Just got an 03 430 today. Emerald Green, VERY cherry with Nav, Mark Levinson, Ventilated seats.

Couple of problems......steering wheel telescoping not working, Subwoofer blown...plenty of advice here about both of those so I'm good for now.

However I need advice in two areas,

1) Headlights. Mine will not be completely cleaned up with exterior refinishing only. The interior chrome has started to "break down" so complete housing replacement is my only option. Read a few threads and looked at a few parts sites and it looks like some cars had HID and some had Halogen. Am I correct on this? The main issue is each headlight housing costs an incredible amount of money. Hard to believe these list for over $700 EACH ($1200 in HID)! I bought used HID's for my Boxster (OEM Porsche) for $1200!

Short of FleaBay can anyone give me some guidance for either discount OEM or aftermarket housings?

2) Perofrated, ventilated leather seats. How do you folks clean/condition the leather on these? I'm in love with the Leatherique products but their conditioner you "slop" on in excess and let it sit for a day or two and then clean it all up. I'd imagine this would result in a lot of "plugged" little ventilation holes in my Lexus seats. Any advice?

Thanks in advance for any help or guidance..........

And congratulations on one hell of a forum!

 

Welcome!

1) oem only, sorry.
2) use foam. I use japanese one by soft99. It's super.

 

I have not done this, but many people on the forum have recommended recyclers - both online and local yards. You might give it a try, at least online is cheap to research and if it works out, will save a ton of $$$.

 

Sewell Lexus gives substantial discounts to members here. Create an account with them online to get pricing.

 

You could take the headlights out, do the oven baking method to remove the lens, then have the chrome inner piece rechromed.

 

2. - I'd like to know how everyone cleans their perforated ventillated seats too! I used to have an es300 with standard leather seats and I used to use the Leatherique Oil and the 'pristine clean' cleaner spray and I would also clean the seats with a toothbrush in the folds of the leather and they would always come up looking awesome but like you said - using the oil on the ventilated seats of a LS430 would be a 'no no' as the oil would plug the holes forever!

For the moment I have just been spraying the Leatherique pristine clean cleaner onto a cloth FIRST, then wiping it over the seats on my LS430.

I have tried putting SMALL amounts of the oil onto a cloth FIRST and then wiping the oily cloth over the seats. I find if you use this method, the oil tends to go onto the seat and not into the holes but the problem is that you only get a very thin coating of the oil on the seat and I'm not sure if it does much in such a small amount.

Ive just been using the cleaner spray on a cloth first, but would like to hear from other members too.

 

+1 on Sewell Lexus - very good pricing for forum members.

 

Just to be sure....are you using this on the perforated/heated/cooled seats?

And if so where do you buy it? I Googled the product and only found the liquid.

 

I am currently using a product called leather CPR - available for amazon. Does a nice job cleaning and conditioning, non greasy does not remove dye. But there are lots of other good products to use.

You just have to use small quantities on a clean damp cotton rag. I use several white terry cloth hand towels because its easy to see when the dirt stops being lifted out. The towels can be laundered and reused forever. They tend to not fill the holes in the leather and actually may drag small bits out if some does get in the holes. Apply the conditioner onto a terry cloth rag and then take the time to work the goop thoroughly into the rag, then wipe it onto the leather in small quantity and repeat 2-3 times to get a reasonable application. Always being careful not to smear it into the vent holes. I clean and condition my seats every couple of months for last 3 years with no issues. The key is not trying to do it once a year and then applying way too much product - won't work with perf'd seats.

 

Yes, i am. I have euro 'President' LS430.
Here's the product:
http://www.soft99.co.jp/english/prod...html?pid=02052
I bet it's available in USA. It's VERY good.

 

I haven't had any issue with interior portion of headlights, I did just have my exterior of the headlights polished to remove hazing that 203k miles took on them. They look great now!