Cool thanks, ECRU seems a little more up keep, good tip on not making it look greasy. Gyeon, ok good tip. Floor mats I was thinking of spray paint dying.

Wait, engine mounts harder to do on ls430, I thought you didnt have to remove the subframe or detach steering. I'd try it myself but Im working in dirt in November.
Thats funny my shop only quoted me 1.5 hours. I thought they would just access them from the wheel wells and host the engine up a tad. Thats rad you can do it your self.

 

very nice car, doubt you need a rack. I wanted the ecru for a while, but the black semi annaline has a suede headliner that I did not see on the ecru.
I paid $1300 to ship the other way, Philadelphia to west Texas. not sorry

 

Honestly I would have preferred the black for practicality (Iv got a suede headliner). And yup I also paid close to that to have mine shipped, wait you did have it shipped from PA to Texas, thought it was supposed to be the other way around I did notice a ton of plastic panels on the underside of the car, maybe less prone to rust. When I first got mine I had a little remorse as I found it needed stuff. But the way I see people buying them they go to some effort or waiting and shipping from far away, so Im lucky mines in good shape.

Just got these engine mounts I bought on ebay they were advertised as new but it looks like its got cracks, but cleaned them and they were fine. Some white dust made them look cracked. Someone kindle pointed out here when I was deciding to get a 430 that parts were harder to come by now. I'v always had old toyota trucks and they always had parts for them even at 20 years old. So finding parts like these might be sitting on shelves for a while, "new".
The steering seems tight, I like the vote that it doesnt need it! Or at least for some time.

 

How often does these mount needs to be replaced? Should I replace them as preventative maintenance? Mine was exclusively serviced at Lexus, they would have replaced or recommended it, no? I have all the service records didn’t came across any engine mount.

 

Im new to Lexus, but from what I read here at over 100k you should think of having them done. I'v never had to do them on any of my other cars but these things are heavy.

Do this, sit in your car running in park, hands on steering wheel, press on the accelerator a few times getting the rpms up a little. Do you feel vibration, idling then increasing when you rev it? You would feel it in the steering wheel and seats. My LS460 did it and my 430 does it too.

 

It's far easier to just detach the frame and let it hang down, if you try and cheat it will take far longer. Technically the 460 can also be done without removing the frame as well and they have less corrosion issues than most 430s at this point so you won't fight as much, in both cases though it's way easier to just let the frame hang from from the arms. If they are seriously going to only charge 1.5 then go with them but don't be shocked when they come back with they can't do it or it will cost 8 hours.

 

My drivers side mount tore entirely in half around 200k miles, you could really feel it at WOT at the 92 mph shift. Whole car rocked a little since the engine slammed back down after the shift. You can also feel it on first start up and on shutdown, on start it will shake a little and on shutdown there will be a thud. Apples to apples the 460 is smoother on new mounts than a 430 on new mounts if the engines are both warmed up, cold to cold the 460 is a little worse than a cold start 430 but once you are going down the road or idling after 10 min or so both are totally still.

 

Thats interesting the ls460 would be smoother, it is newer so I could see that. Mine was AWD and apparently there were inherent vibration issues.
Would there be a big difference in smoothness in the two cars? The car rocking is the real sign of bad engine mounts, since my 460 wasnt doing it mechanics said they didnt know. Pretty amazing to get 200k out of them.

Thats so odd the mechanic quoted me 15 hours of labor for the mounts on the 460 and this other shop quoted me 1.5
600-700 sounded like what other cars were. But when I went to repair pal it said $110-139 for labor. Anyhow they have to get done. Also have to find some 16" rims.

I react to vibration with my hearing and its really bad. I got this car because its supposed to be so smooth and quite, so that jobs gotta get done. I sold the 460 because of the possible large repair bills and people here said the 430 was cheaper to maintain, of course part of that is working it on your self.

 

Yeah AWD is not as smooth as a RWD plus it's down power wise to the point it's not much faster than a 430, there is NO comparison on what is cheaper to keep running. The AWD has some MAJORLY hard to service items due to the front axle and a bunch more parts and that plus the lack of power vs RWD made/make it a hard no for me when I was looking for an LS, I couldn't find a good 460 so I bought a 430 to get a taste/try it out while I continued looking. Took me 3.5 years to find one that was what I wanted, still had to replace all driveline mounts at 130k and I also did all 8 front arms and brakes plus some other minor stuff to get it truly perfect. Biggest annoyance was paint correction, that took me about 30 hours to do.

Another stupid smooth car is oddly enough a 5th gen ES350 with fresh driveline mounts, my friend has an 09 he has me maintain and after we replaced his axle intermediate bearing and all motor mounts you literally can't tell the engine is on. To be totally honest it idles smoother than my 460 does on a cold start somehow.........however that's the only point they are comparable. If pure smooth is the goal the 5th gen ES might be something to try out since they are shockingly good at that.

 

Unfortunately the ES350 I tried out had bad motor mounts, Im presuming as it shook and vibrated a bunch. But to me the worst part of that car was how jarring it was on bumps. The shock came right through the seats. Part of it is the low profile tires. But thats what deterred me from it. Amazing you had to do all control arms at 130k. Now Im worried but it seems tight. The 8 in the front seems like the whole issue with the ls460 and its problematic and expensive control arm issues. Well hopefully mine last a bit, Im not putting a ton of millage on it.

Whats the issue with the paint correction, 30 hours, my god.

 

Looks super nice. On the front, the PCS square plastic over the L logo can be refinished like the headlights. Make sure to have the refinisher put Xpel film over the headlights, fog lights, and L logo PCS radome - it carries a 10 yr warranty I believe and won’t revert to cloudy or yellow. I did mine about 7 years ago and still perfectly clear.

 

Yeah that makes sense, if the mounts are old on a 350 it's much worse than a failed mount RWD car. The road impacts are just reality of a fwd strut car vs a flagship tier car, can't really fix that and if it was an issue for you then yeah, a ES wouldn't work.

Well the 430 also needs arms at about the same interval but the more simple double a arms hide issues FAR better than multilink does. You can drive it with them worn and not tell, my 460 actually felt fine but under full braking and max turn force you could feel wheel location issues at 100+ especially so I just replaced them all.

Paint correction was simply due to the fact I wanted it perfect. I don't like having swirls or anything on my cars and I expect it to be like glass to the touch.

 

Good tip on the head light film, radar protector, like that idea after the work you go through. Some use fine grit sand paper, yikes. Id just go with the 3m kit.
Well thats good to know with control arms, I can go for a bit. But as I hear guys do a refresh it drives so much better. Also interesting with the ES, didnt realize it was the fwd that made it drive like that. And it does look good from the photos but yes the swirl marks! Black is a bad color for that. I'd have to do it by hand. I also have some dried wax that stuck on there like glue. I can get it off with my finger nail and someone suggested a clay bar. Im going to read up on it as I dont want to mess it up. I found out I need tires to pass inspection and am going with 16" rims I gotta buy. Then tires, its just doesnt stop! Pirelli's P4s seem like they get great reviews and are cheep as they are only available in 15-17". Just hope they are quiet.

 

They used to make the Pirelli P7 A/S Plus series in your new size (225/60/16), but alas it looks like they don’t anymore. I would spend a bit more and look at the Bridgestone Turanza Quiettrack or Michelin Premier, both H rated.

 

Oh cool you answered one of my questions, the 18" rims take a W rated tire (168mph) and the H is only 130, but thats what I would go for in a 16", cool.
Pirellis are more off the list now. Quietrack looked good, Michelin Id have to go with defenders which are noisy because of where I live. Nokain, not getting as made in Russia and we will never see that company again.
Im pretty much settled on Continental True Contact now for noise and winter conditions. Although I know it wont perform great in winter and anyone with a rwd car should have snows.