kiri

Thanks for the detailed info Neil. I could get to the plastic cover and rotate it slightly. There wasn't enough space to spread my fingers to grip both sides so I had to push or pull one side. I reckoned I'd have even more of a struggle just to put the cover back on! Also I couldn't work out the function of the unit I'd need to remove to get better access but as it seemed to be part of the cooling system I gave up! It had to take the MOT without risking the bulb turning off mid test, so I had Lexus change it. They partially dropped the bumper cover but they wouldn't tell me how. I haven't needed (yet) to see to the offside HID but your pictures should make it a doable task, particularly if there's no MOT deadline! Many thanks for the input.

Thanks for the detailed info Neil. I could get to the plastic cover and rotate it slightly. There wasn't enough space to spread my fingers to grip both sides so I had to push or pull one side. I reckoned I'd have even more of a struggle just to put the cover back on! Also I couldn't work out the function of the unit I'd need to remove to get better access but as it seemed to be part of the cooling system I gave up! It had to take the MOT without risking the bulb turning off mid test, so I had Lexus change it. They partially dropped the bumper cover but they wouldn't tell me how. I haven't needed (yet) to see to the offside HID but your pictures should make it a doable task, particularly if there's no MOT deadline! Many thanks for the input.

Hi NielE. Are you the NeilJ I mentioned? Thanks anyway for this info! The pictures of your '06 with bumper cover off show several protrusions with holes in that might match the 10mm bolts you mentioned. I can only remove the bolt nearest the point where the bumper cover clips to the panel above. As I can't drop/swivel the cover down much at that point even with that bolt out I can't reach the nut that screws onto the lamp body, so anything else in that area is invisible to me! I can feel the lamp nut but can't get at it. In despair I have phoned around Lexus dealers and, if the replacement can be done by an engineer with little hands, it would cost about £30. If the bumper cover needs dropping they would charge an hour's labour. That would mean £200... or that's what they said! I think I have to find out soon. I remember the 3-minute bulb changes but owners who have always had streamlined HID lamps may never have experienced that pleasure. So much for the benefits of progress and style.

I need to do what you did...except the respray hopefully! Did you keep a record of what you had to do to remove the bumper cover? I tried using information from the US but now I'm stuck with all visible bumper cover screws/clips removed and a bumper that won't come off! Whatever you learned would be much appreciated as my car's 2005 too.

Thanks for the hope! Unfortunately I'm now at the point where I can't get the bumper cover off and am stuck! All visible fixings have been removed and the bumper cover's able to be forced down at the back by 2cm giving a wedge-shaped gap of a cm or so next to the wheel, but that's it. Is there something inside the wheel arch that's keeping it in place? Does the whole of the liner have to be removed? The official Lexus instructions I've got make it look like a straightforward job. I wish! NeilJ said on the forum in 2014 that he'd removed the bumper cover and fixed the HID so it's obviously doable...but not yet by me on my 2005 model!

My 2005 SC430 has an intermittent HID failure on the passenger side. It's on, off, on, off... so I want to replace the bulb. and I have a Toyota replacement. The Lexus instructions are pretty clear but after removing the bumper cover they say disconnect the bulb connectors and then pull the headlight forwards to remove it. Since not being able to get at the connectors is the reason to remove the bumper cover in the first place it looks like they could be just as inaccessible without the bumper cover. Can the light be pulled forwards to allow the connectors to be disconnected or are the cables too short? Has anyone in the UK tried this?

UPDATE. The car's just back from the local Lexus dealer with the passenge seat operating properly. They removed the seat, dismantled the mechanism and found a silver teaspoon jammed inside it. Now we have to see if the Lexus dealer who sold us the car is willing to pay for the 2 1/2 hours work involved!

Hi Paul. I appreciate your helpful comments as I'd not heard of the service bulletins before. I've searched for them but with little success but the references I found makes me think there is only one procedure for resetting the seat memories and getting them to store settings. There are procedures for other Lexus models on the Web and they are similar (apart from the differences in control knobs) to those in the SC Owners Manual. My husband's now itching to remove the seat and find out how it works, as from you and one other owner he's now heard of 2 cars with matching driver/passenger seat positioning and he thinks it's a physical setup that's wrong!

Thanks for that. The battery was disconnected a while ago and the memory and seat position needed to be reset. Unfortunately when the seat was adjusted backwards (and the seatback backwards) until the beeps it was still 5" from the back seat. It may or may not have been possible before that to adjust the seat further back but there's no way of knowing. Do you know if this is another initialisation technique, different from the reset which is described in the owners manual?

My newly-acquired 2005 SC430 is a wonderful car for me but my husband had problems fitting in the passenger seat. The seat will not move back enough for him but the driver seat does. Both seats move through the same distance but the passenger seat stops 5" from the rear seat while the driver seat will just touch the rear seat. We've asked the Lexus branch we got it from if this is normal and they are not sure. I looked at a friend's SC430 a year newer and both seats adjust the same amount from the same start position. If there is a problem here has anyone got a solution. If I don't get it fixed he'll always want to drive!