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Official: Lexus Engine Recall affects 138,000 vehicles

John Suit — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:58:14 +0000

2006 Lexus IS 350

Following on the footsteps of earlier announcements, a clarifying announcement was made by Toyota regarding faulty engines in some of their Lexus vehicles. Today, Toyota officially notified the NHTSA of its intent to recall about 138,000 vehicles in the United States, for a problem which can cause the engine to stall while driving. The automaker said that most owners who are affected will notice a rough idle or louder than normal engine noise. Read on for my analysis and specific models being recalled.

Toyota says that “the likelihood of a customer vehicle experiencing this condition is two-tenths of one percent (0.2 %).” That means there are about 276 cars out there which will exhibit the symptoms of this issue. Toyota will be sending out recall notices to affected owners soon, and those who receive the letter should contact their local Lexus dealership to schedule an appointment where their car will undergo a diagnosis and repair free of charge.

If you do the math, that leaves approximately 276 cars that would exhibit any symptoms. With the worldwide recall reportedly including 270,000 vehicles, that’s got to be more than one bad batch of valve springs. I think that there was an entire production run of these springs that had the contaminants in them, and Toyota’s got to recall any car that used them to ensure that they don’t have another PedalGate.

The following table lists all of the affected models. Cars built during model years 2009 and 2010 are not affected by this issue, presumably because Toyota switched suppliers, or they’ve gotten a large enough sampling of data to narrow down the problem batch of faulty engine parts to only those used in 2006-2008 3.5-liter V6, 4.6 and 5.0-liter V8 engines.

Model	Model Year
GS 350	2007, 2008
GS 450h	2007, 2008
GS 460	2008
IS 350	2006, 2007, 2008
LS 460	2007, 2008
LS 460 L	2007, 2008
LS 600h L	2008

by John Suit

Source: Toyota

Update: Lexus recall to affect 137,000 cars in the US

John Suit — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:32:53 +0000

Toyota just published a press release with some more details about their upcoming recall of Lexus vehicles. They’ve narrowed it down to 137,000 cars in the US, including the following Lexus models: IS 350, GS 350, GS 460, GS 450h, LS 460, LS 600hL. Furthermore, the current model year vehicles are not affected, so those of you with 2010 models need not worry.From the press release, Toyota found that “due to slight variations during the manufacturing process, some foreign material may have contaminated the valve springs resulting in potential breakage.” The contamination must’ve weakened the alloy metal the valve springs are created from. This problem seems to be limited to a certain batch of springs, and probably could not be caught until problems started cropping up on customer’s cars.

As of yet, Toyota hasn’t received any notice of accidents or injuries caused by this problem. Toyota is asking that customers contact their local Lexus dealer if they believe their vehicle is having problems.

by John Suit

Source: Toyota

Another Toyota Recall: 270,000 Faulty Engines

John Suit — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:18:32 +0000

In a report that came out this morning from The Wall Street Journal, Toyota has a bad batch of engines. Some faulty internal parts, valve springs for those who care, can cause the engine to stall while driving. The list of models includes the Lexus LS460, Lexus LS600h, Lexus LS600hL, Lexus GS350, Lexus GS450h, Lexus GS460 and Lexus IS350, as well as a not-for-the-US Toyota Crown. It seems the 4.6-liter V8 and 3.5-liter V6 engines used by a lot of Lexus models will be recalled, as soon as Toyota figures out a way to do it without disrupting customers’ lives too much. The specific years for the recalled cars hasn’t been announced yet, but you can be sure we’ll have all the information right here!

by John Suit

Source: The Wall Street Journal