  The minimum distance of expander codes over GF(q) is studied. A new upper
bound on the minimum distance of expander codes is derived. The bound is shown
to lie under the Varshamov-Gilbert (VG) bound while q >= 32. Lower bounds on
the minimum distance of some families of expander codes are obtained. A lower
bound on the minimum distance of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with a
Reed--Solomon constituent code over GF(q) is obtained. The bound is shown to be
very close to the VG bound and to lie above the upper bound for expander codes.
