Dear Lexus Guest:

Thank you for your recent purchase of a 2018 Lexus LC500. Your VIN indicates you selected the performance package together with an additional cost color, again thank you.
We are aware that some guests continue to experience squealing bakes, usually heard between 25 and 0 mph. Further, we are aware that these brakes produce a considerable amount of dust when the brake pad engages the rotor.

While the unpleasant brake sound may be annoying to some -- particularly in light of the fact that Lexus engineers worked assiduously to produce just the right sound during vehicle operation, and that the brake dust is unsightly, particularly to those like yourself who purchased the extra cost paint or lighter exterior colors — the installed brakes are High Performance brakes designed to provide the requisite stopping ability for a vehicle of this size, weight, torque and power.

In short:

1. These are the brakes for this vehicle and,
2. We sympathize with your dilemma.

In the event we receive further complaints with respect to these issues we will consider a remedy.

Yours, sincerely,

Your Lexus team

 

Not that this is much of a "welcome" letter, but it got me thinking... I've never received a welcome letter of any kind from Lexus (or Toyota) after buying any vehicle. I've purchased about 5 Lexus and 5 Toyota vehicles over the past 10 years or so. I never really expected a letter in the past, but I kind-of expected something after purchasing my LC.

 

It's annoying but it's not that uncommon. M sport and M performance brakes are known to squeak, too.

 

At about 1500 miles, noticed quite a bit of front left brake noise, grinding, even felt a little like a stuck caliper at slow speeds? Yikes.

Anywho... Others have mentioned brake bedding. Looked into it a bit. My car is almost exclusively highway driven from day one so what could it hurt...

Many methods described online about brake bedding. The least aggressive is basically as follows:

Stay up way past midnight. Find a deer-free stretch of lonely back-road you know well. Warm up the brakes with a few normal to slightly hard 30-5 mph stops. Then do about 8 consecutive 40 to near zero moderately hard stops. Don't stop completely or risk pad to rotor deposit. Brakes get hot and a little faded and smelly by this time. Then do about 3 consecutive 40 to near zero hard stops. Again NO stopping and drive the car at normal speed for about 15-20 minutes or longer to let them cool. Park without parking brake.

Snake oil? Placebo? Not sure but it worked completely for me for now. Not sure if it will last but I'll report back....

 

^^^^Good Job You are preaching to the choir here. I've recommended this many times, but AFAIK you're the first LC500 owner to complete the task. Again, WELL DONE

Lou

 

Will bedding the brakes in this method work if the vehicle has been previously used (570 miles) without any prior bedding?

 

Mine had 1500 miles on it when I did this. So give it a shot.

It's not a very aggressive procedure and it's fun too.

I suspect there will be a hurried TSB out sooner rather than later... Toyota always worried about more bad press and class action (groan)...

Also will be interesting to see if the issue repeats in the new LS.

 

 

 

 

Very interesting for a car dealer sending a statement like this. Is it really bad and no solution yet from Lexus (Brembo), or aftermarket (may be too early to consider?)

 

I had a Boxster S and just traded my GTR in on the LC 500, those big performance brakes make noise, you can avoid it by having a heavy foot on the brake and stopping faster or be very very light on the break and give your self a long stretch to stop - seems like in between you get squeakage.

 

@VicAndRay did the squeaking ever come back?

 

Thankfully no. Brakes have been solid, quiet and stopping well. at 13K miles now.

Other than a LOT of brake dust which transfers to my concrete driveway every time I wash it.. that's my biggest first world problem...

 

Good to hear. I was having a bunch of brake squeal but just found a rock between the shield and rotor on the passenger side front. Going to go ahead and bed the brakes now anyway, just to be safe.