NHTSA Complaint #11478035 — 2007 LEXUS LS

We were driving to Fort Bragg, CA on Hwy 20 W of Willits, CA in the mountains out of cell service, and the car was surging like it was out of gas, would not respond to throttle input, then just died. This put us in danger because we were heading down a steep hill on a narrow 2 lane road, and could easily have lost control from loss of braking and handling due to loss of power steering & power brakes. I was able to coast a few yards and immediately pull off into a small cut out on a corner and stop. I have no idea if the recall to fix the defective valve springs was completed on this car because I purchased it used in 2015. I had previously mentioned it to the Roseville CA Lexus Service department, and he dismissed it as the "car recalibrating itself" after every oil change. There were no warning lights or messages until the engine died, then all the lights came on immediately. Once we pulled over, I tried to restart and it would not start. We had over 1/2 a tank of gas, and the engine temp was normal. In fact, there was no warning prior to the engine dying - it just stopped and never started back up. I had the car towed to Freeman Lexus in Santa Rosa, CA and they finally determined that a valve spring had "let go", causing the engine to fail. I am convinced that the valve spring was defective per the recall in 2010 that addressed this very issue.