Antharro

Are there any aftermarket parking sensors that are as good as the Lexus ones? I've looked on eBay and there are all sorts from £60 for a complete set to £30 for a single one from Germany. Recommendations welcomed, thanks!

I was very surprised that Lexus released the current version LS in the UK. I guess with it being a flagship model (and the first Lexus model) it wouldn't be *right* to not have it on sale, which I won't argue with. However with crossovers and SUVs taking up the market I am surprised it was worth their time. My local dealership doesn't have many LS customers. I quite liked the ES, even if it is a Camry in Lexus clothing; I wouldn't say no to one if it fit what I wanted I thought it was a shame that the current IS wasn't brought to the UK. One interesting thing I found out from my local dealership - apparently UK models have fewer options such as sunroofs, because they're heavy, which costs more in emissions, so Lexus can't meet European standards. So they cut out features.

That's pretty much what I remember from my 01 LS. I never had to have it anywhere near 50. That answers a lot, thanks. I wonder... given the zero-lead solder, would going over the board re-flowing all the solder joins it help any? Maybe adding in a little lead solder at the same time where possible? I'm using a couple of songs I know very well to figure out what's working and what isn't. The problem is definitely sub related and without it the whole system sounds "off". I wish I had that problem. I'm sure my 01 had it! 😀 Thanks everyone. I have some definite ideas where to take this next. Hopefully it'll be something simple and cheap, but knowing Lexus, maybe not!

Could use the forum's input on an audio issue please! 2004 LS430 with Mark Levinson sound system. Front door speakers have been refoamed, subwoofer replaced with second hand unit. Bluemusic bluetooth module installed, connected fine to my OnePlus 6 phone. Problem One On my previous 2001 LS (also ML), I remember that I didn't need to set the bass particularly high for it to be really booming and loud. In this car, with it set to a similar level, most of the time, the bass is present but hardly impressive. When connected to my phone, I get more bass overall, but I get noticeably more lower frequency bass (even though I'm not running any EQ or bass boost on the phone). Sometimes, I'll get GREAT levels of bass - it fills the car and sounds absolutely perfect. It feels like the bass is coming from all around, not just from the back, like I'm getting better frequency response from the front speakers as well. Exactly as I remember it in my earlier LS. Other times, the subwoofer rattles and clatters like it's failing, there's almost no mid-bass but plenty of low frequency sub-bass. I've played around with the built in audio controls including the ASL and position. Position makes a lot of difference to the sound - ML obviously did some tuning for that. Apart from that, no difference. The problem is at its worst when I'm listening from my phone, with position set to four passengers. In an attempt to troubleshoot, I picked up a non-genuine sub from a Lexus breaker in the UK who sells them as a cheap option when your ML sub gives up. It had the same problems - not enough bass sometimes but other times it would feel like the sub was being overdriven or failing. Problem Two I don't have another LS I can use for reference here, but I'm sure that the volume isn't as loud as it should be. When listening to the radio or a CD, I generally need to have the volume in the mid-40ies to approach a "reasonable" listening volume. It needs to be slightly louder for the phone. I often find myself listening with the volume set to nearly 50; whereas I'm sure in my 01, I rarely got out of the 30ies. I'm sure this is affecting the bass levels; I remember in my 01 that as the volume was set louder, the bass level would drop slightly, presumably to provide a more balanced sound and to protect the subwoofer. I *know* the ML sub isn't 100%, but I can't help but feel there's something else going on here. Maybe the amp? (I hope not given the price...). Appreciate any input you guys have.

Thanks for the reply. 1) There are no markings on the radiator. The Lexus dealer couldn't find them, and I couldn't. The only thing we could find is a large number 3 embossed on the fan shroud, not the radiator itself. Not helpful! I assume 16400-50251 (DENSO 2214100 WITH TOW PACKAGE) is an uprated radiator for warmer climates with a greater capacity for towing. Possibly not available in the UK as it doesn't get hot enough. I really need to know if this will fit a UK car or if the rad mounts and pipes are different. 2) Are 43550-50032, -50010 and -50011 the same part? I've seen some websites saying yes, others saying -50010 and -50011 are, and others listing them as three separate items with different prices.

I'm trying to track down the correct part numbers for the following items. Any help appreciated. These are for a 2004 Facelift. 1) Radiator - Main dealer says there are two and they don't know which one is correct for my car, even after looking up both the number plate and VIN. They suggest two. The first is 16400-50231. RockAuto says this is DENSO 2213170 NO TOW PACKAGE. The second is 16400-50241. RockAuto do not list this. However, RockAuto also lists 16400-50251 which is a DENSO 2214100 WITH TOW PACKAGE. I'm guessing the latter is an uprated model with improved cooling; but would it fit my car? 2) NSF wheel hub assembly - Main dealer says 43550-50032. RockAuto says 43550-50010 or -50011. Googling shows a number of websites that state these are all the same part number but for different countries; -50010 is listed as EURO/HONGKONG/SINGAPORE/TAIWAN. Any help appreciated! Also - does anyone have any experience with some of the brands available on RockAuto; I know Denso are fine, but how about Cardone, Wai Global, Raybestos, Moog? Thanks! 🙂

I managed to get the roof lining AND sunroof out just by moving the front seats as far back as possible and reclining them as far as possible! I checked the procedure in the workshop manual and it was easy enough; just awkward. Turns out the metalwork around the glass panel is a rusty mess. It hasn't entirely disintegrated but it's beyond saving. And the mechanism is jammed on the passenger side. Driver's side moves freely. It was full of rust and debris and even cleaned out it wouldn't move. So I've ordered a complete replacement (second hand from eBay, not from Paul this time!). Folks, if you have a sunroof, open it from time to time and give it a check over! And some TLC if it needs it! As a side note I also found why the driver's seat rocked back slightly when I sat on it - one of the front bolts was only in half way... and cross-threaded. Seriously. So I removed it (with some effort), cleaned up the bolt, applied a little grease and refitted it. There was enough thread left on it that it went in with some effort. Problem solved!

Ok, I've just spent a while reading through the repair manual. Looks like I was so close to getting this fixed. The manual states to remove the roof lining, you need to remove ALL the seats. I bet it'll come out with a bit of a wiggle if I fully recline the front seats. And I was only two trim pieces and six bolts from having the glass panel removed! Thankfully I didn't put the entire interior back together (just the handles, sunroof control panel/sunglasses holder/lights and mirror - enough to hold the roof lining in place. So I'm going to have another go with this and see if I can figure it out.

Simple problem, hoping for a simple solution. Phone (OnePlus 6) is paired with the built in bluetooth. If I make a call, the other party can hear me, but I can't hear them at all. Not even a whisper. I've been into the hidden settings menu to check the bluetooth volume wasn't turned down - it wasn't. I get a beep when I adjust the on-screen volume control so I assume the amp is working. Any ideas?

Today I took down the roof lining to take a look at the sunroof. I removed the motor to see how it connected to the rest of the mechanism. The motor has a large cog on it. This connects to a pair of plastic gear racks which then run in pipes to each side of the sunroof panel. The driver's side one moved freely but the passenger side was stuck. I dropped the sunroof down (12 bolts/nuts) to find the passenger side was full of rust. Cleaned out as much as I could but still no movement. Looks like I've found the problem... but I can't figure out how the heck to remove the sunroof mechanism from the car. The roof liner is far too large to fit through a door opening; looks like it was probably put in before the windscreen (great). If the liner was gone I could probably fold the seats as flat as possible and find a way to get the sunroof mechanism out, but I'm a bit stuck otherwise. Might have to find a local sunroof specialist to look at this, if I can find one. Otherwise it's £1500 to Lexus for a replacement (yeah, not gonna happen).

A search of this forum revealed plenty of people reporting their sunroof randomly opened or got stuck while open, but I haven't seen anyone report this - my sunroof is stuck CLOSED! The previous owner said he never bothered opening it as he preferred air conditioning. I can hear the motor trying to open it, but there's no movement from the glass panel, either in open or tilt modes. If I apply pressure to the rear of the glass panel then it will lift slightly, so it isn't stuck against the roof. Anyone come across this before? Is it likely that I'm going to need to drop the roof lining? (I hope not...)

I have two of those fitted to my Mitsubishi GTO project car. 🙂 One for the dashcam, one to charge the phone, then two extra sockets for whatever they're needed for. Excellent idea. I was thinking about fitting one to the Lexus, so thanks for the reminder!

I'm not feeling flush with cash. 😄 Would love to have the GROM-VL1-LEX4VL2 tho!

I wasn't referring to the GROM-VL1-LEX4VL2; I don't want to spend that much. I was looking at either GROM-BT3-TOY, GROM-USB3-TOY, GROM-AUX1-TOY all of which are significantly cheaper than the former, but still more expensive than the MusikImAuto BlueMusic option.

I was wondering about the eBay sourced ones - they seem SO much cheaper than the factory ones. But for the price they're worth a go. I've just booked the car in with my local Lexus dealer for a full front to back check-over and my regular mechanic will also be giving it a check over. It has a few odd things that need fixing plus whatever they find. So I'm looking to get everything done at once, so hopefully I can just do routine maintenance and servicing over the next few years!

Thanks @BigBoomer, I was hoping you'd see this. Completely agree with the cassette adapters and FM transmitters. Plus I'm looking to make this installation look as "factory" as possible, so the fewer wires and adapters the better! I've gone with the German option - seems very good value for money especially compared with the equivalent GROM product. I'd like to have the built in screen show track info, but I can live without that for the price difference!

My facelift LS430 has bluetooth built in, but for phone calls only. I'd like to upgrade this for music. Putting aside the FM transmitter options, it looks like my options are: 1) GROM Audio, either GROM-BT3-TOY, GROM-USB3-TOY, GROM-AUX1-TOY, or if I'm feeling flush with cash, GROM-VL1-LEX4VL2 2) VIAS Tech SL3b-L 3) MusikImAuto BlueMusic 2720 6+6, or BlueMusic 2737 audio + handsfree kit, both with the 6+6 splitter cable. I'm leaning towards the MusikImAuto solution as it's the cheapest and there seem to be a couple of good reviews on this forum... but I can't figure out from the website if it can pull track info (song name, etc) and show it on the LS's display. I'm going to ask them. Does anyone have any input on these, or other options I should consider?

I just picked up a 2004 facelift LS430, and I'm very happy to be back in the Lexus fold! I had almost forgotten just how much of a great car these are. It has a few things to work on and it's high mileage (199,700), but it's been well maintained and is in good condition! I wanted to check with the forum - do I need to do the radiator swap-out as on the early LS430s? Any other preventative maintenance I need to do on a facelift? Also, I need a few parking sensors - at least three or four. Where's the best place to get them? Are the cheap ones on eBay any good? Thanks!

Yup, car had been sat overnight and parked level. Thanks for confirming; guess I can rule this out as a cause then!

Just did a routine fluid check of my LS430 and noticed the oil seemed to be a little high. Given all the various problems I've been having with this engine smoking, I'm wondering if this is a contributing factor. Is the 3UZ particularly sensitive to being overfilled? The picture shows both sides of the dipstick from the same reading so you can see what both sides were showing!

An update! I've now had the following replaced: - Rocker cover gaskets x2 - Spark plug hole gaskets x8 - PCV valve - PCV valve pipe - Vent pipe - Power steering vacuum valve - Power steering vacuum valve pipes x2 Mechanic found a LOT of gunge in the rocker box - said it symptomatic of the car not being properly serviced in the past. The most gunge was around the top of N/S cylinder 1, incidentally the one that had the lowest compression. I did a motorway test the day after I got the car back... it was fine until about 20 minutes in when it started smoking badly. I pulled off the motorway, switched off, waited a few minutes then started up again - no smoke. Drove for another 10 minutes and it started smoking again... this time I dropped it into neutral, switched off the engine, started it again, back in to D and the smoke was gone. No smoke at all for the remaining 25 minute drive. And of course there was smoke at start-up the following day. But none during the town driving I did that way. There was smoke the following day but none while I was out and about. I'm going to do another motorway test tomorrow and see what happens... ...but I'm thinking this either looks like a valve job or piston rings.

The carbon was dry but the oil was not! 🙂 Thanks for the info on the resonator. @steve2006 Any advice you could give here would be gratefully received - thanks! Same for anyone else - I'm all out of ideas, beyond disconnecting the PCV valve and vent tube which I'm sure would only work until the next MOT...!

Spent a couple of hours working on the car today. Removed all the air intake again, plus the coil packs and spark plugs. Was disappointed to see a small amount of oil on the bottom of the throttle body valve opening, which I cleaned. Left bank plugs were mostly clean. Some oil on the threads but none near the tips or on the white part of the plugs. Plugs #1 and #4 (assuming #1 is closest to the firewall and #4 to the front of the car) were the oiliest. Right bank plugs were much oilier, with two of them having dried on oil on the white part of the plug. All four had oily threads, and #1 and #2 had oil on the wider metal area immediately above the plug's thread. No oil on or near the tips. Compression test results were: Left #1: 170 #2: 170 #3: 170 #4: 200 Right #1: 168 #2: 185 #3: 190 #4: 190 I cleaned the plugs, cleaned the coil packs, cleaned the PCV valve pipework, re-assembled and started the engine... came up on about 5 or 6 cylinders. D'oh. Put a squirt of WD40 in each coil pack, reassembled. Found a wire had come out of the loom for R1 coil pack - shoved it back into its moulding - started the engine, came up on 8 cylinders, nice and smooth. No smoke out the back at all. Let the engine come up to temperature while I re-assembled the air intake assembly. Noted that the left bank air valve (PCV thing) had a very small amount of oil on its outer surfaces and cleaned it off. Also noted that the cylinder head was oily around this area, as if oil had been leaking out of the air valve and running down the cylinder head. Not in any quantity but enough to be noticeable, and it had dried off since the car has been off the road. I don't believe that this valve is a valve; it's just a pipe that pressure vents through - a vent tube of sorts. It is a part of the cylinder head cover and is not adjustable and removable. If you take a look at part number 11201-50031 you can see that it's part of the cylinder head cover. You'll also see it on the pictures in this eBay auction: eBay Item 202864072539 and the pics in this thread on ClubLexus. The actual PCV valve on the right bank is a separate, removable part. Mint was replaced late last year. I didn't remove it but I did give its pipe work a clean - the inside of the pipe was slightly oily. So where does this leave me? Given the oil in the air intake, it would still seem that oil is coming from the vent tube and PCV valve. I know it's a long shot, but is it possible there's sludge in the cylinder heads that's messing with the vent / PCV system and causing this? Bad gaskets somewhere? I'm pretty much out of ideas here!

Mileage is 150k. The car was looked after well by the first couple of owners (as far as I could tell from the history I could get from the dealers) but the owner who had it before me couldn't have cared less about it and maintenance was extremely lacking. Oil level looks fine - it's just below the top level on the stick. The valve I've marked as "always open" is not the PCV; that's on the other bank of the engine. This one seems to be putting out air all the time; it's not high volume but it's constant - if I put my finger on it and block it, I'll feel a build up of pressure, but it's not hard or painful to keep my finger on it. @steve2006I'll have a look at the oil filler cap tomorrow and report back. I have a compression tester - how do I do a test on this engine? Disconnect all the coil packs and remove spark plug from one cylinder at a time, then crank a couple of times? What reading should I be looking for? Thanks everyone so far!

Where is all this oil coming from? For anyone not familiar with my LS430, it has oil problems, in that it smokes like a chimney when it wants to. In January (I think), it was diagnosed as either valve stem seals or piston rings - either way, beyond economical repair. And then the alternator started acting up. I was going to sell it, but then the lockdown happened and it's sat in my yard since. I've started it a couple of times since then. On a couple of occasions it's smoked REALLY heavily, and on a couple of occasions it hasn't. Just like how it was when I was daily driving it. After reading about the power steering pump leaking and causing power steering fluid to be pulled into the engine and causing smoke, and also dripping onto the alternator and causing alternator failure, I thought I'd have a look and see what I could find. I removed the entire air intake system. I could immediately see the shine of oil on the bottom of the throttle body valve. This is what I could see when I looked inside. Pretty sure all that oil shouldn't be there, right? I looked back through the various pipes and ductwork to see where the oil might be coming from. The pipe coming from the PCV valve was oily at both ends. I cleaned it and replaced it. There was another pipe coming from the other bank, which went into the underside of the thin box that feeds into the main air intake. This was also oily on both sides. I also noticed that one of the pipes from the power steering pump was particularly grubby, and looking below it on the alternator, there was evidence that a liquid had leaked onto it and dried off (from the car being sat for a couple of months). Lastly, the main air intake pipe had a small amount of oil residue in the "left" or "cold" side, and a larger amount on the side that connected with the valve. I tried running the engine and putting my finger over the pipe which resulted in a slight build up of pressure, which released with a "pshhhhhhhh" sound when I removed my finger. My theory is this - there's oil coming from the PCV valve, and from the pressure outlet pipe on the other side of the engine. There's probably also power steering fluid coming from the power steering pump. This builds up, gets sucked into the engine and burns off as nasty smelling blue/white smoke. But I have no idea how to confirm this, and I have no idea how to fix it, so any help would be appreciated! Lastly, what is the box I've pointed to in the pictures above, and what's inside it?