Hi all,
I've been searching for a new daily commuter car for the past 4 months. I previously had a 2003 Lexus es300 and loved it. At 200k miles the transmission started to lurch and wouldn't kickdown when trying to accelerate on the highway. Last week a BMW dealership here in Columbia Missouri bought a 2004 Ls 430 to sell. I spotted it a day after they listed it and test drove it for a day (surprisingly they let me do that). My mistake, I instantly fell in love with it. I hammered out a deal with them, $6,500 + my Es300 and we had a deal! It's black on black and had 25 services done at a Lexus dealership in Illinois. Including the water pump and timing belt done at 115k miles. It has 126k on it right now. It does have some shimmy in the steering wheel at around 60+mph, I'm thinking the tires need to be balanced? Everything else works as it should and I cant stop looking at it when I park it and walk away, hah!

 

Nice! You did the right thing.

I was kind of in the same boat as you about 5 yrs ago. Bought my first LS from a friend that was going to trade it in so he gave it to me for trade in value. Thought I would drive it for a year or two in order to save up money for a different car. I fell in love with it and when my first LS got totaled I went out and bought another one. I would do it again if something happens to my current one. These are great cars and for the most part you can DIY on just about everything and this forum is very active and can really help you out.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking! I was just going to drive this for around 3 years or so to save up for a newer LS460 or just drive the LS430 until the wheels fall off, lol! I'm thinking that the LS430 is a great commuter car that should last me for years and hundreds of thousands of miles ( if properly taken care of). I might be taking my car into the local Toyota dealership for Tc006-04 and get the ecm re flashed. I cleaned out my maf on Sunday due to high rpm hesitation and the jerky shifts from 2-1 and a little from 3-2. It didn't help much even though the maf sensor was black on one side and a brownish reddish on the other. I was quoted $187.95 for the " Shift Enhancement". The technician on the phone stated that there are 2 procedures for this, one is with their computer and a module that the plugs into the ecm and the other is the reset the ecu. I had the battery disconnected while I was working on the maf sensor. So technically I've performed one of the procedures but alas, it didn't help anything. Actually I might go as far as to say it's worse than before? I did put in a fuel treatment in the tank thinking that maybe the injectors might be a little clogged or something within the fuel system is gunked up. I'm hoping that next week when I take in the 430 into the toyota dealership for TC006-04,it will fix everything! Does anyone have any suggestions I should try before taking the car into the dealership to get that tsb done? Also, the last transmission flush/service was around 71k, should I have the transmission flushed and refiled at 126k?

 

Also, I did a little photo shoot on the car this past Sunday after I had detailed the car. Black cars look awesome at night! Let me know what you guys think of these photos! Some of these have been put through a filter to make them look better ( due to lighting). If anyone has any photography tips let me know!

 

With the higher mileage it's recommended to not "Flush" the trans but just do a "Drain & Fill". Preferably drain & fill about 3 times with a little drive time in between. There are DIY for that but due to it needing to be so exact on the fluid because of the closed trans and no fill tube, I had mine done by and independent who specializes in Toyota/Lexus. They had a special tool to take care of it and from what I remember it cost me about $170.

From what I've read, the flush can actually dislage some debris and clog up some of the valve passages. Hopefully that's not what happened if they truly flushed the transmission in the past.

I think I would go do the the transmission fluid route first before looking at an ECU upgrade or reflash. Technically, Lexus says that the trans fluid should never need changing which is why they sealed the trans but it's up to you to decide if you think the trans fluid will last forever or not. Obviously since I've done "drain & fill" on both of my LS, I don't believe in the forever fluid.

 

I thought the long story short was if burnt, do not touch. If dirty, yes, drain/fill 3X. Never flush. Then again, this is the first car I've had with an automatic, that cost over $2,000, so I'm no expert on auto trans. My indie did it on my car at 82k. He said at that mileage 0% chance of damage by doing drain fill. I started with my wife's SUV at 72k, and only did 2X because it was already pink with 2. But will do a 3rd this summer.

This is one of those things where who really knows, I bet there are cars with over 200k and never touched. Then you touch it and something goes wrong. What I mean is I bet the % of autos who got preventative maintenance is the exception, not the rule. And trans fluid is expensive my wife's ~$5/qt Dexron VI synth and that was shopping sales....

 

So, do you think that the flush and refill done at 71k did it more harm than good? Or is that a lower mileage where you shouldn't have to worry about things dislodging? All of the maintenance on the vehicle (from what I can tell) was done at a Lexus dealership. Im not sure if that's better or worse than if a indy shop performed the flush and refill. I would assume they did it by the book and did a proper flush?

 

How can you tell if it's burnt?

 

I don't know what to tell you here. Thing is that you don't know if it was truly flushed or just a drain/fill. They might have wrote it up as flush but only did a drain/fill. Then again, if they knew what they were doing they probably discouraged doing anything at 71k with the transmission. Maybe the previous owner was adamant about having it done?

If it were me, I would think about doing the drain/fill with the Toyota WF trans fluid by someone who knows about the LS with the sealed transmission and see if that helps. If the indie or dealer says you need to flush and not do a drain/fill....go somewhere else.

I have no idea since it's a sealed transmission. With 71k+ mileage I would just assume it's considered burnt or well used.

 

just remove the fill plug and put your finger in there and smell the oil and check the color

 

Hello guys. My LS 430 has a strange noise from the cabin. It sounds like a diesel engine is running from the cabin. No sound from outside of the car. Any fix for this?