LS460 engine response

Peter67 · September 9, 2020

Fuchs Titan is a good oil so you should be good with that. They are very reputable and in my experience the Titan range of products are widely used in industry.

The first time I became aware of low coolant was when I was stopped in traffic on a warm day and from inside the car I could hear the rad fans running at higher speed than normal.Usually you cannot hear them. I thought the heating early that morning was not great so I investigated. I found the level in the tank was slightly above the low mark so this surprised me. I topped the coolant up and it took about 3 litres with the heating system on and the bleed valve opened. I then found the leak on the top of the rad where the rad tank aluminium seam is crimped to the plastic. I was surprised I had no coolant alert but there doesn't seem to be one. Use ultra caution when closing the plastic bleed valve as the whole assembly is plastic. It really just needs to be closed not tightened in any way otherwise the housing will break.

Malc · September 9, 2020

1 hour ago, TyrannosauRoss Lex said:

Thank you very much for your insight RE the radiator

Ross, you will find a much earlier post I made on here about the radiator, gearbox issue.

I met a local guy with his Ls460

He had this issue on his Ls430 and it wrote the car off.

He had exactly the same issue with his " new " invincible Ls460 BUT he managed to save the gearbox at a cost of £3500 ( I think )

The good policy is to change the radiator stuff every 100k miles to be sure

Malc

TyrannosauRoss Lex · September 9, 2020

OK thanks for your input everyone. I will get the radiator changed as a precaution when it goes in for its MOT, it's due mid-November so it will be done by then. The car is on around 104k miles at the moment.

Tulpen · September 9, 2020

1 hour ago, TyrannosauRoss Lex said:

OK thanks for your input everyone. I will get the radiator changed as a precaution when it goes in for its MOT, it's due mid-November so it will be done by then. The car is on around 104k miles at the moment.

I had mine done at 105k, last year. The Lexus mechanic said the old one showed signs of stress around the oil cooler connections.

SW20YO · May 1

@TyrannosauRoss Lex

Apologies to resurrect a very old thread but my 2006 LS460 has recently started having this exact same issue as yours. Some excellent info from Peter in this thread but before I go chasing issues with time/money I am trying to get answers from UK owners who have actually cracked it. Did you manage to fix it or did it go away? Cheers

Tulpen · May 2

Can you give us a it more info? How many miles has it done, when and where was it last serviced etc.

TyrannosauRoss Lex · May 2

9 hours ago, SW20YO said:

@TyrannosauRoss Lex

Apologies to resurrect a very old thread but my 2006 LS460 has recently started having this exact same issue as yours. Some excellent info from Peter in this thread but before I go chasing issues with time/money I am trying to get answers from UK owners who have actually cracked it. Did you manage to fix it or did it go away? Cheers

Hi, I never got to the bottom of it, but I sold the car a little over a year ago so I can't be of any help I'm afraid.

SW20YO · May 2

No worries, appreciate the response anyway!

I have found quite a lot of info for US owners with this exact issue, know as "acceleration hesitation" including many fixes, but have found very little from UK owners who have fixed this issue. I am determined to see this through and fix it so will post any updates here for future UK owners. Please excuse the long post but I want to include others with as much info as I can.

So the issue on mine is exactly as described by Ross in their original post. My car is a 2006 LS460 with 101k miles, recent Lexus main dealer service history.

My car experiences the issue, however after a few miles of constant 60mph+ driving, i.e. motorway, the issue completely goes away. After a few miles of slow town driving, it returns. No exceptions to this rule. Sometimes there is an "inbetween" stage where if the acceleration is lagging I can come off the throttle, then back onto it and the car flies. But this never lasts long. Manual or auto mode does not change anything.

Where it started: my car was with Lexus Bristol for a gearbox oil and brake fluid flush & replacement. Engine oil service had been done a few months prior. Drove fine for 2 weeks and then this issue started, not sure if it is related to the service undertaken. Curiously, my airbag light (passenger knee) came on the same morning the issue started. No idea if related but maybe worth noting.

I've lived with it for a few months as I mainly do motorway driving. In that time I have tried some of the quicker/easier potential fixes found online: using all different brand and grade of fuels, using BG 44K fuel system cleaner, using PWR mode. No fix.

Last week, upon accelerating from a stop at around 10mph/2000rpm the engine coughed and stalled. Orange CEL, VSC, PSC and red Battery lights flashed. Started right back up (Same lights illuminated minus Battery light) no issues and drove as before. OK, it was time to return to Lexus. A day or so before it went in, all the lights did disappear but the computer stores these codes.

They scanned the computer and found a few codes, most pertinent was P2119 for 'Throttle Actuator Control Throttle Body Range/Performance'. They took out the TB and cleaned it up, test drove and none of the codes returned. Even the airbag light went and has stayed out. So some progress, but the car still drove like a pig around town so no dice.

My next two avenues of approach are:

1) Check that the Valve Spring Replacement recall described here: https://media.lexus.co.uk/lexus-announces-uk-recall-campaign/ has been performed for my car. Many US owners report that this fixes the hesitation issue. Lexus did issue affected VIN#'s for US cars but I couldn't find any for the UK, however my car definitely fits the correct age range. I don't honestly think this is the issue but I have asked Lexus to confirm if my car was affected and/or repaired under this recall just to cross it off the list.

2) Secondly, and far more promising, is that many US owners report that a technical service bulletin to update the ECM/Powertrain Control Module parameters completely fixes this issue. These are 2008 L-SB-033-08, later superceded in 2017 by L-SB-0122-17. I have attached pdf copies of both, and they exactly describe the issue our cars have experienced. Funnily enough, they also make reference to the fact that the car may throw a check engine code... you guessed it P2119 for Throttle Body! This TSB involves a reflash of the ECM/PCM (sometimes multiple reflashes required), and in "some cases" replacement of the heads. Ouch. Unfortunately these are US-based bulletins and do not apply in the UK. I have sent this information to Lexus Bristol and I am hoping that there is a UK equivalent, or at least an ability to perform the same update to my car. If they can't or aren't willing, I will explore whether any good Lexus indies are able to do this.

There are a few further fixes I have identified through my research, including Peter's excellent info earlier in this post, however for now I'm cautiously optimistic on the above TSB.

I will post again when I have a meaningful update.

L-SB-0122-17 'Hesitation on Acceleration and-or P2119' [2017-05-03].pdf lsb003308.pdf