RX in NC

I kept a couple of cars covered from the mid-80s until the early 90s when paint and clearcoat technology was not nearly as good as it is today. My research at that time convinced me to use a cotton-blend, breatheable cover as opposed to a waterproof non-breatheable one. The reason behind that was that you don't want to trap moisture and actually speed up the rusting process underneath your cover - you want water to evaporate and a cotton-based cover allows that to happen rather quickly. I think those covers did a relatively good job of protecting the surfaces of the vehicles I covered them with. The biggest drawback was that dust could get through and rain would sometimes turn that dust into a filmy surface on the paint. But those spots were surface-only and would clean right up with wet rags and chamois (I liked using old diapers at that time, and still do). The key was to get a car cover that could be washed in your washing machine, and then do so at least once a month to keep the cover relatively clean. Otherwise it became a dust magnet. But you must have an extra-capacity washer to fit most covers into your machine. I'm sure that car cover technology has improved quite a bit since the 1980s. I'm not nearly as attached to our vehicles now as I was then, plus I learned to stick with white vehicle exteriors for ease of maintenance and maximum sun resistance. I don't expect to be using any more car covers but best of luck to you in searching for one that fits your needs. I think that breatheability would still be one of the most important requirements - you'll get more updated advice from folks who are currently using car covers....

I prefer to use a small 2-by-4 or 4-by-4 wood block. The point sinks directly into the wood block and provides great stabilization while sitting on the jack tip.

Try disconnecting the battery cables and allowing the vehicle to sit for 20 to 30 minutes before reconnecting them. This may enable you to turn the lock with your key afterwards. I heard of this approach being successful with an RX300 in a situation exactly like yours last summer. Good luck and keep us posted on whether this works for you.

Why do you believe that your oil gelling problem has returned? Has a Lexus service department verified this by removing your valve covers to take a good hard look? How often are you changing your oil and oil filter? I can understand this occuring once, but going through that experience should change the owner's maintenance habits towards much more frequent service intervals. If you've done that yet you actually do have this problem a second time, then an entirely new set of issues comes into play. Please keep us posted on what you've done thus far as well as how you decide to approach this problem again (if you do indeed have another case of gelling). Thanks.

blake918, To answer your follow-up questions: 1. A standard cab is what I wanted and needed. I haul stuff, not people, so I didn't want to drive around with three empty seats all the time. Occasionally my wife will climb aboard but 95% of the time I'm driving alone. In 1999, Dodge claimed to have the largest cab interior of any full-size pick-up. I climbed around and measured all of them and determined that statement was true. I don't know if it still is with the 2005 models out there. And there are some big new players that weren't around back then (such as the Nissan Titan). But this Ram has served me well, routine maintenance is so simple and inexpensive, insurance and taxes are minimal, and it just doesn't break. From an overall ownership perspective, what else do I really need? Unless some moron plows into me, I expect to drive this puppy for many more years to come. 2. Our Grand Cherokees were reasonably comfortable for me. They were primarily my wife's vehicles, and our daughter has one now. Headroom is decent, legroom is okay, and there are enough adjustments so that I can get settled in and drive them for 1,000 miles in a day if I need to (though I wouldn't want to). After we're done with the RX300 I expect that a late-model, top-of-the-line Grand Cherokee will make a return appearance in our garage as my wife's primary vehicle.

Many of us despise the OEM Bridgestone Duelers that came with these vehicles. Here's hoping that the Alenza version is a far superior tire to the lousy and sometimes dangerous OEM Dueler.

It could be an ABS error, it could be a reset required, it could be improper pad installation, but your first step is to determine if you have air in your brake lines. If they weren't properly bled, you probably do. Talk with your friend to find out if he followed the proper bleeding procedures. If he's not sure, you need to get to a decent brake shop pronto....

Tom and Ray Magliozzi's "Car Talk" column this week provides a logical and easy-to-understand explanation of why hybrid vehicles will never achieve the high-mileage figures that their manufacturers love to advertise. To read the column, check the Automotive section in your major local newspaper or go to their website at www.cartalk.com.

blake918, Since you asked, my everyday vehicle is a 1999 Dodge Ram Laramie SLT standard-cab pick-up with the big 5.9-litre V8. It will literally fly whenever I ask it to, but you have to be willing to sacrifice tire wear when you choose to stomp down on the accelerator. Headroom is great, legroom is good, and I had the upgraded bucket seats re-done with sturdier padding and custom leather at a top-notch local upholstery shop. Just reached 39,500 miles on the odometer today. I imagine I'll keep this truck for another decade if it continues to give me zero problems. Dodge had to replace the catalytic converter (it began to rattle at idle) at about 30,000 miles under warranty, but that was probably because I just don't drive the truck enough to keep the exhaust system operating at maximum efficiency. And I did have to replace the original battery at about 4 years.

Yep, many folks wear rose-colored glasses on these boards and a lot of participants come across as cheerleaders for their particular vehicle. No vehicle is perfect and quite a few don't do what they are advertised and sold to do. As for the 400h, the jury will be out for quite some time. But remember - gas/electric hybrids are a stop-gap, niche, trend-of-the-moment thing in automotive design. They will have their run but at this point, no one knows how long that run will be. Hydrogen power is the eventual answer in replacing fossil fuel dependence. But hydrogen vehicles are still not visible on the horizon due to fuel distribution infrastructure creation, governmental red tape, Big Three heads in the sand, and many other factors that must change drastically in order for the technology to be introduced. Once those obstacles are overcome, and only then, hydrogen power will proliferate faster than any transportation mechanism in history. Watch and see.

I've been driving for more than 35 years and I've found that you just have to take the manufacturers' legroom and headroom measurements with a grain of salt. It's just marketing hogwash more than anything else. The only way you're going to know if you can get comfortable in a vehicle is to get in it and drive it for awhile. Steering wheel and pedal positions, seat angles, and everything else may or may not be adjustable enough for you. The only true way you'll know is to get in and drive. I'm 6'7" and the all-time most comfortable fit for me was, believe it or not, my 1974 Datsun 260Z. The long, long hood gave me great legroom extension, and the seat angles were perfect once I pushed the frame all the way back. I had great legroom and just enough headroom. I drove that car all over the country and kept it for 13 years and 300,000 miles, by far the longest timeframe and highest mileage I've ever kept a vehicle. I still miss it and would take it back tomorrow if I could have it in showroom condition. On the other side of the ledger, I thought I wanted an Acura NSX in the early 1990s shortly after that flagship hit the showrooms. I found out in a hurry that I couldn't even get in it, much less drive it, when I stopped by our local Acura showroom to check one out. Anyone over 6'1" or so probably can't get comfortable in that vehicle. At 6'7" I couldn't even fit myself into the cockpit unless I was willing to chop off my legs below the knees....

So many theories, so few solutions. I wish we knew the actual details but we never will. It would cost Lexus a fortune. I've tempered my fury at Lexus Corporate somewhat over the past six months and I've adopted the attitude that I can't re-engineer or modify the transmission, but I can certainly change the T-IV fluid every 30,000 miles and I know that my wife will continue to drive cautiously and carefully as is her nature. If we can milk 130,000 miles or so out of this albatross and then unload it, I'll consider it as mission accomplished and lesson learned. Especially with our local Lexus service manager having approved and covered every single malfunction that's arisen to date (they have been numerous as well as major). I know that we are quite fortunate in that regard compared to everyone else out there with the same symptoms and problems who aren't getting the same goodwill coverage we've received. Other than routine maintenance, the only money I've spent on this thing has been for new tires and new brakes.

I can't help you with a local reference there in LA but what I can say is that a Toyota service department can perform this service for you for considerably less than a Lexus dealership will. I priced these services here in Raleigh last year just for reference purposes, and the Toyota service manager quoted me about 45% less than what the Lexus service manager wanted. I agree with your mileage decision. Toyota uses a very well-engineered timing belt for the RX series that is wider and thicker than your typical timing belt. Even our local Lexus service manager admitted that they have yet to see an RX timing belt fail at less than 120,000 miles. So I'm not planning to change my wife's timing belt until she reaches 120,000 miles unless someone can convince me otherwise.

Give it a subforum - it's a different animal.

Or else he was using good ol' Fred Flintstone footpower....

If the white letters still bother you when the tires are mounted with their blackwall side out, just crayon or charcoal the white letters black before you have the tires mounted. They are going to eventually get covered by brake dust and road grime anyway. I've been turning white-letter tires around for years and it's just not an issue.

The all-wheel-drive versions appear to be more susceptible to transmission failure than the two-wheel-drive ones. We have a 2000 AWD model - the transmission failed at about 48,000 miles. Lexus replaced it under warranty. The vehicle is now approaching 87,000 miles. Although the gears have always shifted more harshly than we believe should be the case for a supposed luxury SUV, the replacement transmission appears to be holding up okay at this point. Here are my recommendations: 1. Change your transmission fluid at least every 30,000 miles regardless of how clean it looks or smells. 2. Use only Toyota Type T-IV transmission fluid. Nothing else goes into your pan, period. A regular drain-and-fill requires 4 fresh quarts or just a touch more. 3. When you drain your transmission pan, don't forget to also drain the front differential. Its plug is located behind and slightly above the transmission pan. Both the transmission pan plug and the front differential plug can be pulled with a 10mm hex wrench. They share fluid from the transmission pan. This is such an easy job to do at home, you don't need to pay someone else a hefty price to do it for you. 4. Always take it easy when driving through the gears. This is an underpowered baby SUV, not a sports car - don't even try to pretend it is. 5. In temperatures below freezing, allow your vehicle to warm up for a minute or two before you pull out of your driveway. A warm Toyota transmission shifts much more smoothly than a cold one, and this could help preserve your transmission over time. With AWD, you just can't be too careful....

Eight Peruvian Alpacas powered by four bales of organically-grown alfalfa and 32 gallons of freshly-strained rainwater per day. They can munch about one acre of Kentucky-31 fescue in four days before it's time to start them in the front yard all over again. But then they head for the neighbors' lawn and that's another story....

Getting to those three rear plugs is one of the most difficult challenges I've ever seen in DIY auto maintenance. You'll need an assortment of socket set U-joints and extensions and it really helps if you have very small hands (my hands are huge). Even the experienced Lexus and Toyota service techs grumble about having to replace the three rear plugs and they have the best tools available. It's a good thing that these iridium plugs are engineered to go 120,000 miles because I plan to replace the plugs on my wife's RX only once during our ownership span of this vehicle. She's approaching 87,000 miles and I don't look forward to that task at all.

Ditto - approach your local Lexus dealer before you do anything else. A 3,000 mile oil-change interval may be overkill, even in your hot climate. 5,000 miles is the norm. If you opt to go synthetic, you may want to consider stretching that to 7,500 miles or even 10,000 miles. There's a considerable amount of debate on this site about oils and change intervals - spend some time perusing the subject. And while you're at it, check the threads on RX transmission problems as well. The weak link in the RX series is definitely the transmission, especially for all-wheel-drive models.

I believe that most folks who decide to purchase hybrid vehicles like to think that they are doing their part for global conservation. That helps them to swallow the financial calculations a little easier when they learn that it may require as long as seven or eight years of operation in order to justify the premium they paid to purchase such a vehicle compared to its conventional stablemate. Only a small percentage of American drivers keep their vehicles that long. But hybrid gas/electric is only a stopgap in terms of the true technology that will eventually replace fossil fuel-powered automobiles. Hybrids will have their run over the next few years but hydrogen-powered vehicles will eventually be the catalyst that frees the motoring public from our crude oil addiction. Unfortunately, the technology still has years to go, as does the establishment of a national fueling distribution system that will eventually become global. Hydrogen technology is already quite safe, but the industry must find ways to manufacture and market it cost-effectively and allow drivers to refuel as easily as we now pump gas into our dino-machines. Perhaps hydrogen will be the norm in 10 to 12 years or so, but the entire automotive industry must begin to evolve in this direction and that will be far from easy....

To minimize emergency issues as well as fuel pump issues, make it a rule of thumb to never let your vehicle get below a quarter-tank. I prefer to fill up when I get to a half-tank or slightly below, regardless of which vehicle I'm driving.

It's pure luck of the draw. I've gone for years without picking up screws in my tires and then experienced periods where I'll pick up two inside a month. Keep in mind that as the weather warms up, the construction industry does too. So you've got more construction trucks driving around losing unsecured hardware (including loose nails and screws) from their overloaded and sloppily-piled cargo areas. Neater construction packers would eventually translate to a lot less debris (and therefore less vehicle damage) on our highways and byways....

This is my wife's primary vehicle (we're both 51) - I'm way too tall for it and dislike its underpowered characteristics. In our neck of the woods, the RX series has always been a soccer-mom vehicle. 95% of the drivers are female.

"Perfect car" ? No such animal exists. The RX400 series will have it's share of bugs - all first-issue vehicles do regardless of quality control measures or months on the test track. For the sake of you potential owners out there, I hope that the bugs will be minor, not catastrophic. Only time will tell.