So, my prized Black Cherry Pearl '05 LS430 got totaled yesterday afternoon in a freeway hit and run (from behind - sending me into tail-spin followed by a swift appointment with a snow-filled, tree-lined ditch), and I am now looking for a replacement.

Sad that I can't find an '06 in the same color, I'm likely going to settle on black.

Anyway - here's my issue. The car I'm looking at has (what appears to be) abnormally huge gaps at the front wheel wells. The only time I've seen this before is when new springs were installed on a car with old, worn ones. Does this front suspension height look normal to anyone? Any good educated guesses on what may be causing this?

btw, there is no air suspension on this model.

Thanks!

 

Sorry to hear.. Maybe a good time for a change.

'
As for the car, maybe fitted with air?

Or, half of the engine, 4 cylinders chopped off :P

 

If it's a UL with air suspension, it's normal. All UL's have that nose up stance, even if you adjust it to sit lower, it'll go back to the same nose up stance after awhile.

 

That does seem odd, especially if it's a sport package. From that picture, it looks like the rear end is sitting closer to the wheel than normal, however it could be from that angle..

 

It looks like a UL. You can see the headlight washer cover on the bumper. UL are notorious for big wheel wheel gaps due to air suspension.

 

Every non-UL LS430 I see doesn't have a fender gap that big. That's almost as high as my UL used to be.

 

This is not a UL car though. I even had the Lexus service tech pull data from the VIN to confirm it has no air suspension.

 

To be honest I haven't seen too many non-UL 04-06 LS430's with those wheels. I've noticed that the factory 18"s make the fender gap more noticeable compared to the factory 16 and 17 inch wheels.