The plugs look average to me. That's good for the amount of miles. Did you clean the 2 MAF sensors? They're under the silver LEXUS cover, a few squirts of cleaner and you're done. Cleaning the throttle body takes a little more disassembly, next time you're that far, a few squirts and you're done. I believe that the PCV valve is buried deeper in the engine and is the type of item worth a few squirts when you're that far.

For 135K the plugs do look good. I was not aware of 2 MAF sensors, just the one on the air box.

LS 460 has 2 MAF sensors. Not sure about 430.

Just one in the 430. And a hell of a lot less control arms that don't go bad at 60k miles...

did any of your connectors break?? Toyota/Lexus are know to having very brittle plastic connectors at certain point

Denso recommends 60,000 service life for iridium plugs, Lexus recommends 120,000 . kind of like they recommend lifetime transmission fluid that they do not make. discuss

Im not sure which connectors u are asking about.....but I did not break any clips or boots.....but I really took my time with this project. No real noticeable performance improvement.....except in my mind......but I believe the service needed to be done.

This is the very reason that at 119,000 miles with my 01 LS430 running like a champ and accelerating and idling perfectly, I have decided to hold off on the spark plug replacement. I only drive 5,000 miles a year which shouldn't change things very much. .

Boca, a reasonable assumption. If you're handy, it may be interesting to remove one accessible plug for inspection. But that's just my curious personality.

The 2nd or 3rd plug on the driver side can easily be removed in a minute without the socket attachment that has a universal joint. That socket attachment is required for some of the other plugs, along with the extension.

let it ride if u only drive 5k a year......u saw how mine looked w 135k on them. Im just a perfectionist. If u are handy I agree taking a quick look might satisfy your curiosity....but if your car is running great they will look just like mine did.

Interesting .... I was comparing my plugs (doing the timing belt) to these and mine look exactly the same in terms of wear. I have 94K on them. They are definitely the OEM plugs (I'm the original owner of this car) but my car came with NGK Iridium IFR6A 11 plugs as OEM. They're equivalent but I'm surprised that they are different manufacturers.

Ya no real performance difference after plug change but nice to know it is done. Not sure why they used diff plugs. I am impressed that u are tackling the timing belt.......u are saving a ton of money.

thanks for the excellent detailed instruction.
I wished there was something like it for the airsuspension to coilover on 01-03

yeah, I've got a ton of 'deferred' maintenence I'm doing right now. It's my wife's car and she's out of town for 3 weeks so I'm getting it all done. Main thing is T-belt but "while I'm in there" I'm also changing the plugs, replacing brake fluid & transmission fluid and I might take this opportunity to swap the air sus out for the OEM steel spring setup. I bought the complete setup on Craigslist a few years ago and have been waiting on the air sus to go out. Might just change it over and sell off the air components.