anthonyiez

hey its america, you can go where you want.

i do know 2 shops near me that install customer supplied parts and both places combined do not have the equipment or information i do. they both constantly call and ask me for advice and want to know if they can use my $8k factory scan tool device.

point being, you get what you pay for in this world.

quick question...when was the last time anyone went into ruths chris steakhouse and asked them if they could bring their own steak?

at the end of the day i have a business to run and sorry to say, call me a capitalistic pig, but i like to make money.

yep

Shops that install customer supplied parts are generally deeply in the "lower tier" of repair shops.

Using customer supplied parts is simply not done by top independent repair shops.

That's just the way it is.

This is very true. Our shop don't install parts that customer bring in. It causes so many problems. What if the part fail in 1 month? Who will get the blame? The installer! There wouldn't be any warranty on the labor or parts. Good luck.

JP Importz

same here. no matter what you tell the person it all falls back on us. so why get involved and on top of that lose money as well. just not worth it.

just a warning...lexus no longer makes that coach wheel and they are very hard to find aftermarket or used. last one i needed for a customer took me over 2 months to find.

yep, totally legit. they are the largest auto auction company in the us. the place i buy ALL my vehicles from (personal and business) buy from there.

are you talking about just the chrome insert or the entire bumper cover? sometimes the bumpers can be repaired and that chrome insert is available separate for about $70.

never bought a cpo and never will. a waste of money imo. get someone who knows what their doing to check the car over real good. also i would search out a high end pre-owned car lot instead. the car is the car, where you buy it from doesn't make that much of a difference. also what's the difference what the cpo adds to resale if you save a few grand up front.

I must agree with you anthonyiez, taking the shotgun approach isn't the best approach. But I think bloodlust has already figured out what was wrong with the car. Who knows, maybe a DSO was used.

i have to disagree on the dso though. the concept of owning one is actually diagnose a car not to use it to load the shotgun :D

lol!!!

sorry don't mean to laugh but spark shooting up your arm isn't a diagnosis for if the coil or wire is good. try switching the coil with another cylinder and see if the miss moves with the cylinder.

i know how to properly check for spark. and i did that. i was just stating my very first observation... lol which was the jolt that went up my arm.

but anyways i changed out cylinder 1 injector and its running fine. thanks for all the help guys. ...1 tank of 87 octane = bad...

not what i ment. how can you tell if a ignition wire/boot is shorting to ground in the sprk plug tube while its not hooked up. just because spark is making it the end of the wire doesn't mean its making it to the spark plug. sorry i'm just a trained technician/owner who specializes in toyota/lexus and honda/acura trying to help out. just keep tossing parts eventually you can fix any problem.

ive changed the front 3 spark plugs. i didnt have time to do the back 3 because of work. there wasnt any change in performance when i changed the front 3 so im assuming that cylinder 1 is on the backside of the engine. i will update after i change the back 3.

sry for dbl post

but i changed the back 3 plugs... no change in performance. i removed the wire from cylinder 1 spark plug... no change at all. plugged that back in and removed plug from injector... no change at all. im definitely getting spark cause i felt it shoot up my arm when i pulled the wire off. so my next step is to change that injector.

lol!!!

sorry don't mean to laugh but spark shooting up your arm isn't a diagnosis for if the coil or wire is good. try switching the coil with another cylinder and see if the miss moves with the cylinder.

I recently replaced the mass air flow sensor in my wife's 2000 RX300-All Wheel Drive. Reason for replacement - I damaged the sensor while trying to clean the two sensing wires. The Toyota/Lexus part number for this sensor is 22204-07010. My local Lexus dealer wanted $195 for it. My local Toyota dealer wanted $158. However, I found a remanufactured Toyota 22204-07010 at Autozone for $79.99 plus tax after giving them the core (core charge was 65.00). Note: this is the same sensor used in the 2001-2003 Toyota Highlander with V6 engine.

To Install...I disconnected the battery to cancel any codes that were set (check engine light was on), reconnected the battery, put the part in place, tightened the two screws and reconnected the wiring harness to the part.

Her car is, again, purring like a kitten. :) Location - Long Beach, CA

just to clarify, the one you bought from toyota wasn't a "toyota reman", it was remaned by someone else. toyota doesn't reman these. it started life out as a toyota part, then it went bad and was bought and remaned by a company called A1 Cardone.

the bbb is a waste of time...period, end of story.

There are also many companies that do wheel exchanges which will swap your rims for a completely refinished chrome set for pretty cheap.

the company i deal with, stopped exchanging chrome wheels.

$100 per wheel??? did that include high performance vasoline as well???

yep, normal, nothing to worry about.

i'm with SK here. once all the chrome is removed from the bead and a good bead sealer lathered on, they should be fine. i've never had a problem with old chrome wheels after cleaning the chrome off and sealing them properly.

as a side note...i belong to technician and/or owner only forum and the general mantra is that bosch platinum plugs aren't even good enough for a lawnmower. sums up my opinion as well.

for what its worth i've had mixed results with both brands

scott,

i understand all that...so again tell me why i can balance tires better than the local place with this machine??? i'll answer that for you...its as much the person as it is the machine that makes the difference.

i know one thing that bmw figures in and that's all the free brake repair. guess owners got tired of $800 brake tickets one year into ownership.

i always thought that said a lot about a lexus. they don't have to include any freebies like a lot of euros do to sell their cars.

use high temp copper anti-seize. 3m makes the best imo.

are you saying in GA that there isn't sales tax on used cars???

wow that's cool. in PA you pay sales tax on every vehicle purchase all the way down to the last part sold from the salvage yard.

I love how people jump to conclusions that the dealer is ripping them off, based on the word of a "trusted" mechanic. It doesn't take much effort to use the resources at a hand such as this forum or better yet call the the dealer and get the price from them. I've been in the business over ten years, and I do have people calling all the time to check on parts price, but then again I'm in the northeast and we're not too trusting up here.

The problem is that people assume the mechanic thay take their car to is knowledgeable. Trust me, the majority are not. If you do find a good one, grab hold for dear life, because they are worth their weight in gold, because they are a rare commodity.

If only people could hear some of the conversations we have, its like a comedy sometimes. Here's an example, last week we had a shop call for an "intake exhaust"!!! Sometimes the mechanics ask for the wrong part or don't even know what to ask for.

Best advice is use your resources. We live in the Information Age.

the funny thing is i have the exact oppisite problem with a lot of dealerships i buy parts from. i do the research, then order the part and hold my breathe that i get the right one. for example, i ordered to vvt-i control valves for a 99 es last month and they sent the wrong ones, even after i even gave them the part numbers i wanted. and just try ordering an air fuel ratio sensor. even when ordering parts from my local warehouse i still look all the part numbers up myself. guess i'm just different. :whistles:

Just last night on my way home I stopped in to a Just Tires store by the house. I need to get my car aligned, rotated and balanced. I pulled in, asked them if they use the Hunter system for balancing, they said yes. I asked them how much would it cost for an alignment and balancing and rotation. His response was "what kind of car do you have?" I told him a Toyota, and he said it would be $59 for the alignment, $40 for the balancing and rotation. I then told him it was the LS400, and he said "oh, you mean a Lexus...hold a second..." and magically, the price jumped up an additional $10 dollars per service....AND I checked with Hunter...no system in that store...AND I even called the store this morning to ask a different employee what they use to balance tires, and he said some old fashion thingy they had, road master or something.

It's these kinds of experiences that make one tend to use a pestomistic approach to automobile repairs.

yes the price can be different. toyota doesn't have a rwd car of that magnitude here in the states. the alignment procedure is going to be slightly different. some cars just can't be aligned properly in the time a $59.95 alignment allows.

and again, why is everyone so in love with this hunter system. i have a high end accuturn balancer that gets them perfect on the first try. a local car dealership near me has the hunter "roadforce" balancer and i have redid a few cars for people who bought tires there.

i have an factory installed oem spoiler and i think the gs looks naked w/o it.

thing is sometimes the balljoints need to be removed to be checked. for this reason i would highly rec changing them if they are original. believe me, you do not want one to break at highway speed.