2013 Lexus GS350 FSport.

Folks I've been having a subtle abrasive/grinding feeling in my gas and brake pedals, and I can feel it in the floor board. Very subtle knocking or thumbs, but not consistently and not as often. It's as though something is loose or rough pieces rubbing each other - hard to describe. One thing for sure is it wasn't always there. It happens during braking, cruising, and acceleration. There were some shakes during braking and turning left (occasionally), but that was a different feeling and I know that's usually rotor/ brake related.

Took the care in to Santa Monica Lexus - $1300ish for new front rotors and brakes claimed to be the culprit. Shaking during braking gone, but that feeling I mentioned above persists.

The best way I can describe it is like two grindstones rubbing together and it feels like faster the car goes I feel it that fast is well. The abrasive feel does get worse in intensity, I just feel the going faster like it's corresponding to the wheels or something spinning. It's not harsh, but it's persistent and always there.

Any ideas? Other than normal road bumps, I've never felt any kind of constant abrasive vibration in the pedals and floorboard like this.

 

So basically, what you're saying is theres some kind of grinding-induced sort of vibration in the floor that wasn't there before? That could be a whole bunch of things.... but as typical, its hard to explain things to service people, esp. if its subtle. I'd be like "You guys have a CPO GS 13 on the lot somewhere right? Drive that for 5 minutes. Then drive my car..."

-Mike

 

Yeah, I think I'd like to take a ride with a tech.

 

I recently started to have that feeling too. It's extremely annoying, especially when moving the steering wheel left and right. Could be the dust pan scraping, will need to get it checked out at next service appointment.

 

So I drove my cousin's GS350 F Sport - same as mine and he drove my car. His felt "normal" as I remember it should. He thinks the issue I am experiencing is wheel bearing failure or it's degrading at least. Taking it into the shop soon for another check. This sounds more like it though, however I am not having any noise (yet) as I've heard this happens with wheel bearing issues. I found this so strange simply because I've hand Honda's and Mazdas before this Lexus (Toyota). Neither car in their 14-16 years I had them both ever needed bearings changed and the were certainly not as nice of a car as this one having this (possible) issue at 81000 miles / 6 years in.

 

I have my 20,000 service coming up and I will get mine checked out then. The previous owner had the front driver side wheel bearing replaced at 7,387 miles, here is the service report. I guess pot holes can cause them to premature wear out...?

 

Up to 40 miles per hour it's more of an abrasive grinding feeling. Faster than that it feels more like something is loose and moving, but spinning as fast as the tires - felt in the pedals, steering wheel and floor board.

 

 

Here's an update. So the initial problem still hasn't been resolved, however here's what the play by play as of today looks like:

Service 1
Concern: Initial complaint about abrasive feeling in pedals and floorboard which I made clear was not exclusive to braking: Lexus replaces rotors and brakes (needed).
Result: Lexus replaces rotors and brakes (said needed). This only fixed the steering wheel jutter/shaking when braking.

Service 2
Concern: Brought the car back in because Initial concern not resolved and still present after front rotors/ brake change. Suggested that the bearing be checked - recommended by a relative who had the same feeling in his Camry.
Result. Car driven and taken over night. Nothing said to be found nor heard wrong with vehicle. Initial concern blamed on non factory tires (Continental Extreme Contact Sport I replaced my Michellin Pilot Sports with for a change). I know that the tires aren't the issue. They're about 7 months old and I don't drive hard. Strangely when receiving the car/ driving off, the initial concern is significantly less, yet nothing was said to be done to the car. It's still there, just not as much. New problem though. Now there's a clicking sound braking below 25 MPH, or starting from stop. It's kind of like keys on a keyring, or women's metal wrist bracelets hitting each other, or like metal washers cascading on bar tilted downward (best I could describe the sound.

Service 3
Concern: Brought car back again do to new metallic clicking sound that wasn't present after I got the car back the first time.
Result: Was told that the rotors installed were two-part rotors and the clicking comes from something in the joint between the rotors. They're going to replace the new rotors with one part rotors based on a service bulletin, for cars in warranty, (http://www.revbase.com/BBBMotor/TSb/...dPdf?id=204855) at their expense. I already spent the $1300 or so on the rotors and brakes from the first service. This will supposedly take care of this noise. So the new ones they put on caused this new issue, I've never had up until this point.

 

After that last service mentioned aboveI the brakes squealed to high heaven. New components and all. I'd had enough. It takes so much time to keep going back and forth to the dealer, get a loaner, etc and I just wanted to go somewhere closer to me to get this issue resolved especially since every time I left Lexus I had a new issue. A little over a year now and I have not been able to get the brakes to stop squealing incessantly. I haven't had the rotors deglazed. One shop said that's not recommended on performance parts like this car has and may lead to warping. Another shop I took it to last week put some kind of solution on the rotors and said it may last up to a month. It didn't even last two days. Another shop I visited said the brakes squealing is a major problem for this vehicle; so much so - that people have traded in their cars for something different.

So this is not part of the original issue. Perhaps I'll go scouring ideas on another forum, but these brakes squealing are a major problem that I haven't been able to have solved yet. Most local shops actually just tell me to take it back to Lexus and don't want to deal with it because they know it's a known issue and the parts are very limited. Whether this is true or not I don't know. I guess it's time to take it back and get them deglazed.

Your thoughts anyone?

 

The annoying brake squealing, excessive brake dust and quick wearing pads is one reason why I would not want the F-Sport for a daily-driver...plus I'm personally not too fond of the front bumper. I can understand why some people have traded in their F-Sport cars for something different. That does not surprise me one bit.

The brakes on the GS 350 are just not worth the hassle when you consider that the GS 350 is basically a heavy (edit: 4,000 lbs) 4-door family sedan with a firm suspension and a lively 6 cylinder engine. It's not like it's some exotic 3 second 0-60 mph supercar or a dream track car.

 

The GS350 weighs 3,726 lbs which puts it on the lighter end of the spectrum in its class. Excessive brake dust is an issue on the RWD F-Sport but that’s to be expected of all high-performance brake systems, regardless of make. I’ve never had a squeal once from my brakes, however. I love daily driving my F-Sport

 

It's definitely not firm. At least not to me. Honestly this car is floaty compared to my 2000 Mazda Protege ES, 2006 Acura TSX, or even our 2019 Volvo XC60. Granted the Lex will out handle each of these vehicles, but it is the softest road feel and most loose steering feel of the bunch by a wide margin. The Lexus way I guess.

 

I typed in error 5,000 lbs - should have been 4,000 lbs. It's still a heavy 4-door family sedan.

Unless the car is tracked the F-Sport's larger front brakes will never be utilized and they likely won't stop the car a significantly shorter distance than the brakes on a non-F-Sport GS 350. The big picture pertaining to the F-Sport's brakes - they are far more trouble than they are worth...considering what type of car it is.

 

Disagree, but to each their own. Even if the F-Sport brakes only stopped a few feet shorter than the regular 1-piece setup on the regular GS or the AWD F-Sport, those couple feet could be the difference between hitting the car/pedestrian in front of you or stopping safely in this unpredictable world we live in.