Today was the second time this has happened in my 430.

The first time I was parking and inching up to the wall in the parking garage and the car launched forward. It barely tapped the wall...of my newly painted car. I figured I just spaced out for a sec no damage / no big deal...just thought it was strange. that was a few weeks ago

Today, I was moving cars around in my driveway. My S13 and GS300 were side by side. I was just going to park directly behind them...accelerator sped up (REALLY fast) as I was moving about 5ft from the rears of the cars. I slammed on the brakes with BOTH feet until I could feel the Antilock brakes vibrate like crazy....the car was still acting like I was giving it gas.

I turned the wheel sharply to avoid (hitting) my other cars and almost ran into the side of my house. it stopped less than a foot from the house and my GS.

The first time I thought it was me..now im thinking this could be an issue with the car

Any else ever have that happen???

 

Nope - as far as I know this kind of thing has never been reported in the LS430 forum. I'd have it checked out by Lexus asap.

 

Floor mat?? I'm thinking "sudden acceleration" issues with the old Audis from the 1980's... Ended up being floor mats that got pushed under the accelerator pedal.

....Just a thought

 

Good to know you and everybody were safe. This is really weird, never heard of that.

I know some cars may jolt like that due to a problematic transmission. It could attempt that kind of problem. But I really wonder if the LS has a problem with that? Just a lot of factors that can go in on this one.

 

I'd have it check. I believe the accelerator is fly by wire, so no physical connection to the throttle, so if you have a faulty pedal that thinks you are gassing it when you're not, that could be trouble.

 

Have you ever cleaned your throttle body?

 

Mine does this creeping behavior at stop lights and where sometimes I really have to push down on the brake pedal to make it stop fully. Could this be from a dirty throttle body?

 

Next time you experience this "creeping behavior", shift the transmission to "N" and see at what RPM the engine runs. If it is significantly higher than what you see normally, then your throttle body may be sticking. In this situation, leave the car in "N" and gun the engine once to see if the RPM drops back to normal (you may have to repeat more than once). If the RPM does return to normal, then you know you have a sticky throttle body. Otherwise if the RPM remains high all the time, you're dealing with an adjustment problem.

 

The throttle body should be cleaned fairly often. It gets gunked up if you don't. I would do it every 30 - 45 thousand miles.

 

the government safety website has examples of 2005 LS430's having this problem. until now I disregarded them but ....I have never cleaned my throttle body, but the dealership does all my maintenance and they might have. the example where the LS430 killed somebody in a corvette was scary

 

A customer at a dealership in Florida just reported the below recurring problem with their '05 LS 430 with 92K miles. Customer sold car to dealership the following week. Dealership put up the car for sale.

Here is the service note, from Oct 28:
TRANSMISSION/AXLE CUSTOMER STATES THAT SOMETIMES WHEN IN REVERSE THE VEHICLE WILL WANT TO SURGE BACKWARDS, AND SOMETIMES WHEN IN DRIVE THE VEHICLE WILL WANT TO SURGE FORWRDS. THIS HAPPENS SHORTLY AFTER START UP ON THE FIRST MOVE OF THE VEHICLE. SO IN PARKING SPOT BACKING O - 91870 100 TEST DROVE VEHICLE. WAS UNABLE TO DUPLICATE CUSTOMERS CONCERN. CHECKED TRANSMISSION FLUID LEVEL AND CONDITION. FOUND NOTHING OBVIOUS AT THIS TIME. TEST DROVE WITH DIAGNOSTIC SPECIALIST AND STILL WAS UNABLE TO DUPLICATE. TEST DROVE WITH WITH CUST

 

This is the first time I've heard about this issue with the LS430. As mentioned above, I'd have the dealership look at it.