Peter67

Fuchs Titan is a good oil so you should be good with that. They are very reputable and in my experience the Titan range of products are widely used in industry. The first time I became aware of low coolant was when I was stopped in traffic on a warm day and from inside the car I could hear the rad fans running at higher speed than normal.Usually you cannot hear them. I thought the heating early that morning was not great so I investigated. I found the level in the tank was slightly above the low mark so this surprised me. I topped the coolant up and it took about 3 litres with the heating system on and the bleed valve opened. I then found the leak on the top of the rad where the rad tank aluminium seam is crimped to the plastic. I was surprised I had no coolant alert but there doesn't seem to be one. Use ultra caution when closing the plastic bleed valve as the whole assembly is plastic. It really just needs to be closed not tightened in any way otherwise the housing will break.

Yes. They have a point. Nothing worse than an intermittent issue to track down and of course it will never play up when they have the car in! ! You might get lucky and not have it occur to frequently. Stick with a good 0W20 oil and change it at the specified interval or less. This can have a surprisingly big influence on the VVT system performance and response. See how you get on. In terms of rad replacement I did mine because it leaked at the top seam which is a common failure mode. I wasn’t aware of the known issue / risk of gearbox failure potential. The rads are not expensive and are easy to change out so its a good piece of mind perhaps. While there are aftermarket rads available such as from NISSENS beware they may not fit early cars (as I found out) so buy the Lexus / Toyota rad for a small bit extra. As an aside I find it odd that these cars don’t seem to have a low coolant level alert, something which I had on cars from the mid 1990s yet not on these cars. Unless you keep a regular close eye on your expansion tank you will not see the coolant level running low until you may hear a gurgling or whooshing noise from behind the dashboard signalling low coolant and air in the system. Peter

Re some earlier posts on oil contamination within the spark plug tube. The tube seals can leak over time. Replacements are very cheap. They are easy to pry out when coil packs are being removed for spark plug replacement. the new tube seals are just pressed into place. If you see oil on the coil pack then make sure you remove the oil in the tube, remove the plug for cleaning as well and fit a new seal. I use the camera on my phone to see if there is any remaining oil.

Hi Thought I’d post this for information. The LS460 has oil pressure actuated variable valve timing on the exhaust cams (electric actuated on intake cams). Like a lot of these systems on Toyota / Lexus it uses a solenoid to control oil flow through passageways into a cam phaser allowing the timing to be changed by the PCM in response to power demand etc. These systems have a small Dedicated oil filter Which is usually accessible but on the LS460 its inside the valve cover in a small housing. The filter is a plastic housing with stainless steel mesh. There is a filter on bank 1 and bank 2. If you had sludge or a previous owner with long oil change intervals these could have a build up on them. It’s a few hours work to get to them if you need to but fairly straightforward. In the photos showing the valve cover you can see the housing and I have a photo of the housing removed To one side and you can see the tip of the stainless filter screen Bank 1 or Bank 2 both the same Remove residual fuel pressure Battery out Coil packs out High pressure fuel pump out Wiring harness and connectors pulled back Valve cover off Remove housing and replace VVT filter Replace All VVT system oil seals O rings and P Seal

Many thanks to all for the excellent advice. My LS has the Mark Levinson sound system and I must say its very good. I will be buying in the UK and importing the car into Ireland. Reasons for this are choice of cars and slightly lower cost. Seems a good time to buy as the UK September plate change has lots of trade ins available. Most of the cars for sale here are through Toyota dealers and are imported from UK also. The one I tested last week came from Lexus in Cheltenham. Large Toyota dealers here seem to get a delivery each month of 5 or 6 RX450h ex UK cars typically 3 year olds. Looks like Lexus dispose of the volume to help keep residual values up. Road tax for the 450h here is only €270 per year compared to the LS €2000 per year! so that would be a welcome change. I will keep looking for the right colour / spec combo.

My LS460 is getting on a bit now as its approaching 400,000km. Budget wont stretch to the new LS yet so I’m considering A straight purchase of a 2017 RX 450h in either Lux trim with pan roof or the Premier trim. Preferred colour Sonic Titanium with a lighter interior if possible although most seem black interior. I’d welcome any particular advice on what to look out for when buying or any particular dealers to contact in the UK? I have test driven a 450h recently and was impressed ( i did miss the air suspension and grunt of the V8 power). Thanks Peter

In terms of the repair cost, in my case I did the work myself. I only had to replace bank 1 exhaust cam actuator as it was the one with that was sticking, they have a spring loaded unlocking pin and this was getting stuck so was intermittently throwing out the timing on that bank hence low power especially under load. If I recall the exhaust cam actuator was about €250 from Amayama. Once you have a reasonable manual and take your time and be fairly methodical its not too bad. The time consuming bit was correct diagnosis and then all the time for stripping the rocker cover. Once that was done the rest was quick enough. When you have the rocker cover off you should clean or replace the small VVT filter and test the oil control valve solenoid for correct operation, they are about €80 each (buy OEM for these as lots of spurious versions on eBay and they are a precision part). As I said in an earlier post get a good tech to monitor the 4 x cams under load and see what’s happening before diving in. Peter

It’s the same symptom as I had. Revs cleanly with no power. Then sometime later its back to normal. I assume you have no codes or pending codes? Looks like VVT issue to me. As the VVT system is complex you will need to get it clearly diagnosed before throwing money at it. Basically you have an electric actuator (Phaser) on each intake cam (VVTie) and an oil controlled actuator on each exhaust cam (VVTi). The exhaust actuators are controlled by an oil control valve on each bank and there is a small VVT oil filter inside the cylinder head cover for each valve. Each cam has a VVT position sensor reporting to the ECU so 4 of them total. There is also 1 camshaft position sensor which is located on Bank 2 intake cam. Techstream software can connect to the VVT components and test them individually for operation. Depending on the diagnosis the simplest issue is to replace the oil control valves, these are standard Toyota solenoid valves that slot into the rocker cover exterior on each bank and replacement takes only a few minutes. To access the VVT oil filter screens you need to remove the rocker covers (relieve fuel pressure, remove high pressure fuel pumps, remove rocker covers) then the filters are in a small housing on the inside of the cover. This also gives you access to the camshaft actuators as well and its possible to replace the exhaust cam actuator In situ without removing the main timing chain. Again genuine Lexus parts are not that expensive if you buy from suppliers such as amayama.com. Its possible to buy certain parts second hand. Regards

From the description the issue is quite possibly in the VVTI system. It’s unlikely to be on the inlet side as they are electrically actuated more likely exhaust size which is oil actuated. There are 2 main elements to this on each bank - the oil control valve and the exhaust camshaft phaser / adjuster and either can cause problems. It Intermittently affects the engine timing and power and does not necessarily throw up any engine codes. Power delivery can be much reduced despite engine revving cleanly especially under load going uphill. The oil control valve and the VVT phaser on Toyota engines is known to have issues with sticking operation. The Oil control valves x 2 are very simple to remove and test for resistance and apply 12v to see if they move smoothly and replace if necessary. They are not expensive. The exhaust cam phaser is a bit more involved. It is likely to be one bank of the engine that is affected but I guess you need to figure out which one. It’s possible to either use a garage level scan tool that displays the position of the 4 x camshafts to see if they are in phase or which one is out. Alternatively the output from the cam sensors can be mapped on something like a Pico scope and again you can see if you have an issue. If you have Techstream you can set the vehicle software in diagnostic mode to be more sensitive and to throw an engine code on 1 trip event logic.This might reveal a pending code for you and identify which bank you have an issue with. Good luck - these issues are very hard to pin down. Peter

The issue with the plug exterior oiling up is the spark plug tube seal on that cylinder. Its a common issue. Part 11193-38020 x 4 per side. They are only €2 or €3 each from Amayama.com. Worth checking inside each tube for any oil when you are doing spark plug replacement. After you remove the coil pack but before you remove the plug take a photo with your camera phone "down the tube". You will see the plug surrounded by oil and then its replacement time for the seal. Worst case this may cause a misfire.

Hi. I ordered new controls arms for my LS460 from Rockauto. I’ve used them before a few times and they have been a good supplier for bit and pieces. Anyway 1 of the 4 control arms was completely incorrect (see picture). Rockauto replaced the arm with the correct one which was good (although I got hit for taxes and import duty again). So I have this Unknown control arm and am happy to offer it free to any club member. I think it is a front right arm for a LS430 or 400 but I’m not sure. Be a shame to dump it. Anyway let me know if anybody can ID it and if they want it and I will figure out how to post it. Peter

Hi Steve. I did look for the VVT oil filters as I suspected they could be blocked. However on the LS460 unlike other Lexus models the VVT oil filter appears to be in a gallery accessible only with the rocker cover removed and this of course necessitates the dismantling of the High pressure cam driven fuel pump assembly as well as draining the fuel system. I don’t see any other way so I might have to do it. I do think the exhaust cam is more likely to be at fault because when i replaced the OCV it was perfect for a few months. This suggests the filter could be blocked or partially blocked. Re Newbie1 posting this was something I considered the electric motor on the bank 1 intake side and its easy enough to replace but expensive (part is €500 or so). I ran the Techstream tests on it and it seemed to respond ok as per the manual. Regards Peter

Oil level is perfect. It never budges on the dipstick Battery is good, I replaced it last year. Given the intermittent nature of the issue I would like to think the timing chain is unlikely to be at fault. There is no record of any work on this and the timing cover looks like it has never been touched. That sort of points back to a vvti issue as I have already replaced the 2 x oil control valves. I come back to the question about a vvti oil filter mesh located inside the rocker cover on the parts drawing. I wonder if this could be at fault.

Thanks. As the crankshaft sensor is just one device and its comparing / correlating to the 4 x Camshaft vvt sensors and the 1 x camshaft position sensor I would have thought if it was the crankshaft sensor at fault that it would throw different codes and also conflict with more of the 5 x camshaft sensors than just the one. I would expect to see P0017 and P0018 at the same time surely? As I said I pulled the sensors and tested them for resistance but not a dynamic test. Do people think its worth sticking in a new sensor or should I just go and get it thoroughly checked for timing settings and various sensor responses? When the loss of power is occurring It does feel that the vvt on just one bank is not engaging correctly. If one cam was not phasing correctly then in theory I would expect this sort of correlation code. Regards Peter

Hi. I’ve been running this car for 4 years and very occasionally I had a loss of power on acceleration when the car was under load such as a slight up hill etc. I had it checked out and my mechanics could not really find anything definitive, no codes etc. About 4 months ago it became much more frequent and although there were still no codes I left it with my mechanics for 1 week and they could not fault it at all. Note the car now has 275,000Km (170,000 miles) up. Based on internet research I suspected a dodgy camshaft Oil control solenoid valve. I replaced both of these myself and the car was immediately perfect. It drove like a new car with super power and engine response I change the oil regularly every 15000km with Mobil 1 0w 30 and use a Lexus oil filter so I was surprised because these OCVs are known to be an issue with extended oil change interval and dirty oil. Anyway, 4 months passed without incident then the problem has come back. Exactly like before. The car occasionally (2 or 3 times a week) bogs down when applying power from low speed. The power then suddenly comes in like a turbo. Also When cruising at 60-80kph the engine will “flutter” and run rough and then after a while its ok. The issue will disappear for several days. To me it feels like a valve timing issue / cam phasing issue and because its intermittent I don’t think the timing chain could be in trouble (please not). I normally connect an Autolink Al519 OBD code reader to see whats going on but yesterday I connected up my Techstream and I discovered for the first time a pending code of P0017 which was related to the last journey and has a description “Crankshaft Position - camshaft position correlation (Bank 1 Sensor B)”. I took out both VVT camshaft sensors from Bank 1 and inspected them and measured resistance between the pins. I am not sure what value to look for but they were both the same resistance so they appear ok. I checked the wiring and connections and all seems ok. That leaves the camshaft timing / vvt phasing. The car drove well today for 200km with no loss of power or engine bogging down. Question 1 - Is sensor B the exhaust or inlet camshaft? I think its the exhaust. Question 2 - Does the camshaft oil control solenoid valve on the LS460 have a mesh filter like other Lexus vehicles like the IS? I looked on engine diagrams and parts lists and it appears that it does seem to have a filter but that its inside the rocker cover in a gallery. If it was meant to be accessible for cleaning like the IS then you would expect it to be easily accessible ? Question 3 - Could a blockage to the OCV result in a P0017 code? Question 4 - Could a camshaft phaser be stuck or sticking in position and could this result in a P0017 code? Question 5 - If it does come down to a full timing chain replacement has anybody had this done? And is it something a good tech / mechanic can manage without any specialist Lexus tooling? I assume all chains would need replacing. Question 6 - Any idea on the number of labour hours to repalce the timing chains and tensioner? Question 7 - Does anybody have any other suggestions? Regards Peter

The seats have a fan and a filter. They do actually cool so perhaps a peltier effect system but I'm not 100% sure Peter

There seem to be at least a couple of failure modes for the air suspension struts: air bag leaking air / fluid or the assembly goes hard and provides a rock hard suspension. Saying that they are very easy and quick to replace - more so than a coil assembly. And as I said you can get OEM parts online so if they last 100k or so then maybe not so bad. Peter

Some wise caution from the posters about the early 460's and certainly from my experience. I have my 2007 since mid 2014. I bought it with just over 100k kilometres and a full Lexus history. I am putting fairly big miles (or Ks!) on it and while its a very enjoyable and comfortable car to drive it is a complicated car and I sense there are certain things not fully ironed out on the 07 models. I do 40,000km+ a year so now the odometer shows 223,000km. i service myself every 20,000km. I have done a full front end suspension rebuild in January 2016 which was straightforward enough. I reused the front air struts but these will need replacing this year as they are getting "hard". I replaced a rear air strut also in January 2016 and this was very easy indeed. I search around widely for parts because the original cost of lexus parts seems extraordinary. I bought the air strut from Amayama.com and its OEM and comparatively good value. I will buy the 2 x front struts from them this year. I had an engine problem with an intermittent loss of engine power which was very hard to get to the bottom of. I was stumped as no engine codes showing and it looked like a classic MAF or O2 sensor issue. I have a very good tech who took the car for a few days and he eventually diagnosed and fixed with great difficulty a cracked pipe in the bank 1 EGR valve. This sorted the issue however both he and I feel the transmission is a concern as its not always changing smoothly and can waver a bit between 3rd and 4th with some vibration. Apparently the AA8E are known to give some trouble. Worst case i will need to swap it out for a second hand unit. Not what I wanted to hear as that's a €3k bill. I will do an oil and filter change to see if that improves matters but I am not hopeful. I have also replaced a brake actuator, plenty of front discs, tyres etc the usual consumables. The biggest issue is the failure of anyone of 40+ computer modules which will result in expensive hard to source parts being needed ad which may need lexus to install as many of these modules are programmed and not just plug and play. You will need deep pockets for sure but if you are not doing very big miles then should be not too bad. I think the mileage I have been doing has led to my issues with wearing suspension and maybe the gearbox also. Good luck. Peter

Hi Steve. I swapped it off the older strut. The rattle is not as bad with the replacement actuator that I fitted. Although it may gradually get worse. Its very puzzling. I am reluctant to pony up for a brand new actuator if that doesn't fix it. Do you know if the Actuator part has been superceded in some way and perhaps I am fitting the old one (Denso 89241-30040) perhaps its not fully compatible with the new strut? It just seems to be a small rotary DC actuator with 10 or 11 steps through 120deg of rotation. I guess it rotates and changes the damper setting through comfort-normal-sport but other than that it doesnt do any work as such. I expected the air strut to be very difficult to replace but actually it was much easier than even a regular spring strut. The strut air connections on the LS460 are in a much easier location than the LS430 (i think they are located in the engine area / inner win) but on the 460 they are right there in front of you. Peter

I replaced a rear air strut on my 2007 LS460 a couple of months ago as the previous strut had "gone hard" and was seized. I bought the new part from www.amayama.com. Arrived in the Toyota box in 3 days and was the correct part. I replaced the strut myself and it was a 30 minute job and seemed very straightforward. The most time consuming bit was removing all the rear seats and lifting the rear parcel shelf to undo the mounts. I re-used the solenoid device called the Absorber Actuator. Almost immediately after returning to the road I could hear a rattle going over every bump - apart from that the suspension is very smooth. I suspected that the actuator was defective as I have seen some tech bulletins about this so i purchased a used replacement online and I fitted this. All was quiet for a few days and then the rattle began to return. Its not as bad as before (yet) but I wonder (a)was the used solenoid somewhat defective or (b)did I make a mistake of some sort installing the strut and perhaps missed something??? Also did a front end suspension rebuild at the same time replacing all 8 control arms and anti roll bar drop links, brake discs and pads. The upper arms were shot as were the lower arm connecting the strut so I did the lot. New tyres fitted also and the front end is now solid and really tight -so is the back end except for the damn rattle. I am doing 35,000km a year so needed to get all back in order. Peter

The 2007 LS460 rear pneumatic struts are parts nos 48080 RH and 48090 LH. Can anybody confirm if they are interchangeable?

LEXUS main dealer advised this morning that the cost for a replacement strut is euro €1181 which includes VAT and fitting (thats probably £750 stg these days!!). On balance its perhaps not as bad as I feared especially as its a good few hours to fit and they can do the recall work on the fuel pipes. I might bite the bullet and get this done. Just put 4 x new tyres on it last week as well so August and September will be quiet months! I will check out the suggested strut replacement for the longer term. BTW I was a bit tempted by www.aliexpress.com - the air suspension shop selling new replacement strut for US$472 inc delivery to me. Don't know if anybody has any experience of them although chinese replacement parts are often a bit short lived

My 2007 LS 460 failed its NCT (MOT) today due to imbalance on rear suspension. The right rear shock had high load readings resulting in the fail. I did notice it quite firm at the year end recently on bad bumps as it sort of bounces. Does anybody have any good info on these struts and how they work. Also any suggestions on a supplier for a replacement strut or airbag - new or second hand in the UK or Ireland? I see a few versions of these air struts on the web at varying prices. Anybody any experience with them?

Dave This will be a southern Irish car that was recently exported to the NI (UK). There is quite an industry here just now which one of the other posts alluded to whereby people are buying up these sorts of cars second hand at low prices and exporting them to the UK and obtaining some refund of taxes paid on the original purchase of the vehicle. I believe this is quite lucrative. I live in Ireland currently having moved here from the UK in 2007 and looked closely at the availability and spec of the cars from both jurisdiction when I bought my 460 last year and they are comparable in terms of spec.The key thing to watch out for with an Irish motor is the service history and how solid the history is. Service schedules generally are not closely followed in Ireland compared to the UK. Perhaps its because more cars are privately owned but its fairly normal for services to be avoided or stretched particularly since 2007 when the economy collapsed the regular servicing of cars went out the window - as people had no money for it as an unnecessary extra. I note that here in the last couple of years most new cars are being sold with 3 or 4 year service packages to try and address this in the future.Also note there are only 4 x Lexus dealers in the country so they are thin on the ground and knowledge of these cars is limited. Be careful.

Thanks Gents for the excellent and helpful advice. The light came back on last night and worked again today. Does this mean the bulb is still on the way out or is it something else such as a ballast?