RX in NC

There's no question that a cell phone combined with driving is a dangerous mix. Check with any Highway Patrol statistician for their empirical evidence built up over the past decade or so. Those who use cell phones while driving will always argue that other in-vehicle activities are just as dangerous. Those who believe that cell phone usage should be outlawed for all drivers will always argue that no other in-vehicle activity comes close to being as dangerous as talking on a cell phone. If you want the truth, talk to the cops. They'll tell you that using a cell phone while driving should be illegal. Kudos to the states that have taken that step at this point. I surely wish that North Carolina would - our roads would be somewhat safer, especially during the morning and afternoon commutes. I'm glad my office is in my home....

I always leave the spare alone and never work it into the rotation. It remains "the" spare tire throughout the life of the vehicle as long as we own it.

Yep, Purolator makes good oil filters. Use them regularly and you'll be fine. Stay away from Fram.

I always loved the NSX and wanted one before they initially hit the market. But at 6'7" and 250 pounds, you couldn't fit me into the cockpit with a can of Crisco and two shoehorns. I remember the thrill when my local Acura dealership called me off their sign-up list to come in and drive their first NSX when it arrived in their showroom in November 1990. We already had a 1989 Legend sedan that we had purchased from them as my wife's primary vehicle at the time. I went flying over there as soon as I hung up the phone and found out in a heartbeat that I couldn't even get my legs into the vehicle with the seat as far back as it could go. I was royally *BLEEP*ed to say the least. Man, was my sales guy disheartened. He knew I would likely have driven away with that NSX that day, but his chin hit the floor when he saw me attempt to fold into that thing like a grasshopper. I still regret that Acura never redesigned the NSX to allow us giants to own that vehicle as well as all you normal-sized folks....

Regarding monarch, my advice to the rest of you RX300 owners out there is to "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain". He doesn't own an RX, and as a result he hasn't experienced the problems that many of us have with our lousy RX transmissions. I wouldn't be surprised if monarch shows up on Toyota's payroll somewhere....

Your issue could be resulting from several different problems, and unbalanced tires is certainly one of them. The first thing to do, however, is to torque your lug nuts and ensure that they are properly tight. Check all four wheels. This is a serious safety issue - you don't want your wheels coming off while you're doing 75 mph on the freeway. After you've tightened your lug nuts, suspicions turn to unbalanced tires, tires with flat spots, bent wheels, and then to your axles and suspension components. Check each potential problem out thoroughly and let us know what you come up with.

SW03ES, Maybe I'll post some pictures of my Ram custom leather sometime when I finally get industrious with my wife's digital camera (I'll always be a 35mm guy, sorry). In the meantime, the custom leather kit came from a California company called Katzkin Leather Interiors in December 2000. It's dark graphite to match my graphite interior (the exterior is Bright White) and it's very elegant and yet understated as well - no two-tones or contrasting stitching for me, thank you. I found the product through a little research and had it installed by a great interior shop that I've been doing business with for more than 20 years. Those guys are true craftsmen and they are the only ones I'll trust our interiors and convertible tops to besides myself.

If you can't find an appropriate cargo net or don't like the way they must attach, consider a rubber cargo mat (similar to winterized floor mats) that you can pick up at establishments ranging from auto parts stores to Sam's Club, Costco, or BJ's. We've migrated the same rubber cargo mat over the years and it works just fine to hold grocery bags, sporting goods, garden supplies, or whatever you're hauling firmly in place without netting or bungee cords. I think I paid about twenty bucks for it at BJ's about five years ago and it has held up remarkably well. To clean it you simply hose it off, scrub it with a soapy brush just like you would a winter floor mat, let it dry in the sun, and place it right back into the cargo area. The numerous rubber nubs on the underside keep it squarely in place on the carpet. I sold her Grand Cherokee but kept the cargo mat and migrated it to my Durango. A couple of years later I sold the Durango but kept the cargo mat and migrated it to her RX300 (where it covers almost all of the floor space because the RX300 is so small). As durable as this mat has been, I expect I'll migrate it to the next SUV that shows up in our garage as well.

I've learned over my 35+ years of vehicle ownership to go by "feel" based upon the size of the drain plug as well as the composition of the drain plug gasket since the gaskets are designed to "crush" very slightly in order to provide for a leak-proof seal. Maybe an RX330 owner with a shop manual can provide you with the actual torque specifications. You say you've done it many times on your other cars, so your previous experience should function well enough to guide you.

A same-year Toyota Highlander should run the same filter as you do. You can pick one up at your local Toyota parts counter if you prefer to stay with Toyota parts. Be aware that Purolator makes excellent oil filters as well, and they are available at many auto parts establishments. The typical drain plug gasket will last for a number of oil changes if you don't over-torque your drain plug when replacing it after draining your current oil.

Believe whatever you want. But to my knowledge, you don't own an RX300. Many of us do, and our real-life experiences outweigh your beliefs. You can wave your Toyota/Lexus flag all day long, but as RX transmissions continue to fail prematurely, fewer and fewer owners will subscribe to your misguided beliefs.

As usual, monarch blames the high degree of RX transmission failures on the owners when those of us who have maintained our vehicles meticulously and have still suffered from premature transmission failure know that the fault lies with inferior engineering and potential design flaws within the RX transmission system. I always advise everyone who asks about switching to transmission fluids other than Type T-IV not to do so in order to protect yourself as an owner. If you put something other than Type T-IV into your transmission case, you're providing Lexus with the perfect opportunity to drop any warranty coverage for you if and when your transmission fails. Stay with the T-IV fluid so your legal protection stays in place during your warranty period and even beyond. Do I believe that Type T-IV fluid is superior to other potential automatic transmission fluids out there? Hell no. But I have enough automotive experience to know that if you run a fluid other than what is required in your owner's manual, you are setting yourself up for a costly experience when Lexus flat-out tells you, "sorry - we're not covering your transmission failure due to inappropriate fluids in your transmission system." Do the smart thing and stick with Type T-IV at least until you don't intend to pursue a transmission failure case with Lexus anymore.

SW03ES, Yes, I know. I use good ol' Lexol on the RX and save the Hyde Food for my furniture and the custom uncoated leather in my Ram.

Glad to hear that my suggestion worked for you. Some folks don't have the guts to attempt this solution, but my feeling is that if your pump seems dead, you have little to lose. Just don't use a torch - I prefer a toaster oven set no higher than about 150 degrees and NEVER TAKE YOUR EYES OFF THE PUMP THE ENTIRE TIME IT'S IN THERE. Also, it's a good idea to make sure your wife or girlfriend is out of the house for awhile because if she catches you cooking car parts in her oven, she's likely to try to throw you out of the house along with your pump....

The best oil filter wrench for this vehicle that I've found is an all-metal spring-loaded cap that fits onto your 3/8-drive socket wrench. It's made by Lisle, the part number is 63600, and I bought it at my local Pep Boys a couple of years ago for between ten and twelve bucks. Given the terrible location of this particular oil filter placement, this Lisle cap wrench always gives me the best chance of getting the damn thing off without busting up my hands too much. I've done it enough now that it's a five-minute job for me these days. But I still don't forgive Lexus for placing this particular filter under the exhaust manifold with almost no room to work your hands. Get yourself one of these cap wrenchs and you'll curse a lot less during your future oil and filter changes. My neighbors can't automatically tell that I'm changing the oil in my wife's RX anymore because my driveway has become a lot quieter when I'm doing so....

You might want to try Connolly Hyde Food. I've been using it on my vehicles as well as on the leather furniture in our home since the mid-1980s, and I think it's still the best leather preservative on the market but it's damn hard to find here. The good news is that when I can finally locate the product, one jar lasts me for about ten years. Because it's made in England, it can sometimes be found at Jaguar and Rolls Royce dealerships but be prepared to pay $30 or $40 per jar. We have two contemporary leather chairs in our den that are over 20 years old and they still look and feel showroom-new. I attribute that to my use of Connolly Hyde Food on the leather two or three times a year from the time we brought those chairs over from Denmark.

The only true "safe" way to transport a dog in a vehicle is in a crate. We've always done so with our Gordon Setters and Greyhounds. You may not like the confinement, but in the event of a wreck a crated dog has a much higher survival rate than one that is loose in the vehicle where he becomes a projectile. Be kind to your dog and crate him....

Search this forum using "transmission failure" or "transmission problems" as your key words and you'll uncover a huge selection of posts that pertain to this topic on the RX series. In a nutshell, you need to understand that the transmission is the weakest component in the all-wheel-drive RX series, and you must undertake preventive measures to give yourself the best chance of extending the life of this transmission. Many of us owners believe that there are design flaws of various natures in these transmissions. You are correct in assuming that keeping fluid fresh and as cool as possible is probably the best insurance you can provide towards holding off an early breakdown. Our properly-maintained 2000 RX300 AWD transmission failed at about 48,000 miles. It was replaced under warranty and the vehicle has just passed 90,000 miles. It's my wife's primary vehicle, and I baby the care and feeding of this transmission like no other I've owned during my 35-plus years of driving. Here are my recommendations to you: 1. I doubt if there is any significant chemical advantage to Toyota Type T-IV transmission fluid compared to other premium fluids out there on the market. But I would never run anything else in our vehicle simply because if you do, you provide Lexus with a convenient excuse to refuse to assist you when your transmission fails because you weren't running the recommended fluid. So stay with Type T-IV fluid in order to protect yourself from a legal standpoint. 2. Regardless of what your owner's manual says, change your transmission fluid at least every 30,000 miles. Some owners on this site insist on doing so every 15,000 miles. The bottom line is that in order to have a chance for your original transmission to last as long as the vehicle is supposed to, you MUST keep clean fluid in it. If you don't, your transmission is gonna fail early. You can count on it. 3. A number of RX owners on this site have discussed installing an external transmission cooler, but I'm not sure if anyone has actually done so yet. The consensus seems to be that if you're gonna tow something, you'd better add an external cooler. I would never even consider using our RX to tow anything; I don't believe it is engineered strongly enough to do so, especially the transmission. These vehicles are overweight and underpowered - they are neither good tow workhorses nor off-roaders. So spend some time searching this site for transmission-related issues on the RX series. You'll gather a great deal of helpful information and be better prepared to deal with your particular vehicle as a result. One thing is for certain in our household - when we dispose of my wife's RX300 at 130,000 miles or so, it will not be replaced with another RX. Out of the 25 or so vehicles I've owned since 1969, it has been by far the most disappointing because it has required so many expensive repairs to major systems even though, like all of my vehicles, it has been meticulously maintained. The newer-generation RX330s may prove to be better designed and constructed, but the jury is still out. But for many of us, the RX300 AWD transmissions have been problematic since early in the ownership experience.

Yes, all gasoline engines are more efficient in cool/cold weather.

$2.06 to $2.08 for 87 octane as a BJ's Warehouse Club member right now. But gas is headed up everywhere - hang on to your wallets....

Sorry to learn that your Toyos only went 22,000 miles before you decided it was in your best interest to replace them. For what they cost you, that's really criminal. Of course, you acknowledged that you're probably only halfway through the treadlife so it's not as if you were required to replace your tires in order to pass inspection. But to pay more than $600 for a set of supposedly good highway tires and then to decide at well under 40,000 miles that they gotta go really makes my wallet hurt and it's not even my vehicle.... Better luck with the Michelins. I think I would have bought the older-generation Dunlops. I have Dunlop Radial Rover A/T's on my Ram as well as my daughter's Grand Cherokee. I also ran them on my former Durango as well as my wife's former Grand Cherokee. With proper inflation and rotation we've always managed to get at least 45,000 to 50,000 miles out of those tires before degrading rain performance would cause me to install new rubber. Goodyear apparently had enough sense to leave Dunlop alone after buying the company a few years back. I haven't had to purchase a new set of A/T's since November 2002 so I hope the new ones are still as good as the older ones were. But you just never know as these tire manufacturers change formulas and procedures in their never-ending effort to cut costs....

Monarch can believe whatever the hell he wants, but for those of you considering the purchase of an all-wheel-drive RX300, consider yourself thoroughly warned by a number of us who already own the vehicle and have kept them meticulously maintained. Also notice that monarch's signature on this forum indicates that he owns the LS series, not the RX series. Anyone can spout opinions, but when you don't own the vehicle in question, you come to the party with greatly reduced credibility. He's dead wrong, folks. Bottom line, it's a clear-cut case of buyer beware out there when dealing with any AWD RX300. Live and learn.

The general perception is that the Japanese-made version is of better quality and therefore preferred. Don't really know how true that is, though.

90% of the time when it's a CV joint problem, the rubber boots crack and split, your lubrication gets away, and metal-on-metal damage is done. You have to replace your CV joints as well as have new boots installed, so your problem isn't fixed by simply getting new boots. Sometimes the most cost-effective fix is simply to replace the entire assembly with a remanufactured axle. That's what most independent shops do these days for CV failures. Get your vehicle checked out so you'll know what you're dealing with. Many chain shops will inspect your situation at no charge, including places like Midas Car Care. I'd start there and then do some calling around after you determine what the appropriate fix is.

Yep, wwest is probably correct. I should have caught that as well since I remember losing a set of CV joints on a 1989 Acura Legend many years ago. When your rubber CV boots crack and split, most of your lubricant escapes and allows dirt and grime to enter and build up on the joints. The classic symptom is when you execute a hard turn or drive in a circle, and the metal-on-metal joints begin to make a rhythmic clacking or popping sound. That sound usually increases in intensity as you pick up speed while leaving your steering wheel cut hard to one side. It's best to replace these as a set - left front and right front. This is a common job that's routinely performed by many independent shops, so check around thoroughly before you commit. Be aware that you'll come close to paying a Lexus dealership twice what a good front-end shop will charge you for the job.