chimchim

For sale (sf bay area, CA) local pick up only

I have a used but in great shape (no rips) tonneau cover that came from our 2004 RX330.

Color is the "tan" interior that came in the bamboo pearl RX

asking $90 obo

local pickup in mountain view, CA weekdays or west san jose ca weekends

bottom line you still own a vehicle with an incredibly smooth cvt transmission, that has one third lower emissions than a regular suv, a meaningful reserve of power that is fun to drive, (i think) safe,RELIABLE and comfortable. yes there are compromises however i dont think you will regret your decision, and if you care to it can bring a new hybrid approach to driving.

Really? I like CVTs for their smoothness (no more hurky jerky toyota automatic shifting program which drove me NUTS on the RX330 we had previously) but I find the CVT to be noisier than the standard auto trans which contributes to "audible roughness" instead of "seat of pants roughness".

I'm not hating the RX400h at all, I'm just unfamiliar with a "luxury hybrid".

chimchim, when toyota did research on hybrid cars prior to the first 400h they found that Lexus owners at that time had two major concerns, first they didnt want to give up luxury for the hybrid experience, and two they didnt want to worry about the battery. Toyota knew at that time the our batteries would last longer if they were never fully charged or depeleted say beyond the last 30 or 40% of their charge. So the algorithm that maintains this range was set up to protect the battery in that way and toyota could give you a seven year 100k hybrid warranty (longer in california). Some of us wish the charging system was more adaptable and there have been improvements in the later models however until the next generation battery is available this is the way its going to be. There really isnt any way to change how the 400h decides when and where to charge or discharge the battery. also keep in mind everything is running off the main battery once the car is started, so the drain of accessories, the need to keep the catalytic converter at a high temperature for low emissions, how much cabin heat you desire, is the ac on all factor into the battery charging, engine running equasion.

Using cruise control will be more efficient than not as the system works more seamlessly. ifyou turn off some accessories the battery stays charged longer and is more efficient. in seattle our weather is mild and i open the window or the sunroof and have all fans off and of course no ac at all. this always improves my mpg.

as many have said these benefits show up in city driving more than hiway, also do have the dealer at the next service check the isc learning to see if it is set correctly, there is a tsb here if you do a search and they will know what you are talking about. if you have a battery that is not original, or any work was done where the battery was disconnected this system may be out of adjustment.

Ahhh... that answers a lot of my questions. Thanks for the reply!

My experience with the car does jive that the car is erring on the side of making sure all systems are fully ready to keep luxury up in sacrifice of hybrid optimization

I'll check on the TSB for the ISC learning

As for the accessories, I noted similar behavior when our return trip was at night (so no A/C), windows up, heater off, and even the stereo off, cruise on.

I understand that city better utilizes hybrid technology

I wish there was a "advanced user" hybrid selection control deep in the menu screen or something that would allow me to say "no matter what I do, go aggressive on electric use", and if that means I get a warning bell saying "I can't give you A/C", etc.

You weren't accelerating up the hill. You were driving on a highway that included uphill grades. The car doesn't know you're on hilly roads...it knows that you're traveling at constant highway speeds...thats all it knows.

The hybrid system is a low speed benefit...not a high speed benefit.

Are you interested in our expertise in this area or just arguing with us?

I'm interested in finding an understanding for my situation and an appropriate solution.

I read the responses 2-3 times and tried to consolidate it with what I knew of my situation and what I had posted, and there seemed to be a disconnect, hence my reply. And even with your latest reply, there are things that don't seem to jive... maybe it's me, but it's still not consolidating.

The car may not "know" I'm on "hilly" roads, but it *does* know that the load has suddenly gone up without additional throttle application. In fact, I was on cruise control much of the time to try and let the car sort it out. From what I can see it would seem that with the increase in load and above the "full" threshold charge, the most efficient use of the the stored electric power would be to do electric assist of the combustion engine, not further weigh down the combustion engine by trickle charging the batteries.

The electric assist is typically used while accelerating, especially up a hill. While cruising, there is very little load on the engine, thus, no need for "boost". You will find that on highway cruises, there is virtually no difference in mileage between an RX400h and RX330 or RX350. However, around town, the RX330/RX350's fuel mileage will plummet to 16 MPG or so. The RX400hs mileage around town is 28-30 MPG, almost double that of its non-hybrid siblings. We average about 25 MPG for combined city and highway. It is unlikely that any non-hybrid RX will achieve that kind of mileage under the same conditions.

Maybe you guys didn't see this part of my post:

Particularly in this trip, I'm going over large hilly freeways, which means several opportunities to recover some downhill energy to assist with the uphill.

Yep, normal. The hybrid battery is never supposed to be 100% charged.

Yeah, I understand that. But why isn't there electric assist during cruising, even at 70 mph?

Especially if the charge reaches the 80% level and really isn't going to charge more, then why not use the stored power to help with the cruise?

Particularly in this trip, I'm going over large hilly freeways, which means several opportunities to recover some downhill energy to assist with the uphill.

We are a 3 week old owner of a used 2006 rx400h (39k miles).

We just took our first 4 hr round trip drive with the car (freeway) and I feel like the car is in "engine recharging batteries" mode way too often.

We are on the freeways (speed limits 65 or 70) for the entire trip going about that speed. The battery indicators shows that it's 8/10 full and NEVER shows the top 2 bars charged EVER. I understand that the batteries are charged/drained only between 20%-80% levels or something like that for longevity. Fine. But during the whole trip, unless it was downhill, the engine was always charging the batteries.

This did not make sense to me since it would seem that the efficient use of the hybrid technology for this trip would be to use the batteries to do electric motor assist to the engine to drive the wheels... until the batteries drained to a certain level then let the downhill charge the batteries. Instead, it's using extra fuel to keep the batteries topped off! This seems stupid! And the indicator showed average mpg of 22-23mpg for the trip. For the SAME trip, when we used our previous car (2004 RX330) we would get 24mph!!! That means the hybrid did WORSE!

Does this seem right? Is there something wrong with our car?

Excellent writeup. However, why would you want to change the oil while the car is on the ramp? I guess you would want the car to be ground level so all of the oil get out.

You're right, preference is to not drain while on ramps. However, I can't reach it otherwise. Plus I don't think it's that bad because the plug points to the rear.

thanks for the diy!

Bump because I'm using my own DIY as a reference.

I stupidly left the key in on and forgot. Battery died. So the next morning I jumped the car and it was fine.

However, the SRS airbag indicator light is on, and the other light on the console says passenger airbag off. The braindead manual says "check with dealer" (no help there).

Anyone have this issue?

It seems strange to have to go to the dealer just because the battery died.

With a normal car (i.e., drive by cable, knock sensor, computer-less automatic transmission), the lower octane gas would result in the knock sensor retarding timing a little, which would lead to slightly lower power and torque, which could affect the automatic transmission shift points via the torque converter.

Whether/how/to what extent the RX's drive by wire computer, electronic ignition computer and transmission computer all "talk" to each other is beyond me, but in theory lower octane gas could change the shifting of the RX as well.

Personally I would rather use premium, get the re-flash and learn how to modulate the drive by wire system so that it shifts smoothy, but that's just me. If you want to save some money at the pump and the car shifts smoother (for whatever reason), go for it.

+1.

bciesq seems to be the only one who knows how different octanes are used.

It's my guess as well that the knock protection mechanism of retarding timing (etc) which reduces torque/power would have the side effect of "smoothing" the transmission. It's smooth because it's like babying the accelerator more than normal.

I got the reflash and the jolt, while reduced, is still there, is still annoying, and I can't stand it.

I couldn't stand the acceleration jolt on our 2004 RX330, so I had the dealer do the reflash. It helped... a little. But it's still there and ANNOYING, especially when I know it's wearing on the tranny.

So I was practicing left foot braking on the RX330 automatic, and I found that with left foot braking, you can trail brake into the turn and do a super smooth transition to gas... WITH NO JOLT.

So it looks like left foot braking is great for more than making Michael Shumacher fast.

bumpity because I'm using my own DIY.

Lexuses are assembled in asian where mogwai sometimes get into the dash. You apparently got one and he likes music.

My wife drives our 04 RX330 and she loves it.

She didn't even notice the hesitation problem until I pointed it out. I was the one who couldn't stand it and got the reflash done. Our only other problem was a stuck console cup holder door which they replaced for free under warranty. No big deal. We now have 25k miles.

The stock tires SUCK! We got a slow leak and the passive tire pressure monitoring system did NOT alert us that it got down to 19 psi. Even after patching, the tire was ruined and would slow leak. We had to get a new set. I went with Bridgestone Dueller Alenzas which have more grip, and stiffer sidewalls... MUCH happier. Better grip and body doesn't roll at much. Slightly more road noise though.

The FWD RX330 meets our needs well: comfy luxo family car, looks nice, has been Toyota reliable. Gets around 20-21 mpg 50/50 street/freeway driving. We've never driven in the snow.

Power is adequate to move it around and merge onto freeways and climb freeway hills. Not sluggish, but not strong either.

Oh... I carpooled in my friend's Nissan Murano (like an FX35) and it's a little smaller, but has a much better poise (less body roll, dive, etc). However, I trust Toyota a little more for reliaility than Nissan.

well the stock pads are definitely not ceramic. those are for suprer cars, or for cars with brembo brakes or something. Id stick with the semi metallic

Huh? Ceremic used to be only found in race applications, but that's not the case anymore. There are various types of ceramic applications.

Tirerack.com lists these pads as replacements for the RX:

Akebono ProACT Ceramic Pads (Material: Ceramic)

I have these pads on my other car and they are essentially OE equivalent pads: soft, smooth, comfortable, low dust, low noise pads. Clearly this is a different ceramic than the race applications.

To the original poster, you have to choose what application you want the pads for. If you want to maintain the OE soft, smooth, comfortable, low dust, low noise then the above pads are good replacements. I used metallic before and they bite much harder (more stopping) and noise (grinding sound), dust, and harshness to the rotors comes with it. The RX is a passenger luxury vehicle, so I'd stick to the OE equivalents.

BTW, if you do change pads, make sure ALL FOUR are equivalent. Don't switch just one set to metal and keep the other OE or whatever. This messes up the brake balance designed into the car and you will have poorer braking distance than before. I learned this the hard way with my other car which had drum rear brakes. I tried upgrading just the front disc pads and that threw off the balance. My rears were hardly doing any work and the fronts quickly activated the ABS. Although this felt like it was stopping harder because I didn't have to push the brake as far, my actually stopping distances were a little worse (I'm estimating) and worse: I got massive tire wear on the fronts.

what the heck, i dont know how you guys keep your brake pads past 10K miles. lol i have owned this rx330 for 2 years, and it has 42K miles on it. I have changed the brake pads at the lexus dealership at least 3 times.

Do you perhaps weigh > 300 lbs, carry 3 other passengers also > 300 lbs and have the trunk stuffed with bricks? Just kidding.

I'm surprised your brakes don't last very long. Do you commute down hill a lot?

Doesn't look like there will be according to Automobile mag:

http://www.automobilemag.com/auto_shows/20...03_lexus_is250/

"One thing that has been confirmed is that there will not be another Sportcross wagon version of the IS, but other iterations are definitely on the way. Likely candidates for IS body style #2 include a convertible hard-top coupe inspired by the LF-C show car that debuted at last year's New York auto show."

Cuz I want one.

EDIT... oops I mean sportcross

Have you read the whole thread? Do it. Here is the TSB. Just give it to your dealer.

YES! i brought this to him, all seven pages. And that is the reply i got, "make sure yo ureally want it cause people say it makes it worse" and some stuff about how the car will shift much faster. So i just wanted to get opinions from people who got it done.

I have yet to hear anyone on this board complain about the reflash. Everyone's responses ranges from "mild improvement" to "life is perfect now".

I cannot buy anything that doesn't not have 4 doors and a hatchback... I want an IS250 in SportCross... any news on if Lexus will release this?

I'm really surprised people are saying they don't feel the jolt anymore. I got the reflash and it's smoother, but there's still a jolt.

I finally got the reflash done (while taking the 04 rx330 in for the brake booster recall). I was warned that once I flash, there's no going back.

After the reflash, the hesitation is significantly reduced. If you step on it for 50% or more throttle out the turn, you'll still feel a jolt as it downshifts into a lower gear. However, in general it seems to engage quicker AND smoother.

I was never able to get any information on what the negative trade offs to this reflash would be

I would think that with the smoother shifting, it's better on the transmission. Although, I don't know if more clutch slip is involved.

Are you sure you really want drilled and slotted rotors?

It's not gonna doing anything for a daily driver, and cheapie ones can eventually crack. Plus, drilled and slotted don't go with an SUV crossover.

I recently purchased 18" Bridgestone Alenza H/L's for my 2004 RX330 w/45K miles. There cost was about 153 each + balance and tx. They handle far better and cost far less than the original Goodyear RSA's. The installer had a difficult tiime balancing so I had Lexus do a road force balance. They did a perfect job. The installer refunded me their balance charge. The Bridgestones ride and handle great as long as you don't try to over inflate. I use 30PSI on front and 31PSI on back. I would buy them again.

I also got Alenza's for my FWD RX330 after the Goodyears died from a puncture. (BTW, I read somewhere that OEM Goodyear RS-A's are crappier than the retail RS-A, but I can't confirm this)

The Dueller Allenzas are the same size for my 18" stock rims (california RX330) and have significantly more grip than the goodyears. The stiffer sidewalls reduced the body roll in turns and some of the braking dive. However, the expense was slightly more tire noise. Comfort is the same, however, more road irregularities are transmitted to the cockpit; you could feel more, but it didn't make it uncomfortable.

After break in, the Allenzas allow me to take turns at speeds that would make the Goodyear's howl. I don't drive the top heavy vehicle hard, but it's nice to know the extra grip is there for braking. I really like the stiffer sidewalls as the gooey Goodyear sidewalls made the RX feel like a boat.

Wet grip is good and I have yet to hydroplane in them, even during the huge rain storms we recently had here. I don't go to the snow.