According to a Monday statement on the Japanese Transportation Ministry website, after having recently disclosed its plans to recall almost 270,000 vehicles over defective engines, Toyota Motor Corp has started recalling nearly 91,903 luxury Lexus and Crown cars sold in the country. The recall of the vehicles in international markets will also begin soon.

As per the details brought forth by the statement, Toyota is recalling Lexus GS 350, GS 450h, GS 460, IS 350, LS 460, LS 600h and LS 600hL models and some Toyota Crown models due to complaints about faulty valves that can lead to the stalling of the engine.

Going by a last-week report in the Asahi newspaper, the recall, which pertains to some Lexus and Crown models manufactured between July 2005 and August 2008, will likely cost the carmaker 20 billion yen ($228 million).

Having acknowledged the faulty valve problem last week, Toyota had said that of the almost 270,000 cars recalled, nearly 180,000 were sold overseas - about 138,000 in the US alone. The company has received nearly 220 complaints about the defect, which has not caused any accidents or injuries.

The recall of Toyota's top-of-the-line vehicles comes at a time when the bigwig automaker is already struggling to leave behind the October 2009-started massive global recalls of over 8.5 million vehicles plagued with problems like sticking gas pedals, braking software glitches and imperfect floor mats.