I was recently in a fender bender with my 2007 RX400h. Part of the damage included the spare wheel carrier breaking free, resulting in the spare wheel and wheel cover being dragged underneath the car (a taxicab) that hit me.
I purchased the car new from an authorized dealer with chrome wheels. I believe that the spare wheel was chrome as well, but I'm not entirely certain. (When I retrieved the wheel from underneath the offending taxi I recall it being chrome and having a metal valve stem like the other wheels, but the wheel suffered a lot of scrapes and road rash, so I could be mistaken.) In making the repairs, the body shop replaced the spare wheel with a non-OEM alloy (non-chrome) with a rubber valve stem. The replacement wheel also has a plain center cap (i.e., not a Lexus logo center cap).
Can someone tell me if the factory spare wheel comes with a Lexus center cap? Also, is my recollection faulty, or is it likely that the original spare wheel was, in fact, chrome and had a metal valve stem like the rest of the wheels?
Finally, the body shop neglected to replace the scraped up spare cover, so I need to get them to change that out. In looking at the parts list, I see that there is also a "lower cover", but I don't see anything other than the larger cover when I lower the spare wheel. Can someone explain to me where this lower cover is (or should be) situated?
Many thanks.