Our ‘08 with 190k miles has been asking for attention for about a year or so, and the time has finally come to drop some $$$ to keep it on the road.
With current car market, I was really hoping to get another year or two without having to spend any major $$$ on it, but the car had other ideas.

List of problems I’m having fixed by a home garage mechanic (highly recommended - full time employed by high end European/Japanese shop):

Radiator - noticed a leak about a year ago - bought a Denso unit to avoid issues with figment.

Misfire on cylinders 2&4 - pulled the ignition coil on 2 and it was drenched in oil - based on some posts here, we’ll start with valve cover seals (bought OEM ones for about $100). While at it, he’ll replace the spark plugs (Denso Iridium TT) and possibly a coil or two (supposedly they last a VERY long time).

Suspension is shot - the mechanic put the car on the lift and recommends replacing all 8 control arms. Ordered a set of SKP arms from Rock Auto for ~$250.
One of the rear shocks is shot as well - ordered 2 FCS assemblies from Rock Auto for -$67/each.


All in all - I’ll have about $1k in parts and most likely close to that in labor (didn’t get an exact number, but he quoted me $200 for the valve cover seals).

Time will tell whether it’s money well spent.
I sure as heck am not looking forward to shopping for a new car.
Despite the rebuilt title, the car has been really good to us since we bought it 100k miles ago (only had to replace an O2 sensor and fuel pump seal - ~$1k, besides normal maintenance).

 

Keep us informed with your progress and results. Good luck!

 

Sounds like typical higher mileage issues. While $2k may seem like a lot of money, cost of living has gone up so much. That's really reasonable. While valve covers are being serviced, change the PCV valve and have an inspection done for signs of coolant Valley leak and get that addressed while in the area. Sounds like you'll have many more miles of use from your car after this.

 

instead of replacing the arm just replace the rubber bushings. That’s all that’s wrong with it. How toyota screwed up something as simple as rubber is beyond me.

 

Your timing chain tensioners are almost at the end of their life.

 

You can get genuine parts from amayama or bell Lexus for a great price. Just FYI

 

Yep, and I found out through parts.lexus.com that I can shop my local dealer with 25% off pricing. Amayama is even cheaper; however, since the OP's car has 190k on it, I don't know that I'd spend that kind of money for OEM. I can't stand aftermarket parts; mostly poor quality. Got rid of 2 project cars that I kept having to redo jobs on or send parts back that came faulty out of the box. You have to weigh the option of how much money to dump into the car vs age, value, and how long you plan to keep it.

 

Atleast for control arms I only heard about moog and OEM to be good. Not anything else tbh.

 

Might as well do the w/pump and brakes while it's on the hoist. j/k

 

There lies the problem - at this age, there’s always something that needs attention 😢. Ultimate goal is to keep the car functional for another year or two and that’s about it. Due to the rebuilt title, the car is not worth much - can’t trade it in, and while there’s still market for such cars, the discount from clean titled car must be significant.
To add insult to the injury, the car my wife has been temporarily driving (our old ‘11 CX9, which we’ve “gifted” to our daughters living together on their own) took a dump as well 🤬. The alternator died around 30 miles away from home, and while we were able to find a local shop that can fix it, a “friendly” Indiana state trooper conveniently called the towing company to tow the car from the side of the road (just off the interstate) and there was no reasoning with him. Our mechanic showed up while the tow truck was still hooking up, but my wife was able to convince him to tow the car to the mechanic’s lot. Only cost $325 to tow it few miles 🤬.

 

THIS! Car (in drivable condition) might be worth about $4-5k, tops. No point in dropping at least that much in parts alone.

 

With all you've shared, it makes sense to spend little on the LS. Not every LS will make it past 300k.

 

Here is the control arms I got from O'Reilly for the LS
https://imgur.com/a/2voeigS

You can see the rubber boot is already tearing. It's been only 4k miles and four months. In that 3k is across the interstate driving between Alabama and Texas and parts of Texas.

 

My mechanic wasn't opposed to replacing only the bushings. His biggest concern was possibly damaging the control arms and having to wait for replacement. I guess I might ask him to save the old ones, just in case, and if they survive the removal process, I'll just get the bushings and swap the aftermarket control arms as they fail one by one.

 

That's some serious looking tread for a car in Texas.