RX in NC

The operative word here is "snow". True 4x4s are always superior in "snow" as long as they are sporting decent tire tread depth and proper pressure. Ice is a very different story. Once you begin that slide, you're often hosed regardless of what you're driving unless it's a Zamboni or a road scraper. It's basically hang on, don't panic, stay off the brakes, and steer in the direction of your skid. I've driven on ice hundreds of times in my life and it is always an adventure regardless of what I'm driving. Your best bet on ice is to use tire chains. But the safest option of all is to stay off the roads and leave the crashes to the morons who will be all over your local six o'clock news broadcasts....

You have to use more judgment than just a tire site's customer ratings chart. Research the companies, tires, and engineering behind the tires you're interested in. Talk to multiple tire shops who sell those tires. Make it clear you're in the information-gathering stage, not the purchasing stage yet. Develop a relationship with someone who's been in the tire business for a long, long time. I can honestly say that I've never been disappointed in a set of aftermarket tires that I've researched thoroughly and then purchased and installed. Some have been better than others, sure, but I've always gotten at least what I expected out of the tires I've purchased over the past three decades. Of course, many drivers still believe that if you buy quality tires, you can mount 'em and forget 'em. Tires must be managed more thoroughly than any other component on your vehicle. Inspect them visually before you hop in to drive each day, check your pressures weekly, look for nails and screws whenever you check your pressures, and rotate them on at least a 7,500 mile schedule. It's amazing how inexpensive tires can sometimes last longer than premium tires with just one big difference - namely, meticulous owner care....

I suggest you write up and print out a list of ground rules that all passengers must adhere to before they set foot in your car. Then pass these out to your friends as you encounter them over the next few days or weeks. Explain that you're only doing this because you value your car more than their friendship. You can bet that your messy car problems will disappear instantaneously because from then on, you'll be driving alone 100% of the time. Seriously now, it's all about etiquette and respect. Are you hauling Third World refugees around? Most folks in the professional world have enough sense to know that they should not mess up someone else's vehicle....

It's always a lousy and potentially dangerous idea to mix tires on the same vehicle regardless of axle placement. Why gamble with the only component that joins your vehicle to the ground?

Your leak may actually be coming from your rear main oil seal. Rear main oil seal leaks in these vehicles are quite common due to the poor design of the original factory-installed seal. A revised and improved seal is now available and seems to do a much better job. We had ours replaced at no charge from our local Lexus dealership in November 2004 and have not experienced any oil leaks since. Who changed your oil? What expertise do they possess in identifying leaks?

No, my wife's vehicle was out of warranty at the time, around 79,000 miles. Lexus has what is called a "goodwill warranty" policy that they can apply in situations where the vehicle is beyond the warranty period/miles but the customer deserves assistance due to a problem beyond his/her control. Because our vehicle has been so problematic (along with the fact that I will battle the dealership to the ends of the earth if I feel a quality control problem or design flaw is involved), our local Lexus service manager has worked very well with me over the past couple of years and has fixed every major problem that has arisen on her dime, not mine. Had I been charged for these various repairs, it would have cost me more than $9,000 thus far. I never hesitate to thank her for her time and consideration, and I have yet to pay Lexus a penny for any of these various repairs. The vehicle is currently pushing 105,000 miles. You should ask your local Lexus service manager for the courtesy of replacing your existing strut mount rubber bushings at no charge (or perhaps at a reduced charge) since it is a well-known and undeniable problem. Be sure that this particular Technical Service Bulletin applies to your model year - I know that it applies to 1999 and 2000 models, but I'm not certain about the later models of the RX300 before it became the RX330. The original bushings were improperly designed and of poor quality and Lexus knows it. It's worth a phone call to ask - be polite, be professional, but be firm. Refer to Technical Service Bulletin SU002-99, "Front Suspension Support Noise". Good luck to you.

With intermittent and funky electrical failures, it never hurts to clean and burnish your battery terminals and cables as an automatic first step approach. It's quick and it's free. How old is your battery? As you probably know, batteries beginning to fail can cause some very unusual symptoms and signs. On the RX300, the first sign is usually the clock failing to hold its time display, but center display panel quirks could also be affected.

There is a Technical Service Bulletin for the front strut mount rubber bushings. The factory-installed bushings were improperly designed and poorly made. The replacement bushings fit better into their housings and are heavier-duty. This topic has been discussed multiple times on this forum. Do a search using "strut mount rubber bushing failure" and you should be directed to these threads with all the information you'll need to get your problem resolved. I took advantage of this TSB in January 2005 and had the new design installed in my wife's 2000 RX300 at Lexus's expense. The squeaking, cracking, and popping sounds (particularly during cold temperatures) immediately ceased. Having this TSB applied to your vehicle should solve this particular problem for you.

I do my own service. At the 60,000 mile interval, I probably spent about $60 to $70 on parts and fluids although I'd have to check my records to be sure. Be aware that the factory timing belts on these vehicles rarely break before 120,000 to 150,000 miles as long as you drive normally and don't attempt to use the vehicle as a rice rocket. I plan to replace ours at 120,000 miles, same with the Denso iridium spark plugs. It behooves all of you to learn to do your own routine maintenance. You're getting your wallets sucked dry at the dealerships, and no one will take better care of your vehicle than YOU will yourself once you learn how....

Sorry, but our 4x4 Jeeps run circles around our RX300 AWD in the snow. That's just the way it is, folks. If you need to get around in snow, get a true 4x4....

You are correct. Hydroplaning is all about your tires and the speed you're traveling on wet pavement. Once you've lost traction, you've basically become an unsteerable surfboard until traction is re-established. If you do a lot of driving in the rain, you must keep plenty of tread depth on your tires and slow down on wet pavement in order to minimize your chances of hydroplaning.

Your current experiences sound very similar to what my wife experienced in her 2000 RX300 AWD in October/November 2003 at around 47,000 to 48,000 miles. She would be on the highway running about 60 mph, attempt to accelerate and pull into the left lane to pass a slower vehicle in front of her, and her transmission would experience "brain freeze" for two to three seconds and not respond to any increase in foot pressure on the accelerator. This scared the hell out of her, made her lose all confidence in the vehicle, and became the catalyst of my requiring Lexus to replace her transmission under warranty at no cost to us in mid-November 2003. Her vehicle now shows about 104,500 miles and she's yet to experience a similar situation with the current transmission. But it still shifts far more harshly through the low gears (as did the original transmission) than a $40,000 vehicle ever should. Who installed your auxillary transmission filter? And how frequently are you changing your Type T-IV fluid? I'm changing ours every 30,000 miles but there are some on this site who do so every 15,000 miles.

During deer-rutting season (mid-October through mid-January in my neck of the woods) I use my fog lights in addition to my low-beams because it provides increased width of light projection along both sides of the road. This enables me to spot deer standing or running near the side of the road a second or so sooner than would have been the case if I had been using low-beams alone and sometimes even high-beams. I've experienced several situations over the last few years when this prevented me from crashing into the deer because it gave me an extra second or so to brake, maneuver, or simply watch the animal for signs of movement towards me.

Conclusion? If you need a vehicle that can safely and effectively handle a variety of winter road conditions including moderate snowfall (defined as 6 to 8 inches), there's no question that the RX series is NOT your best choice, probably not even in the top 25. Those of us who occasionally have to drive in moderate or heavy snow and have owned true 4x4 vehicles along with the various RX models can advise you of that fact very quickly. Previous posters in this thread have called the RX a minivan or a station wagon. I think it's more a short-platformed version of the latter, but regardless of what you think it resembles, rest assured that it is NOT decent-snowfall or off-road capable....

We've had a number of true 4x4 Jeep Cherokees and Grand Cherokees since 1985 and there is no question that by comparison, my wife's 2000 RX300 AWD may very well be marketed as "all-wheel-drive" by Lexus, but its 4x4 capability isn't very much at all. As wwest has pointed out a number of times on this forum, the vehicle is very heavily front-wheel biased at all times, and on the rare occasions that it delivers power to the rear wheels, it certainly isn't much. Our various Jeeps over the years have handled snowstorms approaching two-and-a-half feet deep, and not a single one of them ever got stuck or needed a tow. My favorite one was my 1988 4-liter I-6 Cherokee with a 5-speed manual transmission. The most capable one in the snow was her 1996 5.2-litre V-8 Grand Cherokee that was full-time four-wheel-drive. That one was my wife's favorite vehicle she's ever owned and she felt she could handle any road conditions the weather could throw at her. She put over 160,000 miles on that Jeep but then she caught Lexus fever so, against my advice, we sold her Jeep and she bought her current RX300. Biggest mistake she's ever made car-wise, and if she could have her Jeep back in the condition it was in when we sold it, she would gladly push her RX300 off a cliff and jump back into her Jeep in a heartbeat. Her RX300 seems to do reasonably well in snowfall accumulation up to approximately 4 to 5 inches. Anything over that and she does not feel comfortable driving the RX300. Again, even though the vehicle is marketed as AWD, what you're driving is pretty much a heavily-biased front-wheel-drive sedan gussied up as a pretend SUV....

Yep, Lexusfreak is correct - the original post above contains a bit of common sense tire advice but should not be considered even remotely close to being a professional dissertation on tires. Tire quality can vary within manufacturers as much as it does among manufacturers. Certain plants seem to be able to build better tires than other plants owned by the same tire manufacturer, and that may have something to do with the experience and skill of the human tirebuilder at his workstation. Tire performance and lifespan are greatly dependent upon the vehicle, the application, the driving habits of the owner, the care provided by the owner, the general road conditions routinely driven upon, and some luck avoiding nails, screws, and other road debris as well. The best tire advice? Do your homework thoroughly, ask questions, seek out technical information pertaining to the tires you're interested in, and find others who are knowledgeable about tires and better yet, take good care of their own. Proper tire selection and care can save your life in the event of a serious accident. Poor tire selection and negligence of care can kill you under those same conditions.

Found it through Google in an effort to gain information on why our 2000 RX300 AWD transmission was causing problems. Information gleaned on this site assisted me in getting a new transmission under warranty.

As mentioned above, the odds are great that it's your CV joints. The rubber boots break down and wear out, your lubricating grease escapes, you're left with metal rubbing on metal, and that's what you're hearing when you turn. It's especially noticable when cutting the steering wheel sharply while rolling at low speeds. If your dealership can't figure this out, they're pretty damn stupid since this is a very common problem.

Again, check your engine mounts. On any vehicle that has passed five or six years in age, the rubber components in the engine mounts can begin to break down. Particularly if any oil, transmission fluid, or other liquids have been spilled on them over the years.

Be sure to check the condition of your engine mounts. Shaky idling can be the first noticeable symptom of the rubber components in your engine mounts beginning to break down and wear out.

Yep, the first-generation Q45 was a great car. If you can find one these days that has been well-cared-for, you're in for a real treat along with the financial bargain your checkbook will enjoy. Those big sedans were good-looking, solid rocketships for road warriors with a heavy right foot and they had the engineering to hold up under the stress as well. I always smile and nod at the oncoming driver whenever I encounter a first-generation Q45 barreling down the road towards me....

My one experience with having a vehicle that wouldn't start when the outside temperature dropped below 35 to 40 degrees (even though the battery tested good) turned out to be a "fusible link" under the hood. That was back in the 1980s and I'll never forget it because it took weeks to finally track down and solve this very intermittent problem and the vehicle stranded me several times in the process....

Your front rubber strut mount bushings have worn out and failed. It's a well-known issue that is documented in Lexus Technical Service Bulletin SU002-99. Your original factory-installed rubber bushings were improperly designed and poorly made. The new rubber bushings are better shaped to fit the strut mount components and are supposedly better made as well. New bushings will resolve your noise problem. If you approach your dealership with knowledge of TSB SU002-99 and ask them to replace your bushings at no charge to you since this is definitely a faulty part, they may opt to do so under a goodwill warranty program depending upon your mileage. Our dealership did so in January 2005 at about 79,000 miles. If the dealership won't fully cover the cost, then negotiate a partial coverage deal with them. Be professional but stay firm. Good luck to you.

Once again, monarch is dead wrong. There are a number of us on this forum who have regularly changed the Type T-IV fluid in our AWD RX300 transmissions and have still suffered from transmission failure. There is definitely a design flaw or system weakness in play here. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain....

For those of you who own vehicles that are still under warranty, be very aware that adding any foreign substance to your transmission fluid will legally void your transmission warranty and Lexus will take every opportunity to use that to their advantage. To stay within your transmission warranty requirements, nothing but Toyota Type T-IV fluid should be used in your transmission system. Many transmission additives on the market have long claimed to improve performance and lifespan of any vehicle, and perhaps some of them may do that. But these products should only be tried once you've exceeded your transmission warranty or you have no intent of requiring Lexus to repair or replace your transmission in the event it fails. Long-time owners of any RX300 realize that the best protection you can muster is to change the Type T-IV fluid on a regular basis along with driving the RX300 sanely and safely - it is not a performance vehicle and it never will be. To protect your warranty, do NOT pour foreign substances into your transmission until you are 100% ready to assume all liability and responsibility for what may occur as a result. As an owner who experienced our RX300 transmission failing under warranty at 48,000 miles, as long as we own this vehicle I'll run nothing but T-IV fluid, change it every 30,000 miles as our dealer recommends, and therefore keep Lexus on the hook for continuing to be responsible for any future transmission failures that may occur. It's the simple but smart approach, period....