would think/hope so...so far a pretty good record compared to other vehicles.

Doublebase

Yeah you're absolutely right.

There is only a few cases on here with owners who have high mileage - there is one guy who has almost 300k on his - he bought it off a guy who used it as a limo. I believe the repairs he made were one control arm, valve cover gaskets and something else. And I think he said he uses Mobil 1. But I don't the vehicle history or how many miles he personally has put on the vehicle.

And you bring up a good point about the control arms...when you replace them do they last 100k miles, or do you have to replace them all the time? That's important. I will say that every car I've ever owned over 100k miles, suspension component replacement is a yearly thing...a ball joint here...a sway bar link...a control arm...struts. Once the vehicle reaches a certain age the rubber components wear in front and rear ends. It's a never ending battle - a battle that eventually causes you to buy a new car.

R Z

The ole which is better 430 vs 460 conversation. I've had both. Great cars. LS460 better. End of story.

macls460

I've had my 2002 GS430 for 7 years, 140mile trouble free miles. Powerful roomy. the only con is that the body style was getting dated. I gave it to my brother and I just bought a 2009 Mint LS460 Loaded

To me the GS felt more powerful, but the LS is more grown up & mature. a lot bigger The ML audio is amazing if you play DVD-A Disc which I've just learn from another member here. The only con for me on the LS is the Floaty fell. I would like to stiffen it up a bit, but not slam it, I was looking into the Tanbee springs, but as i see others, after awhile, the springs get even lower with time, then you'll have the tire wear problems - i do not want to go in that direction with the LS.

Other than that, the LS is a GREAT Long Distance Driver's car, not BMW Driver's car, but more like Cadillac comfort with the reliably.

my 2 cents

SW17LS

They have enough information to be able to project that it will go to 200k miles without a lot of issues. Plenty of other Lexus vehicles (read...every one ever made) can do that, no reason to think the LS460 can't.