I am in search for tips/tricks an '02 LS430. I recently bought one with 75k miles for $28k. According to the book, for some tricks/tips you have to go to the dealer

kinda funny how this have been viewed 160+ times and not one tip/tricks mentioned. I will give the first few tips to atleast get things going...

Tips
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1) When you put the L/R mirror on and you put your car on reverse, the mirrors turn downwards allowing you to see the floor behind.

2) If you hold the unlock button on the remote down for more than 2seconds all the windows roll down

There's a rotary **** underneath driver's side dash that adjust the loudness of the beep when you lock and unlock your car

If you use the steering wheel adjuster (that little **** on the left side of the wheel) and place the wheel to full extension and then click the **** 8 times toward you, it will extend the wheel even further.

Fred

Works for up and down as well.

that steering wheel trick is for all lexus! IS there some good ones for LS430 only??
I have one, for UL, if you set the suspension setting on HIgh + sport, it drives like a ****

Not tips or tricks, but very thoughtful little features:
1: When you put car in park, the door handles light up. When in drive, the light dims.
2: When you pull down grap handles above doors and then release, they slowly return to the up position.

Just some thoughtful little qualities that I enjoy knowing about.

Smartkey: If you leave the key inside the car and try to lock the vehicle using the door buttons it can detect the key is inside the car and warns you with a long beep ...how does it know whether the key is just inside the door or just outside in your pocket? Beats me.

Smartkey (2): You can assign seat setting presets to each individual key (husband and wife for example) by pairing a key with a seat position preset button (1, 2 or 3). From then on whenever that key unlocks the car the seat will automatically adjust to the right position without having to press the seat memory button.

Bluetooth Phone: You can get around the "can't dial when the car is moving" problem by simply dialing the number from the phone in your pocket - it will still come through hands-free once the connection is made.

Bluetooth Phone (2): If you have a PDA that uses your bluetooth phone to sync it won't work while the phone is connected to the car. To get around this temporarily you can tell the car to try to connect to a different phone that you have previously paired (just borrow one for this purpose). As it attempts to pair with the other phone (the other phone doesn't have to be present for this to happen) it will release the current phone and therefore allow you to sync your PDA. Just reverse the process to pair the phone with the car again afterwards.

Bluetooth Phone (3): If you switch off the car during a handsfree conversation the phone will offer you option of transferring the call back to your phone to continue it (works on Sony Ericsson T610 at least).

Door Storage Pockets: You can actually pull these and they will swing outwards 45 degrees to more easily get to items.

I Agree Button: You can get rid of this prompt on the Nav system by saying "I agree" into the voice recognition system when this screen is first presented rather than pushing the button. Be aware the voice recognition system in the LS430 isn't all that great (as you know) so it might require a few attempts until it correctly acknowledges the command.

"Screen Off" works but not "Screen On"

Saying "## degrees" is generally very accurate, such as "65 degrees"

If you change the tires on the LS and are using NAVI, don't forget to use the 'Tire Change Calibration' feature on the NAVI system so that it can adjust distance calculations to your new tires.

Somehow the original thread can't be found, so here are some new tricks I discovered recently:

SMOG Filter: hold down the 'recirculate air' button a few seconds (its the button with three settings (outside/AUTO/inside) on the left of the NAVI screen), and the Smog filter settings will come up; you can adjust how sensitive your LS should be to smog. (Note: car must be stopped for this function to work).

NAVI screen color: go to Options>Information>Screen Setting and there's a choice of colors.

Searched for tips tricks in the LS forum and merged the threads

Yeah, I guess it only works in 2004+ LS models with the 4th gen NAVI system, even with an upgrade a 2001 LS probably can't change colors...oh well, it's a cool feature but we haven't used it actually, the Green goes well with our Cypress Pearl/Maple/ecru interior; those with a black/cherry interior might want to use the red color.,

And thx, DaveGS4, I did a search but maybe shouldn't have used the ampersand.

yes, only started the 4th generation nav that you can change the color i believe

The smog filter adjustment works for the 2001-2003 LS430 !!!!

Hidden safety feature:

Incline parking safety feature

If your LS 430 is parked on a slope, and the front wheels are not angled properly (such as in the direction of the slope), your LS 430 ignition WILL NOT WORK. The car automatically locks up the ignition, and the car will not start until you have reoriented the front wheels. This can occur on a slight incline of around 15 degrees, and all the way likely to 40. 45 degrees...

To resolve the ignition lockup (and indeed, no amount of twisting or key-insertion will turn the ignition on), one must have one's foot on the brake, rotate the front wheels from side to side, until a safe wheel angle is achieved. Then, turn the ignition slowly; if it is still stuck, redo the wheels. Once the car has detected a safe wheel position, the car ignition will work normally and you can drive off--safely.