Jerry Bransford

One more hint on serpentine belts. Cracks across the belt are normal and should not be used by a dishonest mechanic to convince you that a new belt is needed. Such cracks are normal and can often occur soon after installing even a brand-new serpentine belt. The real clue the belt is bad and needs replacing right away are cracks that run length-wise down the belt. :)

Unless the Lexus uses an unusual alternator, the alternator will not work with a completely dead battery. As opposed to generators like cars used to use, an alternator requires a twelve volt "exciter voltage" from the battery before it can produce any power. If the battery is completely dead, the engine will die shortly after the jump battery is disconnected after being jump started. In other words, the alternator is dead if the battery is completely dead. If the battery is only too weak to start the engine but not completely dead, you can jump start the engine and it will run fine afterwards and the alternator will start recharging the battery since the alternator doesn't require much... just enough... from the battery to work. So if the battery is completely dead, most alternators used in automobiles won't work at all. And don't go disconnecting the battery after starting the engine to see if the engine will die as doing so can harm the alternator and other electronics big-time. :o

I know that on the LS430 you hold the off button and u here a beep and it resets, try that if not check the owners manual should be in there I have to do the same thing on my 2003 LS430, exactly which 'off' button are you talking about?

I just ordered a new Wix cabin filter for my 2003 LS430 since my wife started complaining about the 'Replace a/c filter' message on the dash that pops up when starting the engine. Will replacing that filter reset that message so it doesn't come on any more or is resetting it a dealer-only thing? I'm mechanical but are there any hints on replacing it? I think it's behind one of the glove box doors, does it just snap in and out?

Under what cover? Exactly where? I thought it was behind one of the two glove boxes. And does replacing the cabin filter turn off the 'Replace a/c filter' message that shows up on the instrument panel when starting the engine? Or do I have to pay the dealer to turn off that light? I just ordered a new cabin filter and it's going to make me mad if I replace it but that I still have to pay the dealer $50 to turn the light off as my dealer charges. Edit: Whoops never mind, I see I'm asking about the cabin air filter in a thread that is about the engine's air fiter.

Odd, I'm a very long-term moderator on other forums and we encourage members... not vendors masquerading as members... to post information on good vendors and part numbers for things such as the above. Until it's determined it's just another vendor looking for business, I believe such posts shouldn't be over-moderated and censored. I for one would have appreciated the part number and source for them. With such over-active censoring, forums such as this lose a LOT of their value.

You sure it's not a security key thing? Does the '91 have a security key icon on the instrument cluster so you could tell?

This info was really good to read. I always replace all my car's brake pads and was curious if replacing our newer LS430's pads would be easy or difficult like Mercedes pads are to replace. I replaced pads twice on two Mercedes we used to own and they were ungodly difficult to change, and that's coming from a guy that has been doing his own brake jobs for 35 years. In fact, I never did any work on either of our two Mercedes that wasn't at least twice as difficult as it should have been or took 3X as long as it should have :)

Nope. Thank you, now I will no longer be thinking Lexus was cutting costs by the time they made my 2003. :P

Our 2003 LS400 does not have an automatic parking brake release for when I shift out of Park, but I could swear my '92 did. Did the '92 release the parking brake automatically?

Both struts that support the rear trunk lid are shot, does anyone have a good online source or any kind of a recommendation for a source? I found them on eBay but sheesh they're $79.95 for a pair of them which is way more than gas charged lift struts normally cost. At least I think they are both bad. When I use the remote to open the trunk, it only pops up maybe a half-inch. Is the trunk supposed to open all the way when I open it remotely with the key fob or the release under the dash?

My wife complained constantly that she had problems trying to fill our 2003 LS430's gas tank. It would take way too long because all the gas nozzles at all the gas stations we use would barely trickle gasoline into the gas tank while constantly clicking off. We recently had the Lexus serviced and mentioned that problem to the service advisor who advised us that there was a fix for it. They installed a newer design fuel filler hose/pipe assembly that was developed to fix the problem and we're now happy to report the problem is completely fixed. So if you're having troubles, just realize that it can be fixed. Because we purchased our 2003 LS430 under the Lexus Certified Pre-Owned program, this was taken care of by the dealer at no charge to us.

Interesting, I have another chart that shows that even after the K&N was completely clogged, it still was 50% better than a new paper filter in flow. Granted that these tests were out of a high performance book that is geared toward "more in--more out" theory, It is just a matter of how you manipulate the data. Any good surveyor can gleen the sought after data, no matter who he asks, or how they answer. So it comes down to flow vs. efficiency. Most of us drive on paved roads anyway. The author was convinced the K&N was the superior air filter for HIS applications. Question: what was the "restriction limit" on the filters? Was it a pressure drop test or ? Reason asked is that the paper elements typically have a 1 stage filter, it is a paper element that has microscopic holes in it, once plugged, they are done. The K&N has a much deeper 3 stage filtering process, cotton media, oil, and electro-static. so it takes much longer to clog down to a paper element flow rate. Once again, NO ONE has argued that the K&N is capable of flowing more air through its screen door-like coarse filter design. Sheesh. The WHOLE point was how crappy it works as an air filter... read the ISO test results, the K&N passed 18X the dirt than the AC-Delco filter did. Remember what an air filter is supposed to do? Filter the air? The K&N lets in way more dirt, I don't know why anyone would continue to remain hung up on air flow. Besides, our Lexus engines seem to run just fine on the paper element air filters Lexus installed at the factory, which is the same type of filter made by AC-Delco, Wix, Purolator, etc.I can only see young street racers who only focus their thoughts on air flow, which shouldn't be an issue for most Lexus owners... especially since a good quality air filter like an AC-Delco paper element air filter flows very well anyway due to its large surface area. It's amazing how K&N's hype is swallowed hook, line, and sinker by some... no matter how they drive their vehicles. By the way, here's a photo of my old K&N air filter and the two layers of pre-filters I had to install over it to keep the grime out of the inside of my air intake. The first layer being a K&N Outerwears prefilter, the outer filter being an oiled foam Unifilter. This is now out of my vehicle sitting on a garage shelf as a reminder of just how bad of a filter I found the K&N to be. I was amazed at how much grime and dirt my properly serviced K&N air filter passed into the air intake until getting those two layers of prefilters on top of it. I certainly wouldn't have gone to the trouble of ordering the K&N Outerwears prefilter if I hadn't noticed significant amounts of grime & fine silica being passed by the K&N. Then when I found the Outerwears didn't fit tightly enough to prevent dust & silica from getting in from the side and around the Outerwears, that's when I added the foam Unifilter to hold the Outerwears down against the K&N to keep dirt from gettting around it. And even with all that on top of the K&N, wouldn't you know it that I noticed no difference in my engine performance! The K&N has been proven by the ISO (a scientific organization... International Standards Organization) tests to be a terrible air filter... sure it passes a lot of air but it's the other stuff it also passes that is the problem. And don't forget that if one filter has 96% effficiency and another has 98% efficiency, the one with 96% efficiency passes twice as much dirt. :)

Any automotive paint supply store can easily look up the exact color for any year & model car. Anywhere you find car dealerships and auto body shops you can find auto paint stores that can easily get you the right color touch-up paint. :)

Flow through the K&N has never been argued. Hell it's like a screen door, the problem is that it doesn't filter out the fine harmful dust and silica. The website is temporarily down but when it comes back up I'll post the link... but here's one chart & text from it (the below text is from the test) "In the chart above it’s important to note the different test durations for each filter. The AC Delco filter test ran for 60 minutes before exceeding the restriction limit while the AMSOIL and K&N tests each ran for 20 and 24 minutes respectively before reaching max restriction. In 60 minutes the AC Filter accumulated 574gms of dirt and passed only 0.4gms. After only 24 minutes the K&N had accumulated 221gms of dirt but passed 7.0gms. Compared to the AC, the K&N plugged up nearly 3 times faster, passed 18 times more dirt and captured 37% less dirt. See the data tables for a complete summary of these comparisons. " I have the entire website saved since K&N filters are a common subject in another forum I moderate but the above chart and comments from that ISO test are typical of how the test results turned out. Again... it's a no-brainer that K&N's have high flow rates but the real issue is that they don't trap and hold much dirt, it passes way more dirt into the engine than any of the other filters tested. Personally I don't race my Lexus (nor do I race my offroad Jeep) so I could care less if it flows more air, I am more interested in keeping harmful dust, dirt, and silica out of my very expensive engines. What I do know is that my personal experience with K&N filters coincides with that of the ISO testing and for a Lexus, I think it'd be short-sighted to want to run a K&N air filter. Our Lexuses were not designed to be high performance cars, at least not in the traditional sense of that phrase, so installing a higher flowing air filter solely to produce better performance just doesn't make sense to me. It certainly won't contribute to better fuel economy, it just doesn't work that way. :)