I never stop learning or having the desire to. I’m aware of the 2024 consumer reports data having only 1 year to sufficiently report the LS. Been reading the magazine since the late 80’s. “Potential issue” and “common issue” are two different things. The point that I’m making is that there may be other factors related either to assembly or manufacturing that led to some falling over others not failing because clearly the frequency of failure is not consistent or common. The fact that 2013-2016 model years have consistently not registered as a problem in consumer reports data can not be ignored any more than the 2017 that is registering problems. And the fact that the 2017 model year is right before a redesign year makes me wonder if corners were cut during the 2017 model years in preparation for the 2018’s. Normally the final year is the most reliable year. But that’s not always the case.

 

what year and mileage was your ls460? And did you change your coolant regularly?

 

Again, read carefully, there is no data AT ALL for the LS for the years 2013-2016. That’s why there are black dots instead of a rating in what you posted. There are no ratings posted for any area. This does not mean there are no issues, it means there were no LS owners that even reported survey data AT ALL for those years. You cannot use CR to compare data between years of the LS because they only have data for one year. The 2017 may have the least cooling issues, without any data we cannot know.

Listen to people who know, when you have owned this car for years and have repaired many of them you can argue with them, but for now listen. The only person you seem to be listening to is yourself guessing at answers to your own questions, the folks here have the answers. You thought Lexus fixed this when literally the only person who suggested they did was you…

 

I understand EVERYTHING you are saying. I get it. Trust me. That said, you CAN compare years up to a point. True, there was a time when you could compare years directly before they changed their computation methods. At one time CR ‘s reliability data was absolute for each vehicle, and you then took that information and compared it to the average data for that year. They changed that in the 90’s and began to have a vehicles score that already included data relative to the average instead of an absolute score. They sold this to the reader as a convenience in that you no longer had to constantly flip back and forth between the car you were studying and the average score of that same year. For years I complained that this made it difficult to compare the reliability between say a 1998 Lexus LS and a 2008 Mercedes s class. The Mercedes may look more reliable with the new methodology because it’s newer when in actuality it’s the lexus that is more reliable despite being 10 years older. So I understand exactly what you are saying including your point that you believe that you can’t compare cars from one annual magazine to that of a different annual magazine. But when it comes to the Lexus LS460 and the valley plate discussion, despite CR’s scoring mythology there are a myriad of consistencies through the years and how they have aged added to the fact that online subscribers can now actually document what the problems were that it is possible with some margin of error to compare between the years. So I stand by what I said, in that the 2017 has for some reason had a higher incidence rate of failure compared to the 2013-2016 when they were the same age that the 2017 is now.

 

What is your rationale and data used to determine that more 2017s have valley plate leaks than other years?

 

I will go through my consumer reports going back to 2007 along with online data from CR reports and post it for you.

 

Also remember to make that determination you need to compare the overall instances of coolant issues amongst all cars for each of those model years and control for that variable. You also need to determine that the coolant issues noted are in fact valley plate leaks and not other issues related to the cooling system.

Fact is, there is simply no way to make this comparison using CR data.

 

There are other factors to be considered using CR’s data in addition to that. Furthermore your position requires the same methodology to make the opposing claim. So the level of proof you are asking from me requires just as much effort from you as well.

 

Mmmmmmmm yes, the same valley plate applied with the same TQ and with sealant dispensed by the same robot is better in a 2017 than any other year.

 

The proof that I have is many years of personally owning this car and having been involved in the community for this car. Striker has agreed with me and he has physically made the repairs and seen first hand the cars that need this repair. Gerf as an example is an accomplished Toyota tech who also owns the car. Can you even point to where the valley leak happens on an engine? AKAIK you don't even yet own this car. The fact that you have Consumer Reports magazines and have an "assumption" doesn't outweigh all of that.

There's an old saying, a man with experience is not at the mercy of a man with an opinion. I'm not going to continue to argue with you when we have the experience and you have an opinion without any experience lol

The point of all of this is to give good advice to people who are concerned about this problem and want to know about what the potential costs of owning this car are. The valley plate leak is a potential issue for any LS460 regardless of age, bottom line. Doesn't mean it will happen, but it may and a buyer or owner should be prepared for it.

 

There were a lot of bad welds by robots on the frames of mid 90's Toyota pickups and carried over to early Tacomas but nothing was done about it, people usually never see that part of a vehicle.

 

your experience is not being discounted. It’s much appreciated. But so are the experiences of owners who report to CR over the years. And I own the LS600hL. It’s a 2008 with 196,000 miles and the valley plate has never leaked.

 

Thats very true, my D4 A8s are infamous for a robot responsible for windscreen adhesive missing/light applying a section a foot long right above the driver....

Leads to a major leak and kills cars. All of them have it happen eventually, my 4.0 had it at around 60k miles and it killed the front cam and some behind the dash computers. My 12 had it happen at 300 miles but thankfully only effected the headliner and it was in Beverly Hills so it was fixed quickly.

 

Might want to scope it and check....

Oh and your car doesn't run the engine constantly so less system strain overall. Not the same comparison but regardless we have other members here who have 600s with the leak.

 

I looked back over 10 years of CR and the only thing that really stands out as "worse/much worse" than average is the suspension. Prior to the 2023 issue, the LS460 is pretty well covered in CR (depending on how much credence you give to Nader and his Raiders).