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2015 Lexus LS460 F Sport Crafted Line Potential Problems Down the Road
Hello everyone,
New to this forum, but not new to Lexus. I just bought a 2014 Lexus LS 460 Fsport crafted line with 176k miles on it. I have all service records and paperwork for it. Suspension have no rips in boots or cracked bushing. All suspension airbags work have been serviced by the dealer a few times but not all components were replaced, just some. I drove it 130 miles home from the dealer with no issues. Some stop and go traffic along the way since there was a storm.
After watching car care nuts video, I’m all sorts of paranoid LOL. Also reading about the brake actuator failing and 3k to fix and air suspension taking a dump…Also issues with coolant in the valley…..Realistically how paranoid should I be? Is this the demise for the LS? I knew these were reliable but didn’t think it would be that bad now that Im really looking into.m it. I’ve owned an 07 ls460 and sold it at 160k miles but never had a problem with it. Had an LS400 and never had issues with it either.
Would really love your guys opinion and experiences. Any very high mileage folks? Most I saw was 253k with basic maintenance
That car's a beauty for 176K miles, the seats look in the same shape as my 2017 with 1/3 the mileage. It's even the same color "Eminent white pearl".
Yes the car has some potential problem areas but the maintenance records ought to give you a better idea what to expect, after all. I'd go through the pile of receipts, (which probably isn't very large I'm guessing, since she's a Lexus) just to find out what's original and which parts got replaced already. At your mileage you might get lucky and discover the previous owner has already repaired and replaced many things already, and so the parts that are problematic might still have gobs of life left in them.
But I can understand your concern, everyone feels apprehension after buying a used car, since it is always a gamble; and the possibility you've bought someone else's rolling wreck is always there (although unlikely with a Lexus which is why we own them!). So depending on how skilled you are at automotive stuff, I'd devote a whole day to a thorough inspection bumper to bumper, or maybe just hand it over to a Lexus mechanic for that. How else will you ever know what the vehicle's true condition is, what it's going to need, and how soon?
I'm thinking you got it for a bargain price or else you wouldn't have bought it - BTW how much did you pay? Anyway, there's probably no reason you can't get another 200,000 miles out of this car. My only concern for owning a car like this would be, getting nibbled to death "by a thousand cuts" if many small things start going wrong. Which is why, a Lexus is literally the only car I would even consider buying with >100,000 miles on it. It's engineered to last.
That car's a beauty for 176K miles, the seats look in the same shape as my 2017 with 1/3 the mileage. It's even the same color "Eminent white pearl".
Yes the car has some potential problem areas but the maintenance records ought to give you a better idea what to expect, after all. I'd go through the pile of receipts, (which probably isn't very large I'm guessing, since she's a Lexus) just to find out what's original and which parts got replaced already. At your mileage you might get lucky and discover the previous owner has already repaired and replaced many things already, and so the parts that are problematic might still have gobs of life left in them.
But I can understand your concern, everyone feels apprehension after buying a used car, since it is always a gamble; and the possibility you've bought someone else's rolling wreck is always there (although unlikely with a Lexus which is why we own them!). So depending on how skilled you are at automotive stuff, I'd devote a whole day to a thorough inspection bumper to bumper, or maybe just hand it over to a Lexus mechanic for that. How else will you ever know what the vehicle's true condition is, what it's going to need, and how soon?
I'm thinking you got it for a bargain price or else you wouldn't have bought it - BTW how much did you pay? Anyway, there's probably no reason you can't get another 200,000 miles out of this car. My only concern for owning a car like this would be, getting nibbled to death "by a thousand cuts" if many small things start going wrong. Which is why, a Lexus is literally the only car I would even consider buying with >100,000 miles on it. It's engineered to last.
I got it for 17k OTD. After all fees and taxes. And yeah it was a beautiful car which look really well maintained. I looked at all receipts and service records to find anything but do not see anything crazy that was done besides fluid changes etc. I see a battery/coil spark plg record but description only mentions battery changed so no sure if the plugs were swapped too. I know they’re a pain on the 4.6 to change.
No mention of the valley leak or other parts of the suspension besides rear passenger air bag shock changed and the suspension air compressor changed, so anticipating other failures.
I don't own one yet and hopefully in the near future! I have been reading a lot about the known failures for the ls 460 and it scares me too, but this is what comes with the car knowing the common issues. Everyone I have talked with has mix feelings about them. They are nice and reliable cars but is expensive when needing repairs. I saw your response about how much you paid for it and 17K OTD seems like a very good deal, well at least to me lol. I get mileage plays a factor and age. Nice ride though, one day I will get one too LOL.
Edited:
If you don't mind me asking what the listing price and or did you have to bargain to get it down to your OTD price?
I just went through this anxiety and still have it. I looked for mine for about a year, spent hours upon hours on this forum reading posts and asking questions (still always have more come up), so I knew what I was getting into. Did you do a PPI? I had mine done at a Lexus dealer and the valley plate was leaking. I negotiated some off the car because of that---but it's done and that anxiety is gone for now. There are many great people on this forum that are knowledgeable and can help out. Anything you could ever want to know about the brake actuator is on this forum---I answered my question in a recent post after digging around on here for awhile; found a procedure to test the voltage, checked it last night on Techstream, and I know it's all good. The valley plate, and the control arms; and in your case, air suspension, do have reason for concern. You just have to prepare yourself for these to happen and have the means to fix them properly. Outside of those 4 major things, most people have great luck with their cars, and they last awhile. They do eat tires and brakes--it's a 4,000+ lb. car. Parts are more expensive. One forum member said it best--something along the lines of "every time I step into my LS, its half pure joy and half anxiety about when it needs repairs again". I find my driving habits on this totally different from my ES. I tend to drive like an old man, and I'm not as rough on the car with hard acceleration, turns, and braking.
BTW, I'm a huge fan of The Car Care Nut and watch his videos also. He has a recent one on the valley plate repair and warns about the injector connectors breaking and plastic pieces on the injectors themselves, requiring replacement (at $412 ea.). I had my local Lexus dealer repair mine and, thankfully, nothing broke, but I was told the tech fought with some things for awhile. Cost was close to $1400 without anything breaking, but it can get up to $2k or a little more. I think the wife's GX may have a leak now too.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but more than likely, you'll eventually have a valley plate leak, and it's only time before you start to have issues with the air suspension & control arms.
Everything about this car is expensive!
Just a little background, I recently sold my '13 Fsport with only 99K miles. Valley plate leaked around 50Kish, Front left air suspension failure at 80K. Just swapping out both front air suspension along w/ all 8 front Control arms + labor cost me ~$7,000.
On the flip side, the only reason I sold the LS was because I bought a GSF, and unfortunately don't have a 3 car garage yet.
I have my old Data Controller lowering module for sale on marketplace, if you want to lower the stance and eliminate the wheel gap.
After watching car care nuts video, I’m all sorts of paranoid LOL. Also reading about the brake actuator failing and 3k to fix and air suspension taking a dump…Also issues with coolant in the valley…..Realistically how paranoid should I be?
I wouldn't pay much attention to that guy, he contradicts himself in many of his videos. In his video review of the RCF TE edition he states that the LC500 is superior "in every way" to the RCF in the last section around 25:45 ish.
Also the shop that he films in is so sterile looking it's hard to believe that any work is done there, I've worked in Toyota shops for many years and the only ones that look like that are new dealerships in my experience...those are Toyota colors too, maybe it's a studio or a detail shop.
Every car will have problems, cheap cars will sometime have cheap to repair known problems but not always, expensive cars will never be cheap to repair even if you do the work yourself. I've noticed recently some build up of dried coolant dead centre at the back of the intake area so I bought an inspection cam to see how bad it was and it seems to have just started. I don't mind doing this because it's mainly labor.
Your car looks a little low in the rear from stock height, is it like that on both sides?
04-14-24, 11:15 PM
2015 Lexus LS460 F Sport Crafted Line Potential Problems Down the Road
