jhyphen

About two weeks ago on my way home from Chick Fil A my car stalled at a stop light. I thought it that was weird like what the hell?! But it started back up just fine so I shrugged it off. Drove to the next stop light no stall, light turned green stepped on the gas car started to move then just dropped the revs to about 1500. Check Engine light came on and suddenly I'm in "limp home" mode. Car would not get above 2k. I had to put in Sport+ and bang thru gears before the tach hit 2k to get any kind of momentum going. Towed it to the dealer, they told me I had a failing High Pressure Fuel Pump. I shelled out $2300 for a replacement. Car has about 116k on her which for Lexus I didn't think was much but I'm starting to wonder about this Lexus reliability. Could be a fluke car but damn I have the weirdest problems. Rear passenger seatbelt locked up doesn't retract or extend. Driver side window motor glitchy(possibly misaligned glass) will go up and down as if something is obstructing it. For some odd reason my stereo rearranges my mp3s into some random order. It is the stupidest problem to have. If I sort it by Album they'll play in order however, so that's whatever. I've replaced a donut gasket at about 60k. I replaced the CV boots at 70k. I'll have to reseal a headlamp as water and moisture is getting into it. I have to be real careful washing her. By far the most expensive repair was the HPFP. It's always something with this car. Was going to keep her use her as a secondary but I'm not sure she's worth the trouble.

My '09 Hyundai Sonata was driven way harder than my Lexus and I had no mechanical issues whatsoever. Anybody else having issues with their GS?

Superman60

Sorry to hear this, sounds like you got a bad apple out of the bunch. there are GS's out there with 200k+ on them with no problems. Too bad you don'tt know how to R/R the fuel pump drop the tank they're not that hard to replace. Would have saved a ton of money a fuel pump probably a couple hundred dollars.

er34

High pressure fuel pump is not in the tank, that's just the regular fuel pump. The high pressure pump is in the engine bay designed specifically for feeding the direct injection. Remember the GS350 is dual injection.

AJLex19

Sorry to hear about all the issues you've had - haven't heard of too many GS owners having a fuel pump issue. However, the 4GS did come out in 2012 so many of the cars are starting to get into higher mileage with the age factor as well. I traded my '01 GS at 125k miles not because of multiplying (costly) issues which I personally didn't think were unreasonable for the age and mileage, but because I personally didn't have the time to deal with them.

Just curious: Did the dealer charge over $1000 in labor to replace the high pressure fuel pump?

ItzFilyO

Yeah Lexus quality is not as great as it used to be nowadays. My 14 GS had alignment problem and always pulled to the right, I had over 5x alignments by different shops and nobody can fix it. My 17 RC has uneven trunk gap on both sides and cheap sounding door closing. Now my 18 RC has none of those but my driver seat has a bit of a play when accelerating and braking hard. Dealer and engineer said it's normal and the other RC on their lot does it too. Normal my ***. If it gets worse I'm going up to corporate.

I guess they're no longer pursuing perfection but want to be amazing. Perfection is what got me into Lexus not amazing.

aachowhan

I agree too. Lexus is still good, but not good as it used to be.

I'm thinking leasing is the best option now.

Mike552

rj4510

There isn't a car out there that is as reliable as 10 years ago. Reliability ratings are in a constant state of flux. Toyota inched up a spot to #1, with Lexus now in second position. If you really dig into the details of issues, there are mountains of complaints regarding transmissions, electronics, etc. The mountain just isn't as high as the next manufacturer, so Toyota/Lexus remain in top positions. You know something is up when BMW works their way up the reliability scale, when there are no more or less complaints with them. It's just that everyone else if failing so miserably. I just got done with an endless search for a new car. Everything I looked at that used to be known for reliability, Toyota, Honda, Infiniti, etc., are all having issues that are either being considered "normal", a meer "annoyance" or failures that the manufacturer/dealers are failing to address or don't have a clue what to do with. Example - the 8 speed transmission on Toyotas are failing, but they aren't failing on Lexus. HVAC servos are chirping, but it's considered "normal". Infinity - CVT failures, Infotainment failures, etc. Honda - CVT failures, engine electronics, miserable infotainment access processes with soft touch keys that work only when planets are aligned. Acura - the same. That's just a few, so I came right back to Lexus where at least I have had corrections made, where the same issue was considered "normal" with Toyota.

The EPA is forcing better gas mileage, where technology doesn't exist or is unproven. Everyone wants rolling entertainment centers that slice and dice. It all translates to headaches. The one thing I absolutely loved about my 07 Z4 was it's stupid simplicity. BMW updated the car in 09 with all the latest whizzbangs and the reliability went into the toilet. I long for a car with a stick shift, and volume **** as the only requirements. Ahhhh the simpler times!

JDR76

It's been a while since I put high miles on a car, but all of my recent cars have been very reliable/trouble free. My 2011 Tacoma did need an HVAC fan replaced (squeaky). Our 2013 RX350 went for 3 years and 31k miles without a single issue. My 2014 IS350 had some navigation glitches, but they were addressed with firmware updates. My 2015 GS350, which I'm now on my third year with, has not had a single glitch, squeak, rattle, etc. My 2016 Highlander has also been completely issue free in its 14k miles so far.

Or perhaps I'm just lucky, as even my 18 year old 2000 Silverado, which is at about 88k miles and barely gets driven, is experiencing no issues.

Superman60

Ok, no I wasn't aware of that, Probably even easier to do.

gs350fan

Usually the sensor goes bad and not the pump. I posted a video about it on the 3rd gen forum. And sometimes it is simply a connector issue, 2 minutes of labor. I guess you have to trust their diagnosis.
Sometimes those pumps fail because the cam is ground down because of poor oil change intervals. Even the most reliable thing on the planet will have one or two failures. It is statistically impossible to achieve total perfection.

AJLex19

I agree with all of these statements. I think there has been an uptick in folks leasing cars in the US as well -- cars are becoming more modernized by the technology revolution that started in 2007 with the iPhone where folks are demanding to have the latest and greatest and are getting it by feeding into the manufacture's goal of selling you the latest gadget with a simple twist or tiny incremental update. Its kinda sad because in a sense, manufacturer's cars don't have to last for 10 years without problems because the market is trending toward the ownership experience being only within the first 5-8yrs / 100k miles. Beyond that, we should expect strange electrical issues, sensors going bad and even major components failing that could leave us stranded.

Car makers know that current and future generations will trend toward trading in, trading up and wanting the latest "just because." The old school concept of reliable is that its bulletproof for a long time with extensive use and easy/cheap enough to fix without much effort. The new school concept is that it works well enough for now and I can (and will) always trade up or trade in to get the latest wizardry in a few years. This creates less of an incentive for makers to be as bulletproof as they may have once been known to be yester-year.

Thus, there isn't really an incentive to make a car problem-free for too long...and I totally agree with your simpler times comment!

ItzFilyO

I heard Tesla is having all kinds of quality issues too. Anyone here has a Tesla?

drgrant

IMO on the whole the good choices (mostly japanese marques) are still head and shoulders above the 1980-1995 era of cars, which is pretty much a dark age in my
mind.... a lot of that stuff was just junk, absolute dumpster fires, with a handful of exceptions.

I think the reason BMW/MB/Audi have improved is they figured out at least how to make the cars not blow up in the first 100K. I know that tomorrow if I lease one of those
and throw it away at 36K or even 45K that I'm not going to have any serious problems. In my mind thats not really a test though. That option is nonviable for me because I drive 50-60K in 36 months not 30K... lmao. Then again I was a camry owner.... all I did to it was brakes, oil changes, and tires... and before I got rid of it, suspension. It got me to 260K and I still would have it as a 2nd car if I could have made the finances work. (I used it as trade bait for my GS).

No manufacturer is perfect but if I'm gambling, and I have to- because I keep my cars a long *** time and put a lot of mileage on them... I'm still betting on Toyota as a
whole. It's still a safer bet and I know long term, that I'll save money unless I got a lemon out of the gate.

I will take a moment to knock lexus for some of their QC.... like for example, with the 4GS.... with ML.... this rattling switch panel thing? Even though it was an easy fix it was
really stupid- IMHO that should have been a published TSB that just gets automatically fixed when someone brings their car in for service. Same thing with the squeaky brake thing... Lexus could have at least conceded that it was a problem and offered the consumer some alternate pads at a discount. I would have just paid them a few hundred bucks for that... but its like "denial is a river in egypt" and even Lexus falls for it, and that's sad.

LOL, also as far as CVTs go.... those ****ing things are an industry wide plague, as far as I'm concerned. The only case where those things tend not to **** up is in the
hybrids like prius, etc. Otherwise theres no way in hell I'm touching anything with a CVT in it. That was a hackneyed idea to put a golf cart transmission in cars to gain a
few MPG for the CAFE bullcrap. Subaru is the worst afflicted with that disease, too... they had to suck for CVTs because they have no hybrids to act as dummy loads for
the CAFE garbage. Thankfully most of the transmissions in the lexus ES/LS/IS/GS are pretty damned solid if treated with a modicum of respect.... worst whining I've ever heard in the 4GS is if you have an 8 speed sometimes it seems to have "issues" with gear hunting.... IMHO thats more of a QC thing than anything else.

It's kind of sad really because most of the "defects" I've seen/read/heard about in Lexus vehicles are either easily fixed, or they could have been remedied with some
engineering changes.

I think another issue infecting the industry right now is way too many people are leasing cars instead of buying them. This creates a trend of not wanting to favor long term ownership prospects.... I don't think that's fully infected Lexus yet.... hell, for a "luxury" mark I see more 6+ year old Lexus vehicles on the road than anything
else. I see more 3GS 350s than I see even 4GS, and that says something. Hell my dad is still driving an 04 ES330 and won't let it go.... I want him to get into a damned LS so I can buy it off him... at 240K or whatever its at, that car still runs and drives great, and its survived 2 accidents! It needs a new lumbar assembly in the drivers seat (it tends to get stuck, but once you get it to work, you just leave it there!) but it's paid for itself for him several times over....

-Mike

rj4510

Mike, you and me both. Drove my last GS 13 years and my GX 10. Both suffered the destructive forces of the desert before mechanical failures. It's all the rubber and plastic parts failing if you sneezed that forced me to give them up. Otherwise, I'd still be driving them. My 13 GS had better go as long. I sure as heck couldn't have the same expectations with competing brands. Audi, BMW, MB, etc. won't blow up by 60K. But look out thereafter. It's like someone pushed the self district button at 75K on my bro-in-laws Q5. boom-$2500, boom-another $2500. HVAC - $2500, Oil leak - $2500, Navi crapped out - $2500 times 3. It's like everything is either $2500 or devisable by that amount. People keep telling me how expensive Lexus are, then drive away in their Dodge something or other they just bought to replace their 3 year old Dodge lemon. It's laughable. I've actually saved a ton driving Lexus cars. Just hoping they haven't gotten careless with all the new gadgetry. This as I drive away in my 4GS w extra luxury gizmos!