I've got news for all you Lexus Engine Sludge denyers; its a real problem. If you don't believe it go to the web and type in a few key words and see what comes up including class action lawsuites and lots of people complaining. You can include me in that group. We bought a used 2002 LS430 about 5 years ago with about 30,000 miles. It now has 117,000 mile and it has run like a sewing maching up until a few weeks ago when we started to get a burnt smell. We took it to our mechanic who said the valve covers were leaking so he replaced them. We drove it some more and then the low oil pressure light came on so we took it back. The mechanic mentioned that while he was replacing the valve covers he notice a LOT of gunk in the valve covers. He ran the engine and also got a low oil pressure light so I asked him to put a mechanical guage to make sure it was really low pressure an not a bad oil pressure sensor. Sure enough it WAS low oil pressure. It turns out that the valve covers were leaking because the engine was so gunked up that oil was building up in the valve covers and then leaking out.
So then he removed the oil pan and what I saw inside made me sick. Gooey, gobby oil and the oil pump intake screen totally gunked up with stuff that looked like an over baked cookie. He cleaned all that crap out and then he ran the engine with some "gunk' remover, changed the oil and filter again, ran it some more and the oil pressure light did not come on so I picked it up. I went strait to the auto parts house and bought enough oil and fiters for two more oil changes along with a couple cans of Sea Foam; one of which I put into the engine right away. My plan was to change the oil again as soon as it got 100 mile on it but it only got about 70 miles before the low oil pressure light came on again.
This is a disaster. If engine degunker and sea foam won't clean this crap out what will? The local dealer was absloutely no help and basically there is not much you can do except rebuild the engine or get another one.
This car has had regular oil changes and don't you dare doubt me on that. And don't give me that bs about the type of oil that was used. This is not an oil problem its an engine problem. I am 54 years old, I know plenty about cars and engines and I've had lots of cars most of which did not get the care this car got and I have never had this problem before.
I used to brag that this was the finest car I ever owned: it ran like a champ, accelerated like a motorcycle, smoothest ride in the world, bla, bla, but I can tell you that if this engine is cooked, I will be seriously *BLEEP*ed off. No car in this price category should get less than 200,000 mile. Period.
