Scotty, I know that you are a big fan of the Lexus/toyota 6 cylinder engine. I am looking to buy a used Lexus and was wondering what are your thoughts on the LS series with the 8 cylinder engine. I owed one about twenty five years ago, and would like to go back to it but I don't want to spend money on repairs.
thanks, Daryl
V8 is more expensive to repair as they age but should be fine for 15 years or so but the V6 are much better and Scotty has "mixed" opinions on the LS. The new LS came with a twin-turbo V6 and Scotty is a fan of that there is a video on the channel about it.
If you buy the V8s new, they should be trouble free for 10-15 years with around 150k-200k miles, but after that, you will loose your shirt on the repairs. that's why Scotty recommends 6 cylinder ones.
What makes V8 significantly more costly than a V6?It’s only two more cylinders.
I think it mostly has to do with labor costs since the V8 has less working room. So, you have to remove a lot of different things to change something that would be relatively easy to get to on a V6. For example, getting to the starter on the V8 is very labor intensive since you have to take off the entire intake manifold just to access it. They are still very well built engines, but as the car gets very high mileage stuff like this can add up.
At the end of the day the V8 is still more durable than any V8 from any other auto manufacturer. Just set aside extra money for repair costs as the engine ages, but you will have saved so much money already from not needing other repairs (compared to the competition) that it’s probably OK.
I still own a 20 year old Lexus V8 with over 250k miles and the engine is fine. MY LX470 has no issues with the engine, the only downside to the V8 is the starter is under the intake manifold so you'll pay a lot of money to get it replaced if you don't do it yourself.
What is the Mitchell Book time for number of labor hours to remove and replace a starter on a Toyota/Lexus V8?
Also, is it doable enough that you can do yourself?