jimisbell

When I bough the 2004 LS-430 it had two different hub cap styles. The original owner told me the gold ones with the weird (not like most logos) logo was the original. Now I am not so sure.

In trying to get a set that, at the very least, matched, I have acquired 7 others of various styles. I would like toidentify the different ones. ALL of themhave the same size "plug" but the outside cap is different diameter. Most have the simple L with no embellishment but a couple have the odd logo where the L is very "fancy".

Is there a reference somewhere that shows the caps that were available for different years and models and different diameter wheels?

mjeds

hub cabs?

are you talking about the center caps for your wheels?

http://www.hubcaps.org/ls430.html

jimisbell

Yes. They cover the hubs, thus are called "hub caps." Later iterations on other cars covered the complete wheel, thus the name "wheel covers". Though often miss named as hub caps..

That web site you linked doesnt say what years the different styles are for. But my current caps are not like any of those so I am assuming that they are wrong for the car.

mjeds

posting pictures of your wheels and caps might be helpful. hard to look for something when there is no starting point.

jayclapp

The center caps have various designs for different years. There are also after market ones that can be slightly different. For instance, the tire shop broke one of my 2004 UL center caps. When I tried to order a replacement from my Lexus dealer they informed me they were no longer made and couldn't find on from other dealers (Lexus rarely keeps parts in their stock, they merely order them from Lexus Torrance and get them the next day). My center caps had in indentation where the "L" was placed. Replacement parts did not have the indentation. I also had the gold package. My dealer's solution was to take my gold "L" off and attach it to the newer cap. This meant that it was mounted flush on the cap surface and was not sunken the the indentation. Consequently, the new cap did not match the other 3 caps on my car. While this was barely visible to anyone except me, it bothered me. Subsequently, I found a set of caps like original on eBay for $120 or so. I replaced all caps with those, giving up the gold to make all caps alike. Single centercaps at the dealer are around $60 when available. While the ebay caps may be knockoffs, they are so much lower in cost than an OEM that you can nearly replace the whole set. Also consider that the caps on a 2004 are 13 years old and the plastic has probably become somewhat brittle and can be easily broken by tire dealers. My center caps can only be safely removed after taking the wheel off and pushing from the back side. Any attempt to pry them off from the outside will likely result in them being broken.

jimisbell

I was hoping for an online reference site since I have so many different ones. But I did find that the ones I have on the car are "aftermarket" and that is why the "L" is different. But thats ok, I just want them to match. It tells me the dealer ripped off the original owner by charging her for the"Gold" version and he substituted the aftermarket caps. I dont know if I will tell her. She might get mad at the dealer for ripping her off, but I wont use that dealer for my maintenance. Cant trust him.

I will try to get a photo of all the different ones and maybe someone can identify the years and models.

jimisbell