jahummer

Hello All

Great forum. been reading it for a year and just now got around to joining.

Anyhow, for about 8 months now I have had a metallic crunching/popping/clicking noise coming from the front calipers of my '97 LS 400.

I decided that it must be the shims/clips on the pads and the service department at the dealership confirmed this with the replacement of the shims at a mere 250.00. This includes 80.00 worth of shims.

I have owned several high-line cars and shims usually cost between 15-25.00 and since a regular brake service at the dealership is only 150.00, I was rather suspicious.

Anyone here have any experience with this or have any idea why something so insignificant is so expensive and not under warranty?

Thanks for your help.

JBrady

That sound VERY suspect. What dealer? I would contact Lexus customer service, they are very motivated to keep customer satisfaction high. Shims help retain the pads in the calipers and without them the brakes would be very noisy. Who serviced the brakes last? They must have left them off or they were damaged. Either way it was done wrong.

My 96 LS400 is under warranty and I had a capliper replaced as it was making a "popping" sound. At first they dismissed it as normal but I got a tech to ride with me and was able to reproduce the sound while stopped. He got out and listened and agreed it was NOT normal. These cars are so well insulated that it really helps to be able to point out exactly what is going on to a TECH.

jahummer

Thanks for the reply. It was Lexus of Clearwater. I did go for a test drive with a tech and he confirmed that it was the shims. The noise is quite loud and obviously noticeable. I can even feel it in the pedal. The pads were changed about a year ago. I thought that they automatically change out hardware like other dealerships but apparently only if they determine that it needs to be done. The pads are at 50% and so I don't think that they need to be replaced yet but the 250.00 for the shims is additional to the 150.00 for the replacement of the pads.

I've never called Lexus customer service, but I would think they would want to make me happy and keep me as a customer. Previous to this car I had a '94 Q45a w/engine mod, chip, exhaust, etc and Infiniti customer service took care of minor repairs at no charge no questions asked. Every time I go into Lexus, they want an arm and a leg for the smallest of things. I was much happier with Infiniti.

Jeremy

RealMarty

I would say exactly that to Lexus Customer Service. I'll bet they are not happy to hear that your Infinity experience is better than your Lexus experience. May accomplish nothing, but I'd make the call.

hlippy4

Lexus service is a big joke -- it is amazing to me how bright intelligent people waste their money -- go find yourself a good reliable and reasonable mechanic -- he will do it for almost nothing -- and will do it for nothing if he did the brakes.

Lexus is nothing more than a car -- other than very few items -- any mechanic worth his salt can reliably work on it.

The owners of the dealerships are filthy rich -- service by far is their biggest markup -- and they laugh at all of their customers who overpay by 400% for simple stuff.

As an example -- I own a 96 LS400 -- just had 60k service done via Lexus specs -- dealer wanted $785.00 --plus $170.00 for wires -- total $955.00.
I paid $287.00 to my mechanic whom I have been with for 23 years -- he is a german guy who only works on highline cars.

Brakes -- just had back brakes and rotors -- I paid $281.00 -- dealer wanted $687.00 -- no wonder he lives in a $2.3 million dollar home!!!!!!!!!

If someone off the street walked up to you and asked you for hundreds of dollars -- for nothing -- you would laugh at them. But a Lexus dealer does the same thing and people jump to pay -- amazing!!

Good luck

Hlippy4

Jim

Have 1200 miles and Lexus has no fix for the brake noise. Switched from MBenz to avoid problems and here is the sme noise in the LS430! Also have vibration at 1150 to 2000 rpm that they have not acknowledged yet! I hope that this gets cured. My wifes 300E Mbenz with 112K miles pulls smoother!

SQ-LS

Sorry to hear you have all those problems.
Hope they will be fixed.

JBrady

Lexus service is expensive. My car is under warranty and I want it to stay that way. I know I could get the work cheaper but my dealer always puts me in a new Lexus loaner while they service my car. I also feel justified in demanding the work be 1st rate. I had a bunch of new front suspension and 1 brake caliper replaced at NO charge. This while I tooled around in a new Lexus and when I did pick up the car it was washed and waxed (as usual). This is the ONLY car I have ever taken to the dealer and will pobably continue. The extra $500 or so I spend will be chump change if anything major needs replacement under warranty. If they have serviced it they cannot argue.

Regarding an LS430 with problems...I would be calling customer service BIG time.

jahummer

Thanks for all of your replies

I prefer to have the work done at the dealership, in fact all of my cars are always serviced by the dealer. And I don't mind paying for it. I just felt that the price for this job is outrageous for what needs to be done (and how inexpensive other services are such as brakes, oil change, etc.) and the car is still under warranty.

And I wondered if anyone here had ever had this sort of noice on their LS.

Jeremy