Hope your luck keeps up. But….its about time for the rear main seal to give up. Check under the car for an oil leak.

They’re so common that the first repair is on Lexus regardless of miles or age.

 

First, a turbo/turbine is not “inherently unreliable”. Commercial aircraft are predominately turbine engines, with no pistons at all—and a reason is the much higher reliability of turbine engines.

The turbo booster in a car’s piston engine is literally (or essentially) a scaled down (and incomplete) turbine engine. Full turbine engines are not useful for automotive use—you think turbo-lag is bad? Throttle lag is so bad on a turbo-jet that pilots throttle up (or keep engines at a certain level of thrust) just before landing in case they have to do a go around. Accidents happened in the early days of jet transport due to jet aircraft with engines at idle while landing being unable to spool up to do a go around.

My point: there is nothing inherently unreliable about a turbo, it’s a matter of design and manufacture, and what service life is it designed for?

My Anecdotal Example

That said my 2016 NX 200t which I bought used with 87k miles is literally like new, can’t tell when idling, quiet and smooth. It was owned by a Navy officer from what I can gather.

The service records don’t indicate strict adherence to maintenance schedules, but otherwise maintained by Lexus dealerships for the most part—at least one or two major intervals seem to have been missed completely. Yet still the vehicle drives, looks, and feels like new.

I use synthetic of course, and I expect to easily put 100k+ on her. Based on the current operating condition, I’d say 200k easily, and really, Lexus is a 300k car (in general).

But YMMV.

Do you race it? Do you leave it sitting without running for weeks or months on end? Is it stored in a garage? Or in the sun? Is the recommended maintenance followed religiously? Or do you wait till you hear a “clunk clunk” before having work done?

These are the questions to ask that will determine how many miles you get out of the vehicle.

Those Precious Fluids

The single, number one issue is fluid changes. Manufacturer’s recommended intervals are fine. But use only quality fluids and filters. Full synthetic oils, factory recommended anti-freeze, etc.

Fluids breakdown (yes even synthetic) and become contaminated, and must be replaced as scheduled, and the argument can be made to replace some more often under harsher operating conditions.

In cars, fluids provide: lubrication, hydraulic pressure, and cooling. Poor lubrication, poor hydraulic pressure, or poor cooling will cause a rapid deterioration of the related mechanical parts. It’s that simple.

Engineering & service life

Racing can stress components by orders of magnitude—forces increase by the square of the velocity, so if double velocity, the force is quadrupled.

Wear is largely a matter of the stress/strain curve of the materials involved. Whether or not “quadruple the force” is within the curve depends on the design and engineering.

In an aircraft jet engine, the turbine blades are typically titanium or some exotic alloy-and each blade is x-rayed to assess any anomaly in the material that could fracture and cause a catastrophic failure.

Automotive applications may not be as demanding, but the same principles apply: determine the expected service conditions, and the desired service life, and design for it.

Lexus is trying to compete with Mercedes. My 1980 Mercedes 450SL has over 300k miles and still drives strong.

The real question is, what does Toyota/Lexus design for in terms of service life? IMO these are 300k cars when maintained properly. 200k when not well maintained, and less when neglected or driven by a maniac.

As I said, your mileage may vary, and comparisons aren’t too useful without knowing the facts of how the vehicle was maintained and driven.

…just My ½ cents worth…