RX in NC

I ordered six of these spark plugs from drivewire.com yesterday, and they arrived TODAY via UPS (with free shipping, no less!). What great service - essentially next-day shipping free and the best price to boot.... I wholeheartedly endorse drivewire.com and I'm sure I'll order from them in the future. Check 'em out the next time you need a set of these expensive iridium-tipped spark plugs....

Because some of the premium filters from decent providers (such as Purolator or NAPA as previously mentioned) are comparable to the OEM filters from Toyota, or at least close enough to where there's no significant difference over 5,000 miles. Not everyone wants to drive 10 or 20 or 50 miles to the nearest Toyota dealership when a suitable auto parts store may be only 2 or 3 miles away.

I tend to stick with Purolator Premium and NAPA Silver. I've used both for many years across multiple vehicles and I find them to be a good value. If you're changing your oil filter every 5,000 miles or so, you don't have to spend a fortune to acquire a high-end one.

Yeah, we've been in this house since 1994 and we've still been able to remain somewhat rural even though we're only five minutes west of Highway 50 (Creedmoor Road) and less than two minutes south of Highway 98 (Durham Highway). We've got about two acres of wooded terrain and it is unlikely that anything will be built beside us or behind us for a long time to come because of creeks, streams, and the very protected watershed here. We're very fortunate in that regard. We almost moved to the Apex area in the late 1980s but it would have been a little too much of a commute for both of us at that time. Apex was still a very small town then, no more than a couple thousand people in the so-called city limits. Man, has that changed now. It's a booming area and I have a number of friends who live in and around Apex. You'll enjoy driving 751. I loved that tree-lined, farm-encrusted, old country road when I first discovered it driving my Alfa Romeo Quadrifoglio that I had as a toy back in the 1980s and I still enjoy driving 751 today although development has certainly changed some of the "country" appeal that it had twenty years ago. Good luck with the move and enjoy the experience....

Congrats and enjoy the process. Get ready to spend much more of your time at Lowe's and Home Depot and much less of it under the hood of your LS. Whatever you've budgeted for long-range home improvement projects, be prepared to at least double it once your new wife discovers HGTV (if she hasn't already). If we're unfortunate enough to experience another terrorist attack in the U.S., I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will take place at HGTV's corporate headquarters and wipe them off the face of the planet.... I'm in northwest Raleigh. If your new morning commute to Chapel Hill will only be 10 minutes, I'm guessing that your new home may be west of Morrisville or perhaps in southwest Durham. Or it might be south of Chapel Hill down towards Bynum and Chatham County. So where is it?

Although I swore I'd never buy another GM product after the paint failed on the tailgate of my 1990 Chevy S-10 pickup and GM Corporate wouldn't even bother to investigate the validity of my request to simply re-prime and re-paint just the tailgate (great little truck though, with the V6 engine - it did everything I asked it to do for more than ten years), I have to admit that this new GM warranty may very well make me rethink my position when it's time for a new full-size pickup. I may have to consider the Silverado although I continue to like the Ram product line better. I believe that Chrysler and Ford will have to respond to this action from GM. Chrysler can afford to, but Ford is teetering on the brink and this may be one more major cost increase of doing business that hastens the demise of Ford as we know it....

Knowing how overweight and underpowered the RX300 is, if I saw this particular one tooling down the road I would laugh so hard that my sides would hurt just thinking about how much money this guy wasted....

From your description, there's certainly a chance that your dealer did not properly reinstall your hoses and connections after replacing your alternator and mass air flow sensor a couple of weeks ago. The fact that your gas mileage dropped from 20 mpg down to 8 mpg immediately after your vehicle was serviced points to that conclusion. Have you discussed this problem with them? If so, what was their response? Technicians in a hurry or not completely familiar with the procedure they're performing often make mistakes such as failing to restore all connections properly, and this could be the source of SOME of your current problems. But you also need to be aware of the fact that a cracked exhaust manifold is a very common problem in 1999, 2000, and 2001 RX300s. When a manifold cracks in these vehicles, it can cause the ECU to throw a variety of codes which may or may not be accurate. I know this because my wife's 2000 RX300 experienced a cracked exhaust manifold at about 45,000 miles and threw a number of codes as a result. But the only code that turned out to be accurate after the manifold was replaced was the mass air flow sensor. Fortunately for us, all of these problems were covered under warranty at that time. My advice to you is two-fold: First, have your cracked exhaust manifold replaced (and all of your hose and electrical connections visually checked out) and then have the codes read again before they do any additional work to your vehicle because you may find that many of those codes have magically disappeared once the new manifold is in place. Second, approach the dealership's service manager with the knowledge you've gained about the very common cracked exhaust manifold problem and ask them to cover it for you under their "goodwill" warranty policy. I've had our local Lexus dealership cover various failures on my wife's vehicle under this little-known "goodwill" policy even as her vehicle was approaching 75,000 miles. It never hurts to ask. Just be professional, but firm, when you approach them about it, and make them aware that you've done significant research on exhaust manifold cracking on the RX300 series and you now know that it is a common failure in these vehicles. Good luck to you and keep us posted on your situation....

Best on-line deal for the appropriate Denso SK20R11 iridium plugs I'll need thus far is from drivewire.com, phone (800) 895-8910. They quote $8.76 apiece with no tax and free shipping for orders totalling more than $50. That's a pretty good deal, I think. If anyone finds a better deal, please post here. Thanks....

Thanks for the input, guys. I know this task ain't gonna be a walk in the park. It's always good to get advice from those who've already been there. If my fingers still work after this spark plug change is finished, I'll post my advice on how to best go about accomplishing the job. I'll try to keep my language as clean as possible....

Thanks again, Tom. I'm going to change the plugs at 120,000 miles - the vehicle currently has about 117,500 miles on it so I have some time to get organized and familiar with the task at hand. But I'm certainly not looking forward to it and will allow myself at least a full morning in case I run into major challenges. The good news is that I only have to do this once - the vehicle will be long gone from our garage by the time it needs new plugs again....

Thanks for the reply, Tom. I'll make sure that I have a 4-inch extension in my toolbox before I start the job. What components on the vehicle, if any, did you have to remove before you could get to the rear plugs? In the last couple of days I've found on-line sources for Denso iridium plugs that are about $5 less expensive per plug than what my local Toyota dealership sells them for. The best source so far is through drivewire.com, phone 800-895-8910, priced at $8.76 per plug with no tax and free ground shipping on all orders over $50.

To those of you who have been successful in getting to and changing your three rear spark plugs - what tools did you require and what steps did you have to take in order to complete the job? My wife's vehicle is approaching 120,000 miles and I really want to do this job myself if I can manage to figure out a way to get to those very poorly-placed three rear plugs. I've talked to Lexus mechanics, Toyota mechanics, and independent mechanics about this subject and while they all agree this is a definite pain-in-the-!Removed! job, they all seem to use different approaches. Some recommend removing plenums, manifolds, the windshield rain gutter, etc. Some say they have special tools and socket extensions that allow them to get to the rear plugs without having to remove any other parts at all (but they're reluctant to show me these "special tools", so I question whether it's just another marketing ploy).... So if you've done this, please list the tools required and the steps you had to take to finally access and change those miserable three rear plugs. As always, thanks for sharing your expertise....

Moderators, Can you please move this post to the "General" section? It should reach more eyeballs and generate greater feedback there. Sorry I didn't put it there to begin with. Thanks.

Guys, Anyone bought Denso spark plugs online for a good price lately? The Toyota dealerships here want about $13 a plug for the iridium-tipped plugs I need and even the local Autozones are selling them for $12.99. I couldn't believe it - very disappointing. I can get NGK iridium-tipped plugs locally for about $7 each and that's about what I'd like to pay for Denso as well. Any online suggestions that you've had Denso spark plug success with lately? Thanks for any input you can offer....

It could still be a faulty valve stem. I've seen them lose air for awhile, go back to normal for awhile, and then lose air again. Not much you can do except just keep checking the pressure on a regular basis, which you're probably already doing. Annoying, isn't it?

The rear main oil seal commonly fails on 1999, 2000, and 2001 RX300s because the original part was improperly designed and made rather poorly. The oil seal has since been redesigned and made by a different supplier and is now much sturdier. After ours began to leak at about 75,000 miles, I had it replaced via the Lexus "goodwill" warranty and it has been fine ever since. Lexus will quote you around $1,200 for this repair, which is unfortunate for a replacement part that's probably worth about $20. They have to drop the transmission to get to the seal so that's why Lexus will quote you so high a price. If you can't talk your Lexus dealership into doing this for you under the "goodwill" warranty, then find an independent shop that may do it for you for half of what Lexus wants. Good luck.

I had all four removed at the same time way back in the summer of 1973 (I was 19) well before today's high-tech equipment, drugs, and procedures. My biggest concern was that I had an AAU basketball tournament championship game that night and the coaches still expected me to start at center. No pain, but the sutured wounds bled solidly throughout the game. The trainers packed my entire mouth with gauze, changed the blood-and-saliva-soaked gauze at every timeout, and my natural adrenalin pulled me through. The biggest challenge was breathing through all that gauze but I figured it out after a few minutes. We won the league tournament that night and that made it all worthwhile. With today's blood-control rules in sports, the refs probably wouldn't allow a player in the game under those conditions. But I'm still proud of playing the entire game under those conditions with no one having to spell me even for a couple of minutes. So relax and just get through the procedure. If it's performed properly, you won't feel a thing. But you should expect some soreness and bleeding over the following couple of days. Schedule some downtime if you can and eat soft foods and liquids for the first three or four days. You'll be fine before you know it....

No matter how sparkling clean I get the windshield of my wife's 2000 RX300 using water, glass cleaner, old diapers, and everything else I've tried, any exterior windshield treatment such as Rain-X instantly reacts by smearing and smudging the exterior windshield as soon as I apply it. I've tried it in heavy shade, bright sunshine, low temperatures, high temperatures, low humidity, high humidity - nothing matters. The product still seems to instantly react with the glass and smears big-time. I've used Rain-X on all of our other vehicles for more than 20 years and have never encountered this problem before the RX300 arrived. Still another reason to hate this friggin' vehicle....

It's probably the valve needle inside the valve stem that is in the process of failing. Every now and then you'll get a defective one that takes a while to fail. But the most common cause of failure is the owner (or a tire store guy in a hurry) being careless with the air pressure hose while inflating his tires and bending the valve needle ever so slightly because he doesn't place the hose end squarely and carefully on the valve stem. Doesn't take much of a bend to cause the valve stem to fail. I did it once myself many years ago and learned my lesson to take my time and be careful with the hose. Take your cap off, spit on the valve stem needle (get it good and wet), and look for air bubbles forming. If you see them, you've found your problem. The good news is that valve stems are cheap and you have no tire damage as you would with a nail or screw. Let us know how it turns out....

He's talking about a Southern Methodist University logo bumper sticker. The ONLY safe place to put one would be somewhere on your glass. Not on your metal panels, and not on your plastic bumpers - in other words, no stickers on any painted surfaces, period. And if you do decide to affix a sticker to your glass, make certain that you don't place it over any embedded defroster wires in your rear glass. The defroster will melt the glue on the sticker and possibly the sticker itself.

Being low on transmission fluid could certainly be part of your problem, but until you learn NOT to shift between forward and reverse unless you've come to a full stop, you are your own worst enemy.... Look at your RX transmission history, for cryin' out loud - three different vehicles, and all three have exhibited transmission problems to some degree. If you've driven them all as carelessly as you say you have (not stopping before shifting), it's no damn wonder you can't keep your transmissions intact.... Learn from your mistakes....

Those of you who do not come to a complete stop before shifting from drive to reverse or reverse to drive are simply asking for transmission failure, and not just in these weak-trannied RXs either.... Man, how stupid can you be....

Common sense tells you to keep your windows down as much as possible over the next few weeks - all of them including the sunroof....

I didn't choose it - the wife did, it's her vehicle. Worst vehicle I've ever owned in more than 36 years of driving. Even though it's been meticulously maintained, it has still suffered from all of the well-known RX300 AWD failures. If I had not been able to force Lexus to do all the required repairs on their dime, I would have sued Lexus and would have expected to win with full documentation and a long list of service history to back me up....