Excellent advice from Caddy. Probably a very good idea to go get a second opinion also before hitting the flush button on the car.

 

I'd love to take credit, but I think the good ideas are from Bon.

 

Wow...sorry to hear. Some cars just have issues though stuff happens and it doesn't necessarily mean the whole thing is bad. A few fixes though $ hurt and it may be trouble free for a good stretch.

With the steering wheel motor, was it giving any indication of failure...grinding when getting into position? I've heard past comments that if any force is applied to the steering during the adjustment, it makes the motor unhappy. Ouch at the fix.

Depending what tensioner, the pulley itself is ~$65. Easy R&R. I had a bearing on mine go out and it began to squeal. Common. The $1K

What is the condition of the tranny fluid? A solenoid...that seems excessive from Lexus to swap a tranny for a failing valve. Replace the valve than see if it throws a code.

Find an independent mechanic and have the findings checked...Lexus has tried to sell more service on mine than needed with regularity and the prices are wayy $$$.

 

I am very disheartened so please bare with me as I vent here. I have now owned my 2001 Lexus UL with 60K miles for just under a year. I bought the car from a reputable dealer with full service records and it was only a single owner car. Car had 0 problems, accidents, etc.

Was it a LEXUS DEALER ? I've had them bend over backwards on one or two occasions to keep me happy. Again, see the Service Manager.

 

I am highly impressed with my 2002 LS430. My list of problems is at https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...xus-ls430.html

 

Not sure about the steering, perhaps try to let it move to the comfortable position and never move it again - well if you could.

Cat converter happened to my LS (at around 72K miles) and it cost about $1,100 (only the converter and possible the Y pipe to be replaced). What dealer did you get your quote from?

Pulley - I have no experience with this ... yet. This probably doesn't take too long to replace.

Transmission solenoid - you might need to buy the whole valve body (since they might not sell solenoids seperately) but it should cost less than a grand. Granted that I've never opened the trans on the LS, the valvebody on Mercedes cost like $6xx and easy to replace for even non-mechanic skills. There are just sensors that control your solenoid and no need to replace the whole trans.

Definitely get a second opinion from an Indy (perhaps it should help if you get it from a Toyota Indy).

 

That sounds like ton of bad luck. Like everyone has said, every company makes mistakes. It's just too bad that you were the victim. 60k mi on an 01 is ridiculously low, so I am a bit surprised with all the issues. Hope things get worked out.

 

You drive a 10 year old car, to think any car should be reliable at that age is not reasonable. You have no idea what the car has been through, where it was kept and how it was driven. The LS430 is in it's day the most reliable car made so the odds are in your favor that it will be more reliable than other 10 year old cars. I had a Subaru SVX for 10 trouble free years, but I knew that around 100K miles it would need a new $6K tranny. I sold it at 95,000 miles. I drive an eight year old SC, 5 year old LS and one year old CTS-V. The caddy is the only one to go into the shop this year. If my older Lexus fail, I expect it. Both my Lexus are under warranty so I am looking at about $1000 a year including maintainence a year until 2014. I have made peace with that.

 

I just traded my wife's 2000 ES-300 for a new ES-350. Her car NEVER had anything break, NEVER. I did routine preventive maintenance, brakes, fluids etc., and traded it at 90,000 miles. Fabulous car. She really wanted to keep it but she works hard and deserves a nice new car every 10 years, and that's my story. LEXUS ROCKS in reliability.

 

Ive had my car for 4 years and the most major thing i had to replace was my control arm bushings.. you just picked a bad 430

 

I have a friend that is literally a traveling salesman, drives his car all day for work all week. His late 90s ES300 has 300k+ miles on it with only normal maintenance to date. No trans or engine work yet...that's pretty strong for 300k miles.

 

I honestly have some doubts you needed new control arm bushings. were they "sqeaking" upon braking and hitting dips in the road or exactly what ? I was told mine needed replacing due to them making "groaning" noised upon breaking or hitting dips in the road.

I got a very sharp Lexus Tech to ride with me and first thing he said was "You've had your front end aligned haven't you "? I said "Yes. Hesaid everyone that takes their car to a Goodyear or Firestone, etc. Service Center for aligbnment end up with symptoms of needing control arm bushings. He showed me the two large bolt that he said had to be tightened much further than most people realize, and that he actually uses a "cheater bar" to tighten them as tight as he can get them.

I wheeled into a shop with a lift, told them I had two bolts that needed tightening so they did. The nuts actually were not very tight, as the mechanic was able to tighten them some without any cheater bar. He got a "cheater bar" about 2-3 feet long, tightened them more and he charged me $10 bucks.

I drove out and my car no longer had any symptoms of needing bushings.....it was quiet as a mouse upon breaking and driving across dips etc....so, I want ALL LS owners to know about this little known secret.

 

Interesting.

Where are these bolts located? Any chance of a pic?

 

I have a 1992 Lexus sc400 and she has 300,000+ miles on her and driving great!.. think what you want, but I think you just bought a Lemon..

 

I don't know if it's the same problem but the tilt steering on my 97 SC failed in the up position. I was pretty bummed until I found a thread on this site that detailed how to fix the problem with a rubber washer from a water hose. It took me a total of 30 minutes to fix including a ten minute trip to the hardware store.