LEDMaestro101

Yeah sorry, haven’t updated my profile yet haha. Bought from some guy in B’ham. 2003 (53 plate) Full history up to last year, passed its last MOT with no advisories and the bodywork is....decent-ish. I paid £1,500 though and I didn’t think to check the keys. The fact that smart wasn’t working didn’t bother me as I knew I could get it programmed....what I didn’t realise is that I had, effectively, only one key which wasn’t the master. I was stupid not to check the other key and now I’m crying in a corner for not being more thorough with my checks as there are a multitude of issues

Hey, just picked up a facelift 430 and I’m already regretting it. The car came with 2 keys....one valet key and one that doesn’t even belong with the car, blade is different and not recognised by the immobiliser. Along with a whole host of other problems that the seller is turning a blind eye to, what are my options for getting a new master Key? My primary Lexus Dealer stated a new ECU and keys which I understand is a last resort and hopefully not a first and only option. Is it possible to have the ECU flashed to accept a new master? Would it be better to get an ECU and keys off a junker? I feel so lost without smart access and without the ability to program another key to the car (as well as not being able to get it the boot with my only working key!) cheers and happy new year all!

Lol no offence taken mate haha. I honestly thought I might had done that but the bulb definitely only goes in one way into the housing. I’m going to take a punt at the OEM lights and see how I get on. Hopefully it solves my issue. I’ll post comparison pictures when they’re done.

Yep, HID’s were fitted as standard to the 430. As I said, this is the first car I’ve seen use reflectors with HID’s instead of projectors and it’s a very odd setup to me. Makes me wish I had saved a bit more for a facelift 430 now lol. both the handbook and various bulb “check” websites state that it takes D2R’s but I will check the headlamp itself for the DCR Mark you mention, thanks for the heads up!

Thanks amber, I slowly came to the realisation that I’d have to go OEM, just wanted peoples thoughts. I agree though nemesis, I always thought HID’s were always in projector units but it seems it wasn’t until the facelift that projectors were used. Still a very strange setup to me though

Hey all, so next up on my list of jobs with the car is replacing the headlight bulbs. I have an X reg 430 which uses D2R in a reflector housing. The original bulbs in the car were degraded on the passenger side but had a noticeable cutoff. I bought some cheap replacements ages ago thinking “a bulb is a bulb” but they threw light everywhere, dazzling drivers at night etc. So I‘ve now bought some lunex 6000k bulbs but......I still have zero cutoff! I have a lot of light being flung upwards and they’re acting more like high beams, to the point where drivers are Still flashing me at night. Question, I’m I being unreasonable in expecting projector style cutoffs from my reflector housings? Should I spend £60 odd per bulb to get OEM bulbs from Lexus? My thinking is that HID bulbs in a reflector housing are designed to work Best with OEM bulbs but I don’t want to spend £120 on something that may not work. any help (and pictures) would be appreciated as always

Hi, sorry for the late reply. I didn’t end up taking readings in the end, my apologies. My replacement was a perfect fit, no need to apply pressure in any way. Just slotted right in and screwed down. there wasn’t any other type of plastic on mine, looked identical to the original Denso part so I can’t comment on yours unfortunately. Honestly can’t remember if the 430 has an o-ring on the MAF but I assume it does (to prevent false readings as you hinted to). the whole idea is to give the ECU an accurate reading of air coming into the engine. If there was a gap between the sensor and the box where it is seated then it would Possibly (as you said) draw in air from the engine bay which could skew the actual air intake values. That is worst case scenario though. I would usually go OEM for sensors but at the time I wasn’t sure if the MAF was my issue, it just happened to be a lucky guess. To my surprise, the aftermarket MAF is still going strong and my car feels incredible. if you have any other questions then please feel free to ask and I’ll help as best I can.

Thanks guys but it was down, in part, to the existing information on this forum that lead to the fix. It would have been fixed without me posting if the other MAF sensor had worked! I will take the old MAF with me to work and get some readings between the old and new unit during my lunch break for you to compare. Hopefully it helps with a possible solution or, at the very least, narrowing down potential problems.

Thanks Graham, it is such a wonderful relief haha. As for the sensor, I'm not too sure. I originally checked continuity in the connector and checked resistance of the original and new denso MAF when I first replaced it and they seemed the same (or close enough). Same results through reading the sensor values on OBD2 as well but seeing as the new aftermarket sensor worked as soon as I plugged it in, I doubt it was a wiring/connector issue. Haven't checked my aftermarket sensor values against the ones I was getting on the other 2 units though, might do that during the week, more for piece of mind than anything else!

Ok guys, just an update and a close to this thread (thankfully) though I must walk with my tail between my legs admittedly. So the car was getting worse, had it booked in to go to my local garage at the end of this week so I thought I would try one last thing, the MAF sensor. Now at the time of ordering the part from ebay (aftermarket brand, not Denso) I forgot that I had already cleaned and then replaced the MAF a couple of months ago with a new Denso unit and dismissed that as being a cause of my issues as nothing changed upon replacement. BUT...the new MAF arrived Saturday, had to drive out to the collection office on sunday to pick it up, car drove like a pig as per usual but I eventually arrived and fitted it in the car park. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!! All my issues are gone and I mean ALL of them, no lag, no hesitation, no lurching....it's like a brand new car and all for an £18 MAF on ebay! So it makes me wonder if I had picked up a dodgy Denso MAF a couple of months ago! Having come from owning a load of IS200's and a CT, I always felt like they had a lot more power than my LS....not any more! The LS absolutely flies!! Suffice to say, if your car is suffering from lag or lack of throttle response, check the MAF first and replace with a cheap unit before forking out for Denso! if nothing else, it's a good diagnostic tool. Seems like I was so caught up with my gearbox and assuming that was the issue, I didn't think to stop and go back to the basics! Thank you to all contributors to this thread, you've prompted me to do some preventative maintenance while trying to sort my issue so there is a plus side haha.

it was pretty dark, almost black but I don't recall it smelling burnt. Smelled more like warm metal than anything else but certainly not a distinctive burning smell. My thoughts (and hopes) are that my issue seems to be isolated to 2nd (possibly 1st too) gear and I'm hoping that cleaning the relevant solenoid will do the trick. If not then it's a relatively quick and easy way to narrow down the list of possible causes, the worst being a fried gearbox!

I was hoping the gearbox would be relatively fine.....I'm hoping there is little damage to it but I will find out after cleaning the solenoids. Thanks for the input John, I'll pull the ECU and see what state the Caps are in, I've probably got some of the right value lying in my cupboard!

Thanks for the insight Pete! I've been reading (On the US forum) about people having issues with the trans ECU and wondered whether, as you said, the possibility of a dry joint or faulty connector could be to blame. I'll have a look for said ECU and check the wiring while I have the pan dropped over the weekend. If it is as simple as a dodgy solder joint or wiring issue then it's easy for me to fix thankfully! Great idea with the switch cleaner! May have to try that as a point to narrow down if any PCB issues are present in the various ECUs. I think my idea of the difference in weather is my attempt to "clutch at straws" at this point! 😂 Still, I shall report back if anything changes after the weekend.

Ok, update time again. So it’s been stupidly hot driving weather over the past 3-4 weeks but today it has been chucking down with rain, max temps of around 20 outside. The car ran almost flawlessly! There was almost no hesitation and pretty much no transmission shudder/jerking. Could it be that my ATF is getting too hot in normal driving? OBD reports ATF temp being 84 degrees, I’m not sure if it’s any different to when it was acting up or not. Can others confirm (if possible) if that temp is about right? I’m going to be removing A and B shift solenoids and cleaning them up over the weekend as it was always 2nd gear I had hesitation with. Perhaps it is just gummed up from the old ATF and now the new stuff is working it’s way through. Will report back when I find something useful

the pedal position sensor was my initial thought too but as there is a primary and secondary sensor within the sensor body, I would have assumed an error code be thrown if either of the two readings were out of spec. I'll plug in my reader on my lunch break and check out the values from the sensor. Failing that, i'll go the ol' fashioned route and stick a multimeter on the sensor pins! thanks for the input!

The revs are smooth but only when throttle input is also smooth. when "blipping" the throttle, it does the up, down and up to normal revs I described a couple of posts back. exactly the same situation in P and N. I was afraid someone might think that! As I said previously, when I changed the radiator a few months ago, the fluid coming from the transmission was brown/black so had probably never been changed nor added to. Only 109,000 on it when I bought it though so I would have hoped that the contamination wouldn't have occurred so soon into the cars life. I will contact Paul and see what he suggests, thank you! I've swapped out boxes between IS200's so I'm sure the LS wouldn't be to difficult to do in a weekend....worst case scenario!

Ok, update! my route home consists of various acceleration points so I had plenty of testing points. So, results: (driven in D unless otherwise stated) Pulled out from work onto a 30mph road, gave around 60% throttle as a car was approaching (plenty of space) but car failed to move for about 3 seconds and I had to brake to avoid pulling out in front of the approaching car, at which point the car tried to pull forward from where the accelerator had been pushed down. Attempted to pull out again and car eventually moved but felt like a rodeo bull, lurching as it gathered speed up to 30mph, all up shifts very noticeable Merging from 30 slip road to 40mph main road, gave enough throttle to change down one gear (I think to 3rd) and car pulled as expected and climbed to 40mph quickly. Going from 40 to 50mph, used cruise to accelerate and it gathered speed in the usual cruise way, smoothly with no noticeable change in gear. Car has never had any issue when accelerating with the cruise control. slowed down into a 30 (no down shifts noticeable) and then then put it into kick down to accelerate into a 50mph. Shifted down through each gear very noticeably and accelerated harshly and (again) like a rodeo bull with the same back and fourth lurching, as if the clutch had been let out too quickly on a manual transmission. Once it got passed 2nd gear it was smoother and more consistent but still lacked a bit of initial power as if it was hunting for each gear. Also, when it’s lurching, the revs bounce a bit as if the accelerator is being constantly pressed and released, even though it’s position didn’t actually move. Went from a 30 to 60mph twice. First time was in kick down as above, with the exception that I released the pedal off the kick switch once it settled on a lower gear and the power delivery seemed to be somewhat smoother but still seemed like it was being held back. The second attempt I manually dropped it into 2nd and floored it to just before kick down and then changed up when needed, no hesitation or lurching noticed and gear changes up were smooth. One thing to note, when manually shifting down from D to 3, the car does it quickly and smoothly but when going from either D or 3 down to 2, it feels like the car is hunting for the gear. The car coasts (as if in neutral) for a good 1-2 seconds and then finds 2nd with quite a jolt. Perfectly fine going from 2nd to L though. very long but needed to be thorough in hopes this may lead someone’s mind to think to a possible solution! Oh and PWR mode didn’t seem to relieve any of the symptoms.

Obvious is just what I need it seems, didn't even think about the vacuum hoses! I'll check them when I get home this evening. Didn't even occur to me to check for leaks haha, thanks for the hint! Cheep haha, lets hope I don't have a Budgie stuck in my engine 😜

I haven't been able to figure out the surge. I've had it since day one of ownership. so to give an example (and this happens every time) when parked up, I blip the throttle (foot on accelerator then immediately off), RPMs initially rise, then fall and then rise after a second or so to where they would usually rest with the amount of throttle given. this "lag" is more apparent the more throttle you give it so, again in park, if I hit the floor with the pedal and immediately release, the RPM's initially rise then fall then after 2-3 seconds it races the engine as if the pedal was put to the floor and then gradually decreases back to idle. I understand the LS being drive by wire but this throttle/transmission lag got to the point where I was waiting about 4-5 seconds with my foot at about 50% throttle before the car moved, this was from standstill. I will try the manual downshift on my drive home from work, thanks for the idea! but I remember there is a lot of lurching when manually (or in drive) changing up through gears under acceleration.

both, I originally read it on my reader (only showed an historical code for O2 sensor) and then had Lexus read it during a minor service a couple of months ago with the same results. Lexus couldn't diagnose the issue without me throwing money at them and then suggested replacing the transmission! Just wondering if a faulty shift solenoid could be causing the issue. Just thinking back to when I replaced the radiator and put a bit of new fluid in the trans, the car threw up a P0773 (If I remember correctly). I then cleared the code, drove the car for about an hour and it hasn't come back since but it seems odd for it to show once and then not show again after several months.

that was one of the first things I did with the car after I bought it oddly enough, I replaced the radiator with a new one and tried to flush out as much of the old fluid as possible (couldn't afford enough fluid to replace the entire system) but I've only recently been able to do a proper fluid replacement so at least now the ATF in the box is actually red! was coming out black to start with so I'm hoping no lasting damage was caused to the box itself.

yeah I'm wondering if I have a bad plug. I think I'll have to pull a couple later on today and see what they are like. May have to get some new ones on order and replace them regardless. car has 113.000 miles on it but I'm unsure if the previous owner had the plugs changed (last service under their ownership was the end of 2017) so it'll be good maintenance and peace of mind if nothing else. I discounted fuel pump a while ago for the same reason you mentioned, lack of error code, plus the car runs and drives fine and smooth apart from the acceleration issue haha. may be worth looking into though, if the new spark plugs don't help. Thanks for the insight!

Hey all, Ok so I'm working through the list of troubles with my LS and I've come to the transmission or what I believe is a trans issue. A bit of background, when I bought the car it had very noticeable lag if you try and give it any more than 50-60% throttle, the lag would increase the more you try and floor it to the point where I'd be trying to join traffic, the car just wouldn't move and so (naturally) try and give it more gas by which time the gap in traffic has gone, I put foot on the brakes and the car surges forward from the lag. that has happened on too many occasions now. No error codes are thrown btw. So, I ran through 15 litres of ATF to clear out the old (black) fluid and it then topped up to the correct level as per the dipstick (the joys of the pre facelift!) but the symptoms are still present. The new fluid has helped dull down the feeling of the car upshifting (could never feel it downshift but always felt it upshift) but nothing else, still a hell of a lot of hesitation under any meaningful acceleration. This is my first LS so I don't have a base idea of how they are supposed to drive! it feels like it struggles to find a gear at times or when I put it into kick down, it shifts sequentially down through all the gears until it gets to 2nd (for example). I used to have an auto honda accord (literally the worst car I've ever owned) but that shifted straight from top to 2nd in an instant when put in kick down. The question, has anyone else experienced this? I've been reading a lot of posts about engine lag, cleaning MAF, TB, Air Filter engine coolant temp sensor etc but I've done those (and more) and nothing has helped. My next stop is the Pedal Position Sensor, I'm wondering if there is a dead zone in the Pot but I'm running out of money to throw at this car! If anyone has any thoughts/suggestions then please let me know. As a side note, might be unrelated but the engine is idling a bit rough, I've got spark plugs on my list to do but thought I'd add that bit of info in there just in case it's relevant. Thanks

Thanks for the tutorial bud, greatly appreciated. Ok so I’ve run a couple of tests and the error is only coming up when cruise is set. I’ve run the car without cruise on (no error), cruise on but not set (no error) but then whenever I set a speed or use any other part of normal cruise function, that’s when I get the error. Had a word with both my local Lexus dealers and neither of them have come across this error before 😂 oddly enough, sometimes the ‘resume’ speed function doesn’t always work, perhaps related, perhaps not. This will keep me busy for a while it seems haha

how odd, I always assumed it had 2 indicator lamps.....then again, the cars I've owned that had cruise were relatively new so had the "main" and "set" lamps. thanks for the warning Scott, I'll be sure to use a little *cough* persuasion if it's stubborn haha. I've swapped transmissions and rear Diffs out of IS200's so I'm sure swapping a hub will be relatively easy!