Michael Chan

Hey guys thanks for the inputs and advices. This car was bought as-is with no warranty so I dont think Ford will take this car back... also I live in NJ so this pretty much mean the lemon law doesn't apply to my scenerio (In NJ, lemon law does not apply to cars that is sold as-is ). Besides, i don't really want to focus my time and energy to sue someone anyway. I just want to focus on how to fix this problem. Also, I am not angry with lexus. The LS 430 is a well build car and the sludge problem was most likely due to PO negligence with the oil change. Sadly, I do not have any maintance records to confirm that (Funny thing is I actually found the PO's number inside the owner's manual... I called and left a message yesterday and have not gotten any response yet... I know I am lame but I really want to know lol ) I am not sure if I can agree with one thing with you guys (and again I am not a mechanic so this is only strictly my humble opinion) and that is if the engine needs a rebuild or a "new" engine. Maybe the metal shavings are from the oil pump's bearing breaking apart. Again, the fact that this engine is running well with no smoke points to me that the internal mechanism is still intact. I am still convinced that this is an oil pump's bearing going bad or something due to the location of the clicking nose at the bottom left side of the engine (by the way, I have a clip of the noise here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG1yJb-fR7w please feel free to comment). I know it is not the AC b/c noise doesnt change with it on/off. Thanks again everyone.

Good point Curious B but I am not sure if the LS430 is covered under this. As far as I know, it was the six cylinder build from 97-02 that were covered. Also I really dont know any LS430 owners who I know complaining about sludge problem. But who knows... maybe the LS430 is affected. I will def look into that. Thanks. So I did more research in regards to the LS430 engine. It seems the oil pump is located behind the front driver's tire. I am also suspecting the bearing that drive this pump from the crankshaft maybe starting to go bad? One interesting thing I also noticed today is that the ticking noise is irrelevant to the engine's temperature but rather how long has the car been sitting. The longer the car sits the longer it would take the ticking noise to come on. So I think this makes sense b/c the longer you let a car sit the longer the pump will be pooled with the oil and the noise from the damaged bearing would softened as a result. I think the past owner must have changed the oil at a regular interval in terms of mileage but not the time. The fact that this 11 year old car have such a low mileage (85K) means it wasn't driven much and the oil most likely have sat longer than it is intended to. This resulted to sludge formation and therefore the oil pump is starting to fail. I am truly convinced that this noise is not from the valve/camshaft/crankshaft as the performance of the engine is very good and it is not blowing heavy smoke from the exhaust. Of course, I can be wrong as I am no mechanic. I can only speculate at this point. The only question I have is that is there anyone out there who has experienced an oil pump failure and does this scenario sound like an early sign of it? Can anyone also give me instruction on how to change an oil pump or have a diagram of the oil pump? Thanks.

Thanks for the input guys. I was able to better locate the sound today upon closer inspection. The noise doesn't seem to be coming from the top of the engine but rather from the bottom. I can actually heard the ticking noise the loudest behind the driver's side front tire. Is that where the oil pump is located at? Maybe that is failing? or maybe the belt that is driving the oil pump is going bad? Thanks again.

Hello everyone. I need help. I have just recently purchased a 2001 LS430 with 85k like two months ago from a Ford dealership. Long story short, I brought it into a lexus dealership for a timing belt change, oil change and trans fluid change. After the car was done, the mechanic test drove the car and noticed low oil pressure light came on and the engine has ticking noise. He then look inside the hole where the engine oil goes in and notice sludge is in it. He took the oil pan out and sludge was everywhere and the filter screen was clogged. He also notice pieces of metal shavings in the sludge. He told me that engine failure is imminent at this point because it looks like the previous owner did not change the oil frequent enough and causes engine sludge to develop and therefore the engine damage. The thing is the car runs fine (no smoke, no loss of power and runs smooth). It just has this annoying ticking noise that is coming from the valve area on the driver side. I can heard it at idle and if i rev the engine past 2000rpm i dont hear it anymore. The thing I dont get is how come I didn't hear any ticking noise before I brought the car in for service? I mean If the damage is so bad won't I have heard the tick before the timing belt change? The car ran perfectly fine with no ticking noise before. Could the mechanic have screwed up the timing belt job and cause all this? Is the timing off by any chance and the mechanic just didnt know what he was doing? Any input would be a great help. Thanks you all in advance.