Dropped my car off for the 10K Service and had two items of concern.

#1) Serious rattle behind the glove box (just started last weekend all of a sudden). I removed everything from the glovebox and determined that the rattle was not something I could get to.

SOLUTION: They found a metal bracket at the bottom of the right front speaker had come loose and was hitting the air vent. They glued the bracket to the speaker and added foam.

#2) I started noticing within the last week that when braking I would feel the brakes pulsing. This feeling was similar to what I felt many times in my 98GS. The cause of which was almost always a warped front rotor that needed to be Turned.

SOLUTION: When I picked my car up the Service Manager mentioned that they changed the front rotors and brake pads (under warranty of course). It seems that there may be an issue with some of the first GS430s off the line in Japan. As I understand it someone had the bright idea of coating the rotors to reduce wear. The problem is that this coating comes off onto the brake pads causing further problems related to overheating.

As I understand it the problem has been corrected at the factory but there might be some early GS430s that could have similar coated rotors. Keep in mind that I noticed nothing until after 9K miles so let's not panic. Clearly if you have a similar problem it will show up while under warranty so its no big deal.

Everything else on my car checked out in perfect condition. I am noticing some excessive noise from my Yokohama Run Flats after they were rotated. I will have then balanced and see if that solves the problem.

Keep you posted after my 15K Service.

 

great update, highmiles. glad to see they took care of everything; your dealership sounds awesome - sometimes with these new models they take forever to figure stuff out and parts are not readily available. hope i encounter similar service in a few months at the 5k mark.

 

I just hope this Thread doesn't cause a rush to dealers to change Rotors. I am sure that supplies of parts are short this early into release. The bottom line is that they fixed the problem on the line in Japan and didn't wait until thousands of GS430s were experiencing problems before they found the cause.

 

damn, i think what's amazing is the 10k mark!!!!!

 

Is this coating what's behind the oft cited grabbiness of the GS430 brakes at low speeds? If your car exhibited this, did it remain consistent over the 10k miles, or improved over time? Or gotten worse?

If still grabby, are there different brake pad compositions that would alleviate the problem?

 

I think you hit the nail on the head. My brakes either became less "grabby" the more miles I put on or I got used to it which is unlikely. Also, I noticed after they changed the Rotors and Pads that the "grabby" or "touchy" brakes disappeared.

I would lean towards the coating on the Rotors being the only issue since there was no mention of a new type of brake pad being installed. Only the Rotors were new.

 

We've replaced the front pads and rotors on our GS 430 demo car 2-3 times already... as the GM stated, ya... there was a problem w/ them =P

We received our demos when the first 300s were coming in... so they were the first ones to come out

 

Hey highmiles, thanks for the information.

Where are you located? If you are in the US then you have the models built in Canada, right? I am in Korea and we have the models built in Japan. I understand the two have a few minor differences (radio ***** are flipped, etc.).

When was your car manufactured and when did you pick up the car? I picked up my car 2 weeks ago and I believe it was built in Feb or Mar of 2005. I've noticed that the brakes are touchy so I wonder if it has the rotor problem (I only have about 400 miles on the car now).

Also, sometimes I sense some buzzing from the brake pedal, and some stickyness/light clunk during stop and go. Is this normal?

Thanks!

 

highmiles, one more thing.

You have the Yokohama Advan's? That's what I have on my GS430. Not sure what the tires are in the US. I understand Yokohama Advan's are one of the best tires out there but they also will wear out within 10-15K miles.

Also, I notice some pull to the right on the highway... is this normal or do I have alignment problems already? I wonder if it's because of the 245/18 wheels...

 

All GS sedans are built in Tahara, japan. The only Lexus built in Canada is the RX330. Toyota wants to keep raise the quality of Lexus, as well as the prestige, thus I think this is the reasoning to keep virtually all the Lexus models built in Japan. The new IS production will be moved to Tahara as well. If all 4 Lexus sedans were made in Tahara, that would be incredible

 

I had my 5000 miles service last week. No problems

 

I took delivery of my GS on 2/28/05 and assume it came out of the Japan factory. Don't know anything about Canada making any GSs.

I have noticed the same buzzing that is more something I feel than anything I hear. I have not noticed it since the new Rotors and Pads were installed but then again I only took one 8 hour road trip since I picked it up Monday morning.

 

I have the same Yokohama Run Flats and I do not notice any noticable wear after 10K. I am noticeing some extra noice after they were rotated. I will be in it about 4 hours tomorrow so I should know more.

I too had a drift to the right that I had corrected at my 5K service. It now tracks very true after realignment.

 

The brakes on the GS300 are different so you should not experience any of the issues that will occur on the GS430. Of course all this will change with the very different braking system that will be found on the GS450H.

 

Wow 10k in a couple of months...highmiles you could've have picked a better nickname.

Sadly my '02 ES00 had exactly the same issue and had the warped rotors replaced for TWO TIMES in the first 20k miles... Just past the 25k mark recently...I'll see if the rotors go bad before the 30k mark this time.