RX in NC

I believe that if someone took the time to investigate the longevity of automatic transmissions in general over the past thirty years or so, they would conclude that most of them manage to last over 100,000 miles regardless of whether or not their fluid has been serviced. There are always exceptions for certain manufacturers and models but for the most part, automatic transmissions have been fairly bulletproof during this period of time as long as the vehicle has been driven under normal conditions (no racing, no towing, and rare exposure to dirt roads). Many manufacturers have long published in their owners manuals that the factory fluid is sufficient for the reasonable life of the vehicle (Lexus is one of them), and a lot of owners take that to heart and never change (and rarely check) their fluid as a result. For whatever reason, domestic vehicles seem to be much more likely to go the 100,000 mile distance with their original factory fluid than the Japanese or European vehicles. My guess is that the simpler design of a three-speed or four-speed automatic transmission that has been around for decades provides the advantage needed to be able to do this. Several members of this forum have reported routinely getting more than 100,000 miles on original transmission fluid with no decay in transmission performance. It appears to be fairly typical for drivers who don't race, don't tow, and stay off of dirt roads. I'm not advocating that you should never refresh your transmission fluid just because your owners manual says so. I've owned a number of automatic transmission vehicles and I've typically done drain-and-fills between 50,000 and 60,000 miles even when the owners manual has told me I don't need to. I've changed Dexron fluid that was still sparkling clean and smelling fresh at 60,000 miles and wondered if I was wasting my time and money on a maintenance procedure that truly wasn't necessary. And I've long-since accepted the fact that as long as we own my wife's RX300, I'll need to change that fluid at a maximum of 30,000 mile intervals. Some of you even use change intervals that are half of that. But the real shame with this entire issue is that the RX300 AWD owners manual should NOT advise its owners to run the factory fill for the life of the vehicle even under the most ideal conditions. This is not a make and model that possesses a bulletproof transmission, and it is wrong for Lexus to mislead its customers into thinking that they never have to refresh their fluid. Many of these vehicles are suffering from premature transmission failure and while changing fluid at a certain mileage interval (be it 15,000, 20,000, or 30,000) may not prevent eventual transmission failure in all cases, it may very well postpone failure and is certainly a wise preventive maintenance step given what we know about these RX300 AWD transmissions at this point.

Regardless of the make and model of vehicle(s) you own, you should never use power tools to remove or install your lug nuts. Your studs, nuts, wheels, and brake components will remain in much better condition and last far longer if you ensure that only hand tools touch your lug nuts when you need to remove or tighten them. Get yourself a good cross-shaped lug nut wrench and you can safely spin your lug nuts to your heart's delight, all by hand with no risk of power tool damage.

My wife wanted our family room tiles laid on the diagonal bias last summer, so I did the room that way. It really does look great, but be aware that it requires about 10% to 15% more tiles to lay them diagonally as opposed to laying them square. You'll also be making a lot more cuts if you go with a diagonal pattern, so it will be important to use the best tilecutter device you can find. You can rent these tilecutters from most tile supply companies. Take my word for it - don't use a cheap one. You'll break far less tiles if you get a good one, and you'll sacrifice only a few tiles initially learning to use it properly.

Rest assured that there will be no Hindenburg automobiles zipping along our highways and byways when hydrogen vehicles make their widespread debut. Any hydrogen-based fuel will be sealed and protected in thoroughly-engineered casks, probably very similar to the types of casks that nuclear waste is transported in today. With zeppelin technology in the 1930s, hydrogen gas was contained in little more than huge canvas bags that were treated with airplane wing fabric dope. Those things truly were flying bombs, and that's why the blimp industry fell off the face of the earth after the Hindenburg disaster. Today, helium provides the lift and blimps have made a small comeback. I would have no concerns taking a spin on one of the Goodyear blimps if I ever have the opportunity to do so.

I've tiled my own kitchens, bathrooms, sunrooms, family rooms, and even front porches over the past 18 to 20 years, the most recent project being our remodeled family room in June 2004. We appreciate tile because it is permanent, easy to clean, stays looking new (if you buy quality tile and keep the grout sealed), and is available in hundreds of materials, styles, sizes, colors, and textures. Tile instantly makes any room it's installed in more elegant and upscale. And unless you drop an anvil on it, tile can really take a pounding without showing any ill effects whatsoever. You can't say the same about carpet, which starts wearing out the day after it is installed. As a general rule of thumb, you WILL in fact be happier with a smaller tile in a bathroom application, but not necessarily as small as you might think. In our previous house, the guest bathroom's original floor tile was about 1-inch by 1-inch square. That made for a lot of grout lines and if you know anything about tile, you know that grout is much harder to keep clean than the tile itself because unless it is sealed well the grout can trap moisture, dirt, mold, etc., and cause you to have to do some frequent floor-scrubbing in order to keep it looking and feeling good. We decided to replace the original guest bathroom tile with a larger 3-inch by 3-inch square tile after we'd been in the house about five years. This gave us a much cleaner, more contemporary look in that bathroom and it also cut down significantly on the number of grout lines since the larger the tile, the less grout is involved. Plus, I made sure to properly seal the new grout and it was a breeze to keep clean after the job was done. So my recommendation is that you take multiple sizes of tile samples home with you and lay them out to see what you like. But unless your bathroom floor is at least 12 feet by 12 feet, don't go larger than 5-inch by 5-inch tiles because a larger tile pattern will overwhelm the room and your floor might begin to look more like a school cafeteria. I don't think that's quite the look you're after. The other thing to remember in a bathroom is that your floor gets wet and may stay wet for quite some time. This encourages mold and mildew growth. If you only plan to scrub your floor when absolutely necessary, then select a dark-colored grout as opposed to white or cream-colored. Dark grout hides a dirty floor better. Most women prefer light-colored grout in their bathrooms, though. Good luck to you. Take those samples home and study them for a few days before you make your decision. If your tile store won't let you take home as many samples as you think you need, you should find another tile store.

bluestu, You're dead wrong about the automatic transmission drain-and-fill procedure. For the vast majority of vehicles manufactured over the past 50 years, this has been the valid, proven way to maintain your transmission well beyond 100,000 miles. Unfortunately, there are a few models out there that appear to have inherently weak transmissions. Some of those models have been recalled by their manufacturers. The RX300 AWD has not been. Many of us who've suffered the problems believe that it should be. So would you if you'd had the same experiences. You might want to rethink the concept of challenging IQ levels on this forum once you take the time to research the drain-and-fill procedure and how it has been a big part of automotive service history since the 1950s....

Yep, putting V-rated tires on an RX is like putting $300 track shoes on Aretha Franklin....

As many of us have been saying for years, hydrogen power is the future of the automotive industry and the sooner the public realizes it, the sooner we'll see the manufacturers actually begin moving the technology into the mainstream. We face significant infrastructure and distribution challenges as well as daunting technological challenges in creating hydrogen fuel both economically and in environmentally responsible processes. At the current pace, we're at least a decade away from mass-produced and practical hydrogen vehicles. But when they arrive, they will revolutionize the automotive world like no other technology before them. Current hybrid technology is simply a stop-gap in the timeline to hydrogen. If a now-unknown company can come along and bridge the gap to safe and affordable hydrogen vehicles within the next five years, they will be the world's next Microsoft. You young engineers out there could change the way the world transports itself if you can jump on this bandwagon now and get the process flying instead of crawling....

Actual musicians study their craft and hone their skills over many years. Due to the discipline and dedication required to learn to play and understand music, many musicians are highly intelligent and intensely creative. They play instruments with world-class precision or sing using years of experience in vocal training and theory. Genre doesn't matter - whether it's classical, jazz, rock, bluegrass, newgrass, fusion, these folks are artists and many deserve the attention and financial rewards that have come their way. Rap, on the other hand, is talentless and trivial. It thrives due to the ignorance and lack of understanding of what true musicianship is by its targeted fan base. Any moron with a microphone can scream threats and spout street-talk to a frenzied crowd of dumbed-down kids and claim he's an artist, but a true musician (and fan of music) realizes that this is just an empty boast with absolutely no redeeming value. Just because you can generate large profits selling this crap to gullible kids doesn't make you talented or relevant. Many musical performers have stood the test of time, be they Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Lennon/McCartney, Pete Townshend, Sam Bush, John Cowan, Don Dixon, Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, the kids in Nickel Creek, and the list goes on and on. Twenty-five years from now, will the rap genre be remembered and honored in the same way? Not a chance. Like disco, New Kids on the Block, and others, it will be seen for what it really was - an embarassment that succeeded not due to talent but due to marketing to a dumbed-down fan base.

When a catalytic converter is failing, it often rattles upon acceleration. Sounds almost as if there is a small rock rattling around inside it. If it turns out to be your catalytic converter, that component should still be under warranty for you. A Midas Muffler shop will probably check your catalytic converter at no charge - I'd start there.

We've battled transmission failure, rear main oil seal leak, cracked exhaust manifold, multiple oxygen sensors dying, strut mount rubber bushings improperly designed and installed, and a few other problems on my wife's 2000 RX300 AWD, all on a vehicle that has been meticulously maintained (like all of our vehicles are). After much prodding from me, our local Lexus dealership stepped up to the plate and fixed these issues as they arose without charging me anything. Some of these failures occured very early, however (the transmission failed at 48,000 miles). This has been the most problematic vehicle I've ever owned, and I've owned 20+ vehicles since the early 1970s. Based upon our experiences, I would never recommend an RX300 to anyone. Good luck with your decision, whatever it is.

Lenore, I used the current Toyota AC/Alternator replacement belt. It's the same one that either a Lexus or Toyota tech would have used if I had taken the vehicle to the shop. It appears that the key was to tighten it up a bit. We'll see.

Since I tightened and dressed the AC/Alternator belt this past Monday, my wife reports that she's heard no more metallic squealing. A/C off, A/C on, cold start, warm start - none of that has mattered and the vehicle is quiet again. I usually like to leave a little less than a half-inch of play whenever I install new belts. I've followed this formula for thirty years on American, Japanese, Italian, and German vehicles and I've never had a replaced belt squeal on me before. But on Monday I decided to tighten the belt to slightly less than a quarter-inch of play. Maybe this was the ticket and I suppose time will tell. Perhaps the new belt stretched slightly in the 3+ months that it's been installed on the vehicle. If the squealing returns, I'll report it here. Let's hope it's fixed.

I should caution you to carefully study the many threads on this forum pertaining to early transmission failure in the RX300 series before you make a final decision on whether to use your RX300 as a tow vehicle, especially if it is all-wheel-drive. Based upon what we've been through with ours, I would never tow anything with it.

The key to washing an engine compartment is to be very careful around the electronic components while doing so. Foam spray engine cleaners such as Gunk can do a good job if you follow the directions properly and minimize the amount of water used in the rinse process afterwards. If you're using a garden hose rather than a pressure washer, adjust your nozzle to the finest mist spray possible. Keep in mind that a pressure washer uses far less water than a garden hose does and therefore it does not soak the area nearly as much as holding a garden hose on it will. Just be careful not to get the tip of the pressure washer too close to the components since you could wind up perforating hoses or wire insulation if your pressure washer is rated fairly high (2,500 psi or above). If you keep your wand tip at least 18 inches away from the surface you're spraying, you're going to be fine. Just make two or three quick passes of all foamed areas and you're done. A little water goes a long way in this particular job. When you're done rinsing, be sure to run the engine for five minutes or so to hasten the evaporation process of any remaining water under the hood.

You missed the point, SK. He asked for advice on rust protection. Having a bit of experience on this topic from several friends' vehicles brought down from the Northeast, I offered him the suggestion that he keep his underbody and engine compartment clean and he'll probably have a much better chance of inhibiting current and future corrosion. Nothing was either written or implied about his vehicle being a lemon about to rust out on him. From his description of the vehicle, it sounds relatively solid.

Vehicles from northern climates often bear considerable evidence of corrosive salt and chemical treatments used to get the roads passable again after snowstorms. The key to preventing and minimizing this effect is to thoroughly spray the complete underside and engine compartment immediately after each trip out in these conditions. As you would surmise, very few northern owners do this because it can be messy and difficult to get your outdoor faucets and hoses working in subfreezing conditions. And you're really wasting your time and money by trying to do this at a commercial carwash while there's still melting snow on the roads because by the time you drive home again, you've once again coated your underside with whatever is on the roads. So your damage is probably done. You'll see the corrosion spread over time. But if you keep your underside and engine compartment relatively clean yourself, it may be that you can greatly slow down the progress of the corrosion for quite awhile. Your current experience explains why many of us living in the mid-Atlantic states would never purchase a vehicle from up north. In my opinion, the likelihood of gradual corrosion from prolonged exposure to road salt and chemicals is too great for me to be willing to take a chance. But since you already have, keep that chassis clean and lubed and perhaps you can successfully fight the battle. Keep us posted on how it goes.

Still haven't been able to isolate the source of the squealing. This issue is extremely sporadic and that's been the primary problem. You can't fix what you can't diagnose. I'm convinced that the vehicle sees me coming and decides not to squeal when I'm present. I'm going to start from scratch by tightening the AC/Alternator belt and then applying a few sprays of belt dressing. I changed that belt in late May using the current Toyota replacement belt; perhaps I didn't tighten it up as snugly as I should have although I certainly thought that I had it about right. But just maybe this is belt noise after all, even though it sounds quite metallic to me on the couple of occasions I've heard it. Maybe I'll finally catch a break and a little belt tightening and dressing will resolve this pesky problem. We'll see.

Yep, sales of large SUVs and pickups are plummeting and will probably never return to anything close to their previous levels. If you need one, now may the time to buy. Just be sure that you can afford $100 fill-ups for the foreseeable future.... My decades-long preference for always having a V-8 as my primary vehicle is quickly fading....

Extending your tire lifespan to its maximum length given your driving characteristics and road conditions is no secret. It works with lousy tires, acceptable tires, and superior tires. All it takes is a weekly commitment of less than five minutes from you. Here's what you do: 1. Buy a decent tire gauge, preferably digital. It doesn't have to be expensive (perhaps ten bucks) and even if its calibration is slightly off, it will be okay. 2. Learn your recommended tire pressures for your vehicle from the tire manufacturer, NOT the vehicle manufacturer. Vehicle manufacturers are notorious for recommending tire pressures that are 4 psi to 8 psi too low because low tire pressures create soft, cushy rides, and customers don't complain to the vehicle dealer about soft rides so it eliminates the hassle of having to deal with them. The vehicle dealers don't care about your treadwear - they just don't want you complaining about a hard ride and having to spend more time dealing with you. 3. Check your tire pressures first thing in the morning before you've driven the vehicle and before the sun gets high enough in the sky to bake the tires a little and therefore give you false high readings. And here's the real key - do this EVERY WEEK WITHOUT FAIL. Not once a month, not once a season, not once a year, not upon each return of Halley's Comet. CHECK YOUR TIRES EVERY WEEK, 52 WEEKS A YEAR, FOR AS LONG AS YOU OWN A VEHICLE. 4. Rotate your tires periodically. Some vehicles don't require rotation very often, but most vehicles wear the front tires at a faster rate than the rear tires under normal driving conditions due to steering motion and the weight of the engine up front. For most tires, if you're rotating between 6,000 miles and 8,000 miles, you're probably okay. 5. Cut back on your jackrabbit starts and brake-slammed stops. You're leaving a lot of rubber behind on the pavement when you habitually drive like this. But the real key, as emphasized above, is just to check your tires weekly and pay attention to them. If they're down a psi or two, put them back where they need to be. Don't drive around thinking "I reallly need to pump up my tires in the next couple of weeks or so". Get those pressures correct and keep them there. The vast majority of drivers ignore their tires, drive around on them for months or even years at 10 or 15 psi short of where they should be, and then !Removed! and moan about their lousy tires when their tread is gone by 15,000 miles. Spend a little time each week on your tires and you'll be amazed how much longer they'll last. I believe that tires are the most important component of any vehicle. Depending upon their condition and your skill level, they can either save your life or kill you....

I just checked with Lexus parts and they confirmed that the compressor and its clutch assembly are priced and sold separately. But just the clutch assembly itself is $381 from Lexus, and it's $367 from Toyota. I'll check some of the on-line parts houses and perhaps come up with better pricing from them. I'll take Lenore's advice by removing the right front wheel and plastic dirt panel over the holiday weekend so I can get a peek at how good the access might be before I decide whether to do this myself if it indeed turns out to be the clutch assembly on the compressor. Thanks again everyone. Keep those ideas coming....

That's a great point and certainly worth checking into, cnynctry. Thanks for providing your experiences. I'll keep this thread updated as I continue to research our problem. Since the Labor Day holiday weekend is upon us, I'm not going to take any actual repair steps until next week. And that also gives me more time to figure out exactly what the problem is and come up with the appropriate resolution. Thanks to all of you who've contributed to this thread thus far. If you have additional ideas or suggestions, please keep them coming.

This morning I was outside waiting with the hood open when my wife came out to leave. Last night I ensured that the A/C was switched off so the compressor would not be running when she turned the key this morning. She cranked the key and the engine started smoothly as usual with no squealing noises. I waited about ten seconds and then told her to turn ON the A/C. Sure enough, the squealing noises started when the compressor was turned on. I waited about five seconds and then told her to turn OFF the A/C. As soon as she did, the squealing noises stopped. So I sent her on her way with instructions to leave the A/C off as much as possible today. Unfortunately, this morning's test seems to confirm that the problem is in the compressor - agreed? Most compressors nowadays are sealed and do not allow you the opportunity to lubricate their bearings through an oil port of some type. Does anyone know for sure if that is the case with our compressor? I suppose I'll start pricing a rebuilt unit. But this thing is going to be a bear to get to in the engine compartment with its location under the alternator. Has anyone tackled this job yourself? I'm wary of disassembling any A/C components and will probably decide to find a shop I can trust to do this work, but I might source and purchase my own compressor first. Well, my research continues today and I would appreciate any additional tips or advice you folks can offer. Thanks for all the assistance thus far.

The vehicle is home now and I've spent the last ten minutes attempting to get it to squeal again. No luck. My wife says that she's heard squealing noises (although not nearly as bad as what we heard this morning) when either starting the engine with the A/C already turned on, or turning on the A/C when the engine is already running. When she then turned off the A/C with the engine still running, the squealing noises immediately ceased. If her description above is accurate, the guilty component would probably be the compressor. Unfortunately, a compressor problem will be three times as costly to repair as a starter problem, if not more. I'd certainly rather deal with a failing starter. I'll continue to experiment with the vehicle and keep you posted. Perhaps the initial cold start of the day will be my best chance to recreate the problem, so I'll be outside bright and early tomorrow morning with the hood open when my wife first turns the key. If you have any more suggestions or input, please contribute to this thread. Thanks.

Great info from both of you - thanks again. I'll continue to check her vehicle and keep you posted on what I learn. After talking with a Toyota technician this afternoon, I now believe that the starter is the most likely culprit.