A step by step tutorial on how to remove the back seat & rear interior garnishes of the Lexus LS430 to get to the sub woofer, and how to replace it with a cheaper aftermarket part.
The OEM part 86160-0W260 is ~$400. I installed this replacement Polk Audio DB840DVC for ~$50 in ~4 hours.
Important notes:
– I am not a professional mechanic or electrician, so consult a professional if you don’t know what you’re doing.
– There’s lots of conflicting information out there on Ohm/resistance of the Mark Levinson sub woofer and the best way to re-wire a replacement. In this video, you can see mine measured around 12 Ohms, so I wired the Polk voice coils in series to get 8 Ohms. If this leads to problems down the road, I will post an update.
– I didn’t think about making a video for this until after I had taken everything apart, so this video was mostly filmed backwards. If you see any continuity mistakes or confusion, that’s why.
– There may be better ways to wire & mount a replacement sub woofer in this car; this is just one of them. Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions for others to help them do a better job if they’re about to undertake this.
Thanks for watching & reading!
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Absolutely the best and clearest video for doing this essential fix I've ever seen. THANK YOU. You covered everything and made sense of all the incomplete videos out there. Most importantly, you found a suitable replacement that won't destroy the unobtanium amps. The audio guys at Mark Levinson did a great job with the design but the weird proprietary speakers with all the strange Ohm values make maintaining the system an very frustrating. Now all I have to do is figure out how to replace the blown tweeter! 🙂 But again… BEST. VIDEO. EVER.
After doing some reading searching about the Mark Levinson system, I just get the impression that there can be alot of problems with speakers blowing. I thought this was supposed to be a drop notch system? Why all of the problems with this system? Now is this from loud playing or is it from poor quality? A bit disappointing to be honest with you.
Still working good? Interested in the work of the amplifier ML
Thank you
Could I just get a subwoofer hat was 8" and 8 ohms instead?
Still working good ???
good job, thank you
Thanks Will! You are my x-ray machine. What I mean to say is that, many times trying to get a panel off… (if I only knew where that one fastener giving me trouble was?). It may take a few try's, but I get it off. Sometimes  the part or panel gets ,damaged. I don't want to damage anything on my Lexus. Parts are not cheap! Thanks for doing the ground word!
You don't need to take side panels out, just the seats. After that – you can lift rear panel just enough to remove the sub.
great video man thanks
This was an excellent video of how to replace it correctly. However, can you just get the grill off, without taking the whole back deck off, to replace sub woofer?