lenore

Your car is still under the 8 years 120day warranty.....

that sucks, I have thoroughly enjoyed your posts, sometimes they pick the flysh&T out of the pepper barrel. Keep on posting here. By the way your wood work is exceptional and happy birthday. Thomas1 on CL and me here.

Yes the ceramics are Ok, but the Duralast regular pads with lifetime, mean you change them every 4 months, not quite my idea of a great pad. They were also particularily high in dust. the Wheels would go black real fast..... The only other bad experience was with a tranny pan gasket set made by duralast for a Ford Windstar. Absolutely would not stop leaking.....

Happy Easter :) :) :) :) :)

I tried like crazy to get the clip off, from the back, everything, but I think your right, if I took a needle nose, I might be able to screw it off from the back, but man that would be hard .. . . I meant to just pull it out of the hole. But I cant look at mine because wife is gone with car...

there is a clip on those wire holders, just take a screwdriver or needlenose and detach the entire clip from the housing.

did the Seinna have the AWD with viscous coupling? Also the highlander has a much later build date 01 versus 99 Lexus will not give us any details of hardware or software changes for the vehicles in comparison....

Roger, you are absolutely right, the mechanics run the spectrum when it comes to their skills, and desire to do it right. I have been wrenching on cars since I was 15 and saw the good and bad when I worked in a gas station at age 15. Fortunately, my daddy being a air craft mechanic said never do a job unless you do it right, that is how I live, in everything I do. Yea, I make mistakes, but I fix them and learn. Still wrenching after 40 years, (mostly to save money, and have it done right) but that is why these forums are great, to help even those who do not diy to save money and learn how to not get cheated at the stealerships. Back to bleeding brakes, well I do it the old fashioned way, little woman pushes the pedal for me god bless her...

The front cover does have the spark plug coil packs which need to be disconnected, not a difficult task. the spark plugs can be left in the cylinder. just remove the single screw holding the coils down and remove, then access the valve covers. when putting back do not over torque the bolts. If you have a camera give us a shot.

As for the Autozone brake pads, dont buy their lowest priced ones, I did and ended up changing them every 3 months on my daughters Sequoia. Finally upgraded to their best brake pad, and they are satisfactory. I personally like Akebono on my Lexus and have over 85k miles on the present set. Bought them at RockAuto.com. Brembo Disks are great also, KYB shocks are also a manufacturor for Toyota. I have all on my Lexus with 162k miles.

Yea I know, I am scared to look at mine, I am just hoping that my deligent maintenance, and use of synthetic stopped any progression towards that picture. that is a 2003 engine with 50k miles, all oil changes done on time at a Toyota dealership.....be-warned everyone, it could happen to you....Keep them oil changes on time and with good quality oil...

Most of the time blue smoke indicates oil, and when you start it up is when it would show, after the catalytic converter gets hot, the oil is burned up and hard to detect. I would still be tempted to just remove the front valve cover, especially on a unknown engine and make sure you dont have sludge. here is a picture of a sludge engine after scrapping piles out...(note RX300 1mze engine) (2003)

Probably wouldnt hurt anything to try Auto RX and see if the leak diminishes. Somewhere I read it helps. As for the seal replacement, way to high. A tranny shop would probably do it cheaper.....(independent) The transmission does have to be dropped off. You smell burning oi, are you sure it is from the main, or is it from valve covers, dripping down.....

Probably not, You need to pull the front valve cover and look under it. Not through the oil filler hole, that is missleading. Another solution is to try some AUTO RX which could clean the engine. Just not sure what kind of problem you have. Did you buy it from a dealership or private party. Was there any kind of warranty...???

You know that is allfully low mileage. Are you using oil? What kind of oil do you use, and how often was it changed? they can do a leak down test for checking the condition of the rings and valve stem seals. I hope your engine doesnt have signs of sludge. That was generally only on the 1mze engine (1999-2003)

If you are a SAMS club member, they will do it for free, doesnt matter where your tires were purchased. I just saw that add at their gas pump.

I dont know about yours, but I have a RX300 with 162k miles and never had that kind of problem. My tires wear perfectly even. I would get a new mechanic....

I hope they werent BOSCH plugs....

Here is a great one from Club Lexus site: I like both sites. http://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-first-g...ter-change.html

a three inch extension and 1/4 inch drive with adapter. If you are real brave remove the upper intake manifold..... I changed mine without removing the manifold, I would remove the air intake though to give better access. Also make sure you replace them with Denso or NGK iridium plugs....dont, DONT use Bosch.....

Lenore, For the life of me, I may be as blind as a bat but I have looked and looked and can't see where the shim is in that picture. Clue me in. Thanks! the is a cup on top of the valve lifter that accepts the disk. There is a special tool that pushes that valve lifter down so that different size shims can be inserted. what you are seeing is the cam lobe with the lifter below it which retains the shims with a very small lip on top.

The filter looks funny, seems to be missing the inlet piece with O ring. I would go for the $67 one....

here is a thread on the RX300 IACV which probably is similiar.... http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...p;hl=IACV+valve

by the way I have 162k miles, never adjusted the valves and the engine is just fine. my next door neighbor with the sludged engine which we rebuilt did adjust 2 valves with the shims....They were loose, I told him loose is OK, tight is when there is a problem, but bless him he did it right. Here is a picture of shim on the 1mze engine....

The OCV is located on the cylinder head and basically controls the camshaft timing by advancing and retarding it with oil pressure. my neighbor had a problem with his and unfortunately had to replace the camshaft control gear. First step would be to remove the Oil control valve and check it for normal operation. You can pull it out and hook it to the car battery to see if it is functioning at all. It is basically a solenoid that is pulse modulated by the computer to control the oil flow. Here is a picture of what it is controlling: http://toyota.typepad.com/photos/uncategor...ti_actuator.png Here is another explanation I googled: http://www.v-eight.com/multimedia/pdf/3uzfe_vvti.pdf