Curtis_

Took the car to my trusted mechanic. Upper ball joints was the diagnosis (by the way, are these integrated with the upper control arms?). The vast majority of the noise is gone, but I still have a slight knock now when I go over bumps. Any advice? By the way, mechanic charged me ~$1,600 to replace upper balljoints/control arms!

I checked with Sears, and they will replace both lower control arms for about 70% of what the dealer is quoting. So my question becomes, why go to the dealer if warranties on labor and parts at both places are the same? As you can tell, I don't have enough experience/know how to do this myself.

Dealership says they isolated the noise to the lower control arm, and that the driver side lower control arm is just as "loose" so they both need to be replaced. Does this sound legit?

Is it considered "improper" to list dealership repair costs on this site?

Has anyone had their Lexus dealer replace ball joints? If so, how much did they charge?

I own a 1998 GS300 with nearly 100k miles. When I drive over fairly significant bumps, I hear a squeaking sound (not super high pitch, but not a clunk or thud) coming from my front passenger side. Any ideas as to what this might be? I had my oil changed and tires rotated at the dealer about 1,000 miles ago, and they did not mention anything. I have owned this car for a little over a year, and as far as I know, ball joints, shocks, control arms, etc. haven't been changed. Any help would be much appreciated.

I had been experiencing "jerky" acceleration for a few weeks, and read on another Lexus board that re-setting the ECU helped a lot of people with this problem. I tried it, and indeed it helped me tremendously. Much smoother acceleration. I'm guessing re-setting your ECU often probably isn't good for it, but what do you do if it helps you out? Has anybody else tried this and experienced positive or negative results? Please share your experiences. I'm curious as to whether or not this is a) an effective practice for some problems experienced with the car, and B) a safe practice, and if so, c) how often is safe? Much appreciation to those who respond.

Got my bulb installed. Auto leveling question: what is it that actually moves when the lights are first turned on, the bulb, or the reflector?

Knew it! <_< To re-install properly, place the bulb onto the reflector (making sure the notch lines up) then hold the bulb in place by the metal clamps. At this point, the bulb should be very secure. If it isn't, you may have inserted the bulb incorrectly. There's a little notch cutout in the bulb base that fits only a certain way onto the reflector. If you do this and there's still a security issue, then you may need to bend the metal clamps a little to put more pressure onto the bulb base to hold it in place... When you get the bulb secured tightly enough with the clamps, press on the igniter (watching for the notches) and rotate clockwise a little. And you're done! Thank you very much. I'll give this a try when my bulb arrives. Unfortunately, I went to O'Reily's and bought one for $85 and broke it trying to install it! Now I've got two on the way for $25 a piece.

Here is how I removed the old bulb: 1: Undo white cover. 2. Pull off metal housing. 3. Unscrew black socket from bulb. 4. Undo metal clamps. 5. remove bulb. Logic would have it to reverse this sequence to install a new bulb. However, the bulb does not seem secure when installed. If I install it, secure clamps, then try to screw black socket on, the bulb does not remain secure in the headlight assembly.

Yes, I am referring to an HID installation.

All you have to do is turn the bulb socket and pull straight out, You can disconnect the harness before or after, There is enough play in the wires. At least that is how my lights are setup. My question is more geared towards installing the new bulb. How is the bulb secured in the headlamp assembly? Do you insert the bulb, twist, secure the clamps, then connect the harness? Or do you connect the bulb to the harness, insert into the assembly, secure the clamps, etc.?

Any ideas how to replace the low beam headlamp bulb on a 98 GS300? I unscrewed the white cover, pulled the metal cover off, unhooked the connection, undid the clamps, pulled the old bulb out. When I go to replace the bulb, it doesn't seem like it fits securely. Do you insert the bulb, replace the metal clips, then hook on the power supply connection, or do you attach the bulb to the power supply connection first, then replace the clips, etc? Any help would be much appreciated.

Well, the transmission shop called, said they couldn't find anything wrong with it. They said two different techs drove it 5 or 6 times and couldn't find anything.

When I first noticed the problem, I had the Lexus dealer "service" the transmission. Apparently that entailed draining and replacing the fluid. I asked if they replaced the filter, and the service advisor said that they don't break any seals on the tranny unless they are leaking and need to be repaired/replaced. This seemed odd to me since I thought changing the filter was routine maintenance. The car is at Aamco (the one my trusted mechanic recommended) right now, we'll see what they say.

Sorry, one quick follow up. I spoke to a service advisor at the local Lexus dealership about my transmission. He said that Lexus/Toyota does not recommend flushing transmissions. He said it could knock something loose, or bust seals, especially in older transmissions. My car has 90,000 miles on it. Any thoughts?

Thanks for the advice. I'll let you all know what the transmission shop says.

I took my 98 GS300 to my regular (trusted) mechanic due to some hard shifting. They road tested it and said "yep, it is shifting harder than normal between 2nd & 3rd, you need to take it to a transmission shop". They recommend a local Aamco. My concern is that I will have to drop $3-$4k on replacing or rebuilding the thing. Does anyone have any advice on moving forward, or has anyone experienced the same issue with this tranny?

My GS300 lurches forward on occasion from a dead stop. Most of the time, this occurs on a hill. Could this be a transmission problem? I recently had the fluid changed in the transmission. It was not flushed and the filter was not changed. The service advisor explained that Lexus/Toyota does not recommend breaking any seals that aren't leaking. Any insight would be appreciated.

The atf in my 98 GS300 was a little low, so I decided to top it off before a long trip (around 550 miles). Unfortunately, it appears I put too much fluid in. The fluid level on the dipstick is about an inch over the top notch. Should I take this thing to the dealer right now? I have already driven with the level too high for about 550miles. Any advice would be appreciated.

I recently bought a 1998 GS300 with a navigation system. Any ideas how I would go about getting the system updated? Apparently this system is hard drive based rather than CD/DVD. Any help would be much appreciated.