Drove maybe two blocks after lunch today and all hell broke loose. Check VSC light came on, Check Engine light came on, message on dash saying See Dealer. The engine was running VERY rough, and if I tried to accelerate, the whole car shook.

I limped to the dealer, and the early diagnosis is a broken valve spring. They'll have to do surgery to know for sure, so they tell me I might get it back Monday.

Cards and memorial contributions will of course be welcomed.

.
.

 

Ouch, that sounds troublesome indeed. Best wishes for you car's complete recovery.

 

Darn, and I had a bouquet of flowers all picked out...

 

man sorry to hear that, doesn't look pretty. hope you can get the car back soon

 

It's not too late, Burnaby ... give the flowers to the wife and send cash. I'll PM you my Paypal address!

.
.

 

Thanks, encore and Rominl - I'm sure she'll be okay.

I WILL say it's the first time a Lexus has crapped out on me, and the first time in years ANY of my cars has gone lame like this. But anything mechanical can and will break at some point ... and this was just my car's time.

Thank goodness for warranties, though!

.
.

 

In you time of need the last thing you want to hear from is a naysayer, however, this happened to my mother's LS on the way home from the dealership on the first night of ownership and the ultimate diagnosis was the cracked valve spring caused the car to die and it was replaced. Fingers crossed for a better resolution sir.

 

man that sucks which dealer did you bring it to?

 

Stay on top of the service dept. Mike.

If the valve spring broke, most likely the valve fell into the cylinder. If it did, then the piston and cylinder wall are damaged. That requires replacement of both.

Don't let them shortchange you here!

 

Park Place in Grapevine. That's where I got the car.

.
.

 

I was kind of thinking along those lines myself. I mentioned to my service writer that I would expect the valve to wedge itself in the crown of the piston if the spring broke, but he said nah, it would just fail to open and cause that miss.

But unless these are double-wound springs (which they may well be), there's nothing to hold the valve in the closed position.

I might add I didn't hear the tell-tale rattling I'd expect from a valve whacking around loose in the cylinder ...

In any case, it's a leased car, so ultimately it's Lexus' problem.

.
.

 

This is a issue that has randomly afflicted a few other Toyota engines including my 2006 Tundra. LS460 shares the same engine (short block) with Toyota Tundra and Sequoia. My truck acted exactly the same at 600 miles while idleing after a cold start and the diagnosis was the same as Mike's. Toyota replaced the engine and I was back on the road in two days and given an extended warranty by the dealer. This past August, one of my neighbors' 08 Sequoia was flatbeded to the shop under the same conditions at 8,000+ miles. The dealer replaced the head, springs, and two of the valves, supposedly no other damages to the internals.

 

I knew I had heard something about this somewhere (here?), so I'm not completely surprised.

I know they can replace the spring without even removing the head (or at least I think they can), so I will question them about potential piston and cylinder damage.

But I figure if the valve went swimming in the combustion chamber and got intimate with the piston, it will be damaged and won't stand up to a compression test (or will be obviously bent). That will of course tell them it's time to "go in" and find out how bad things are.

It will be interesting!

Hey - maybe I can get them to bore it out to 5.0L and 500hp!

.
.

 

Wow, sorry to hear that, best of luck to your repair, I hope you get it back soon ...

 

That's where we got our 600h too. Hey we should have a LS owners meet up in DFW and cruise around! haha