Miracle

OK, a few weeks ago I cleaned up the MAF sensor with CRC electronic cleaner, the gas mileage went up to 15.5 but now it is back to somewhere around 13.5. Recently I was not driving much on highway, but I guess it should not go as low as 13.x. Also when the engine is started in the morning (cold), the offgas from the exhaust has an obvious smell of gasoline. It goes aways when the car completely warms up. Is this normal? Any idea what I should/can do now?

Thank you. I think I'll go to another auto parts shop to see if I can find the CRC MAF sensor cleaner.

Do you mean spark plugs? I'm a car noob. If I need to replace the plugs (very unlikely), and clean the MAF sensor, any idea how much will it take? I don't want to go to the dealer any more. Thank you! Yes, Mr. M- That would be spark plugs. They put some of the finest plugs known to man in these cars. Even my wife's '02 Camry 4cyl came with them. Cost them a few $'s apiece for Toyota rather than a few cents apiece like our American manufacturers. They list for around $19. each and can be purchased online for about $8. ea. Don't confuse them with the Platinum Denso's that Autozone sells for about $8. ea. You might consider taking the plugs out and checking them, fine wire brushing them and maybe a little bit of carb cleaner, but only because that's an all aluminum engine and when I changed My DIL's at 97k (not knowing), one of the rear plugs came a little hard because it had 97k mi of crud on the threads (yes, it's possible for carbon to get up on the threads over a long period of time), and I was afraid I might gall the threads and really be in trouble. Didn't happen, and I put a very small amount of anti-seize on the threads when the new plugs went in. As far as the MAF sensor, there are GOOD instructions on cleaning it on this forum and ANOTHER popular Lexus forum. It's not hard to do, you just need to know what to use and how to be careful in the cleaning so that you don't damage the delicate sensor parts as you are cleaning. I would rather you read those instructions rather than me repeating them so that there is no misundertanding. You should have no trouble doing it. Make sure to get and use the right cleaner. It's still the 1st. thing I would do. Thanks for the detailed answer. Today I took the MAF sensor out and took a close look. The air temp sensor is easy to inspect & clean, it was covered with oiled dust, I managed to clean up most of them=;, but the inner stuff is really hard to see clearly, even with a flashlight. I went to the auto parts shop and tried to find some MAF sensor cleaner but wasn't able to. They have fast dry air intake cleaner and carbon cleaner. Can I use the air intake cleaner?

Do you mean spark plugs? I'm a car noob. If I need to replace the plugs (very unlikely), and clean the MAF sensor, any idea how much will it take? I don't want to go to the dealer any more. Thank you! What grade fuel are you using? Plus or premium, depends on the price. Usually premium. But I know the previous owner used only regular.

Do you mean spark plugs? I'm a car noob. If I need to replace the plugs (very unlikely), and clean the MAF sensor, any idea how much will it take? I don't want to go to the dealer any more. Thank you!

It was on, the dealer charged me $1,000 to fix it (replaced CC/VSV)....

I bought this used 2001 RX300 (AWD) last month. Current mile age 95,300. I noticed that the fuel economy of this car is getting worse. According to http://www.fueleconomy.gov/!Removed!/noframes/16904.shtml, this car should be at 16 - 21MPG depends on city/hwy type, combined around 18. But mine is running at 13.5MPG now (city/hwy is about 50/50). When I bought it the info panel displayed 14.4 average MPG, now it seems to be doing worse. I did the 90,000 mile service at the dealer on Xmas day. Did not see any improvement. I calculated the MPG value manually for the most recent 200 miles. The result matches the average MPG value on the car display panel. Is there anything I can do (e.g. clean up some part of the fuel system / engine) to get better MPG value? Does Chevron Techron fuel system cleaner help? Thank you!

K, that's what's supposed to happen in the fuses. The plastic exterior shell should remain unharmed while the internal wire should be broken. You probably just accidentally crossed the wires installing the new one, it's no biggie- i did it a million times working on all of the projects i did in my Rx300. No harm done, that's what the fuse is for :D You are the man. I bought new fuses today and replaced the dead 15AMP CIG fuse. Problem resolved. Thank you again.

Well, the tiny metal bridge is broken inside the fuse, I guess I can't say it was melted down. Maybe blown out is the right way to describe it. I did not switch any wires BTW. Thank you cduluk.

Thank you guys, I checked the fuse box and indeed the CIG fuse is melted. I think that is it! I'm pretty sure the splitter caused this. I wonder what WalMart will tell me when I return the splitter.

Hi everyone, My 2001 RX300 has only one power outlet (the cigareet lighter) so I bought a splitter from WalMart in order to power up both the GPS and my cell phone. Yesterday I plugged the splitter into the power outlet, but it did not work at all, nothing connected to it was powered up. The splitter seems defective. Then I removed it. After that I immediately found two things are wrong: 1. The power mirrors stopped working, both left and right side mirrors would not move no matter which arrow I pressed. 2. The power outlet stopped working. It does not provide power to my GPS any more, even with the original car charger power cord for the GPS. The other powered staff like seats, windows, lights are still working properly. Any idea what is wrong? Thanks!