Klin460

Hey guys,
I wanted to share my experience with my 2006 GS430 over the past 16months. I have been a huge fan of Lexus over the years. I used to own a 2004 ES330 which saved my mother’s life in a pretty bad accident. I bought it new and drove the daylights out of it without a single issue. After the ES I decided to stay loyal to Lexus and bought a CPO 2008 LS460. I was absolutely in love with my LS460 but had to part with her because I was moving back to Europe and shipping + paying all the required import taxes was just not reasonable financially.

Once in Bulgaria, I was in the market for a new car which had to survive much tougher day to day life. I was glad I didn’t import the LS because it would get destroyed in the tight and cobbled streets with crazy drivers. I did my research and narrowed it down to:

2008 IS220d – 126k km (75k miles) yes! a diesel, manual, fully loaded – 15,600$

2007.5 (facelifted) Audi A6 3.0TDI Quattro 173k km (110k miles) – with pretty much no options instead of a navi – 12,000$

2006 GS430 – fully loaded, 142k km (88k miles). 11,200$

The IS was surprisingly the most expensive of the three, I really liked the efficiency/ torque of both diesel engines (especially the 3.0 tdi) but the IS was too small, the Audi was not optioned enough and I didn’t want to deal with the issues a diesel engine could bring up after a few miles under its belt. I couldn’t get away from the GS’s clean interior, V8, ML, radar cruise…. It was being sold by a pretty ghetto dealership but the owner had no problem with me taking it to the Toyota/Lexus dealer for an inspection. I test drove it- loved it and everything checked out at the dealer. I was a little worried because car sales companies are notoriously known to hack into the odometer of the car and reprogram fewer miles but it just didn’t seem to be the case in this particular car. The rear seats seemed like they had never been used. I loved the car but was worried about the slight rattles it had during my test drive on relatively smooth roads. I read about the possible DIY fixes posted here which gave me the confidence to tackle them. Since that was really the only thing bothering me, I ended up buying it. I got the timing belt and water pump replacement out of the way. I also had all fluids and filters changed, as well as front rotors and pads on all 4 corners.

Well it has been 16 months and I have done a little over 10k km (6k miles). I drive about 80% city 20% highway mostly on short trips (no more than 10-15km per drive) and have been getting between 15-18mpg city, 23-26mpg highway with moderately heavy footed city driving and 140-200km/h highway speeds. My main fuel of choice is Shell 100 v- power Nitro. My summer tires are Pirelli P-zero and for the winter I use a set of continental Wintercontact TS 810.
Unfortunately I live in the city center with paid hourly parking and it is very common for someone to park in front of my garage causing me to leave the car outside. Doing so has resulted in it being hit while parked- denting and scratching the whole left side of the car...had a decent sized part of a brick “fall” on the front windshield breaking it….someone keyed her….twice…thank god for insurance. I had the whole left side including the front and rear bumper repainted twice and the right side of the car only once. The only panels that were spared a re-spray were the roof and trunk I have had 0 mechanical issues and only changed the oil, oil filter and air filter. The drivetrain feels like a tank. The only thing that bothers me and actually drives me insane is the rattling, squeaking, tapping noises that are constantly present on anything less than a perfectly built road. This is a huge issue for me because all of the streets around where I live and mostly drive on are cobble stoned or really old uneven asphalt so the noises are pretty much constant. Over time I have been plagued with every possible rattle mentioned here and have tried to address all of them with partial success. Thanks to great write ups and pictures I removed the navigation screen and felted all around it – solved all noises coming from the screen near the track up/ down buttons and the air vents above the screen. I squeezed in felt all along the windshield and dash – reduced the dash noises about 30%. I removed the middle dash speaker and taped all wires to the plastic body of the dash – reduced noises from that area about 70%. Then squeezed in a few shop towels under the speaker – 100% silent. Now the only thing left to deal with is the occasional cracking/rattling from the actual dash clips…my lexus dealership is not willing to help me out by doing the TSB on felting the dash clips…total BS to deal with this stuff on a car of this class. I wish I heard more of the rattles when I test drove it. The noises are sometimes so bad during cold days that I want to take a hammer to the dash and sell the 430 for a newer 450H which I have been eyeing recently and where not available on the market a few months ago.

Over the past few months I have noticed that my power steering is beginning to stiffen up. This was made much worse after a 4 day work-related trip to Germany which turned into a 6 week job. When I got back home and in the car the battery was of course completely dead and unable to hold a charge. After jump starting it, the steering wheel was really heavy, not unassisted but definitely not as light as it should be. It felt like a hydraulic system that needed to have its oil replaced. I ended up replacing the battery with a Bosch S5 which has partially solved the issue. Currently, the level of assist I am getting is very inconsistent. Sometimes it’s nice and light, other times it’s on the heavy side. No check P/S and VSC lights, no codes came up after scanning. I noticed when changing the battery that the upper bracket holding it in place was missing and am wondering if the battery has been hopping around while driving over potholes damaging the steering ECU which from what I have learned here is placed under the plastic battery tray. The rack has been replaced in 2010 under the recall. I think I am going to give it some more time and see what happens to it. I hope I don’t have to replace the rack. What do you guys think?