jimtiffany

Does anyone know if the roof rack crossbars for an RX400H will fit an RX450H? Here's what happened:

I mistakenly bought crossbars for a 400h on eBay, although I own a 450h. When I searched again on eBay, I saw ads with the same part number for both vehicles, but there were also ads for the 450h that had a different part number. I called the parts department of a Lexus dealer and was told the part numbers are sometimes "revised", even though the part is the same, but he couldn't confirm the 400h part would fit the 450h. The seller on eBay wasn't much help either. In this case, I bought part number PT278-48105EB. From what I can tell, this number was revised to PT278-48120EB. In some ads they are listed as "manufacture's part number: PT278-48120; other part number: PT278-48105".

So what's the deal with revised part numbers? How do you know if a part with a "revised" number will fit your car? Do they revise the part numbers for different model years? If a part has a revised part number, is it always identical to the part with the earlier number?

Thanks,
Jim

jimtiffany

Well, I learned about revised part numbers. This usually happens with parts that are made by a contract vendor, like accessory parts. If the vendor is changed, or if the Lexus engineers require a modification, the part number is revised. It is still the same basic design and it should fit just like the earlier version. In my case, there is not a problem. Now I just need to learn how to get the rail caps off. Thanks to everyone who has posted on that subject.