KLF

When was the last time you heard of anybody having their stock rims swiped? Pay your insurance, take your chances. Don't park in risky sections of town. Or buy a beater to drive around in, leave the Lexus in your garage.

I hate to burst your bubble, but those wheel locks are absolutely worthless. They sell the special sockets at Sears that you can use to get them off. My son used to work at Sears Auto and they usually didn't even bother asking for the key, they just used the universal sockets to take them off. When I bought my ES, I noticed it had them on it, so before I left the dealer when I picked it up I went back to the parts counter and bought 4 new plain lugnuts. I still have the locking nuts and key, I was thinking of putting them on eBay. Any offers?

Finally got a chance to give my ES a good wash/pre-wax/glaze/wax job today, looks great. Except the headlight lenses. The front of the car is remarkably chip-free (only 58K on it), but the headlights seem like they've been sand-blasted. Is there any known way to remove this slight damage and get them back to a nice clear appearance? Tried a search, couldn't find anything. TIA...

"Hydrolocking" refers to the result of a running engine sucking a large gulp of water into the intake, the "slug" of water gets past the air filter, thru the intake, and into one of the cylinders of the engine. A 4-stroke engine like we have in all of our automobiles assumes that on the compression stroke there is mostly air with a small amount of fuel vapor in the cylinder, so the piston rises in the cylinder with both intake and exhaust valves closed, so that this mixture is compressed for the impending explosion caused by the spark plug when the piston is near TDC. Well, if there is sufficient water in the cylinder (it doesn't take much), when the piston comes up, it hits water instead of air. As you probably know, water is basically incompressible, so instead of the piston compressing the contents of the combustion chamber, it slams into the water, and very very bad things happen in the engine. Usually the result is the connecting rod breaks on that piston, the piston jams into the cylinder, and the stub of the con rod slaps around in the crankcase, causing lots of collateral damage. I have personally witnessed this happening. The engine will be running fine, and suddenly there is a loud CLANK and that's it -- you're done. It ruins your day, as it usually ruins the engine. Offroaders try to avoid this from happening by installing a snorkle device on the intake, I had one on my Land Cruiser that I just sold: Hydrolocking has nothing to do with the exhaust. The answer here is DO NOT drive your Lexus car in 2' of water. It's not designed for this type of situation. Even if you don't end up sucking water into the engine, you will very likely end up with water going past all the seals in the lower part of your drivetrain: transmission, differential, wheel bearings, etc. Not to mention the risk of damage to the electrical system. Water does VERY bad things to vehicles. Don't risk it.

I'm curious why you want one? I think they're very dangerous and should be illegal. One of the (many) reasons I bought a Lexus is because it came from the factory with a full-size spare tire. I won't buy a car that has one of those stupid donut tires. Doesn't the LS have a well in the trunk under the trunk mat for hiding the spare?

Not exactly. The '99 got a VVT-i system on the engine, a few more horsepower and ft-lbs of torque, and a wee bit better gas mileage. I also drove a '98 (the one I just bought) and a '99 within a few minutes of each other, and the '99 seemed a little quieter, so I'm thinking they might have a little better soundproofing/deadening. I wanted a '99 but couldn't find one equipped like I wanted in the price I wanted to spend, so I ended up with a '98.

Carfax is clean. It's had 2 owners, but otherwise nothing else worth mentioning.

I assume I'm too late to help you, but I'll take a stab at this, given my experience with the auto tranny in my old Land Cruiser (still haven't taken delivery of my ES). Pull the plug out of the pan, let it drain. There is a squash washer under the plug, you're supposed to replace it every time you re-install the plug, but it's not absolutely necessary. Let it drain for awhile (longer is better), then unbolt the pan and pry it off. The filter is a removable screen, take it off, clean it by spraying it with brake cleaner (aerosol can). There's probably a magnet or two stuck to the bottom of the pan, clean these too. Wipe the bottom of the pan out, then put it all back together with new gaskets (one on the screen, one on the pan). Add the new fluid by pouring it down the dipstick tube. If anything above is incorrect, I hope someone corrects me, as I'd like to know. My opinion: Always buy parts from the dealer. This is especially important with Toyota/Lexus. No questions on them fitting, better quality, etc. And it's never too late to swap to synthetic fluids. Use what ever viscosity is printed in your Owner's Manual, or on the fill cap on top of the engine. All that BS about synthetic causing leaks is an urban legend.

You guys do know that you can go to Lexus.com and download owner's manuals for your cars? There's also a link where you can request a new set, they'll send them to you for free. Just discovered this today.

Really? I'd be pretty mad if my battery didn't last 4 years. Heck, my wife's '94 Xcab pickup still has the original battery! I put an Optima red-top in my '92 4Runner back in '97 or '98, it's still going strong. On the indicator eye thingy, the battery in my previous '88 Land Cruiser had one of those, it never once turned blue, yet it never failed to start the truck. So yeah, I don't trust them either.

Hi, this is my first post on this forum. I just bought a gold '98 ES300 yesterday with only 56K on it, the front of the car is pristine, not a mark on it. I bought it at a Lexus dealer (lease turn-in), and they tried to push the clear bra thing on me but I declined. They wanted $600 for the insntall. I've seen the pre-cit kits for other cars in catalogs for less than $200, I'm considering doing it myself instead. Wondering if anybody here has tried this, and a place to get one.