RX in NC

This is a very common problem as vehicles with moonroofs age. If you have a moonroof, your interior leaks are being caused by the moonroof drains becoming clogged with debris as the years pass. Rainwater can no longer drain from the moonroof channels so it finds its way inside and gravity leads it down to the floorboards. Blow out your moonroof drains with compressed air and you'll be good to go once again....

I admit that the underbody covers are a hassle when you need to perform maintenance underneath the vehicle. However, they help to keep the engine bay much cleaner over time and they also prevent most road debris from kicking up and causing damage to the components on the underside of the vehicle. I recommend that you leave them in place. Just do what I did to my wife's 2004 RX330 to make transmission fluid drain-and-fills much easier and faster. Cut a 3-inch diameter hole in the underbody cover directly underneath the transmission pan drain plug. I used my electric jigsaw and made the cut on the underbody cover without even removing it from the vehicle. The hole you create will allow you enough room to get your socket wrench to the drain plug as well as enough clearance to allow the old fluid to drain into your catch bucket without making a mess. Now my transmission fluid drain-and-fills (every 30,000 miles for our RX) are easy and take no more than 30 minutes with most of that time being allocated to allowing the old fluid to drain as much as possible....

There's some debate in the automotive maintenance world about whether cleaning a throttle body on any vehicle without completely removing it from the engine actually does more harm than good. With my wife's 2004 RX330 now pushing 95,000 miles yet still running well, I'm considering cleaning the throttle body without removing it. For those of you who have done this, did the cleaning process cause your engine to idle smoother and quieter? That is the typical result of a successful throttle body cleaning judging from the vehicles that I have cleaned in the past. I've removed the air filter housing, held the throttle plates open with one hand while spraying a can of throttle body cleaner with the other hand, wiped up as much of the carbon-dissovled goo as I could reach with a clean rag, and then reinstalled the air filter housing and taken the vehicle out for a test drive. On my 1999 Dodge Ram just yesterday, it was a piece of cake and worked like a charm - a 15-minute procedure at most.... I assume there is an O-ring gasket on the RX330 that fits between the air filter housing hose and the front of the throttle body. For those that have cleaned your throttle body, can you confirm that there is indeed an O-ring? Did you install a new one? And what exactly did you wind up having to remove to gain access to the throttle body in order to clean it? NOTE: In the title of this post, I meant to type "2004", not "3004". Sorry. I wanted to correct it, but don't know how to get to the Title Line in order to do so....

Our 2005 Jaguar S-Type came with a new set of Hankook Ventus tires (P235/50/ZR17) when we purchased the car back in mid-December. I was very wary of Hankook and used this as one of my bargaining chips to get the price way down from what the dealer was asking. After buying the car, I contacted Hankook USA and learned that these tires actually carry a 50,000-mile treadwear warranty. Their corporate office mailed me a registration card which I promptly filled out and returned.... With nearly 17,000 miles now on the tires, I'm pleasantly surprised at how well these Hankook tires have held up. While I don't expect them to go the 50.000-mile distance, they may indeed get 40,000 miles. For a Z-rated tire, that would be a great accomplishment as far as I'm concerned....

A very smart, consider-the-economics-first decision. Exactly what I thought you'd conclude after a few days of thinking about it. In this economy, why make any changes if what you have is working for you?

Do you have the time as well as the interest to take on more maintenance and problems that will invariably come with a higher-mileage vehicle, especially a BMW? If that doesn't bother you, then I see no other reason not to take a shot at your idea considering your annual driving mileage seems to have decreased dramatically since your move to Chicago.... Speaking of that, early this year (pre-move if I remember correctly) you said that you saw it as essentially a 3-year commitment before you would be able to find a way to get back to North Carolina. Is that still your perception?

I tried to convince my wife to get a Subaru Outback instead of her current 2004 RX330 AWD back in January of 2007 after I had sold her original 2000 RX300 AWD. The Subaru has much more bang-for-the-buck and one of the best AWD systems in the world. If you truly need an AWD crossover and you want to get a great one without spending a ton of money, the Outback ranks right up there at or near the top....

90% of the time the source of a leak such as you've described is one or more of the sunroof drain lines being clogged by years of falling debris, especially on a vehicle as old as yours. If this vehicle has never had its drain lines blown out with compressed air to clear the built-up debris, I can almost guarantee you that's your culprit. Regardless of what your "leak specialist" determines and recommends, be sure to blow out those drain lines....

Many OEM jacks, regardless of manufacturer, just barely meet minimum safety specs and aren't worth the weight and space they take up in your storage area. Go to any chain auto parts store and get yourself a half-ton capacity bottle jack for about $20 to $25 and your problem is solved. They are much stronger, safer, more versatile, faster to use, and much smaller as well. I've had the same two bottle jacks for more than 15 years and they still operate as they did when they were new. Do yourself a favor - forget about finding another OEM jack and get a bottle jack instead. Along with storing it in your jack compartment, be sure to add a couple blocks of wood in different thicknesses. I also keep cut-up pieces of an old bicycle tire tube with the bottle jack to serve as additional protection against whatever component of the vehicle I am lifting. With a bottle jack and a couple of blocks of wood, I can safely lift anything from a golf cart to a monster truck....

The Alenzas on my wife's 2004 RX330 AWD are pushing 51,000 miles and still going strong. I run them at 36 to 37 psi year-round and rotate them myself at every oil & filter change that I do. While our set may not get the full 65,000 miles in the warranty, I won't be surprised if they reach the 60,000-mile mark. I checked the treadwear when they hit 50,000 miles and all four of them were right at 5/32.... Be aware that the Alenza is the only Bridgestone SUV/truck tire worth having. All of the other Bridgestone Dueler tire models range from lousy to mediocre....

Unfortunately, I've found the paint on my wife's previous 2000 RX300 and her current 2004 RX330 to be quite soft and very susceptible to chipping, moreso than any other make of vehicle I've ever owned in nearly 40 years of driving. I'm no detailer, but what I do is clean out the road chip with a light abrasive rubbing compound, buff it out with a dry rag, let it dry out for 30 minutes or so, then use my Lexus touch-up paint (not very good, either) in the chipped area. I let that dry for a couple of days and then put a normal coat of carnauba wax on the area, wait a week or so, and then another normal coat of wax. This process works reasonably well for me. You can't let the chipped area get to the point where it begins to rust before you treat it. Once rust sets in, it is quite difficult to keep it at bay permanently....

For those of you who may be needing new brake pads soon, I've been very pleased with the Wagner ThermoQuiet organic pads that I installed on my wife's 2004 RX330 AWD on two different occasions this year. I replaced the original rear pads back in March at about 87,000 miles. Replaced the original front pads last week at about 91,000 miles. These Wagner pads are graveyard quiet, grab quicker than the OEM pads do, and create only a miniscule amount of brake dust. They carry a full lifetime replacement warranty. They typically run between $52 and $56 per axle at parts stores such as Advance Auto Parts.... I opted not to turn the rotors on either axle and that has not been an issue at all. The new pads seated perfectly within 50 miles and never uttered a sound. I've been so pleased with them that I also just put a set on the front axle of our 2005 Jaguar S-Type. Again, better than the OEM pads and much less brake dust to contend with.... These Wagner ThermoQuiet pads are a great product. Check 'em out if you're considering new brakes on any of your vehicles....

Yes, I've been in the Tundras. They would probably work for me, but I just love my 1999 Dodge Ram with the 5.9 litre V8. It has a huge cabin. It only has 56,000 miles on the odometer. It will freakin' fly. It just doesn't break (although I did have to replace the speed sensor on the transmission housing back in late June - cost me a whopping $58). It's ten-and-a-half years old now and it is unquestionably the best vehicle I've ever had for the purposes I need it for. I think the only way I'll get rid of this truck is if 1. somebody T-bones me in it or 2. gas goes to $8 a gallon and stays there....

Smooth1, you're not too far off the mark. There just aren't any cars out there these days that I can truly get comfortable in for any reasonable length of time. It takes a full-size pick-up truck to provide me with the legroom and headroom that I need. My very first car was a hand-me-down four-door 1969 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with a 454 cubic-inch Rocket V8, back in the days of the true land barge in the early 70s. That thing was probably 18 feet long or better. It was like rolling down the road while sitting in your living room. I could kick back and drive that car all day. Of course, gas was about 35 cents a gallon at that time, so nobody really worried about gas mileage in those days....

Yes, a Lexus LS. And yes, our S-Type does indeed drive better (meaning better handling, quicker response, smoother on the road surfaces, and far less body lean on the turns) than the four or five Lexus LS models that I've driven over the years (ranging in age from the mid-90s to the mid-00s). Yes, the S-Type is a bit smaller, but what Jaguar has done with the suspension in that car is amazing. Expensive as hell to fix if suspension components break and need replacement, but amazing nonetheless. The S-Type is relatively quiet given its performance capabilities, but the LS is indeed quieter. While I like and respect the LS series, I never have enough legroom and headroom in any of them. I have more legroom and headroom in our S-Type (which makes perfect sense given the long hood) and while it is not as roomy for me as my Ram cabin is, I can drive the S-Type for three hours straight with no cramping whereas the longest I can stay in an LS is about 90 minutes....

This is an easy one.... D o i t y o u r s e l f . . . . As you pointed out in your own post, doing the drain-and-fill on an RX is cake. Any 4th-grader can do it. Why pay anybody else ANY amount for something this easy ? ?

If you've got 18-inch rims, get the Bridgestone Alenza. Our set is pushing 50,000 miles and still going strong. Keep them at about 36 psi, rotate your tires at every oil & filter change, drive it like an SUV and not a race car, and these tires may indeed do 60,000 miles, coming very close to their 65K warranty. If you've got 17-inch rims, get the Firestone Destination LE. Almost exactly the same technology as the Alenza at less than two-thirds of the price and significantly cheaper than that with a buy-3-get-1-free deal. I've had two sets of them on two different SUVs and both sets did well over 50,000 miles and would have achieved their 60K warranty if I had chosen to push them further. If these tires are ever built in the 18-inch sizes, then jump on them instead of the Alenzas if you have 18-inch rims. As pointed out previously, Michelin and Goodyear never enter the picture due to their lack of a treadwear warranty. If the company building the tire doesn't feel strong enough about it to match what the competition has been offering for years, their tires will never see my vehicles' rims....

There's a whole hell of a lot more to BMW vs. Benz vs. Lexus comparisons than just acceleration and speed. The entire body of work of how the car is designed and what its complete capabilities are must be taken into consideration. Hell, I'm 6-foot-7 and 245 pounds and to me, any Lexus SC is just a damn crackerbox that I couldn't fit into even with a giant shoehorn and a case of WD-40....

nc211, Your father-in-law's 2002 S-Type was a completely different animal than our 2005 S-Type. His had the old problematic Ford transmission, ours has the infinitely smooth and superior German ZF six-speed transmission (but the Shell mineral oil used as transmission fluid in the ZF costs $58 per litre from all of the local European dealerships and I can't find it on the open market thus far). His had the A/C control valves and modules that will go out on you if you just look at them funny, ours has the upgraded A/C valves and modules that don't suffer from those problems. His had the flimsy Ford window regulators carried over from the first-generation Lincoln LS that failed early and often, ours has the new-and-improved window regulators that are actually built to last, etc. etc. etc. But I still maintain that a big part of your father-in-law's problems with his S-Type is that he simply did not drive it enough. These cars have some of the most complicated electronic modules I've ever seen in a vehicle and they are all interconnected with each other. I purchased the Jaguar JTIS factory service manual (available only on CD, unfortunately) via an ebay bid just because of the electronic modules in this car. Long-time owners are all over the S-Type forums saying if you don't drive your 1999 to 2003 S-Type enough, your battery will lose its storage and recuperative powers relatively quickly and from that point, it's all downhill (and obscenely expensive) with these electronic modules, even with a new battery.... You are 100% correct about Jaguar back in the day as opposed to the last 3 or 4 model years. Jaguar Corporate finally reached a point in 2003/2004 where they realized that if they didn't get their quality control out of the sewer, they would be headed for the scrap heap in very short order. I was unwilling to acquire an S-Type prior to a mid-2005 build date for this very reason. Thus far, this has been a great car for us. As you would expect from me, I rode our local Jaguar dealership out in Cary like a rented mule these past seven months as far as getting every little glitch (and potential glitch) taken care of to my specifications while the car was still under factory warranty (which expired this past Saturday). I made them do about $3,000 worth of warranty work (new throttle body, new throttle position sensor, new rear tie rods and grease cap assemblies, full 4-wheel alignment after the new tie rods, new Bluetooth microphone, new under-hood insulation pad, new windshield cowl protecting the new throttle body, even a new wood gearshift knob which I picked up just this morning), but remember - you can't drive into a Jaguar dealership service department for less than $800 to $1,000 per incident in most cases. That is why for cars such as this one, if you value the contents of your wallet it is absolutely critical that you learn to do the bulk of the routine maintenance yourself (as you quickly learned with your old LS). Many folks who want cars such as this sadly don't do the research required to realize what you're stepping into if you don't want to be a DIY guy....

I also disagree with you, Lexusfreak. Some BMW models are outstanding vehicles for what they are designed to do. However, I believe that they (like a number of Lexus models as well) are significantly overpriced from an acquisition standpoint. They are also expensive to maintain and insure over the long run.... Back in December we were looking for a luxury-class highway cruiser for my wife in an effort to take some of the miles off of her 2004 RX330 AWD. She was racking up mileage on her SUV, usually during trips that better fit a sedan. I researched American, Japanese, and European options and determined that the best bang-for-the-buck from an overall acquisition/maintenance/insurance/depreciation standpoint would be the well-maintained, low-mileage (18,000) Jaguar S-Type that I purchased for her back on December 19th. Due to the heavy depreciation hammering ALL luxury cars in this terrible economy, I was able to steal what was a $52,000 car new for an extremely low-ball offer of $17,500. This would have been unheard of back when the economy was healthier in 2007. My wife has put nearly 14,000 miles on the S-Type since we bought it and what a fantastic car it has been for us. Drives better than an LS, quiet, powerful, gets more than 33 mpg on her trips back and forth to Florida to see her parents (which initially had me in disbelief thinking I had miscalculated somehow), and its beauty and elegance is just icing on the cake. Had I not done the research, I never would have bought it due to Jaguar's long-time reputation of less-than-favorable reliability. But that simply isn't true anymore, witness Jaguar's J.D. Powers tie with Buick earlier this year for #1 in customer satisfaction.... My point is that you have to know what you're getting into as well as what you want. The more research you do, the more informed a decision you'll make and the happier you'll be with that decision over the long term. And no matter what you decide to acquire, the more routine maintenance you can learn to do yourself, the better off your wallet will be. Especially with ANY European marque - their dealer service is unquestionably the most costly on the planet....

On my wife's previous 2000 RX300 AWD, here's the only set I had to put on the vehicle after the mediocre OEM Bridgestone Duelers wore out. Sold the vehicle with not quite 60,000 miles on the Destinations and the guy who bought it from us put another set of Destinations on it after doing his own tire research: Brand: Firestone Destination LE Where: tirerack.com Cost: At the time (late 2004/early 2005), probably about $76 per tire Size: P225/70/R16 Warranty: 60,000 miles These are the best bang-for-the-buck all-season SUV tires on the market. Had them on our daughter's 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee as well. Keep them at 34 to 35 psi, rotate them at every oil & filter change, keep your front end aligned, drive your vehicle like an SUV and not a NASCAR pace car, and they'll easily do at least 55,000 miles with no hydroplaning whatsoever. Given the tough economy, you can always talk your local Firestone dealer into a Buy 3 / Get 1 Free deal right now....

In the options world, "late" and "never" are often the same thing. Both can kill you equally dead....

You're a bit late with your advice, nc211. I bailed out of the last of my crude options with a healthy 74% profit margin this past Tuesday afternoon. Today being Options Expiration Friday for the month of July, my own personal deadline was yesterday at 3:45 pm. I don't gamble - I take highly-calculated, well-studied, laser-projected, and constantly-monitored risks. I went ahead and sold out on Tuesday and moved on to some little-known technology options that have been good to me during the past two summers. But it's a different world now and my expectations are lowered as a result. We'll see what happens over the course of the next 60 days....

I agree that cleaning a throttle body and idle air control valve after a few years of operation is usually a beneficial thing to do for the overall health and performance of your vehicle, but you must do some research on your particular vehicle first. Some vehicles have special protective coatings bonded to their throttle plates at the factory, and sometimes these coatings can be inadvertently removed by using harsh cleaning solvents that they aren't designed to handle. So do your research first and use the right products along with the right techniques. Those can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and even from model to model....

And when it's time to replace those brake pads, go with a set of Wagner ThermoQuiet pads. Did the rear brakes of my wife's 2004 RX330 at about 87,000 miles back in March, and will be doing the front brakes of our 2005 Jaguar S-Type by the end of July at about 32,000 miles. Those OEM Jaguar brake pads are the messiest I've ever had to deal with and I'm glad they're almost gone.... The Wagner ThermoQuiet brake pads are indeed whisper-silent and they create almost no dust. Very reasonably-priced and I highly recommend them....