About to pick up my 2004 LS 430 from Dealership. It has 50K miles and is in great shape.
Wanted to ask a question, in general. Is anyone having problems getting parts for this car?
Trying to understand how long i will be able to enjoy this car before i have to starting looking in junkyards for parts. It looks like i have the Navigation on the car.(Has touch screen on top).
Will i be able to add Sirius Satellite Radio to existing unit?
Does all 2004 come with Air suspension and does that mean i can lower and raise the car?
Also, and suggestions on what i should check on car to make sure it works before signing final paperwork?

 

Only some cars had air suspension. You can raise and lower but just a small amount.
Parts are easy to get but body parts and some other parts are starting to go NLA.
Should be able to add Sirius if you can find the right hardware.

Make sure the car has a timing belt done, if not, it will need one due to age. 50k is good mileage but don't be fooled, if it hasn't been well maintained then it could still need a lot of work.

 

Thanks for reply. Do you think if tranny oil haven't been changed since new, will that be a problem.
If will ask Lexus dealership to change all fluids and change timing belt, to include tranny oil.

 

Some people will tell you to avoid 2004's, but it is only for 2 reasons: the audio/navigation connections and the transmission recall. Don't be afraid! They are essentially fixable for under $1k and at that mileage you may not notice them for a while.
2004 was the first year for low-lead or no-lead solder, and it resulted in connections blanking out. an experienced hand at soldering can resolve it. I detailed my outsourcing here:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...connected.html
Then 2004 was the first year of the 6-speed. The models built at the end of 2003 had a recall, but the ones built in 2004 were fixed. Check your build date (on the door jam label) and then check the recall. This is what I think to be the most authoritative thread on the transmission, but DON'T read it until you sense an issue; you'll get scared, but don't be:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...mission-2.html
Transmission fluid - this will help too. They labeled it "lifetime" fluid; can't figure out why. I took the advice of @Romanova and others and had a full transmission service done. Fantastic results! Also research if the old Toyota Service Bulletin has been done. This is one hour of labor to reprogram your transmission. Again, great results! If you run into other tranny issues, they can be researched on this site. These cars do not have "transmission" problems 99% of the time. They are insanely strong trannies and you can tow with them if you like. The issues they have are first year kinks that can be worked out, including a chip fix through a company in Illinois.
I have owned my 2004 for 3-1/2 years now, LOVE it. It is 100% LS430, but just had a couple of first-time feature kinks. Otherwise 01-06 did not change much at all.

 

Easy way to tell if it's got air suspension is to see if it's one of the "7 button cars" that has this array of buttons in front of the shift lever:



if it has those 7 grey buttons instead of just 3 or 4, that means it has the Ultra Luxury package, which has the air suspension, rear power seats, and a whole buttload of other stuff too.

 

Only way to use sirius/xm is to use cassette adaptor as I did years ago but limited sound quality of head. I recently put in a 9 inch android system which works great.

 

Not sure why saying that? There is AM/satellite button, and my 2005 car (bought used) has integrated xm, installed by dealer at original purchase time. Not sure if modern versions are available that integrate in controls anymore, but at least in past xm was a fully integrated option, so radio is wired for something...

 

Mine is a 2001 UL and when I put this in the only option was cassette adapter. Did not notice discussion was for 2004 as 2004 up had better factory options available. On my 2020 ES300h satellite xm quality is nowhere near the quality compared to the xm app on android auto or using usb file downloaded from xm on pc as bandwidth is low. With updated electronics on my 2001 LS430 I can access the app or usb without using android auto or my phone except as a hotspot.

 

picked up an 05 2 years ago with 65,000 miles
now have 79,000 miles and plan to replace timing belt soon
hasn't been done yet
did save up and buy a factory sub but so far sounds great

 

It has been almost 20 years since I looked into adding xm to my 2001 LS430 and at that time the cassette adapter was my only option and only used it couple of years. Looking now there are retrofit kits available and looks like similar Y cable that came with my new android unit which is in and out of back of cd player. Sorry I said the cassette adapter was only way as nowadays looks like anything is possible.

 

Never really had issues getting parts. I tend to use OEM most of the time, which I source from Megazip, Amayama or Partsouq. These shops are OEM suppliers for Japanese brands such as Toyota, Nissan, Honda and of course Lexus.

 

I bought a $6 Bluetooth FM Modulator off eBay and plugged it into the jack in the center console where its hidden and use my free Apple Music subscription that comes with my iPhone plan to listen to literally any station, genre, song, or album streamed off Apple Music commercial free - basically the equivalent to Sirius/XM and get the added benefit of hands free phone system, having the phone read incoming texts in Driving focus mode, and when using Waze or even Apple Maps to navigate it speaks out the turning directions and such. Autoconnects to my phone every time I get in the car after the one time pairing so no hassle. Get in and say hey siri play (whatever station, album, artist, or song I want). I have an '03 without the Nav but that was $6 well spent :-) It's programmable just by pushing the buttons on it to allow any unused FM channel to be used from 88.5 to 107.9 and even in NYC I can find plenty un-used and never hear bleed through or static at all - crystal clear - and it has 2 USB ports on it itself so you can still use the jack for charging your phone and not lose the jack space. One of the USB ports also doubles to allow you to put music on a flash drive and play that instead but since I have Apple Music I've never used that. Even if you dont get it for free, Apple Music is only like $9.99 a month if you have an iPhone which is cheaper than Sirius. Just a thought. FM Modulators have come a long way since the old ones that sounded terrible and were limited to 5-6 preset stations. You might consider that in lieu of the Sirius setup.