nc211

If you can buy it for a "today" fair market value, then I would. You have history on the car, you know it. If you like the car, and can't replicate it for the same amount of money with something else you like as much, then I'd buy it. If you're just so/so on the car, then I'd walk away. If you like the car, but they won't budge on the price, then maybe they'll negotiate an extended warranty for you instead?

I eat in my car almost every day. I simply don't care enough about it to treat it as anything beyond just a basic car anymore. Heck I haven't even changed the oil since the day I bought it, over a year ago! Granted, I've only driven it about 5,000 miles since then though. In fact, it's going to the cheapest place I can find to change the oil, as I refuse to waste my time changing it myself anymore. I've decided that THIS lexus ain't gonna be passed on in better condition than when I found it. I abuse the hell out of it now. Slam on the gas, slam on the brakes, don't let it warm up properly, don't slow down for speedbumps/potholes, etc.. I spent last weekend doing the last thing I'm ever going to do it, I waxed it. After I was done, I had a beer and looked at it, and decided "this boring piece of metal isn't worth my time anymore". I have every intention of destroying this car as soon as possible, within limits of a drivethru car wash while on my way to a dealership for something else. Granted, it's much easier to this to a $10k car, than a $50k car. I figure I'll either lose $1,000 on trade, or $2,000+ on repairs. Having that said, when I'm done, I tend to use the plastic bag as a trash bag for anything I see laying around, within easy reach, and toss out the garbage in the trash can. One of the reasons I like the lexus sedan is because of that big armrest, aka, table top! Plus, I can listen to Rush Limbaugh in private without a bunch of Commies giving me dirty looks!!! Hahaha!! Yeah, I've got a happy meal or two stuck between my seats. The family hauler (4runner)? Oh dear lord, help us if I should ever have to stomp on the brakes. We'd probably look like a chef salad in there, with a few "cheesies & marshmellows" and one ticked off Elmo doll! That car is always a mess, but a lot of fun to be in!

When you did the rotors, do you recall two little screws in the hub of the rotor? I can't recall if the 92's had these little screws in them or not. If they did, and if you forgot to put them back in, then yeah, my money is on the rotor being out of balance. This was a nightmare of mine on my 95', until I finally figured it out. Those two little screws insure that the rotor is properly centered. The only car I've ever seen to have them...and apparently need them! That's the thing that drove me nuts about my LS. It's soooo smooth, that you can tell when one tiny little thing isn't right, and it drove me insane! The clunk noise you hear when going slow.... hear it when, say, going over a speed bump or pot hole? That is a classic symptom of that strut rod going out. Look under the front corner of the car, you'll see the strut rod bushing, it is the one that is the furthest one towards the front of the car. Classic symptom.. That, and the rear carrier on the back, are probably the two new components you can introduce to the system without throwing off the aging balance of the car.

If you do a search under my name, you'll find years of posts that are directed towards "what the hell is that vibration?" I even had the friggin' driveshaft replaced. After I had it all back to new, in 2007...what did I do? I sold it, for a loss. Simply because I had come to the point where I could no longer drive it, without that little monitor in my mind waiting for something to pop up. That, and my wife's new car at the time, a little Mazda 3GT was too much fun, and she hated driving the LS and wouldn't trade me here and there. Hence, the 4runner in my signature, which replaced the LS, which she wanted, so I could rack up speeding tickets in the Mazda. Which became the GS I have now, after 2 weeks of driving a go cart on the worst roads in the country here in chitcago. Damn near neutered myself in that Mazda up here.

I need a drink.

What year is your LS400? It makes a difference.. First off.... put this in your favorites folder on your computer - www.parts.com. Buy your parts online, and then take them to a mechanic. Great way to save a bundle. The markup on parts for Lexus is horrible.

First: Power Steering - First guess...air in the system is causing the hard steering. Additionally, I doubt your mechanic knows about the power steering solenoid in the rack. I doubt you've got a new one in there with your "new" rack, you've probably got a redo unit. The solenoid has a tiny screen in it that gets clogged up over the years, which restricts it's ability to make adjustments to the amount of assist from the pump. The slower you go, the more assist you should be getting. The faster you go, the less assistance. If you don't have very easy steering going on, then my guess is either air in the system, and/or a clogged solenoid screen. Do a search on here for "solenoid" or the like, to find a couple of threads about it with pictures and instructions on how to clean it.

Second: Suspension parts - coming from a guy who litterly replaced every single suspension component on his former 95' LS400, this is my strength here. If your upper control arms were that bad to risk the wheel coming off, then you would not have needed a mechanic to tell you, you would have known yourself right away. The rubber bushings would have been completely gone, allowing the connector bolt to bang around within the loop. The car would have been pretty much undriveable and you would have known it. Maybe the upper ball joint was worn out, which on a Lexus, you have to buy the entire arm to replace. But, again, you would have heard popping noises and a wandering around on the road. But, at those miles, the ball joint wearing out isn't outside of the norm. However, if the upper was that bad, then my guess is that your lower was probably already replaced, because the lower suspension components go bad first, with the lower front strut rod being the first, and the rear carrier arm bushing being the first for the rear area. These two parts are the ones that take the most punishment, because they run parrell to the car. Stomp on the gas / slam on the brakes - the front strut rod and rear carrier bushing takes the force moreso then any other. My current GS430 has worn rear carrier bushings, and it only has 61k miles on it. 300hp is too much for the little rubber bushing over time.

You also hit nail on head with the comment about new parts connected to old parts. The new parts will show you just how worn out the old parts are. The suspension components work as a team. They also wear out as a team. When one part wears out more, the connector part usually masks it enough to blend in. But, a new part with 100% of it's life left introduced to a team with about 30% of it's life left....you're going to see some of the flaws. This is the reason why I replaced ALL of my parts at once and moved on.

You need to know that parts.com site. For the money you just spent trying to figure out two problems, you could have replaced the entire suspension system on the car, installed! Probably $1,600 for all the parts, and $1,000 for the labor, including new engine mounts and transmission mounts (huge difference in the car's performance, probably #1 improvement you can do to a used Lexus). If you really love the car, and don't want to start chasing these little bugs around for the next few years, then I'd suggest thinking about doing this. This is the fence I'm currently standing on myself with my GS. Do I love the car enough to invest the money into it.

Tried the lense repair stuff yesterday. The tops of my headlights were foggy. Used their four-pad procedure as described on the box....scratched it all to hell and back. Any suggestions on how to correct it? After realizing what I had done, I used just the reconditioner only on the other lense...looks great. Oh the joys....

And 24 hours later....the dow drops the most in a single day, ever...998 points (recovers a good bit though).

Oh Mr. Capitalism....if you don't see the tie between the two, you're doomed to do it again. You want your people to get back out there and "mobilize", you've got to get the one and only number ALL of your people see every single day on the street corner....down. That little number is more than just a price tag, it's an indicator to the buying public of how things are going, and how safe their economy is. The higher it goes, the less confident the people feel....the less they're going to risk spending on things they "want" instead of "need". "Want" is capitalism, and the backbone and fuel of the world's dominating economy.

I'm not saying the price of gas is the sole contributor to the new troubles on the plate, especially in Europe...but it sure isn't doing anything but hurting the recovery. I think this week's Gulf Coast disaster, and the fact that it wasn't exploited to strike fear of supply/demand shortages in to the price, shows the true nature of the reason for the runup in prices two years ago....

Yes sir, they certainly are! And worth every single sleepless moment, dollar, patience level, and "test". One "dada", and everything else just melts away... But it sure does bring out your "defender" persona! I've never quite felt the "Papa Bear" feeling like I did during those few days in the hospital. Really defines a person sometimes, and certainly motivates them to stay focused on what's important..

Ok, so wait a minute.... We have had a run-up in the cost of oil over the past month, at times flirting with $90/barrel again. But, a rig in the gulf of mexico explodes, spewing oil into the ocean from a mile under water.....and NOW the price of oil goes down below $80? Can you imagine if this were just a short 24 months ago?

Anyone ever experience the following?

Going in reverse, foot off the gas, then slip the car out of reverse without foot on the brake "just coasting backwards", when car disengages from reverse into neutral, the back end clunks and bucks badly. It won't do this if I have my foot on the brake. I'm wondering if a rear suspension bushing is bad? I've got new motor mounts and transmission mount. I have no other "classic" symptoms of a fully worn out bushing, like clunking or bucking, under any other driving format. It almost feels like it's in the differntial too? It doesn't do it if I'm rolling forward and then slip it into neutral though....just backwards. I'm stumped...

.....so, here's a little update....

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm210443.htm

Just so happens, the only medication my son had 24 hours prior to the beginning of this episode was.... Children's Benadryl. Look at the bottom of that list in the link.... see what I see? However, the lot number on the recall list 535, but my son's lot number on his bottle at home? One digit off, 534!!!! Only one time has my son ever had this stuff, and it was the night before all of this started. 8pm on Wed night, a tiny amount given to him per the instructions of our doctor "smaller amount then suggested on the bottle itself!". Wake up the next morning to find the black diaper, followed by another black diaper, then the vomitting of blood, then the hospital, and you know the rest. To date, the doctors have not been able to pinpoint an exact cause to all of this. And you'll notice the date of my first post was before the date of the recall notice.... Any bets this recall gets expanded? Any bets lot 534 for Children's Benadryl gets added? Any friggin bets NC211 is going to lawyer up 2 seconds after lot 534 gets added to the list? I'll give you a hint...I wouldn't bet against it.

Thanks all, we're doing ok now. The doctors passed on doing the scope procedure for the moment, and we're waiting for a follow up meeting with the doctor on Thursday to get the results of all the lab work. The little NC211 is doing a-ok now, and back up and running full speed ahead. I think we're dealing with Meckels, as every symptom is exactly what we're dealing with. But we should know more on Thursday. For the time being, we're out of the woods and back to pushing our Ford truck around the driveway!

Warmest thanks my friends, greatly appreciate the uplifting comments. I have some good news, we're home now! However, we have to go back on Monday for what will be the toughest procedure yet, the scoping. Basically, they're going to put a tube with a camera on the end into his stomach through his mouth. Thankfully, he'll be under for that one. But at the moment, we're out of that little hospital room and back in our comfort zone. His hemoglobin count has increased, which indicated that his bleeding has stopped. I swear, he doesn't act like anything is bothering him, except for a few moments here or there "cramps". But they pass quickly. We're keeping our eye on him, know what to look for now. The scoping process is to either rule out the Meckel theory, or rule it in. If it's "in", then we're on a needle in the haystack hunt, as I've heard they're very difficult to find without actually going in to look around. Once they find it, then it's a surgical procedure to remove it. The hardest part is not really knowing exactly, but the symptoms match Meckel exactly..including the normal age bracket "right before 2" for when it shows up first. Quite a rare thing though. Obviously we'd rather have something treatable with medication, but we'll take curable too. You know, your mind usually goes to the worst case scenario first. It's human nature. The part about this that i'll never forget, is when i had to hold my son down while doctors did their thing, because he'd fight like a prize fighter. Obviously he can't talk much, or very clearly in great length. But he would keep trying to say the same thing over and over, and it sounded a lot like "what did I do?, what did I do?" with tears in his eyes looking directly at me. That last photo of him in the nuclear scanner was the worst, because it lasted for an hour. I had to find a few quiet places after those moments to regain my composure a bit. Cut me to the core, and that terrified look on his face will be with me for the rest of my life. Monday is going to be tough too, because he'll know what's going on when we pull up to the hospital again. But, sometimes you've got to do what you have to do, and we've got to do this. However, for the mean time, we're home, he's back in his bed with all of his buddies, and mom and dad finally got to shower and decompress in private. I was starting to get pretty ripe in that little room! Never noticed how gray the beard is starting to get too. Best part was when we had the ok to go home, the stomach tube came out, the iv came out, and I said "who wants to go home?" That little boy was dressed and standing by the door in 60 seconds flat, with a big ole' smile on his face. Got him to the car, put him in his seat with his teddy bear "brownie", and he was out like a light before we got out of the parking deck. We got home about an hour later, he woke up, we came into the house, and he gave us a look like "payback time". He took his shoes off and threw them at us! He then proceeded to roam around the house for about 20 minutes just barking like a junk yard dog, throwing stuff. It was pretty funny actually. Then he had a snack, and we were back to normal and mom & dad were forgiven! He looked at us with a "what the hell was that all about, you turds?"

Time to get some sleep. Haven't had much since Wednesday night. My eyes look like I've been hangin' with the Cheech & Chong boys.. Again, many thanks for the warm words!!! Really means a lot to me! :)

Anyone who's of a religious belief, I could use a couple of prayers tomorrow in church. I'm posting from the 6th floor of Children's Memorial Hospital in downtown Chicago, my son's room. We've been here since Thursday night, after being transfered from the hospital by our house in the burbs. My son started passing blood in his diaper Thursday morning, but we didn't know it because it wasn't red, it was pitch black. Got our attention, but we thought it was just a reaction to the children's benedryl we gave him the night before, for the first time. Pollen has been bad this year, and bothering the little guy. Well, I get a call from my wife later that day to meet her at the hospital, as he had just thrown up in the den, with blood in it.

What's happening? Well, we're still not sure, but the doctors think it's something called a "Meckel". Basically, I think it's a remenant of his embilical cord that is still inside and acting like a vine around a part of his upper intestines, wrapping around it. The reason we can't say for sure, is because we can't find it. The little guy has been xrayed, nuclearized, photocoppied, xeroxed, faxed, cc'd, you name it. They're pretty sure it's in there, but just can't find it.

He's not in constant pain. Infact, to know him, you wouldn't think much was wrong. I'm sure he'll be just fine, just have to figure out what's going on.. So, a couple of extra prayers tomorrow for little NC211 would be warmly received here!

The reason why I left our home in NC for Chicago last year? So if I were ever faced with this situation, I could handle it. I tell you what, whatever feeling I use to have about all of this healthcare reform business, is out the window now. Spend two days in a children's hospital, look at the faces of the parents, and I promise you that you'll come away with only one wish....get them the tools they need to help their kids, without throwing them into chp 13! And do it NOW!! I'm on the lucky side of this debate, but I've seen one too faces here that tell the tale of them not being quite as fortunate, and that just brings tears to my eyes. Need to tax me more? fine. Need to increase my interest rate? fine. You need more money from me for this? FINE!

Two photos no parent ever wants to see...

Josh, that law you refence is very common throughout the states, and I'm willing to bet WA has it too somewhere. It's there for a few reasons, but the main reason is to establish you as a tax payer to the state. Unless if you actually own a home in another state, you've pretty much got to convert over. My folks have two homes, one in Florida, and one in Oklahoma. All of the cars are tagged in Florida due to much lower taxes. Their licenses are Florida as well. They spend the winter down there. Everytime they're in Oklahoma, my dad always gets pulled for this "someone please inform Oklahoma the 80's are over..not everyone with southern florida tags is running drugs from Sunny Crocket...oh, and the business on top, party in the back, hair style is dead too".

I got nailed for this over 15 years ago after I had moved to NC. I still had my Kansas tags on the car and the bogus backwoods cop tried to arrest me first for steeling my own car, then for a dui, then for driving without an operators license. I laughted at him on the steeling the car bit. I told him to give me a breatherlizer (he did, said I was .0081...that's.0001 above the limit). He wouldn't let me see the readout. He cuffed and stuffed me in the cruiser, and gave my keys to my buddy and told him to follow us to the station. My buddy, who had a Carolina license, was celebrating his 22nd birthday, was too drunk to stand up, and somehow blew a .004. Long story short, I had to take the breath test again in front of a state trooper, .004, then .003. They couldn't make the "stole the car" bit stick, so they got me on the driver's license. They tried to tell me I was driving without an operators license in general. I barked and said "you mean to tell me you don't recognize the state of Kansas as a part of the United States?" That didn't go over so well. I was told "pay us $80 cash now and this whole thing goes away, or you're going to jail and it's $500 to get you out". Somehow my drunk buddy found the station. I gave the majestrate the $80 and we got out of there...... THREE years later, I finally go to convert my Kansas license to NC....asked "have any points?", I said "nope", he pulled the records....and wouldn't you know it... 3 points for driving without an operator's license in Keenensville, NC. Punk a$$ ba$tards!!

I'm curious if it's just a replacement of a switch, or all of the surrounding components too? From my research on BMW so far, and one of the reasons I'm liking them more and more, is their ability to just fix the part that is broken, instead of the whole entire assembly, like say, oh I don't know, just for example.....a worn suspension bushing for $40 vs the entire friggin control arm for 5X the price! :whistles:

Clean the seals and the opening where they connect to the car. Put a little bit of clear silicone lube "just a slight smidge, not a lot" around the rubber seal. And be sure that if you have the sunroof open in "tilt" mode, that when you go to close it, you close in a fashion where you slide it back just a hair, then close it. On my 95', I had this problem too, and was able to fix it this way. Whenever I used the "tilt" mode, and only closed it normally, it would leak. But, if when I went to close it, I actually slide it back just a smudge before closing it, it would seal correctly and wouldn't leak. If you don't put a little lubrication on the rubber seals, especially along the front of it, you could find the rubber seal sticking to the paint, not a good thing. If that happens, be vary careful to gently massage the seal loose from the paint. You don't want to tear the rubber.

Lexi, you've got the certified warranty coverage don't you? Are you in a free BMW loaner? I'm REALLY in love with the 07 328 xi wagon, and the same year 530 xi wagon too. Very tough to find in white that isn't priced over the top.

I thought about that Smooth, and heard verizon might be getting the iphone too. But, i simply decided that if they do get it, there will probably be something else associated with it that wouldn't make enough of a difference to me to wait. At the end of the day, they'll get you one way or another. The main reason we've had our cell service with AT&T for so long (years, even when it was cingular) is the rollover minutes. Last time I had a surprise phone bill was in 2004, when I was with Altel in Raleigh. I got scammed during a freak ice storm that had me stuck on a road for nearly 12 hours "whole town was stuck". Everytime I tried to make a call, even though the circuits were all busy, they charged me for it. Scammed me out of $200. Been with AT&T ever since. They lose that rollover plan though, and they'll probably lose a big chunk of their business.

Thanks Steve, that's what I was afraid of. My brother, who doesn't live but 5 miles from Sprint's World HQ in Overland Park, KS, is on AT&T, if that says anything..

We decided to stick with AT&T, and pulled the trigger on a new Iphone 3Gs yesterday for my wife. Ok ok ok, I conceide to the Mac heads here...it's flippin awesome!! Since my wife usually travels home to NC for a week every 6 weeks or so with our son, I wanted her to have the ability to access the internet and all the wonderful little gadgets that make her life easier. I also figured, since reading a couple of articles that show the only profit driver of the Iphone for AT&T is the $30/month data plan itself, that it probably won't be going away anytime soon. So, a few hundred bucks later, and a renewed 2 year contract, we sat up until midnight last night playing with the thing.

My set up just won't die. I've still got my original Motorola RAZR from three years ago that works perfectly, and of course my 4th blackberry from the office. I call it my "herpe" because no matter what I do to them, they always seem to come back. And not only that, they keep coming back in a newer version. I'm on the "Tour" model now. Guess I'll need to ditch it in Europe to justify it to corporate. Hate the damn thing!

I'm intrigued by Sprint's $70/Month All-In plan, and also intriqued by a recent deal I saw of a $300M mortgage being refinanced for a national leader of cell phone tower owners, who's biggest client that leases the most bandwidth being, of all people, Sprint. BUT, we've all heard the stories of Sprint customers in the past. So, I'm curious if anyone has them CURRENTLY, and what your opinion is? Is it really the "new" sprint, or just lipstick on the pig again? I've compared the "maps", but what they don't tell you is "leased" coverage as well. Kind of like when you travel and turn your phone on to realize you're on a different network, but it still works and doesn't cost you anymore.

Wait a minute. Does the squeaky noise kind of sound like "slow down / you're going to fast / watch out / stop racing the teenage kid next to you!" ????? Um, if it's that kind of squeaky noise, it's not an easy and cheap fix, sorry. In fact, I'd just suggest getting rid of the car for something else, like, say, a minivan!

I've got one.....how about STOP!!!!!

I agree. If an idiot can roll a Enzo in Southern California, then he can roll anything. The problem here, like Gman says, is in an emergency situation, like driving down the freeway.

I nearly hit someone who pulled out in front of me this morning. I had to stand on the brakes in the Lexus to not smash into her rear passenger side. Had I been in the 4runner, not sure if I would have missed her. I told that btch off something fierce when I realized her child was in that back passenger side, and she was on the damn blackberry! Let's just say I probably won't be getting any christmas cards from her. What a VERY lucky idiot!

I think the picture speaks for itself!!

No wonder the kid wants to drive my Lexus already, and hugs the 4runner!!

One or two months of increase sales does not mean they have regain all their prevoius customer's trust. Wait until the end of the year, my bet is that the numbers will be far short of the sales numbers from last year, even with the heavy incetives.

As far as I know CR perform the same test on the all newly design cars and SUVs and they did not assigned a dont buy warning for the Jeep Commando, so obviously, the Jeep pass the test. By the way, CR do not test SUV with one tire coming off the rim :). I use to owned a 05 GX470, I know how untsable that SUV is at high speed. I am just very surprise Lexus didnt improve the design to make it more stable. The funny thing is that my 05 GX's stability system works great, I have never been able to fish tail like the new GX in the video even in the snow. I wonder if Lexus actually cut some corners in the design of the new GX's stability system.

I agree, a couple of months of positive sales growth doesn't dictate market share. However, a 30%+ sales growth right in the middle of a company's darkest hour, sure does say something extremely strong to me about a company and it's products. I also think it is extremely telling these figures are seen while we're still in the grips of one of the worst economic recessions of modern times, certain in our lifetime so far.

I don't know if they cut corners, or simply were going to fast to catch a computer setting error. I'm sure it's an easy fix to just increase the sensitivty of the stability control system to kick on earlier. Clearly though, you're right, something was missed and the truck should not be allowed to powerslide like the friggin' General Lee! That would scare the crap out of me!!! Our 4runner's system kicks on at the drop of a dime. I tested it a few times this winter in the snow. Even with awd, that system would beep and pull me back in line if I intentionally tried to get the rear to slide out even a few degrees.

Didn't CR say something similiar about the Isuzu Trooper / Acura SUV in the 90's too? I've seen two of those on the roof by just going a tad too fast around a roundabout in the street.