chimchim

What's your preference? My wife likes it, I hate it. She eveluates things on aesthetics, I evaluate things on functionality. The wood trim looks nice, but leather is a much better grip. (BTW, where is the Add Poll option?)

Wow. I just read some more of this thread and it looks like not many people know much about this subject but have a lot of hearsay. - Higher than necessary octane will NOT harm you car. It merely makes your car's operation less likely to experience detonation. Sometimes additives are only added to the high octane "premium fuels" and that might be considered "bad" for your engine; depending on who you talk to. But this has nothing to do with the octane itself - "pinging" and "knocking" and "detonation" are all the same thing when talking about engins. The terms pinging and knocking came from the sound you engine makes when detonation is occuring inside the engine. - Note that combustion is different from detonation. In engine terms, combustion is the ignition of the fuel by spark plug, which is controlled by the ECU (in a fuel injected car). Detonation is when conditions (pressure, temperature) cause the fuel to spontaneously ignite. When this happens at the wrong time (before spark ignition) the piston is still travelling up to compress the fuel. The detonated fuel then works AGAINST the direction the crank is intended to go. This causes massive jarring in the engine (remember, the other cylinders and momentum are working to keep the crank moving in the right direction) and is what you'd hear as pinging/knocking. Is this a joke? Using higher than needed octane will NOT increase combustion temperatures. There is effectively the same about of energy per liter of fuel regardless of octance number. If your combustion temperatures are above normal, you're running lean. If you've got blue smoke coming out the pipe then you are burning oil somehow... which means your head gasket is probably leaking or your piston rings are shot.

Good point. And interesting feigned altruism.

10) With the panel off, you can now see the oil filter (orange) and a nice gift from the Lexus engineers: an oil catch (green). Loosen the filter, and residual oil will drip out. The oil catch will guide the dripping oil out the oilpan/drainplug panel so position your oil catch below the catch. 11) On the new filter, dab a layer of fresh oil on the O-ring (the rubber ring around the outer lip of the open end of the filter). Align the threads of the new filter and spin it by hand onto the engine where the old filter was. When it makes contact, tighten by hand another 3/4 turn. Don't over tighten. 12) Wipe up oil drips. For me, even though the catch was there, some oil still dripped all over the exhaust pipe and panels. Wipe this up. 13) Fill the engine with 5w-30 oil, 5 qts. A funnel is helpful here. 14) Replace oil cap. 15) Replace both plastic panels. 16) Shut hood and drive around the block. Park the car on level ground and wait 15 minutes. Check for leaks and oil level. I hope this is helpful to someone.

5) With the panel removed, the drain plug is revealed. Get a 14mm socket wrench and loosen the bolt. Position your oil catch container and remove the bolt. Lexus engineers did good.. they designed the bolt angle so the oil shoots down instead of to the side. Very nice. Remove the drain plug bolt AND its gasket. If the gasket is not on the bolt, it's probably still stuck to the oil pan. Remove the gasket and discard. 6) As the oil is draining, work on removing the panel to the oil filter (orange). Remove all the 10mm bolts (red arrows). 7) There are two plastic clips (green arrows) also holding this panel on. Using a flathead screwdriver, carefully pry up the center part of the clip just a little. This will loosen the clip and the whole clip can be pulled out. 8) Pull off the panel. The other panels will be overlapped over it, but they flex enough to allow you to remove it. This is what it looks like without the panel. 9) After the oil is done draining, put the new gasket on the bolt and replace the bolt. Tighten the bolt for a good seal but don't over tighten. I don't know the official torque yet. Wipe up the oily bolt. UPDATE: I got the Lexus service info... Torque the drain plug to 33ft-lbs (45Nm, 459 kgf-cm)

I made the DIY because I couldn't find one specifically for the RX330. Lexus also apparently think no RX330 owner would ever change their own oil because they don't tell you how to locate the oil dilter and drain plug in the owner's manual. I hope others find this useful. Please comment. I have a 2004 RX330 and after 23,000 miles, I've decided I'm going to do minor maintenance myself. You'll need: - 5qts of 5w-30 oil - oil filter (see info below) - drain plug gasket (see info below) - 10mm socket wrench - 14mm socket wrench - oil catch container - oil filter wrench (I used the nylon strap which seems pretty versitile) - either jack stands or ramps - funnel - rags to soak up dripping oil Part numbers: Lexus parts: 90430-12031 - Gasket Oil Drain Plug 90915-YZZD1-01 - Oil Filter - 6 Cylinder Toyota equivalent: 904-3012028 or 3012031 drain plug gasket $1.04 089-2202011 oil filter $4.99 1) Jack up the front of your car on stands or use ramps. The RX330 weighs 3850 lbs so make sure your ramps/stands can handle it. You might be able to get away without raising it if you slide on the floor, but it's tight. 2) Pop your hood and unscrew off the oil cap. I stuck a yellow funnel in mine. Notice the yellow dip stick on the left. 3) Lexus put some cosmetic plastic panels to make the "less car savy" believe the car is a magic transportation pod with no ugly mechanical internals. You'll need to remove two of them to access the filter and drain plug. The orange highlight is the panel that hides the filter, and the purple arrow shows where the panel that hides the drain plug is. 4) Get under the car to look for the drain plug panel (purple arrow in above picture). The panel will look like this. Remove all the 10mm bolts. ...

Also... I noticed that the drain plug gasket is a black hard rubber material. Now I see why they might be reusable. I'm used to soft metal crush washers which are 1 time use. What is it made of? Anyways, I went to Toyota and went with these parts: 904-3012028 drain plug gasket $1.04 089-2202011 oil filter $4.99 The ..28 is the same size as the ..31 gasket but just "different material".

BTW, what torque do I tighten the drain plug to?

Now I called the Lexus dealer and he gave me these part numbers: 904-3012031 drain plug gasket (slight difference: ends with 31 instead of 28) 089-2202011 oil filter "same part number for both, as long as it's a 6 cylinder" he said. Now I'm getting conflicting info.

I called the local Toyota dealer and the parts guy said that for "a V6 engine" (2004 rx330) he thinks the part is: 904-3012028 drain plug gasket $1.04 089-2202011 oil filter $4.99 I'm not sure if I can trust the info though.

Uhhh... Do you guys know why a particular octane rating is even necessary? (let's stick to the Octane Rating stated on the pump, not talk in Research Octane Numbers) - octane effectively reveals resistance to detonation (burning of the fuel before the spark plugs ignite it) - the engine's compression ratio (and environmental conditions) determine a detonation point, which means listen to your owner's manual as to which octane to use, as that's what it was designed for. - exception: in RARE cases, the owner's manual is out of date (happened to Subaru) and a different octane can be found to work as well or better - for a given engine with a specific compression ratio, as long as you are not detonating, you will get the same power no matter what octane you use - exception: modern car computers and sensing devices (like knock sensors) are able to detect knocking (detonation) before the driver can even feel it and will adjust the timing (usually !Removed!) to avoid this problem. This protects the engine, at the cost of performance efficiency... which means the driver will feel like his car is "sluggish". - sometimes the environmental conditions are such that you can use a lower octane gas without problems, but this is not a realable way to go as environmental conditions fluctuate too much. Bottom line, you best bet (usually) is to stick to the octane rating your owner's manual says to; no more, no less.

I need to change my oil, first time doing it on the RX330, but I've done it many times on my other cars. So I look on lexus-parts.com and find these parts: 90430-12031 - Gasket Oil Drain Plug 90915-YZZD1-01 - Oil Filter - 6 Cylinder Are these the correct ones for a 2004 Lexus RX330 4x2? Can I get these at Toyota also? (Toyota dealer is MUCH closer to me right now than Lexus dealer)

Which service/repair manual is used by Lexus for the RX330? Or is there another good one I can get to do various self maintenance/repairs? I read that there are "two books" that Lexus uses, but I don't know the title or anything. I'd prefer to avoid the subscription websites, and would prefer to buy either the real book or a softcopy of the manual.

I have a 04 RX330 with nav (or rather, my wife does)., so I have the backup camera. I was thinking about getting one of those X10 cameras or something equivalent. The nose of the 330 is so high it's hard to judge the FRONT too. Has anyone done this? I was thinking about the easiest is to splice the backup camera and add a switch, although to see the front, I'd have to momentarily switch into reverse. Is there a control for the screen that switches the video source?