RX in NC

Agreed. Good, reputable automotive upholstery shops do this work far better than any Lexus tech can.... My wife's seat heaters in her 2004 RX330 AWD faded away a couple of times while the vehicle was still under factory warranty. Our local Lexus dealership made two separate attempts to fix the seat heaters, both unsuccessful, and wound up subbing out the vehicle to my favorite local auto upholstery shop that I've dealt with for more than 30 years. They diagnosed the problem, sourced the parts, made the repairs, and got the vehicle back to us within two days with Lexus of course paying for the incident under warranty and supplying a loaner car. Both heated seats have been cooking my wife's and her friends' derrierres ever since.... I don't know how anyone can stand heated seats. I sweat like Secretariat in his prime after just a couple of minutes even on the lowest setting. No thanks....

Check out the Firestone Destination LE tire at tirerack.com. Best truck/SUV tire for the money on the market right now. Had it on my wife's previous 2000 RX300 AWD and have it on my daughter's 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4WD. Great ride, superb wet traction, excellent snow traction, long-lasting treadwear, does extremely well in light off-road driving, and so very affordable (especially when you ask your local Firestone dealer for a "buy three get one free" deal like I did).... I like the Dunlop Radial Rover A/T, I have this tire on my 1999 Dodge Ram pickup, but the treadwear mileage longevity can't compete with the Firestone Destination LE. When my Dunlops finally bite the dust by late 2009 or early 2010 (when they will be 7 years old), I'll put a set of Destination LE's on my Ram....

Transmission shift firmware has been "new and improved" several times for the RX330 over the past three or four years. If more than two years have passed since you last had your firmware reflashed, have your dealer ping yours again with the latest and greatest release. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn't, but if they'll do it for free under warranty it is certainly worth the time and effort involved.... Keep in mind that the conventional RX series is a harsh-shifting vehicle, period. My wife had a 2000 RX300 AWD and now has a 2004 RX330 AWD and while the 2004 is consistently better than the 2000 was, neither one even comes close to shifting as smoothly and effortlessly as my 1999 Dodge Ram 5.9-litre V8 1500-series pickup does. Sad but true....

The key in fitting that new pad on your bumper (and keeping it solidly in place over the long haul) lies primarily in the glue that you choose. I would go with the strongest epoxy I could find, probably from the Locktite brand. I would also substantially rough up the underside of the new pad as well as the top of the bumper itself to ensure maximum adhesion, probably using steel wool....

I believe that the top bumper pads are not compatible between the RX300 and RX330. My wife's former 2000 RX300 AWD has been gone from our driveway for more than two years now (YES!!), but I distinctly remember noticing that the size and shape of the bumper pad on her current 2004 RX330 AWD was different when we first brought that vehicle home. That pad is definitely bigger on the newer models. Now, that's not to say that you couldn't make it fit with the right tools and glue.... Let us know what you're able to determine once you've checked into it more closely....

Ours is the V6. While doing on-line research on the car before going to the dealership to drive it, I did not believe that the V6 would be enough engine to haul that S-Type chassis around. I thought that the V8 version would be mandatory even though I did not want to bring another V8 into our garage based upon the fact that gas would begin creeping up again (just as it has done). Actually driving the V6 version proved me wrong. Jaguar took the Lincoln LS Duratech engine, added variable valve timing and some other custom tweaks and turned the V6 into a gas-sipping beast. SW03ES, you would love this car. D.C. is apparently a hotbed for the S-Type along with Southern California and South Florida. Go find a just-off-lease low-mileage and babied 2006 S-Type 3.0 still under factory warranty and test-drive that sucker. You will be amazed what you get for so little money if you just stick to your guns and refuse to play the ol' sales shell game.... Now if you want the supercharger-equipped 400-hp 4.2-litre V8 S-Type R, they are rare but available. Man are they screamin' fast, but insurance, gas (15 mpg on your best behavior), and maintenance costs made that decision a no-brainer for me. I told my wife that she does NOT need to be driving a 4-door luxury sedan that is faster than my 5.9-litre V8 Dodge Ram....

Judging from the posted photos, the placement of the gearshift lever certainly appears that it would interfere big-time with the use of the climate / stereo / whatever-else controls that are located on the center dash, especially for those of us with huge hands....

Some of you have shown some interest in our new-to-us 2005 Jaguar S-Type since I practically stole it from our local Jaguar dealership the week before Christmas in a completely empty-of-other-customers Jaguar showroom.... My wife drove it from Raleigh to Tampa yesterday to visit her parents. She left with a full tank and had to stop for gas only once during the entire trip, previously unheard of in anything else she's driven to and from her parents' homeplace before. She said that she ran between 68 and 72 mph on I-95 and I-75 depending upon traffic flow. She managed to average right at 33 mpg for that trip, unbelievable for a 3,900-lb, 275-hp 4-door full-size European sedan. We bought this car as a highway cruiser and man, is it ever coming through for us. If any of you are looking for a beautifully unique, powerful, elegant, easy-to-drive luxury sedan that can be bought coming off a low-mileage lease for well under half of what it originally stickered for, go find a well-kept 2005 or 2006 S-Type and test-drive it yourself. It just might be the best bang-for-the-buck sedan out there that nobody knows about....

I've run my wife's 2004 RX330 AWD's Bridgestone Alenza 235/55/18 tires at 36 psi year-round since the tires were mounted in mid-February 2007. The tires now have more than 46,000 miles on them and have performed flawlessly. 30 psi will give you a cushy ride but wear your tires out prematurely while cutting into your mpg. 32 to 34 psi is preferable to 30 psi, no question about it, but if you want to extend your treadlife and gas mileage, bump them up to 35 psi and try it for awhile. You can always reduce your pressures if you find the ride a bit too harsh for your liking....

Yep, do a drain-and-fill. Stick with Toyota Type T-IV ATF to protect your rights in the event of a failure down the road. You'll need at least 4 quarts, but some vehicles will be a little thirstier and will want 4.5. So buy 5 quarts at your nearest Toyota parts department. Repeat every 30,000 miles. Drive it like a station wagon, not an Indy car, and you should be fine....

I've done 95% of my own routine maintenance, both in-warranty and post-warranty, since the late 1970s and have never been denied a warranty claim by any manufacturer. If memory serves me correctly over that 30-plus years span of time, those manufacturers include Datsun, Fiat, Jeep, Chevrolet, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Acura, Honda, Dodge, Lexus, Chrysler, and now Jaguar. I can't remember ever being asked to produce my D-I-Y receipts for a warranty claim (but I always keep them because you never know when you will be required to so so)....

Our set of Alenzas was mounted in mid-February 2007 and now has a bit over 46,000 miles on the tread. All four were built in Japan. Bridgestone's quality control with the Alenza tire is excellent, and I wouldn't be concerned about country of origin. Be more concerned about properly caring for your tires. Check their pressures (cold) at least every couple of weeks and keep them properly inflated. Rotate them at every oil-and-filter change. And watch the treadwear patterns for alignment issues. The Alenzas are a great truck & SUV tire in just about all weather conditions. Ours have never even come close to hydroplaning, even as they near 50,000 miles....

Sorry to cause any misconceptions, but I'm not "piling on". We've had at least two of the RX hybrids (probably 2007 models) as loaners over several days, and my perception is that no, they were not as smooth as I thought that they should be. Bear in mind, I'm not putting the RX hybrid in the same lousy transmission boat as I believe the conventional RX dwells in. The loaners we had definitely moved through the power curve far better than either our previous 300 or our current 330 did or does. But the hybrids still weren't as smooth as my Ram is. Again, drive-by-wire could be a factor here as well. Not having owned a 400h and therefore not having a great deal of time behind the wheel of one, I can't say for sure. But I had the loaners long enough to know that my Ram was smoother. As I said, it is truly a phenomenal truck for my purposes. I don't look forward to the day when I have to say goodbye to it....

I've had multiple transmission firmware reflashes performed on my wife's current 2004 RX330 AWD. Only slight shift quality improvement has been accomplished as a result. I've had enough RX experience over the years to know that regardless of firmware improvements, the RX series shifts harshly compared to our other vehicles. I've said many times on this forum that my 1999 Dodge Ram 5.9-litre V8 1500-series pickup (which turns 10 years old today), still running its original factory fill of Mopar ATF+3, shifts smooth as glass compared to any RX we've driven including several 400h loaners when my wife's RX was in for warranty service. The drive-by-wire throttle system is definitely a contributing factor. Our 2005 Jaguar S-Type sedan is also drive-by-wire and while its well-respected German-built ZF 6-speed transmission is considerably smoother and much more adaptive to different driving styles than my wife's current RX330, the Jaguar is still not quite as smooth through the power curve as my big V8 Ram is. That truck is phenomenal - the best engine and transmission combination I've ever had in any vehicle in the nearly 40 years that I've been driving. The downside, of course, is gas mileage - perhaps 20 mpg at best under ideal highway conditions, and no better than 16 mpg around town. So there is a tradeoff involved for the Ram's effortless transmission performance. The upside to the Jaguar is that while its transmission is not quite as smooth as my Ram, it is still a true highway cruiser, such a pleasure to drive, and comes very close to 32 mpg on the highway in ideal conditions. I never expected that from a 3,900-lb. 4-door sedan delivering 275 hp, and that has been a very pleasant surprise indeed....

Drain-and-fill your transmission fluid at least every 30,000 miles. Drive sensibly - the RX is completely opposite the definition of "performance". After having my wife's previous 2000 RX300 AWD transmission fail under warranty at 48,000 miles, I have continued my routine of changing the fluid every 30,000 miles on my wife's current 2004 RX330 AWD. At more than 87,000 miles now, that transmission continues to perform normally. These RX transmissions are harsh-shifting from day one. Those of us who are accustomed to smooth shifting from our other SUVs (in our case, Jeep Grand Cherokees) have had to come to terms with the fact that these RX vehicles simply do not shift smoothly, especially the early ones. Along with insufficient engineering and substandard parts design (take a look at some of the photos of planetary gears and housings that Lenore has posted on this site within the past month), that may be a contributing factor to the failures we constantly read about on these forums.... A little side note here - I believe that Lexus has long been aware of these problems and managed to rectify most of them by the time the RX300 evolved into the RX330 for the 2004 model year. Most of the failures involve the 1999 and 2000 model years with some 2001 models thrown in as well. Your 2002 RX may indeed have made it through to the "transmission safe zone" production years although Lexus will never do the right thing and admit where that may have occured. So change your fluid at least every 30,000 miles, drive this vehicle like a station wagon, not a sports car, and your chances are much better than the unfortunate folks who have the 1999 and 2000 model years....

The Number One thing you can do to prevent RX300 transmission failure? Do what a lot of us have already done with our 1999 and 2000 models - sell it ....

Hyundai will kick !Removed! and take names with its new Genesis. Combine how much car it is for the money with how lousy the U.S. economy is and there is no question that Hyundai is poised to take significant business away that would previously have gone to Lexus, Infiniti, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Jaguar, and others typically associated with the luxury segment. Hyundai quality is nearing world-class in its top-end models, it offers some of the best warranties in the business, and it probably represents the best bang-for-the-buck in the industry right now. If you still laugh at the mention of Hyundai, you don't understand the revolution they have gone through. I guarantee you that Honda and Toyota aren't laughing....

The annual auto show is also running this weekend down at the new convention center here in Raleigh. The local news media heavily promotes this show every year, but the big noise they are making this time centers around what is missing: no red carpets, no cars up on turntables, no fancy food and drink, no sparkle and flash, no models in evening gowns or bikinis, and most importantly, no GM or Ford anywhere to be seen. Chrysler is participating, but only with the Jeep line-up. Even the admission price has been downsized to just five bucks. A true sign of the times....

Don't assume that he wasn't in the process of starting the vehicle - he may have had a remote starter kit....

I agree - it sounds like a battery issue. Could have been venting when the vehicle was being started. Or it could have been static electricity and a worst-case scenario of events to cause a spark and then an explosion of the battery. It will be interesting to see how the investigation turns out and whether it will lead to a battery recall. Glad to learn that no one was killed.... Our new-to-us 2005 Jaguar S-Type has a vent pipe running from the battery core down to the undercarriage below the right rear wheel well (the battery is in the trunk of this vehicle, below the trunk floorboard). Its purpose is to move any battery outgassed fumes as far away from any potential sparking point as possible. I've never seen this in a vehicle before, and I initially thought that it was engineering overkill. After this RX hybrid explosion story, maybe my S-Type battery vent system is a great idea after all....

When your clock begins to require frequent resetting, it is usually an indication that your battery is dying. Some folks have their battery tested, others just go ahead and replace it....

In cold weather, some key fob transmitters can intermittently be affected by random static electricity. This can be triggered by carrying your keys around in your pants pockets while walking on indoor carpets, and even simply by walking from a warm house outside into the cold air.... The most effective fix for this static electricity interference problem is to open the key transmitter and custom-cut and fit a micro-thin sheet of computer component static film over the circuit board inside the key, then reassemble your key. The film helps to protect your key circuitry from static electricity by minimizing its impact on the transmission signals that your key puts out. If your problem is indeed static electricity interfering with proper operation of the key transmitter (and from what you described, I believe it is), then this quick and inexpensive fix works 95% of the time regardless of the make and model of the vehicle. I have experienced this annoying problem with two completely different vehicles over the years. In both cases, this fix solved the problem immediately. You can purchase sheets of this static film at any computer components retail store such as TigerDirect, CompUSA, and you may even find it at Radio Shack. Give it a shot and then let us know if this indeed solves your problem....

I also have great affection for one particular local Discount Tire outlet. They went out of their way to work with me two years ago when I had just purchased my wife's current 2004 RX330. The car dealer had just put a new set of Michelin Energy S8 tires on that vehicle from Discount Tire, but I wanted a set of Bridgestone Alenzas instead because the Alenza is a true SUV/truck tire and carries a 65,000-mile treadwear warranty, whereas the Michelin S8 is a sedan tire and carries NO treadwear warranty. Discount Tire wanted to make me happy so they swapped out the tires for me for a grand total of $47 and treated me like a long-time customer (I did go to the trouble of obtaining the car dealer's Michelin purchase receipt before I went to Discount Tire to initiate the swap). You can bet that I'll do business with them again and they already know that they'll have to cut me a great deal every time or I'll be ordering from tirerack.com instead....

My advice, given your experiences and lack of failure symptoms at this point, is to continue to change your fluid every 30,000 miles and monitor its condition regularly. Don't tear down a properly-functioning transmission. But stay with Toyota Type T-IV fluid to protect your interests, and keep all service records for the duration you own the vehicle.... Good luck to you - hope you never have to deal with this issue....

Exactly. But keep in mind, you want to use only a small dab of Sil-Glyde in each channel. Place it near the bottom of the window frame and work it upwards with a wooden toothpick. Then, let your window glass do the final distribution by operating the window up and down a half-dozen times or so. Repeat as needed....