I bought my first Lexus (LS400) in 1990, and always thought Lexus started selling cars in 1989, not 1982. Anyway, when Lexus first started they were the new kid on the block, trying to compete with MB, BMW, and Cadillac and even the new Infiniti. So they priced their cars lower than the competition - you could buy an LS400 in the mid $30K's back in 1989 at MSRP, and by the 1991 model (in fall 1990) a fully loaded LS400 was about $50K. They also really did their best on quality control. Now, they are the leaders (you notice that the phrase for the best is now 'the Lexus of whatever" rather than "the Cadillac of whatever." So I think the arrogance in some dealerships and some in corporate may come from this different position in the market.

 

Typo - it was 1992 - my First LS400. Then GS400, LS430, up to then virtually perfect cars. Then the '07 LS460 with Wind noise, other quality issues and total arrogance. This week is when I left the brand. For the next 3 years I am trying something else. In 2013 let's see what they are doing and how pleased, or not, I am with the competition and I will revisit. The thing is, if they would have handled the wind issue with transparency, I will likely not have even considered another car upon lease renewal. Would have gone to a 2010 LS automatically. I know at least 3 other people that have gone from LS to BMW7 and MB 550s for the same reason - treatment by Toyota.

 

i also know a lot of people going from bmw and mb to lexus. well, i guess you can say it's not coz' bmw and mb are ignorant, but they just can't seem to fix all the problems.

my brand new m3, 6 months old and engine malfunction (sensor problem). called dealership and the response was "oh yeah just bring it in, it's pretty common"... engine malfunction <--> common @_@

anyway, i am not defending lexus. those who actually follow my posts will see way back in 2006 i already started talking about quality issues on lexus cars and they should be careful, but obviously they didn't listen and now they are suffering the consequence

from what i see, i just see people moving from brands to brands, a lot of time it's a wash. i don't see any one sided swing

 

I totally agree with you. We as customers saw it happening, but the Lexus corporate top management had become arrogant, and complacent to even recognize it. Over the years, some of these very same illness have sadly filtered down to dealer level.

 

no kidding. at that time i already warned them saying don't bother with being number 1, don't expand too fast. focus on quality and reliability. that's what get toyota and lexus their status (back then), they could NOT afford to lose those.

and then i experienced it first hand with my ls460l and the gs350 (previously gs400, is300, sc430), which further confirmed my thoughts...

and now, well...

 

I appreciate all of the information and advice I have been given here. I do run only 91+ octane gasoline in the vehicle either from Mobil or BP.
The vehicle will do the following at random times. Sitting at idle with vehicle in D, the idle will drop from 700-800 rpms down to 400 rpms for no reason. (feels like driving a 4cyl when the AC compressor kicks on).
At times it will go from 400 rpms to the normal 700-800 rpms. With or without the AC compressor on.
This problem usually occurs after you have been driving at speeds over 40mph and come to a stop esp when coming off a freeway.
Once the problem presents itself, dropping to the 400 rpms, the transmission begins to lurch forward thru every gear and it downshifts as if you were driving a manual trans and didn't push the clutch in, loud clunking thru every gear as you brake.
The trans downshift is hard, when getting on freeway it will kick down, struggle past 3000 rpms then will not release the gear, holding the rpms over 3000 with your foot off the gas pedal, it will hold the gear UNTIL I put my foot back on the gas pedal, the trans will continue holding that gear, shift to another gear while holding it, and before you know it the whole process has taken over 10 seconds and still has not fully released the gears.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I have contacted corporate, it has been in the shop 3 times, and I get the "unable to duplicate" answer.
I had an LS430 without these problems, I rented a Hyundai Santa Fe that shifted better than this. Any help would be appreciated!

 

So none of these issues have shown up while the vehicle was at the dealership? I assume they have put an analyzer on it and looked for trouble codes?

There is a gadget called a car chip, by Davis, runs about $100 or so. You can plug it into the diagnostic port under the dash and leave it there as long as you need to until the problem recurs. It can log parameters like vehicle speed, engine rpm, engine load, throttle position, etc.

Not saying you should have to go to that trouble, but at least it would prove that the problem is real.

Your comment about the vehicle running at 3000 rpm without depressing the accelerator I would think would get their attention given the current situation re runaway vehicles.

How often do you have the problem, daily, weekly, monthly? Once it starts acting up does it return to normal on it's own at some point?

 

I thought the LS460 also has a similar data logger built into it that should have captured these parameters. I may be mistaken.

 

Found this, symptoms sound like yours. There is something called a transmission compensation code that identifies the specific characteristics of your transmisison. It's a 60-digit number that's printed on the transmission and is then entered into the tranmission control module.

The indicated symptoms when this isn't correct are "large shift shock and engine overruns".

This sound like an issue related to the transmisison control module.

 

Laughing, not a complaint department, but curious if it really is just the way the car has been designed. My LS430 was not like this.

The problem is continuing to get worse. The miles that I drive are almost all highway, I just put 800 miles on during a 2 day trip.

Once the problem begins, it will stop after the car is shut off and parked for a while. The problem may go away for days or it may come back in 20 mins. You can be slowing down to turn a corner then when you apply the gas there is nothing there, dead spot so to speak then a hard down shift holding the gears high into the R's followed by a "throwing" of the gears as it shifts followed by a snap noise from the transmission under the console or a clunking from the rear end as you slow to a stop.
No codes, no dash lights.
The service advisor saw that they idle was at 400rpms then as we spoke it climbed back up to 700-800 rpms.
It is confusing considering I traded a 2006 Range Rover with 92K miles in on this car and it actually shifted better and we all know (laughing) that keeping a Rover that long is crazy.

 

I am having the same problem with my 08 LS 460. The accleration problem stated within the last month or so. Typically will happen shortly after starting the enging. At times that the engine will not respond at all to accleration during take off. Even if I step on the gas paddle all the way. When it happens, I also felt that either the engine or transmission is not coordinating together. My thoughts is that this is a software problem. My car has been serviced by Lexus only since new. I am calling my SA to schedule a service appointment for this and see what happens.

 

OK, thought i'd post here as well to see if anyone can relate to this issue and suggest what we can do to get it diagnosed and fixed. Here's my situation, that sounds awfully similar to what AbeTieh is describing :

I have a 2008 LS460 (manufactured 12/2007). I bought it CPO at 9K miles in 2009 May. Have been having issues with the acceleration and gear shifting intermittently. I brought it into the dealer last year, and they performed a TSIB on it (L-SB-0033-08 Rev1: 07-08 LS 460: Hesitation on Acceleration) and that seemed to fix the problem, until recently. Since my last oil change last week, the issue i mentioned is back again, but has gotten worse.

The car is normally fine, drives well, but when this issue crops up, it behaves as though the transmission is totally fouled up. When depressing the accelerator, the gears don't shift right, i can be travelling at 30mph and trying to accelerate, i floor the accelerator, but nothing happens, and all of a sudden sometimes if there is a reaction, the RPM goes to 3500, but the car is still not speeding up (i.e. at 30+ mph). The biggest frustration in my mind was the fact that after my 20K oil change last week, i was happily driving home (20+ miles away), and the car started acting up like how i've described, only this is worse than i've ever experienced in previous times. I brought it back to the dealer the very next morning, the car was not shifting gears correctly all the way there, but 5 miles from the dealership, it started acting normally again, and a short test drive at the dealership didn't produce the issue. The tech asked me to take it back (without even performing any check on it), and i was pretty frustrated, 'cos i knew it was going to happen again. And with my luck, just as i was nearing my home (about 4 miles out), there it went again, jerking and not changing gears right, the rpms going up and down and the car not accelarating.

 

you need to leave it with the dealer, let them drive it at various times over a few days and they will feel it too, then they can diagnose it for you.

If its CPO they should give you a loaner with no issues.

 

Just got my car out of Lexus this morning. SA knew of such problem with delayed accleration and rough shifting. Updated the ECM software. And the problem should be fixed. Will see how it goes and get back to you all.

 

I think I have the same problem from europe... Any solution?