ghong001

In other words..... Use the belt dressing to determine if the problem is your belts. If the noise goes away once you use the belt dressing then the problem is in your belts. Change them and be done with it.

BTW to answer you question, the belt dressing and silicone spray will do the same thing which is to soften up the belt as the noise usually comes from a belt that has dried out and gotten hard and non-pliable. Belt dressing is better as silicone can make the belt slip as it has lubricating properties.

Use fan belt dressing not silicone spray. I had the same problem with you and it turned out to be the belts. Mine sounded really bad and I initially thought it was the alt bearing also. Do a search on belts on the forum and you will see that it is a very common problem. George

Yes, loosen the one bolt you see and once it is off, rotate the caliper clockwise to get to the pads. Make sure you support the caliper with some wire to prevent it from sliding back down/falling.

Thanks for the info on the prices........

How much did you end up paying for them, out the door? I know I'll need a set soon. TIA

DouglasMiami, On my 00' RX300 I have 2 belts, one for the alt/AC and the other for the power steering. If you do a search on this forum you will find a write-up I did on changing the alt/AC belt and discussing the power steering belt.

1. True, on all the other vehicles I have owned the fronts have worn out first before the rears. Don't know why on this vehicle the rears wore out before the fronts. The caliper piston wasn't frozen and retracted smoothly back into place and both sides on the rear were worn to the same level so it seems the calipers are OK. There is another post on this forum with another owner mentioning their rears going before the fronts, so I know it's not just my vehicle. 2. As far a compressing the piston, by using the large c-clamp and putting the stationary end on the caliper housing and the rotating end on the brake pad side and then applying pressure, you can easily compress the piston back in while the caliper is still mounted. 3. Yes, you don't have to completely remove the caliper to change the pads, you can just pivot once you have the mounting bolt off. 4. Lastly, the reason I suggest compressing the caliper piston while still mounted is that when I didn't, once the new pads were mounted the caliper would not slide over the rotor. It seemed as if the new pads were too thick. I pinpointed the problem to the little metal bushing that the caliper mounting bolt bolts through. It appears that that metal bushing is designed to slide in and out ever so slightly and when I compressed the piston with the caliper off the vehicle it didn't push that bushing back. It was only by compressing the caliper piston while mounted that the bushing slid back, and allowed the new pads and caliper to mount properly. I've done dozens of brake jobs and this is the first time I ran across this and found it puzzling. I use to work at an auto parts store and remember that once in a while customers would come back, after purchasing brakes, and complain that the pads were too thick to mount and we had sold them the wrong ones. We use to think they were crazy, but now I think maybe it was because of the above mentioned issue. The rear pads were pretty well worn so that may have something to do with that metal bushing moving. Hopefully this will help anyone who runs into the same issue.

I used a Big A$$'d C clamp with no problem.

Just changed the rear pads on my 00' RX300 AWD @48k miles. Fronts had plenty of meat on them and looks like they will last another 20k miles. Replaced the OEM's with Repco ceramic pads and they seem to be working well for now. If anyone attempts in the future, just make sure you compress the caliper piston with the caliper still mounted on the car first before you unbolt and dismount the caliper. HTH

Thanks for the tip Colin, I'll give it a try once the weather gets a bit warmer. It too cold in NY right now.

I have exactly the same problem on my 2000 RX300. All the rear lights including all the brake lights are functioning but the indicator light stays on. Please let me know if changing the bulbs, even though they still work, does the trick. Thanks

I changed the alternator belt on my RX300 not too long ago. 1. There is one bolt on the top that is easily visible. 2. Next there is the adjuster screw that is almost on the opposite side (towards the radiator) of the first bolt. 3. Just below the adjuster bolt is another mounting bolt. I would just slightly loosen bolt # 1 and #3 (above) and the start to loosen the adjusting bolt(#2). As you do so you will see the tension release on the alt belt. The sockets used were between 12mm to 16mm. I did need to use some stubby ratchets as there was no room in certain areas to get the full size ratchets towards the lower part of the alternator. I tried to change the power steering belt myself by taking off the right front wheel. Upon doing so there was one bolt readily accessible in a slotted groove. After I loosened that bolt the pump would still not move. Upon further examination I saw other bolts that had to been loosened, but there was no room to get to them. If it's only the alternator belt that you want to change it's not that difficult. If you want to change both belts, unless someone can post the procedure, it might be worth it to take it to a shop as you need to take the alt belt off to get to the power steering belt. At the shop hopefully someone can observe the mechanic and see how the steering belt comes off and post the procedure. On a side note, the reason I changed the alternator belt was that it started to make a high pitched whining noise which later changed to a rather loud grinding noise. It almost sounded as if the bearing on the alternator was bad and I thought that the alternator needed to be changed. Fortunately the belt solved the problem and she's back to normal. HTH GH

Thanks for the details! How did your gas filter look at 66K? and how often do you suggest replacing?

Russ, How hard/easy was it to change to gas filter? Could you give an idea of the procedure involved and the price for the gas filter? Thanks