tmastres

Yeah , I can picture you now, driving around in your pick-up truck, immeasurably raising the image of pick-up truck drivers everywhere. Thanks for the laugh, you made my day

Doh! :chairshot: First model year refers to a new "Line" of vehicles. In 99 the Rx was the first of the RX line. the 330 is simply an evolution of that line. Lexus had all the problems and foibles of earlier models to draw upon and ostensibly fix or change when they made the 330 , 350. The Edge is as the 99 RX was the first in a brand new line of vehicles, thats the point and the problem.

Tires from the dealer? Thats a bit curious. I'd say in the future simply get your tires at an independent tire shop, there should be numerous ones in the phone book. Depending on the size and type of tire I'd be surprised if you couldnt get a ful set of tires installed for $500-600, maybe less. As for the service, unless you really like the peace of mind or ease of going to Lexus, simply find an independent shop or use a Toyota dealer if theres one arounnd (and if they'll do the work). either way you'll pay less.

Well first if it may somehow be sludge related you may have some recourse and a quick search here will reveal what you can do. IF, you really are going to part it out, let us know the year and I may be interested in a few small things. Whats the model Year??

Great point, I think whats changed is the entire concept of cars for men and cars for women. (of course its a pretty old and in-grained concept so it hangs on in the nooks and crannies). Funny thing, years ago I thought the same thing about Miatas, and I do see a lot of women driving them (my wife has one) but as we lined up for a weekend Miata run with her Miata club, 11 or the 13 other drivers were men. Go figure.

Great choice ( I really like the new IS) It also happens to be the number 10 most popular luxury car with Women. Enjoy :D http://www.forbesautos.com/slideshows/advi...?thisSpeed=6000

IMHO you should immediately forget about the Ford because this is the first year of production. In my experience you should NEVER buy a car in the first or second year of its production life (and yes for the wise-asses on the list I DO have a 00RX) :D . Just look at the troubles with th 99/00 RX vs the 01-03's, night and day. If the Hyundai is also a first or second year model forget about it as well. With these cars its a crapshoot, neither brand has the reliability heritage to make buying one even a calculated risk without at least a little history. If you really like those vehicles I'd say wait until you can go to forums like this and see what the owners are saying about them.

Len, the trans problems were primarily with the 99 and 00 models and while there may be a some I really don't recall any 01 trans failures reported on this board. If you do a little research on the trans failures you'll see the number bear that out. I also dont recall anyone reporting the type of noise you mention when they did have a trans failure. In fact I remember most people not getting much warning at all. Again this has all been chronicled faily extensively in the archives. Also, at 95 k you may still be able to get lexus to pick up part of the tab, if it actually is the trans under a "goodwill" warranty that is detailed in many other posts. I'd get a second opinion on the repair if I were you , sounds like someones jacking you around.

Alright, I give! I can see I'm not going to get anywhere with this one. Here are some more fun (maybe)facts: Despite an overall decline in pickup truck market share, two of the top five most popular new vehicles among American women in 2001 were pickup trucks (RL Polk, 2002) Most popular SUV's among women: Ford Explorer followed closely by Jeep Grand Cherokee According to Ford Motor Co., women have influential buying power. Females influence 80% of ALL purchases and have 95% veto power regarding automotive purchases. ( maybe I can blame it on the wife ) (Automotive Service Council)

Wow, must have hit a nerve there. Being an SUV is in no way predicated on frame or body style and as I mentioned, at least around here there are WAY more "chicks" carting the kiddies and groceries around in Tahoes and Suburbans. Frankly the RX can barely haul 2 kids with all their soccer sheit so its next to useless as a family hauler. Besides have you ever seen what kids do the the backseat of a car, sheesh! Yep, you're right no man would ever want a smooth quiet ride, and that leather, awful, give me burlap anyday etc. etc.. :D

Well this topic has come up before and I can see some of the "usual suspects" have already chimed in so I'll (in my own usual suspect way) add the contrarian view. The RX is an SUV and MOST SUVs are driven by women and marketed at a "Family" audience. So that means a Suburban is a "chick" car too. Personally, I'm more than comfortable enough with my man-hood to drive an RX 300 because at 41 I'm only concerned with comfort and quietness in my everyday ride. (I'm lucky enough to have a 68 RS/SS in the garage if I feel I need a little more excitement). I'd say this is primarly a geographic thing , in more urban areas I see many more men driving RX's, its almost 50/50 here where I live, but if head out into suburbia and beyond you see more women than men driving RX's (and more men in jacked up pick-ups too). The one thing that IS pretty much correct is the age of RX 330/350 drivers, they are generally "over 40" and as Rx330driver mentioned a lot of it has to do with what you can afford at an earlier age. Funny thing is I see even more "oldsters" and "chicks" driving ES 300/330's so I guess thats a "chick" car too I've noticed quite a number of younger men driving RX 300's all over Southern Cal. lately, probably because the 300's are now readily available used at fairly reasonable prices. This may not be the case in North Carolina or Ohio, for whatever reason. Funny thing is I see even more "oldsters" and "chicks" driving ES 300/330's so I guess thats a "chick" car too. Bottom line is , do you drive a car for what you want out of the drive, or do you drive a car to itry and impress other people. PS older folks and women are generally a lot less concerned about how cool they look in their ride, maybe that explains it.

Hope you get an answer because I have this problem (high initial rpm) all of the time. So far no one has been able to help me. I have concluded my problem lies with the ECU. However, based on your experience, perhaps my IACV is the problem. I had ruled that put because idle does ramp down to normal as engine warms up and idle control is fine at normal engine operating temp. Just curious, did you experience a change in the idle form when you got the RX? I only ask because RX's generally start off (cold) with a higher than normal idle RPM. I assume this is to get the oil, trans-fluid etc up to temp faster, but its quite common for many vehicles to do this.

Did this today, not "much" trouble, just that my hands and arms seem just a size too big for just about any work on this rig! . I wanted to say Thanks-a-Bunch to Golden State SS for the excellent instructions and to Geoff1 as well for the short-cut idea. I was all ready to do the whole TB removal, (day-off, all the tools. solvents etc..) Then I saw the short-cut idea and thought Hmm.. about an hour or 3-4 hrs. OK I went for the quick-fix and Presto! All fixed, at least for now. Easy fix (except for the screws) Funny thing is I un-did the right screw first and it came out with pretty modest pressure, I thought "hey, this is gonna be a breeze". Well I finally got the vise-grips to clamp on the other screw and got it out after tearing the hell out of it for 10 min, really soft metal, I was as careful as possible, but I can be a bit ham-handed so I only blame myself. Anyhow I'd recommend a pair of needle nose vise-grips to anyone else doing this. Otherwise the instructions are Prefect! Thanks again!

I know that Lexus is better quality wise, but it is kinda boring to drive, compared to BMW. I drove couple of miles in X3 and was sold I don't know if it was stupid to thing to do, to prefer BMW over Lexus - time will tell No not stupid at all. If thats the car you liked then thats fine. They're totally different the RX3oo and the X3. The RX series is probably one of the least "sporty" mid-size SUV out there (drive wise). Thats not its target. Its target is comfort and quiteness. People who prefer a tighter , more responsive drive generally don't liek the RX300 and vice-versa, its all just about what you want.

Well I'd say not getting taken is key to the process of retiring early AND having having lots of money but really, I understand your point. Ive found great local mech. mostly because he's more convenient than the Lex dealer (see prior post) and because he's cheaper for the exact same work. Speaking to your point again though, I've noticed that many of the people on this forum are pretty middle-class, maybe bought their Lexus used and don't have tons of money to throw away. After all, if you had tons of money you probably wouldnt care how much the Lex dealer charges (which is probably why they figure they can charge so much)

I like the styling, it's unorthodox, but aggressive. My wife dislikes the ride - too harsh for her, but i love it and that motor sound...... The X3 will provide much greater AWD capability and safety for all that ice and snow you're encountering than would any RX. If thats (awd) a primary concern you'd be better of forgetting both the Lexus AND the BMW as NEITHER is particularly good in that realm. Audi makes the best AWD systems for ice and snow hands down. If you need that capabiliy thats where you should be looking.

I supose you're including yourself in that group since I don't see a "real" answer from you. Nonethless you are correct to a certain extent. I surmise there are several possible reasons for the lack of response tio this issue 1.) Nobody has found it necessary to do this kind of repair on their RX, the vehicle as a series isnt that old. 2.) People who own these types of cars arent inclined, don't have the time/equipment or simply can afford to not "do the dirtywork" themselves. or 3.) Posts from Noob's don't get a lot of response just because thats the internet forum culture. I try to be as responsive as possible to anyone I can help. But I know from being on a lot of forums that you have to "earn" your way up to serious querries. Not saying I like it mind you, its just been my experience.

Well, I'll tell you. Some Toyota Dealers (like the one 5 min from my house) wont service Lexus vehicles. They claim that they can't warranty the parts (as if we don't know they're all Toyota parts) Funny thing though, when I went to the Toy dealership to get a replacement antenna shaft/cable I found that even though the Lex/Toy parts look identical (and probably are) many have different part numbers so you cant cross reference a Toyota part to a Lexus part. (Fr%^&%*'n b@stards) :) . They're really shooting themselves in the foot though, because the nearest Lex deler is 30 miles away and theres no way I'd go that far for service. I found a great Independent Mech to do the work I can't or don't want to do on my RX so TMC see's none of my service cash, oh well!

Is it my imagination of is there actually 5 current threads regarding (ostensibly) starter problems in 99RX's? I've been on this board for a while and I don't remember many starter problems and then all these, all at once Hmmm.....

Thanks for the detailed instructions TJMC (in all three threads), I've put them in my file in case I end up with a dead starter. Perhaps those three thread are a good candidate cor combining, any Mods out there?

IMHO thats a smart move. I personally own a 00 but I don't recall many (if any) recurring problems, major or minor with the 01-03 RX's being reported on this board. I believe both the sludging issue and the premature trans failure issues were resolved in the 01 model year. I'd certainly encourage you to search and read through the forum archives here, theres a lot of great and detailed info in there. Posts like yours are quite common so its unlikely you'll get a lot of really detailed answers from this post, but the archive has a ton of info on the differences between the 99-00's and the 01-03s.

Hey there, well there have been several posts just like this one inthe past few months and theres some very detailed info in them. If I were you I'd simply skip to the 01 model by then the majority of the common RX maladies had gone away. If you find an dabsolutely exceptional deal on a 00 then maybe but the 01's should be available at a decent price by now.

Sounds like Cr*p tp me.I've got a 00 Rx and about all I use are burned cdr's and the thing has never given me even a hint of problem. So unless they've gone to WORSE components in the 330's I'd sy thats bunk. As an aside, rather than labels i use CDR's that have a blank white surface and can be printed on with an ink-jet printer. The Epson r-220 is dirt cheap (under a $100 US) and does a fantastic job printing labels as well as just printing on paper

I don't have the answer for your question but I get about 17.5 around town in my 2000 Rx so you're not far off. These things don't get great mileage.

So I'm assuming you (and Lexus) used standard dino oil in all the oil cahnges that you know were done on the vehicle? I mention this becuase your story of having a sludge related failure even though you did regular 4k oil changes seems to prove, at least partially , that doing regular oc's with dino oil is not enough toprotect from sludge. A point that has been debated on this forum several times in the past.