blake918

I think this idea of a converter is a good one, but I'd just bite the bullet and get a car phone from your cell phone's manufacture. Before I installed mine, I thought that it was some big, arduous task, but that's hardly the case. They can be put in well under 2 hours. Jim, do you know if dogboy ever made any of these converters?

I also agree with the MX'S I have them on my ES and they wear like iron and the ride is smooth. ← What they said! B) Steve J really nailed it when he said how economical they are in the long run. Mine require hardly any maintinance (balancing, rotating, aligning); one balance/rotate in about 50k miles. The lure of a low priced tire is surely tempting, but I've seen tires nickle and dime well past the cost of a quality tire. I pay $40 per rotation and balance (at an independant tire shop, Sears or WalMart is off limits! lol), so even a set of $350 tires can met or exceede the cost of the Michelins after it's all set and done.

I'm a little late, but Happy Birthday David and SK!

I don't think it's a sunroof drain tube since they are on the front side of the sunroof housing; they drain under the car in between the front door and front fender (I would guess they come down the a pillar). A good 80% of all the trim in our '95s is snapped in (how all of this doesn't rattle, I'll never know!) including the area by the seat belt, so it would be real easy to snap it off and take a look for the wires that you think that might be causing the trouble. ;) $hit does happen, but interior stuff is 200x easier to repair than mechanical things on these cars! :D That's a nice old barge you have '90!

My last set of OEM wipers lasted me well over a year! When they wore out, I wanted to try something different (for no apparnet reason), so I went with Michelin wipers. They were easy to get in, and I don't have any fitment issues. I'd recommend them, but I don't know about their longevity since I've had them for about a month.

To take the rear emblems off the trunk, you can try dental floss which works most of the time, but I fiound out that a very, very heavily taped butter knife works 100x better than the floss. Depending on what brand of tint you go with, it can cost anywhere from $150-$800. $200ish seems to be the norm. When I had my windows tinted, they had a new E500 in getting an $800 tint job. I guess it was some really, really special tint.

I think I'm going to have to retract my vote on the Suburban since the transmission in our '99 just died again @ 107k miles. On Friday, the truck is getting flatbedded back to Sewell to have them take a look. It's doing the same thing it did the last time it broke, gears make a bad grinding noise and it only drives in first and second gears. Two transmissions consumed in just over 100k miles, that's sad.

Congrats Marty! Post pics when you can (I know she's not comming until tom. night)!

I wanted to believe in the Falkens from all of the hype I've read on the internet, but I just can't from what I've seen. At the last Lexus meet I saw two sets of the Falken tires on two different SCs, and the owners were shoppng for new tires since they needed to be replaced with under 30k on the tires. There's no doubt that they are sharp looking with the directional treads, but their dismal real world tread wear is quite disappointing which is why I'll stay with my Michelins. Sure they're expensive, but they are so worth it. We just put a set on the ES, and it's like a completely different car. The proof is in the pudding for me, and the particular bowl of pudding I'm talking about has over 50k miles with half tread all the way across. I'll never buy another make/model of tire. B) Steve, what kind of traction issues are you having with the tires on your ES?

Thanks, I'll give those a try! I didn't know if I should try a polisher...I didn't know if it would be bad for the pads and/or paint.

I see what you mean about the Hyundai looking tail lights in the rear end, but in person, there is no mistaking the two, the Quattroporte has a really great presence. I've only seen one, but it's made quite an impression! Take a look at their website, they are customizeable in nearly every way...you pick the interior colors for the seats, headliner, steering wheel, carpet, seat piping, trim, and steering wheel wood finish, not to mention all of the packages/options available! Outside, you pick the paint color, caliper color, and rims. Take a look at the Quattroporte website to see all of the pictures and options. I think its luxury is on par with the competition, but the Quattroporte has one over the competiton, everyone and their brother isn't driving them! lol B)

Of course a Lexus is better than a Ford, but a Ford is cheaper to maintain, cheaper to insure, and doesn't have an insatiable thirst for premium fuel; not to mention the lower entry fee. "Not at all" and "yes," which one is it??

I wanted to PC the dull, oxidized paint behind all of the emblems on my trunk, so I pulled the emblems off. None of the old glue would come off though. Any suggestions? I have no idea where to even start! This is what I'm dealing with....

No need to be nervous, you'll do just fine! It may be a little nerve racking now, but it's got to be pretty damn exciting at the same time! Have fun, stay safe, and dress warm! lol Oh please... How on earth is bad credit a good thing? ← It's just a figure of speech. I think he's just conveying that Josh should use his good credit wisely, and if he doesn't, he'd wish he had bad credit in the first place so that he didn't succome to the temptation of the MC in his wallet! lol Wow, well said! ;)

Congrats Josh!! I bet it's great to be back in a Ford...it seems to be the only make that works out for you!

My fuel filter has over 200k on it. I wanted to have it changed as maintinance, but my local dealer refused the service...quite an abnormality. They told me it is a lifetime filter. My car runs perfect, so I figured I'd wait until it needs it to have them change it.

The Quattroporte is a beautiful car; it'd be a tough choice between that and the S class. Depending on how big the interior is I'd probably go with the Masarati just because there aren't 2-3 of them on every street.

The needle is what I was talking about!! ;)

When you say it had an oily feel, that would make me think ps fluid. I would have sworn you said that you said you were leaking ps fluid in a previous post. How's the water temp gauge? Take this with a grain of salt, but a Lexus salesman once told me that dealers don't really stamp the records (I guess a sticker could fall in to this category) anymore since a car's service history can be pulled at any dealership.

RC, love doesn't even begin to describe my feelings towards the MXV4+ tires that are on my LS! This is just my $.02, but I firmly believe that every car "wears" tires differently from each other. The LS is just meant for these tires. I've got about 50k miles on these tires, and they perform like new ones. Most impressive is that I've balanced them once in 40k miles, and they still have half tread left at 50k miles (I live on the interstate though! lol). They're smooth, quiet, and I've never had a problem with them in the rain. I can't recommend them highly enough for the LS series! When these are bald in 40k-50k, I'll buy the exact same tires again if they are still in production!

I only balance and rotate as needed, and since I'm running on quality tires (Michie MXV4+), "as needed" for me has been 1 balance/rotate in almost 70,000 KMs. I've never had an alignment done either. I've never had a balance, alignment, or wear problem, so I don't even bother with that stuff! It's good to see you back on here Craig! ;)

I don't think the back seat is that hard to take out. Maybe mine is more worn or something because I can pop the bottom cushion out with my hands!

She looks great!! B) You've got a lot of catching up to do...something like 156,000 miles to add to your 107,000, and we'll be even! lol

It's great to read another owner's $.02 on their Suburbans! It sounds like 94 & 96, and 99s have a different sets of problems. We've never had problems with our a/c system, and we had the rotors resurfaced once, and they've been fine. I find the pedal is pretty spongy though. No engine problems to report either. The guys at the dealership shared some info on why the transmission might of died. They told us that the Suburban got a new brand manager in 97 or 98. In light of his new position, he was trying to up profits by cutting cornerns. One area was the transmission where they downgraded some bearing (I don't know the technical term) which is what fails in them and kills the tranny. My mother's couisn has a '98 whose transmission died early on, but their Suburban reaked of a certain citrus fruit! Whatever it is that they treat the carpet with is excellent! I can't the number of times we spilled things in there, but they all came right out eventhough they sat in there for a weeks and months. lol

With a fully occupied cabin and packed trunk (family trips for ex.), my LS will squat down very far, but it has never bottomed out or rubbed, and I'm still on my original struts and springs. I agree with the others....it's just gravity!