I have searched for others with this problem and come up empty, except for lots of warnings about changing the t belts. Rod bearing knock at approximately 180,000 miles. The engine has been serviced regularly and the local shop estimates $8k for a remanufactured engine replacement. Not sure I am going that route and have been considering used engines. A few questions:
1. Is engine failure common with the LS430? I am very disappointed about this and expected more reliability from a Toyota.
2. What is the favorite flavor of shop manual? The paper or CD versions?
3. I have changed more than my share of engines, so I will be doing it myself, not that I am looking forward to it. Any pointers or DIY procedures that I have not found yet?
4. Any good sources for factory parts at a discount? I have had mixed results with aftermarket parts.

Thanks for any help.

 

Sorry I can't welcome you under better circumstances. I've been on this forum for about 2 years and this is the first engine failure I can recall. There are a number of forum sponsors, like Sewell, that provide parts discounts.

 

Are you sure it's rod bearing ? What kind of noise you are hearing ? Who made the diagnosis ?
It may just be normal top-end ticking.

3UZFE failure is UNHEARD of ! Zero cases recorded in Russia.

Answers:
1. read up, that's may be just dealer trying to screw you. used engines widely available as well.
2. CD only, i can get you one.
3. i bet there's less than 50ppl in whole world who replaced 3UZFE.
4. NO AFTERMARKET PARTS is the ticket. Try sewell, or you find some prices to be high, pm me, i have good cheap original parts source from UAE.

 

Wow - the bottom end of this engine uses 6-bolt mains and it's the last place I would ever expect to have trouble unless it's really abused. Really question that diagnosis....

 

Two shops (one dealer and one independent) have looked at it and one even removed the oil pan. It is a knock, not the lifter ticking. It is definitely a surprise to me. I thought these things would run forever. Thanks.

 

This is unfortunate to hear, friend's stepdad has a 2004 LX470 with 320k on the clock, so they're definitely designed to run a long time. Guess as we start having more and more cars with higher and higher mileages we'll see if this is a statistical outlier or indicative of something more.

 

How long have you owned the car? How often has the oil been changed throughout it's life? How much oil does it burn between oil changes?

 

LOL "oil burned between oil changes" is not a data point I was planning to keep track of on any of my Lexuses. The Cadillacs... DEFINITELY.

 

This will probably get you nowhere but the only way to be sure is not to try it.

Call or write Lexus corporate. Explain the maintenance history and the problem. If they do nothing, you haven't hurt yourself. If you do it constructively with the facts, keeping the emotion out of it, you might get lucky.

 

You'd be surprised. A friend of mine recently had an engine blow in his 2006 CTS 3.6L. Scrambling for an answer to this terrible predicament (the car only had some 76000 miles) he somehow found a microscopic loop-hole in that the dealer who sold him the car was supposed to have performed some kind of state inspection prior to selling it. I don't know all the gory details, but the bottom line is my friend now has a completely rehabilitated CTS at no cost to him.

Lexus is particularly aware of their reputation right now, so despite the fact that this car probably has more miles already than what they'd consider the "typical" lifespan of a vehicle, it wouldn't surprise me if they step up to the plate should you be able to produce a comprehensive service history. You can pull your car's entire Lexus service history at the Lexus Drivers site with your VIN (http://drivers.lexus.com).

 

All too common of an occurrence with the GM 3.6L engine that GM has yet to remedy. The engines use oil - lots of it - between oil changes. Couple that with an oil life monitor that can sometimes specify up to 15K miles between oil changes and you have a recipe for oil starvation. The most common malady is failed timing chains, which they blame on the supplier, but is really caused by lack of lubrication. GM's fix is to recalibrate the oil life monitor so oil changes would be indicated at shorter intervals.

I had an 04 CTS and 06 SRX, both with the 3.6L engine. The engines ran well, but both needed a quart of oil about every 1500-2000 miles. Some folks reported being a quart down every 800-1000 miles. On Sal's Cadillac forum, I used to joke about having the 3.6 2-cycle engine.

 

Tough loss! Have ya had er since new? How much are used engines?

 

Did you do the service on it? A 180k miles and the engine goes, this is a suprise to me.

 

Time to swap in a 2JZ!

 

Wow, that isn't any better than the Northstar Seville Jesda has. It uses almost exactly a quart at almost exactly the same interval. I call it "free oil change".

We thought the CTS had timing chain failure, but I think this one actually turned out to be a bottom end failure of some sort. I can't really remember what the cause was.