Good Evening! About 3 months ago I purchased a 2005 Ls430 with 164k miles and I gotta say these are supreme rides and I love it, Especially with it being a custom luxury and all documents from when new! I got to own it for a while now and discovering a few nitpicky items on it and wondered if anyone could point me in the right direction. The 2 most annoying issues is the infamous front end clunk, I get this type of quick repeated soft clunks when pulling away from my driveway while turning my steering wheel back to center after backing out and itll clunk repeatedly. I checked the front end and everything is as tight as can be and I used a breaker bar to check the lower ball joints while moving the tire up and down and atleast to my eye I do not see any play or hear any clunking. The struts while I initially thought it was these were the culprit as it clunks on both sides of the car the most annoying thing that threw that off was when I slowly rolled over just an itty bitty twig and it made a single clunk. And it is a hollowish sounding clunk and not a solid sounding thud. I will see if i can get video of this clunk later and maybe for future reference as well. I do not want to just fire the parts cannon and replace parts that dont need replacement. The tie rods are tight and ball joints feel tight and the upper control arms are tight but I cannot replicate this noise by poking and prodding such as pushing the front of the car down, Only when i drive it. The struts dont feel bad as it doesnt bounce but they do have a smidgent of squeak to them. Driving over a rougher patch will make the noise appear but the loudest they are is when im rolling slowly while turning the wheel like pulling out of my driveway in the morning. Any help or where to look or diagnose will be appreciated. I can wrench on cars to a degree seeing is how i own a 240sx lol but this is a more advanced sort of issue i seen. Oh also sway bars and links feel fine and no noise from them.
Edit: Oh also forgot to add I had my buddy at firestone check the alignment while i was working and he said the camber is in the red but not excessively and is right on the edge of acceptable. Otherwise the toe and caster is perfect but i may have him tweak the caster back a little more on the drivers side to compensate for Florida roads and crown when i get new tires and even he said this front end is tight and does not see a glaring issue with it.

Then the second issue is like earlier. they are doing controlled burns in my area and despite having recirculate air on, right when i drive into the smoke i instantly smell the smoke inside my car. I checked the seals and atleast to me they dont leak, I sprayed compressed air around the seals and i hear no difference in sound on every seal. I have the ac set to auto temperature and manually set to recirc so does the blend door secretly mix in outside air without you knowing? It just feels a little embarrassing when an old hyundai elantra seals out the smoke smell better than a lexus in my opinion. All the windows were closed and doors being auto soft closing were closed as well. Also squeaky door seals lol.

Otherwise some smaller issues such as non working drivers heated seat and i think they use a blower element for the heated seats in these? Drivers doesnt work but passenger and rears work just fine. Finnicky drivers window switch and the steering wheel doesnt tilt or telescope. Im hoping its a fuse for the wheel tilt and telescope.... andddd needs the passenger headlight adjusted but otherwise i have not noticed any other glaring issue in it besides the non functioning radar cruise control. And i absolutely adore this car, It is very quiet in my opinion and just feels solid and will last a long time. She is a black on black example too! This is also coming from owning a 1999 jeep cherokee as well so a huge step in luxury.

 

Recirculate on all cars is never 100% recirculate.
They all pull in a percentage of fresh air, otherwise you would soon run out of oxygen or more likely feel like you are suffocating due to excessive CO2.
It sounds like the cabin air filter may need replacing with a decent quality one that seals well.

 

Yes i did replace it with a new "genuine" oem lexus filter but i dont know how real it is as it was purchased on ebay and i totally had a brain fart thinking that ebay couldnt have fake branded lexus stuff. i may go back and check it and see how it seals inside as it is a charcoal style but i cant remember if it had the foam seals on it. if anything i have foam i can stick to it and see how that pans out.

 

I made sure its sealed now, so we wait for the next controlled burns. but anyone have any ideas for the clunks?