blake918

It's for the Lexus car phone system. What you're seeing is the coax cable to plug the built in antenna in to the car phone transciever.

Your rpms are in line with what I see in my car (I think 80mph might be a few more rpms than that. Maybe it's 2600, but I can't remember exactly.). I wouldn't worry about the tranny fluid either. It's a shame they told you they had to remove the tranny though. Does it make life easier? Sure. But, you don't have to do it. My local Lexus dealer didn't even try to pull that gimmick on me, and had I not fixed the egr pipe myself, I would have paid them their fair price of $450 (includes parts and labor) to have the pipe replaced.

I just checked my trunk lid, and I did not see a VIN tag on it. I don't know if it fell off, if there isn't one in the first place, or if it's hidden behind the trim; my trunk has never been replaced. The last time I took the lining of the trunk out, I vaugely remember seeing vin tags on the fenders. I'm not 100% on that though.

How old are your plugs/wires? air filter?

Can't beat a good ole Ford!!! Welcome home! I can't imagine how nice it is to be back. We all thank you for your great service to our country. ;) Have fun and enjoy your time off!

Cool, I can't wait to see what they bring us. After having a great experience with a late model Sonata rental, I'm sure this lux model will be even more impressive! I'm sure the car is going to be great, but I wonder about the styling. Hopefully, it doesn't look like the Azera!!

LOC is my favorite, but I do lurk at CL--just watch where you roll your mouse so that you don't have advertisements popping up all over the place! hehe

Mark, it's not diffiult at all. You are basically just removing the timing belt cover, setting a couple rubber hoses to the side, moving the spark plug wires aside, and you have very easy access to the bolts that hold the valve cover on.

My '95 does the same thing. However, living in Louisiana makes it easy to run the a/c 11.5 months out of the year, so this hasn't been too important to me. LOL I have a feeling that you are going to come up empty handed just like I did, unless the answer is numerous seafoam treatments. I'm wondering if it's something with the iacv, which I have not fooled with (it seems to be functioning fine though because my rpms jump up to 600-700 when the ac comes on.)? Removing the throttle body and cleaning it by hand did nothing for me, as did the seafoam, retuning the tps, spark plugs, etc. Good Luck and keep us posted!Sharad, I (or maybe someone closer to the border?) would be glad to go and pickup a case of seafoam and ship it to if you find yourself in desperate need of it. ;)

Blake is my name, and 918 is the reverse of my real birthday, 8-19.

Josh, Meghan congrats! Are yall going to be in NY or Fort Worth during your R&R? Both? Slidell? LOL

Congrats! B) The ES350 is no competition for a LS430; you made the right choice!

RX, the undercover on my LS came unbolted and a large portion of it was filed down on the interstate--requiring me to throw it away. Getting rid of that cover has made changing the oil in this car 10x easier now that I don't have to remove the cover to get to the filter. None of my electricals died, the car isn't noisier, the underside isn't any dirtier, my temp gauge has stayed the same, and my mpg hasn't dropped. The undercover on my car has been gone for 10k miles with no problems. Ditch the cover; you won't regret it!

It did very well in the crash test: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/NCAP/Cars/4024.html

I think something like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Lexus-LS400...1QQcmdZViewItem will probably be your best option for like new seats. Or, look at some junkyards; I'm sure you could find some seats and console lid for a few hundred dollars.

That's a good question, and I don't know the answer. I live in a parish where we don't do emission testing, so it made no difference to me. My pipe was completely severed in two pieces, so making this contraption ....was quite easy. Saw off the bellows part, and bend and clamp the remaining tube shut--starting with your hammer and finishing up with a vise (and it will hold a vacuum). This literally took less than 30 minutes and $0, so I'd give it a try, and if it fails the emission test, just go ahead and replace the entire tube.

I capped off my EGR pipe instead of replacing it. It took 30 minutes, and the difference in the noise level is simply astounding. She's so quiet. It was by far the best 30 minutes we've spent working on the car. Some shops will tell you that you need to pull your tranny for this, but you really don't....several people have done it with it in place. Would it make things easier? Sure, but if it's optional, and you're paying someone $90/hour, the tranny can stay right where it is! LOL A shop (Davenport) in Dallas quoted me ~$350 for the egr pipe replacement which is pretty reasonable.

I never have. I haven't even seen one up close. I've only gotten a glimpse of two of them in person, and they were going opposite of me on the interstate. What's funny is that you dislike the E class's comfort, and I think it's excellent! LOL I'm sure it will be great. The smaller E class (w211) is tops in comfort (and in looks and ride.) to me, so its big brother should only be better! Made it back to Lake Charles in 2 hours from NO?? I guess you just kept it over 100 the whole way! LOL

That shouldn't be happening. Take it back to the dealer and let them take a look at it. Maybe check and make sure the ball joint is tight if you want to try something yourself before taking it in. When I changed my lbj's, the clowns that did the alignment didn't tighten a ball joint back when they finished, and it was making some strange sounds until we figured out what was going on and fixed it.

It's a good article! They even got the chassis names right unlike some "other" forum that would call a '93 LS (US spec) a UCF11. LOL

The car wouldn't have to necessarily be boxy. It has a lot to do with how and where the seat is mounted in the car. Look at how the seat in the ES350 is mounted. The way the seat is mounted robs the car of headroom because it is mounted on a hill on the front end and jacked up on the back side. If they would mount the directly to the floor and further back, it could be a very comfortable car.

Yeah, the LS400s are pretty small on the driver's space. The LS430 has better headroom because its a much taller car than the 400, but the legroom still isn't that great. At least my LS400 has served me wonderfully from a reliability standpoint (I've put 65,000 miles on the car in 3 years with no real problems to speak of.), but next time, I will certainly pay more attention to the driver's seat adjustments, even if that means driving something less "appealing" than a Lexus like a Buick Lucerne (I'm 6'4, and that has to be one of the most comfortable sub$25k cars I've looked at.) or Town Car. Is your new RX any more comfortable than the one it replaced?I find that the domestic trucks (I'd never consider Nissan or Toyota for a truck.) really have excellent headroom, but the legroom is not so great. Of all the new trucks out there, I would have to agree that the Ram HDs are probbaly the most spacious which is unfortunate because I love Fords! :D Blake We are not asking them to reinvent the wheel here. Making a seat track that is 6" longer than the one that is already in the car is not rocket science. Extending the seat tracks would have absolutely no effect on the exterior of the car.You are right about one thing, the numbers are not in RX's or my favor (which is why I suggested making the longer tracks an option or accessory.), so I guess our vehicle options will continue to be limited unless you want to do serious modifications to the vehicle which I'm not crazy about doing.

I find it shocking too. Steel is cheap. It would not cost them that much to extend the seat rails 5" or 6" like they are in MBs, BMWs, VWs, etc. It would be a good investment for Lexus because it would steal the tall drivers away from the German and American car makers. Or if they are that cheap, make it a factory option or an accessory from the dealer. Oh well. Maybe one day they will learn. Ralph, we need to have another powwow so you can show this car to me!! :D Does that S class have distronic plus? I think that's one of the best festures of the car!

Gumart1 had 235k miles on his '98 when we met in August '06. His '98 drives just beautifully as it looks...I can't use that saying for my car since it got a little dirty on the drive up to Chicago. LOL

Congrats! Those TCs are great! B) What options does your car have? Nav/hids/etc.? Well said. They added a tach in '06. ;) If he had bought a '96-'01, I'd agree with you (Ford would foot the bill though.), but I haven't heard of any major problems with the '03+ models.