rmitchell

You shouldn't worry about driving your vehicle. If your brakes are working, iow, when you press the brake pedal, the vehicle slows down and comes to a stop, then you are fine. I have already pulled out the fuse(s) to disable the abs as well as other systems associated with it because I wanted to drive without abs (trac & vsc) for a while. A nice thing of not having abs on the vehicle is that when you press the pedal, it really, really stops! ;) One thing worth mentioning is that, at least on the LX not sure about the RX, the TRAC system is a major part of the four wheel drive system. The center differential, which can be locked or unlocked via a switch on the dash, is a limited slip differential, but the front and rear differentials are open diffs. With an open differential, both wheels only have as much torque as the wheel that has the least torque. This means that if one of the front or rear wheels slip, the other wheel suddenly has no power to work with. The TRAC system counters this by applying the brakes to the slipping wheels, restoring torque until traction is gained. With these fuses or relays pulled, you have greatly decreased the four wheel drive capability of the vehicle. That said, driving without these in place should be fine, just be aware that you do not have ABS, so your wheels can lock if you hit the brakes hard, you do not have the traction system mentioned above, and you do not have the Vehicle Skid Control. All of these systems are related to the brakes, so give yourself extra room to stop in the event that you lose power brakes. You can still stop, but it'll take some work since your truck is heavy.

2001 with 193,000. Only issues have been to replace the driveshaft at 185,000 and the rear struts are leaking so I'll get those replaced soon. I like seeing reports of well over a quarter million miles on these trucks, probably due in part to the fact that the engine block is cast iron. I foresee many more years of service out of my LX.

My '01 LX470 had its 180,000 mile service not long ago at the Lexus dealer. This is the same as 90k service. I've been doing the minor services (oil and filter change, rotate tires, etc) myself. The big service consisted mainly of replacing the timing belt and water pump. I had some bearings that were replaced at the same time because they were pretty worn, and the belt was already off, so it was an easy job. You SHOULD NOT go much over 90,000 miles without changing the belt. The 2UZ-FE engine that our trucks use is an interference engine which means that if the timing is off (i.e. the belt breaks) the valves and pistons can impact each other, resulting in catastrophic engine damage. While it's getting the "big service" you could check out the driveshaft just to make sure everything is lubricated properly. I assume the dealership has been checking this, but without lubricant, it will wear out prematurely.

Hello, I have a 2001 LX and I replaced my entire Mark Levinson system earlier this year and it is not a simple thing to do. It isn't just a simple matter of swapping the head unit because the factory amp and speakers are 8 ohms, and the aftermarket systems are 4 ohms. This does matter, and to my knowledge you can't use different impedances (different ohms ratings) in the same system. I replaced the factory head unit with a double DIN Pioneer fh-p8000bt. This unit has Bluetooth built-in, aux in, USB ifor iPhone/iPod, HD radio ready, and Sat ready. You could easily get a unit with nav, but it'll cost roughly twice as much. About $600 compared to my $300 unit. I bought 2 sets of Rockford Fosgage Prime R1653 speakers for $80 a set. The front set just screws into the factory speaker mount as they are the same size. For the rear set, I removed the factory speaker mounst and made my own with particle board and a dremel. I then ran the wiring that came with the speakers to the dash, this required the use of a wire hanger and electrical tape to get the wires through the factory wire runs. This was by far the most time consuming part. You have to splice the wiring from the original wiring harness tand connect it to the Pioneer one. I found a pinout for the radio harness from an Internet search, I don't remember where I found it, but its a simple matter to splice the old wires to the Pioneer harness. Connect the ANT (antenna) wire from the original harness to the REM (remote) wire in the newew harness. This will cause the power antenna to raise when you turn on the radio. If you happen to add an amp and sub at the same time, like I did, connect the amp remote wire to this as well. I also connected my satellite radio receiver's 12 V power wire to this REM wire, so that my satellite radio receiver is only on when I turn on the head unit. I completely bypassed the factory amp, because the head unit has an amp inside that is powerful enough to fill the car with great sound. After removing the factory head unit, you will notice that there is a gap between the new unit and the dash trim. I bought a custom made plastic piece from eBay that came with new mounting brackets. The result looks pretty "factory" to me, I'll post pictures when I get home later this eveneing. Let me know if there is anything else you'd like to know, or if I left something out. EDIT: The reason I replaced the system in the first place was because I blew the factory front speakers. Lexus wanted $300 a piece to replace them, so I went on the hunt for speakers. Due to the ML system being 8 ohm, I decided it was worth it just to upgrade the entire audio system because I would get Bluetooth, iPod/iPhone connectivity and an AUX IN. It was well worth the time, it took about a weekend. All in all, the full system cost me around $600, which was the same price as Lexus replacing the front speakers. Here are pictures of the speaker mount for the rear door panels I made, and then one of the finished head-unit at night. Rear speaker mount up close: http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/268901_10150209813821556_593046555_7336160_1562188_n.jpg Rear mount in door panel: http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/260591_10150209813871556_593046555_7336161_4372106_n.jpg Finished head unit: http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/261923_10150209813701556_593046555_7336159_3848601_n.jpg

Isn't that the automatic height control? it levels itself on minor hills, mine does that too! it could be switch off, i tried, but it often came back on automatically, is that suppose to happend? If I understand the system correctly, it resets all settings when the ignition is turned off. If it is coming back on before this, I have no idea why. My 2001 has 165k miles and no problem with AHC. I change height pretty often for hitching to trailers, maybe the system likes a workout from time to time like the center diff switch.

I have this problem as well, and the dealership charged $300 to replace the speaker, which sounds identical. I doubt they replaced it at all. For now, I've unplugged the the speaker. It requires removing the door panel which is held on with three plastic clips with pop in centers on the sides of the panel, two screws under leather colored plastic plugs, a screw behind the door handle, and 5 or 6 screws along the bottom of the panel in the innermost black stripping. The whole process took about 10 minutes. My truck is a 2001, hope this helps.