sgmorton

I decided I wanted to document what is happening to me right now, plead for advice and otherwise vent!

Driving my 2008 460L and I get the brake sensor warning. Ok I've been through this before and know I have a little time left, but two days later I get a little grind noise. Then suddenly metal on metal what the hell is that noise! Turns out the passenger side rear lost a pad... it's just gone. The plate is left but the pad is gone on the inside of the rotor. The outside still had about 25% left. The other back wheel still had about 25% left on both pads.

I have 97k on the car and the rotor was turned on the last brake job so I assume I am done with this rotor and order a new one. Now the fun... I pull off the caliper and compress the cylinder on the offending pad first. The way I do this is with a big pair of channel locks I put one jaw on the pad and one on the back of the caliper and squeeze. It works a treat so I pull the offending pad and the dust boot falls to the ground in pieces. Great... now I put the channel locks on the other pad and when I squeeze, it goes in very easily with almost no resistance and the cylinder on the other side(with no boot on it) shoots out along with a bunch of fluid, probably 4-6 oz.

I decide to reassemble everything knowing I now need to bleed the brakes. All of the other wheels are normal and the brake job goes smoothly.

Frustrating part is here... how do you bleed the brakes in this car?!
methods I tried:

1. Gravity - open the bleeder valve and let it drip, the dirpping stopped after 20 minutes leaving no fluid in the line or caliper at all.
2. vacuum - I used the hand pump tool to try and pull fluid thru, got little spits and dribbles at best.
3. traditional - had my son pump the brakes, he could get a spongy pedal that bottomed out but never a firm pedal and the cylinder remained empty.
4. pump and suck - agressive pumping of the pedal with the suction device on the hardline nipple. This resulted in a little fluid coming thru but no where near the amount you'd expect.

Now I have VSC, Brake Malfunction, ABS warning on the computer... of course.

So does anyone know how to bleed the brakes on this car?

So at this point I give up...call the CPO hotline. They say if it's a mechanical failure then the caliper is covered. If not it's like $400 for the caliper and I am sure $400 for the install... another $400 for the bleeding and $400 for the tow... and $400 for loaner since it was my fault... etc. sigh...

TLDR -
Caliper failed; purged a bunch of fluid; can't figure out how to bleed the brakes.

caha14

Oh my, sorry to hear you've been going through all this trouble.

I do not know the specific steps to bleed the brakes on this car. However, I do want to share what I have been told at the dealer, which is that bleeding the brakes on the LS460 is - apparently - a very involved process that requires connecting the vehicle to the Techstream tool. I am not sure there is a way to bypass this (if there is, someone here must have done it already), but from what I know, you'll need the dealership to do it.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

it's too late now, the computer already triggered error codes

bleeding the brakes is straight forward, you just need to disconnect the battery (shut down all ecu) before you started bleeding

sgmorton

So the computer is shutting off that leg of the brake line? I guess I need to get one of the these Techstream cables and software if I am going to continue to work on my own car. I still can't believe I cannot clear my own codes on this computer.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

yeah if you can get the computer to reset the ecu, it should be back to normal and you can repeat the bleeding. the problem now is computer triggered a code so it shuts everything off

LexusMstr

DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS PERSON!!! The brakes on the LS460 is not your traditional brake system. It is something like brake by wire. If you have to bleed the brake system, go to the dealership! Bleeding the brakes on an LS460 is an extremely involved process that requires the Techstream. The rear brakes are actually controlled by a pump that pumps brake fluid to them and the accumulator open and closed different solenoids to allow brake fluid to different wheels. Again, this car CAN NOT be bleed by traditional means. If you drive with your brakes in this condition, u will not be able to stop!

sydtoosic

i was told by a techie that a computer is used to actually bleed the brakes, i just had my brake actuator replaced and was told that this is one of the procedures for bleeding the brakes.

sgmorton

Well to followup on this... It turns out one pad was ground down to nothing with all of the other pads still having 25% or more. This indicated that the piston had become stuck causing the one side to squeeze until it died. I had the car towed to the dealership but they refused to pay for the caliper at first saying that they did not discover the mechanical problem. I argued. In the end they replaced the caliper under the CPO but I had to pay for them to bleed the brakes. I have since purchased a VCI cable so my car can become "MY" car and I do not have to rely on the dealer for a simple, or seemingly simple job like bleeding the brakes.

On a side note to this, while it was was in the shop I asked them to look at a couple of other items, which they fixed, but when the car came back the headlights were full of water. One headlight would not come on. I called back and they asked to see the car again, on the way back the headlight began to work but is still full of water. There is no standing water, but it is very wet inside both headlights, more so than just a little condensation.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

by all means don't. wonder how i change the brakes on my ls460l to brembo and everything worked with no lights or error codes. you should search and read more posts by me on this topic before posting.

totally reminds me why i shouldn't share some information like this

CJITTY

Brake bleed and replace fluid cost me just over $100 on my LS600hL...at dealer

sgmorton

Yea mine was $190... they still have it in there for the headlights... going on the 4th week now.

Sam

brianlin87

iTrader: (11)

I changed my oem brakes to my brembo gt bbk at a friends shop and followed rominl's instructions of disconnecting the battery until the install was complete. no issues here. not sure why someone would sign up and with their first single post tell people "not to listen to this person".

read/listen first, post second.

sgmorton

I have read the tech documents and they actually state in the "official" directions to disconnect the Negative cable. There is quite a bit a fluff about using the Techstream to do some parts though.

krzyd

Says "post count 1"!

I8ABMR

I was going to say....... I think they are both right but Henry is THE Lexus Guru imho on this forum. I am always astonished by the amount of tech stuff Henry is aware of and how easily he can do the work himself. I would trust Henry, but if you have the means have the dealer do it since it seems like its getting complicated fast