LS430 transmission failure - total fluid loss

[RgrWynne]

Really sorry to hear of your predicament and hope you get sorted, cheers, Roger

[polymoog]

Update - I ended up having to replace the transmission, the original being damaged. On further testing it started throwing up solenoid fault codes and there was no way to discount clutch damage without chucking a fair bit of money at it, so it made sense to fit a used transmission known (or at least hoped) to be good. So that's what we did. Sourced a used box from Paul Frost and had it shipped to Austrin who fitted it for me. At my own risk of course.

I picked it up today and, so far and touch wood, it's driving beautifully again. Only put 30 miles on it so far, but we shall see.

I have to big up Austrin Engineering, who have been unfailingly friendly, open, honest, and who gave me a very kind deal on the labour charge for fitting the replacement transmission. Plus they lent me a courtesy car for a fortnight gratis while we sorted this all out, and gave the Lexus a thorough valet inside and out - shampooed carpets, tyres blacked, alloys sparkling - before I collected today. Top notch service.

I'm a good summer holiday's worth poorer in the the end, but back on the road. And I have to say it was like sinking into a warm bath getting back in the old barge after buzzing round in a 'normal' car for a while.

I now need to fit the new exhaust downpipe I bought just before the 'box went bang (the blow has developed since it went away and it sounds like Nick Nolte's Cadillac in 48 Hours), and then there's the fubar aircon to sort out...

Hey ho! 

[GrahamG]

Thanks for the update.

You are in line for a big dose of good luck.

[Ben01]

Congratulations for willpower to keep nice barge running.

BTW some comments to situation from my experience: if after such catastrophal failure (pool of ATF, or long ride with serious electric/valve fault, etc. or you sure tranny was seriously overheated) and transmission clearly failed, any workshop or service, even manufacurer's one, insists "lets drop and open tranny and we will see, maybe only X or Y (small print: you pay for this analyse)", laugh on them loudly, ask them "oh wait you are serious? let me laugh even harder", and laugh on them even harder. IMHO fault after any serious overheat or lost of ATF counts as transsmision is scrap immediately, and has only two solutions 1) replace the tranny 2) full refurbish of overheated one (and keyword is "full", means long time and nice pile of shekels). BTW BTW I once upon a time picked up option 2) refurbish - I also like to live dangerously.

[polymoog]

1 hour ago, Ben01 said:

Congratulations for willpower to keep nice barge running.

BTW some comments to situation from my experience: if after such catastrophal failure (pool of ATF, or long ride with serious electric/valve fault, etc. or you sure tranny was seriously overheated) and transmission clearly failed, any workshop or service, even manufacurer's one, insists "lets drop and open tranny and we will see, maybe only X or Y (small print: you pay for this analyse)", laugh on them loudly, ask them "oh wait you are serious? let me laugh even harder", and laugh on them even harder. IMHO fault after any serious overheat or lost of ATF counts as transsmision is scrap immediately, and has only two solutions 1) replace the tranny 2) full refurbish of overheated one (and keyword is "full", means long time and nice pile of shekels). BTW BTW I once upon a time picked up option 2) refurbish - I also like to live dangerously.

All very fair. Austrin of course offered a full transmission rebuild as their first and surest option, but that would have cost £2K+ in itself, then there was the rad to sort and so on. I told them I would have to scrap it rather than pay thousands, they were understanding of that so we proceeded incrementally on that basis. 

[Ben01]

30 minutes ago, polymoog said:

Austrin of course offered a full transmission rebuild as their first and surest option, but that would have cost £2K+ in itself, then there was the rad to sort too. I told them I would have to scrap it rather than pay thousands, so we proceeded on that basis. 

IMHO it was best course of action (OK, the best course is a brand new tranny 😉), used tranny is a bit of lottery maybe, but to refurbish fried one is lottery squared. I believe your workshop is honest and pro, but modern transmissions are such a complex and precise, it is near impossible to be sure if refurbish after "meltdown" was "good enough", especially in long time.

I hope your new transmission will be ok for many many miles.

[polymoog]

On 7/14/2018 at 11:39 PM, Ben01 said:

I hope your new transmission will be ok for many many miles.

Alas it seems my "40 thousand mile" tranny is shaping up to be a bit of a lemon. After initially seeming fine slouching around under a very light throttle, now I'm driving more normally it more often than not shifts up into 2nd with a noticeable bump, occasionally bumps down into 2nd too, and on a couple of occasions has positively banged into 1st from reverse. I'm generally always 'aware' of it, either in that it's more audible than the old 100K+ one (which was effectively undetectable to me), and sometimes feeling like it might be slipping slightly, though that may be psychosomatic.

Basically I've lost confidence in it to the point I feel apprehensive every time I get in it, even though empirically it's probably still better than most cars of its age out there. I can see me getting out of the Lexus game before long at this rate.

Not really what I was hoping for after such a big outlay, but that's the joys of trying to run a premium brand barge on a budget I guess.

[The-Acre]

I'm really sorry to hear about all this, I wish I could say something encouraging and positive.  It does seem strange that it started out ok though.

[GrahamG]

You deserved better than that from a 40k tranny.

All of us following your process wanted to see success.

[RgrWynne]

Really feel for you, what a bummer, Rgds, Roger

 

[The-Acre]

The guy who's replacing a shock absorber for me said he used to break LS400 & 430's and he said the one thing that always sat on the shelves with virtually no demand were transmissions as they were so reliable, so this truly is bad luck.

[polymoog]

20 minutes ago, The-Acre said:

The guy who's replacing a shock absorber for me said he used to break LS400 & 430's and he said the one thing that always sat on the shelves with virtually no demand were transmissions as they were so reliable, so this truly is bad luck.

I can believe it; the original unit was over 100K and absolutely perfect until the rad failure took it out.

[The-Acre]

6 hours ago, polymoog said:

I can believe it; the original unit was over 100K and absolutely perfect until the rad failure took it out.

So apart from kicking the cat have you thought about what to do?

[polymoog]

On 9/6/2018 at 6:27 PM, The-Acre said:

So apart from kicking the cat have you thought about what to do?

Sorry just saw this.

Well in somewhat despondent mood I went to a local car dealer today who had a 2006 E Class and a 2009 S Class in stock. The E was under £5k, the S was £9K. Both on 80K-ish miles allegedly, and both diesels, so the promise of 30+ mpg spurred me on.

Drove the E (the S was boxed in and it was getting late). It went well enough being the 3.0 TDI.

Externally they looked pretty good, very good even. But the interiors on both - dear lord what a load of depressing plasticky old carp. Tacky plastics, chatty switchgear, Vinyl - sorry, MB Tex - seats in the E, and leather in the S which might as well have been vinyl. Woeful 😞

All I could think of on the way home was a) I can put up with a lot of transmission clonks before I'll spring £9K to sit in a plastic coal-hole, b) I could chuck another 2 or 3 used transmissions at the LS for the price of the E, and c) if the LS dies completely I'd consider putting its seats in my front room 😄

But as to your main question, I haven't a clue really. Just soldier on for now I guess.
 

[The-Acre]

2 minutes ago, polymoog said:

Sorry just saw this.

Well in somewhat despondent mood I went to a local car dealer today who had a 2006 E Class and a 2009 S Class in stock. The E was under £5k, the S was £9K. Both on 80K-ish miles allegedly, and both diesels, so the promise of 30+ mpg spurred me on.

Drove the E (the S was boxed in and it was getting late). It went well enough being the 3.0 TDI.

Externally they looked pretty good, very good even. But the interiors on both - dear lord what a load of depressing plasticky old carp. Tacky plastics, chatty switchgear, Vinyl - sorry, MB Tex - seats in the E, and leather in the S which might as well have been vinyl. Woeful 😞

All I could think of on the way home was a) I can put up with a lot of transmission clonks before I'll spring £9K to sit in a plastic coal-hole, b) I could chuck another 2 or 3 used transmissions at the LS for the price of the E, and c) if the LS dies completely I'd consider putting its seats in my front room 😄

But as to your main question, I haven't a clue really. Just soldier on for now I guess.
 

This is what always brings me back to an LS, the cabin is such a fantastic place to be.  Maybe your transmission could have a sticky solenoid. I really hope you get it sorted and enjoy it for some time to come.