Just one day after selling our 2001 LS430 (305k miles), our 2009 LS460 gave us our first problem in over 3-1/2 years of ownership. I hope the gremlins in our LS430 didn't jump ship and come to live in our LS460. In the middle of running errands, the trunk failed to open. A common problem as I came to find out. We did finally get it open with the key. Although not opposed to spending $400 on a new latch, I wanted to see if I could fix it first. It was exhibiting many of the symptoms described in other threads about this latch. I removed the latch (easy, sort of) and looked at the white plastic piece mounted over the gears. Although there were some stress cracks, I could see nothing broken. But, something seemed to be missing. I popped the black plastic cover off the latch itself and out fell the missing piece (see first photo). It was some sort of electrical timing wheel that told the motor when to turn on and off. It did not appear to be broken. Next, I removed the white plastic carrier for this wheel and saw where it fit up under the piece. The hole in the offset on the wheel then slipped over a metal pin sticking up from the gear assembly. I reassembled the plastic carrier on the latch (see second photo). Now, the only way this could have come off was for the carrier to flex enough to let it slip off. My hopeful solution to this happening again was to cut a piece of thin gauge metal to match the shape of the carrier and JB Weld it to the carrier to stiffen it up (see third photo). Yes, I know it's not pretty. I sprayed a bit of lube around things to reduce any built-up friction things up and reassembled everything. Everything works perfectly and I am hoping it continues to do so. Total cost for the repair = $0. I hope this can help some of the other LS460 owners out there with this problem. By the way, the car is now at 171,000 miles and going strong. I hope to get over 300,000 out of this one as well.

Electrical timing wheel. Goes under white plastic piece

White plastic piece with timing wheel reinstalled

Plastic piece with stiffener installed.

 

Wow, great job! Just don't feed them after midnight! Or get them wet.

 

I'm having the same issue currently in a 2007 LS460 SWB. The closer motor does not operate. Prior to dis-assembly did you run an inspection using Techstream? I'm going over the manual and there's a whole diagnostic process listed before suggesting replacement of this element. How did you conclude this was the issue?

 

All I did before disassembly was a little research on the internet and the ClubLexus forum. No inspection using techstream (not even sure what that is). I basically removed the latch mechanism and started nosing around to see what the problem was. Other latch mechanism failures may not have been this particular problem, but I am willing to bet a lot of them were. By the way, a month and a half later and still working like a charm.

 

I can confirm that i had this problem . The fix is by adding a keyring around that part and now it works perfectly . Also the trunk latch opens faster.
The Video below explains it more .

 

Out of curiosity I searched on ebay to see what the options are if and when this latch breaks. And here's one that caught my eye, it's a "remanufactured" unit. Apparently this seller takes old broken parts and just rebuilds them, but where he finds the parts to do it I couldn't even guess.