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Three of us spent a good two hours getting the spare tire off the truck the other day, trying to get access to some other parts of the truck. We followed the 04 lx 470 instruction book to the letter. Finally, I called up the dealer (quite frustrated and upset...afterall, doing this in 20 degree weather for over two hours and getting nowhere was not all that fun!). Guess why we could not get the tire to lower?? The instructions in the book are WRONG! It tells you to insert the "hook" end into the little cup, through the rear bumper access plate. Come to find out, that is the outdated instruction. You dont use the hook end at all...you use the silver metal end with the hex-like key to do it. The dealer confirmed that the book in indeed wrong... So, I hope this post helps someone else in the future. p.s., once we used the right adapter end getting the tire lowered down, it took us less than 30 seconds to do it! p.s.s. my dealer was very very helpful over the phone. Afterall, at first, they must have thought me some sort of babbling idiot....untill they realized the instruction book is wrong. They treated my very nicely through the whole process.......another reason I am glad I have a Lexus!! They even offered to have someone drive to my house to help!!!

shame that nobody answers a lot of these questions on here. From what I have researched and talking to Lexus certified mechanics, it appears that the eco mode has the best effect when used during stop and go traffic. The primary changes made by the system is to change the throttle profile by essentially slowing down acceleration, shifting sooner (lower rpms), and scaling back devices that cause high energy drain from the motor (IE: air conditioner compressor and internal fan speed for climate control). Because of these functions, the effect of "eco mode" would be minimal when at highway speeds or maintaining a fairly constant speed. Normal mode is quite efficient and the unique ability of this motor to switch between the traditional Atkinson cycle and the Otto cycle will yield fairly good gas mileage even with the turbo. From my experience and what I have read online most owners that track their mpg manually notice less than a 1-2 mpg gain on long trips when this mode is enabled while highway driving.

laubachs, I agree with Trevor Catt. It sounds as if your door locks and the key fob need to be reprogramed.

Thanks for the heads up! It seems once they get you past the warranty period they don't care. It's all about business and they will wait until a class action. It used to be if you took care of your car, it would last AND look good! I'll reconsider putting so much $ in a car in the future. Best of luck to you too!

Exactly and I've gone through all of the appropriate steps to get assistance from Lexus and they will not help. This is my last Lexus for this reason. I'm going to drive it until there's no paint. It's not very good advertising for them. It's pitiful when I see so many with the same problem. One paint place told me it was bad primer. Good Luck to you.

I also own a 2008 with bubbling and chipping on the paint. It is located on the side of the car and not a result of a stone or car ding either. I am taking it to a paint shop to get an opinion. Spending $50k on this car and you should not have this kind of quality control issue.

I also own an 08 GX470. My paint started peeling during warranty but I thought it was from rocks on the interstate or something like that. Got a new windshield and when the tape was removed, large amounts of paint came off stuck to the tape. Took car to reputable paint shop and was told this was a defect. Have tried to get help from Lexus but they refuse to do the right thing. Just like the dashboard deal so I'm waiting and hoping for a class action law suit because that's what it will take. Time is on their side however because cars don't last but I have babied this car because it cost a fortune and I plan to keep it as long as it will roll. The paint is peeling all over and looks horrible but it runs good. This is my last Lexus however due to the peeling paint issue.

I have had no luck with my dealer on remedying the paint peeling issue. The deal continues to place liability upon Lexus since the vehicle is out of warranty. The dealer ignores the fact that I had brought the paint chipping and peeling issue to their attention on at three occasions while the vehicle was under warranty. The dealer would simply use some touch up paint and offer nothing further. I made claim for a recall with Lexus a couple years ago. The response I received was that my vehicle was an isolated instance and did not warrant a recall. If enough dissatisfied consumers articulate this issue, I am hopeful Lexus will be forthcoming and offer customer satisfaction. Thanks so much for the forum to air this issue.

Hi Charles. In order to better access information regarding the paint problem, I would urge you to look at our search function where you will find a large number of complaints and methods used to resolve the problem with Lexus. To use the Clubs Data Base, first pull up the main log on forums page. At the top,over to the right is a grey colored horizontal box where you can put in your search parameters . Words such as "peeling paint - TSB re. peeling paint. Let Becki or I what the dealer comes off with Paul

The new drive shaft has lube in the slip yoke. The lube tends to harden with time and prevents grease added from the zerk from getting to the slip yoke. The clunk can get rather irritating - when coming to a stop as well as taking off. When properly lubed, there is a slight engagement feel. Without effective lubing, the thump/clunk can be quite irritating. I drove a used LX for sale at a dealer that was more than slight - it had received regular dealer maintenance, but lubing the driveshaft may not be high on their list to do instead of just "check.".

I hope you haven't done this already!!! The AHC is what makes an LX470 what it is. I had the same issue on my 2002 LX470 with over 230K miles. Mind you, I bought it 8 years ago with 32K miles, so as you can see, this car has been through a lot. That being said, I was having the same issue with my car for the past 2 years, where the front of the car was all the way at the bottom, and it felt like I would go air borne if I drove on a rough road. I went to the dealer and got the exact same answer, "It'll be $280 for diagnosis, we might have to replace the AHC system to find out if that's the issue, cost will be over four grand...yada yada yada." Anyway, I did months and months of research. During this, I changed the Suspension oil ($50 from the dealer, do not use any other oil) - No results. Then I figured, I'd bite the bullet and change both of the "Front Height Control Accumulators". I teamed up with a mechanic, and he bought them for me (at his price) from the Lexus dealer closeby for a little over $500 a piece. I took the car to him to get them replaced, thinking it'd be an all day job. Turns out, it took him one hour. It's a simple unscrewing-!Removed! back job underneath the car, and bleeding the suspension fluid so no air is trapped in them (usually this would have resolved the issue if your Accumulators are bad), but I got no results. I could feel the sweat dripping down my spine now. I had just dished over $1,000 for something that wasn't even the issue. So the mechanic looked around some more. My mistake was that I didn't get it diagnosed by him before I asked him to order the Accumulators for me. What was the find after 10 minutes of looking around? The front passenger side "Height Control Sensor" was in pieces and needed to be replaced. So he called up the dealer again and I picked it up for another $300+. After installing this, the mighty LX470 car rose it's head as it used to, when I met him the first time. MORAL OF THE STORY: GET IT DIAGNOSED THOUROUGHLY BY A TRUSTWORTHY MECHANIC BEFORE DOING ANYTHING. Total cost was a little less than $1,800 including labor (which could have been around $500). But I don't regret it a bit because it's been two months now, and I have driven the car for over 4,000 miles, and it rides 'in the air' the same way as it was riding the day I bought it. A WORD OF CAUTION and/or ADVICE: PLEASE HAVE YOUR SUSPENSION FLUID CHANGED AT EVERY 60,000 MILES TO MAKE THE AHC SYSTEM LAST FOREVER. I was never told this until I ruined it (or may be not).

Actually, the GX/4runner thump is exactly the same, with the same procedure to address it. I use the same M1 red grease, but am always cautious of over-doing the slider yolk zerk, for the reasons you mentioned earlier. I wish I could get a clear, definitive answer to how much you should actually put in there? Jim, have you found any info on this? Nope. The first time I did it on my 4runner, I overfilled it. IIRC, I pumped quite a bit in, maybe 12-15 pumps before I saw it start to expand. The remedy is to remove the zerk, then drive over some speed bumps or down the curb a few times so the excess grease can ooze out, replace zerk. I've only used about 4 pumps of M1 grease on the slide yoke and about 4-6 pumps on the U-joints (just until I can see the old grease start to ooze out) every 15K miles. So far, no thumping at 72K mi. BTW, the LX driveshaft was redesigned in '03. I know the diameter was increased (according to Slee's website), don't known if the types of metals were changed or not.

There is someone over at ih8mud that had 180K on his orignal t-belt! really WAY to far IMOP but 100-120k really should be fine when I did my 2000 LC at 90K, I did the belt, waterpump, tensioners, crank/cam seals and some other stuff.........all for under 1K. the t-belt looked like new. glad I did the waterpump as it was just starting to leak at the shaft and the weep hole, pump was around $100.........money well spent IMOP John