TyrannosauRoss Lex

Hi guys, So it happened again yesterday, and I managed to catch it on video! So you can see that it revs cleanly, but it's well down on power. I only noticed because under 1/2 throttle there was noticeably less power than normal, but obviously this wouldn't show up on a video. You can tell when I put my foot down as the gearbox shifts down. Later on (another drive) it started off weak again but as I got near home the car was back to 100% normal again. Any further ideas? I will contact my usual garage and send them the video and see if they're willing to clean the throttle bodies and look at the VVT stuff, but if not, then I guess I'll give Lex Tech a call! Thanks very much once again.

OK thanks, if it plays up again I will get the throttle bodies cleaned. Thanks very much for the info!

That's a brilliant bit of information, thanks for posting! At the moment the car seems to be driving fine. If it happens again I'll call the local Lexus specialist! Thank you so much.

Thanks for the clarification, I thought it was. Well, just driven from Eastleigh to London, about 90mins driving.... Car 100% fine. So strange. Maybe it was an iffy batch of fuel or something (just filled up last night), although I would have expected that to impact it all of the time. I think it's worth calling Lex Tech, explaining the situation and see what they reckon, but I'm not sure. About an hour and I have to do another 80 miles or so.

As an aside, I'm fairly sure this is air conditioning water but is this normal? Patch of what appears to be water on the left side of the car about 2ft behind the wheel. There does appear to be some sort of drain hole directly above it so I'm guessing it's normal? Haven't noticed a loss of coolant or oil. This photo was taken about 2 hours after. Parking up. It was not that warm here but humid, AC set to 18 degrees. Thanks.

Good to know, thanks! I will call them tomorrow. It seems they do collection and drop-off which is absolutely ideal.

So I had to drive 21 miles to a family member's house..... I took the road up the same hill it didn't like very much yesterday (it reaches it after 1km so still cold engine). Today.... Absolutely, 100% fine. I have found there is a local Lexus independent (Lex Tech) near me. Half of me is tempted to call them and get it in, the other half says wait until (if) it happens again. I think I'm leaning more towards calling them and getting it in. I'm not convinced their diagnostic equipment would be better. The garage it went to use a top of the range Snap On system.... It's certainly bizarre isn't it! I have to drive from Eastleigh to London to Portsmouth later so it'll certainly get a bit of a run, so we'll see how it behaves.

The car is now on 102k miles. I don't believe it has had a replacement radiator. What are the symptoms and signs of coolant going into the autobox? It has had a recent inspection so they should have picked that up if that was happening, no? The gearbox is still smooth, if coolant was getting into it, would it not be a bit more jerky, and perhaps the problem would be more consistent, and would the gearbox not misbehave? It changes gear fine.....? I am based near Fareham/Portsmouth in the UK if anyone knows anyone? I use normal unleaded fuel, not premium

The issue as well that the car has been slow to respond or dimwitted at low rpm. For example, there is a hill near me that is 1 mile long and averages 7% gradient. There was a time when I'm having to use an awful lot of throttle just to get up it, which is not typical for this car. To effectively say "you shouldn't floor the throttle" kind of misses the point. The engine should behave the same each time, and that isn't happening. I just took it for a drive and it didn't feel right, after 3-4 miles I stopped and tried doing what my old BMW 7 series "gearbox adaptation reset" was....which was ignition on and engage kickdown and hold for 30 seconds, then turn the car off. Once turned back on, the car drove 100% fine, although I'm not convinced it was the throttle with the ignition on that sorted it of couse. A little before it went in for its service was the worst time, at low engine speed (eg 1200rpm) and about 1/3-1/2 throttle the reps would hunt up/down for a short while. Applying a lot more throttle it would then rev cleanly but with much lower than normal power. a few minutes, if that, later....it was driving absolutely fine. It seems very sporadic. It is a very strange one, especially because nothing was logged in the ECU as fault codes. I am pleased that the cat was OK though, as that would be a pricey fix!

OK so a bit of an update.....I think there is a problem, but God only knows what it is. The car did the same again the other day before having a full service, under full throttle (engaging kickdown) it was revving cleanly but genuinely felt like about 50% power. If I backed off the throttle and then reapplied.....100% power. It went in for full service and I mentioned the issues. When I drove the car to the garage it felt absolutely fine. They plugged it into diagnositcs....absolutely no faults with anything, nothing logged at all. Checked the emissions, checked the cat, checked the plugs etc etc....nothing. Absolutely fine. They ran injector cleaner through it just to check that wasn't an issue. I was driving home last night from somewhere and decided to give it the beans and again, sometimes it takes off like a scalded cat and other times it was just seemingly underpowered. It's just hit and miss and I've no idea why!!!!??? The trouble is, if nothing is logging on the ECU and nothing can be found....what the hell could it be? Half of me thinks it's a sensor or software related, but short of disconnecting the battery for 30mins and then risk not being able to get the car started I'm not sure what to do...and that's not something I fancy doing, and risking the fact I may not be able to get the car to work again. It's very odd, the car has been incredibly reliable so far and I still don't think it'll let me down, but this just seems really weird! Any thoughts?

Oh, and just to confirm the above method in the video worked! Thanks very much everyone.

It is a garage who are the busiest tyre firm in Europe (or at least they were, not sure if that's still the case) - my Uncle is on the board of directors so my labour charge is £25/hour and I get parts at trade price....so I'm not really going to kick up much of a fuss for them not resetting a single light about an AC filter they have replaced ;)

That's brilliant thank you! They have changed it but they said they couldn't work out how to reset that light!

Just had my car in for a full service but when the car is started it's still saying to renew the AC filter. How do you go about resetting the service info? Thanks in advance

Good to know, but hopefully I won't need it!

Just an update after I took the car out earlier, once it had warmed up I left the gearbox in automatic mode but set to PWR, put my footdown to engage kickdown and once the gearbox had shifted down 2-3 gears it took off as it should, I didn't notice any sluggishness to the engine. I tried a few times and every time it seemed absolutely spot on. Fingers crossed it purely was just the fact that I hadn't given it anything more than about 1/4 throttle for 2-3 months! These LS460s do get under your skin, don't they. They're very good barges with a fairly decent turn of pace.

They are quite far away from me though! There is a well reputed Jap indy not far from me I think so if needs be I'll contact them. I need to use the car on Thursday so I'll see what's it's like then and report back!

The issue I have had is that the ability to floor it on the motorway from time to time has been non existant. Unfortunately my grandfather passed away 4 weeks ago and I've been driving to see my nan most days. It's a 20 mile trip, 16 miles motorway, and the whole motorway section is 50mph average speed cameras (M27) so it's just basically been a case of taking it easy to warm up, by the time it's warm it's sat pootling in 8th gear at 50mph, then there isn't any way to stretch its legs once off the motorway. The past 2 days I took a couple of detours though. I'll see what it's like next time I drive it though. Is there a way to reset it some how? Aside, I assume, disconnecting the battery (which I'd rather not do).

This is exactly what I was thinking, and was wondering if there's a way to reset it some how. On my old BMW 7 series there was, something like have ignition on but engine off, depress the throttle all the way down past the resistance so kickdown would be engaged, and then hold for a while, ignition off whilst still holding pedal.... Something like that but can't remember exactly. Will see how it is next time I drive it. It's the first time the last 2 days I've really floored it for a few months.... It certainly does pick up and go for an old bus! As an aside.... What are the "ECT" buttons PWR and SNOW? I'm assuming they're either throttle or gearbox maps? What does ECT stand for? Thanks!

Maybe so, but one should have full power available if one wishes. Having a 4.6L V8 is, for most times, a complete overindulgence. It's nice to know it's there in case you need it though....

OK so after a bit more driving and a bit more spirited driving it seems a little better. I have been doing lots of long-ish trips sat at 50mph lately due to M27 roadworks and haven't really stretched its legs for a few months, so maybe it just needs a good thrashing? It seemed noticeably better earlier, I will monitor it more over the coming week or so until it goes in for a service. Any other thoughts/suggestions are most welcome!

Thanks for your reply. I drove it earlier and think it might be the gearbox, perhaps.... I put it in manual mode again and I could still feel the gearbox changing gear at times, which is a little odd to say the least. It should be going for a service within 1-2 weeks all being well. I will get them to check the oil level, top up or even change if necessary, and see if they can reset the gearbox software.

Hi, I haven't done a huge amount of "pedal to the floor" driving recently but I did today and put the car into manual mode and 2nd gear, the revs were at around 3000rpm and I put my foot down and it felt like about 2/3 the power.....so it was brisk but not that quick, after about 1 second I took my foot off for a couple of seconds and then put my foot down again and it took off, from similar rpm, much, much faster. This seemed to happen a few times. Any reasons as to why this may be? The car is going in for a service within a few weeks so I'll mention it then but just wondering if anyone knew what the cause may be? I'll be needing to use the car tomorrow and may give it a bit of stick to clear the cobwebs a bit. Thanks in advance!

Thanks for your help. I think it is probably more hassle than it's worth! Cheers

Hi, I don't use my car that often so was considering buying a solar charger to keep the battery topped up, but I gather these require the cigarette lighter to be "live" even with the ignition off? Do the cigarette lighters (or even one of them?) on the LS460 stay live when the car is locked? Failing that.... Any idea how to keep the battery topped up when I don't have access to a driveway (so trickle charger not really feasible) and don't want to actually drive the car? I don't use the car too often and when I do they're often pretty short trips. Thanks!