nc211

Ok fellas, my schedule is clearing for a couple of weeks, starting next week. This is the time I have set aside to spend some time on the GS to shake off the 8 years it has under it's belt already. This is going to include new plugs, new brakes, new motor mounts, new lower ball joints, new cooling sensor, hopefully a cleaning of the intake, and possibly the cleaning of the idle control valve. All oem, of course. But, got two questions: 1) The idle control valve - I read the RX thread about how those guys get to and clean theirs. Does the 430 engine have one as well? If so, any insight as to where it is, tricks to get at it, and such? 2) Anyone cleaned the throttle body of a 430 engine? I assume I'll need a new gasket. 3) Anyone replaced the cooling sensor on the 430 engine? I replaced the transmission mount a while back to hopefully address a shaking engine while at idle with the a/c off. When the a/c is on, the revs increase slightly and smooths it out. The mount didn't fix it, which is leading me to the idle control valve, dirty intake, and possible bad plug. The car only has 58k miles. Mileage isn't the enemy on my car, but time is. Who ever had it before me simply didn't drive it all that much. I have the service history on the car though, always serviced at the Arlington Lexus dealership. I'm a bit surprised though no mention of the shaking "I have the tech notes too". Thanks all! I'm simply going to park it in the garage for the next two weeks and take my time. Brakes are first - needs them badly!

www.parts.com they're the lowest priced i've found...all genuine oem parts too - it's a "clearing house" for parts, kind of like priceline.com is for travel.

Thank you Uncle Blake! I kicked around Toyota.com for a while and couldn't find what you found. I knew if I asked on here, I'd find the right answer! I took the day off yesterday due to sheer exhaustion. I got this message and the song right before some sort of updated downloaded onto our laptop, killing the wireless internet connection "thanks microsoft, you idiots". so I wasn't able to respond until now "at the office." I got the song, got it over onto the ipod, put the ipod onto our Bose ipod player thing, grabbed the remote, walked into the kitchen where our son was goofing off, grabbed the camera, hit play on the remote, and within the frist three bars of the song....I got this response! He's not quite there with walking too far on his own, but man can he fly when crawling. He was at the couch in the den where the Bose is within a split second, standing up against it, just dancin' and yelling like crazy! I must say though, after about the 12th run of the song, I'm sick of it, but he loves it!!!

My son, who is 14 months old, simply goes batty whenever this new Prius commercial comes on TV. It's the commercial where the white prius is driving down a path, and as it passes by the landscape, the people flip their white costumes into green "simulating the changing from snow to springtime bloom". The song "let your love shine" is playing. The commercial ends with the Prius at the top of a hill. Anyone else seen it? If so, anyone know how I can get my hands on that version of the song? Think i-tunes would have it? My son will stop-drop-and roll to the TV, stand up, and wiggle with laughter everytime it comes on, within a nano-second. It's the funniest thing I've ever seen. We have dvr, and I always end up replaying it a dozen times, until I get tired of it, but he never does. Any suggestions? PS: I think he's ready to start negotiating for a new car, given this stare-down!

Come on amigo... Hitler? Don't cha' think that's just a tad bit out of line? I've backed you before with some of these style posts, and I will again. But, I've got to say, that chic is off her med's if she really thinks this country is heading in the same direction a Hitler led Germany was. Not only has this world evolved since then "especially the US and it's footprint", but it's a whole heck of a lot smaller now too, in both terms of size "due to technology", and elbow room due to population growth. I will say though, I find it absolutely appauling that we are now being led by an administration and a congress that spent the past several years throwing Bush under the bus for doing things, that they are now doing themselves. Example being: the speed in which certain members want this massive and messy health care bill to be pushed through, even though not enough time has been given for law makers to actually read the damn thing to understand it completely. If you ask me, that's just utter b/s, and I certainly hope is met with the same response Bush received. Everyone blamed Bush personally for everything. Now, they're blaming Pelosi, Rahm, and everyone else but Obama for doing the exact same thing.....that, will change. And as I've posted on a couple other threads, many in the business community are starting to second guess their vote over this guy, and the feeling seems to be growing. The phrase I'm hearing more and more from my playing field is "screw fat Barney, and the oblivious Obama". But at the end of the day, if it gets too out of hand, we've got something that Germany did not; the ole' sloppy cigar and messy dress clause "impeachment". But I doubt it'll come to that. We're changing. We're evolving. We're passing the forward thinking of this nation and this world to the next generation. You parents said your generation will screw it up. Your generation is saying we'll screw it up. And I'm sure my generation will say the next generation will screw it up. But when the beans are counted, some things we'll really like, some things we won't. It's been that way since the first date of Adam and Eve, when trying to decide where to go for dinner, and what stick to whack against what rock. But Ms. Geller needs to get her nose out of the text books and get a clue, if you ask me.

Would it though! Man, I'd love to see the "1" before the "." on prices! I honestly think the stage is pretty much set for the collapse later this year, which in my opinion, is exactly the thing needed to get things rolling again in the economy. We saw how hurtful it was to everything last year when it went up - prices for food, quantities of food being reduced, prices for travel, the impact to the hotel sector "which is really getting tough right now to sustain for much longer", prices for anything and everything that has to be transported to anywhere...went up up up. Let that expense ease off a bit, give those sectors a few months to recoup those losses by keeping the prices where they are now (increasing the profit margins greatly), then we'll see some healthy balance sheets again. At the end of the day, whether we like it or not, this country's economic backbone IS directly tied to oil. We're at about $2.50 a gallon, have been for a few months, and we're starting to see some settling of the economy. Not a lot of growth, but a reduction in the decline for sure. Edge that puppy down a little more, and I think we'll see some much needed breathing room. My fingers are crossed! Last winter's dumping from $147 to $30 was nothing more than panic associated with the "election effect". We ain't gotta' worry 'bout that effect for a while, so now the price decline should have more of a bite to stay down for a good while!

In time, the truth will always come out..... On the front page of today's Wall Street Journal, the lead story reads....... TRADERS BLAMED FOR OIL SPIKE http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124874574251485689.html BY IANTHE JEANNE DUGAN AND ALISTAIR MACDONALD The Commodity Futures Trading Commission plans to issue a report next month suggesting speculators played a significant role in driving wild swings in oil prices -- a reversal of an earlier CFTC position that augurs intensifying scrutiny on investors. In a contentious report last year, the main U.S. futures-market regulator pinned oil-price swings primarily on supply and demand. But that analysis was based on "deeply flawed data," Bart Chilton, one of four CFTC commissioners, said in an interview Monday. The CFTC's new review, due to be released in August, adds fuel to a growing debate over financial investors who bet ... ....and to combat it, comes the following headline.... GENSLER PUSHES FOR TRADING CURBS http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124878844608286821.html By SARAH N. LYNCH WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Tuesday he believes the agency must "seriously consider" setting "strict" new limits on traders who place bets on energy contracts.... ...and the proof in the pudding...or "who smelt it, dealt it".. TRADERS BALK AT PLANS TO LIMIT NATURAL-GAS TRADES http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1248745633...icle-outset-box By CAROLYN CUI While regulators debate how to curb excessive speculation in commodities markets, exchanges are moving to impose limits on natural-gas trading, sparking outrage among traders. In the face of pending restrictions, natural-gas prices have swung wildly and trading volume has declined, highlighting the dilemma facing regulators: how to heighten oversight without introducing adverse consequences. Ohhhh....can ya' smell it! Ahh, the sweet smell of cheap gas lingering over the horizon... bring on the $20/barrell prices baby, bring it on!

In time, the truth will always come out..... On the front page of today's Wall Street Journal, the lead story reads....... TRADERS BLAMED FOR OIL SPIKE http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124874574251485689.html BY IANTHE JEANNE DUGAN AND ALISTAIR MACDONALD The Commodity Futures Trading Commission plans to issue a report next month suggesting speculators played a significant role in driving wild swings in oil prices -- a reversal of an earlier CFTC position that augurs intensifying scrutiny on investors. In a contentious report last year, the main U.S. futures-market regulator pinned oil-price swings primarily on supply and demand. But that analysis was based on "deeply flawed data," Bart Chilton, one of four CFTC commissioners, said in an interview Monday. The CFTC's new review, due to be released in August, adds fuel to a growing debate over financial investors who bet ... ....and to combat it, comes the following headline.... GENSLER PUSHES FOR TRADING CURBS http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124878844608286821.html By SARAH N. LYNCH WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Tuesday he believes the agency must "seriously consider" setting "strict" new limits on traders who place bets on energy contracts.... ...and the proof in the pudding...or "who smelt it, dealt it".. TRADERS BALK AT PLANS TO LIMIT NATURAL-GAS TRADES http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1248745633...icle-outset-box By CAROLYN CUI While regulators debate how to curb excessive speculation in commodities markets, exchanges are moving to impose limits on natural-gas trading, sparking outrage among traders. In the face of pending restrictions, natural-gas prices have swung wildly and trading volume has declined, highlighting the dilemma facing regulators: how to heighten oversight without introducing adverse consequences. Ohhhh....can ya' smell it! Ahh, the sweet smell of cheap gas lingering over the horizon...

Congrats on the car :D But, you have got to work on your typing and spelling skills (and if I'M saying that, then you know it's bad) ;)

The fact of matter is this: Changing a pair of brake pads is so easy and quick to do, that anyone charging more than $200 to do the job should feel ashamed for ripping people off. $250 just to get a mechanic to even "look" at your car, is criminal. And the "engineering" of problems should be grounds for a law suit against the business for which you're paying way too much to in the first place for their "trust" and "expert" opinion. I will never, ever, never, ever, ever, ever, ever take a car to a Lexus dealership service center for anything. If the problem is so severe that Lexus is the only option for repair, then it's time to get rid of the car. Lexus cars might be the best made, but there is little doubt in my mind that their service departments are some of the worst in the industry. But, at the end of the day, my 2nd comment in my signature below will always ring true, no matter what car you have, or where you take it to get fixed. You've got to educate yourself if you want to avoid getting ripped off.

The past few times I've had to order parts for either the 4runner and/or GS, I've gone through www.parts.com. I think parts.com is a clearing house for dealers who are willing to sell parts for the listed price, as evidenced by the fact that some parts have come from a dealership in Arizona, Colorado, and Florida. I've never had a problem with them, and even had a couple "verification" phone calls to make sure my order was correct before they placed it. I recently order new rotors, pads, lower ball joints, motor mounts, and transmission mount for the GS for about $800. All OEM stuff. Pricewise: I think they're quite competitive, if not a little better than some others. Yesterday, over on the 4runner forum, a guy was looking for a set of lower control arms for his 03' 4x4 (his ball joints were bad, and they're fixed to the control arm-requiring the entire assembly to be purchased). One guy posted a link to an online vender for $277 per arm. Parts.com had them for $240.

Sucker punched? More like Donkey Punched! I assume you don't have the air suspension setup? "I don't see them as options for strut replacements". Go to www.parts.com. Drill down to your car, 'rear suspension' ~ 'components' ~ 'struts'.... $204 a piece. I assume these are probably the correct ones, as they only list one type. And at $200 a pop anyway, I would have to assume they're "adaptive". Buy them online, take them to an indi mechanic to install. Probably $600 out the door "$400 for parts, $200 for install for both".

Wow! I have a feeling it probably took you both sets of hands to hold your tooth brush after detailing a monster like that! You know what you need though? A Bissell Little Green Machine! Man, you'd be amazed at what that little gadget can do "and how easily" when it comes to cleaning fabrics! That little gadget will suck the dirt out of a piece of cloth like Bernie Madoff would do to your savings account, it's just that good! http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1200703057233 When we got our 4runner, the previous owner was a heavy smoker, and I couldn't get the smell out. So I bought one of these little mamba-jamba's, used nothing but hot water, and I was STUNNED at what it pulled out of those seats. The seats "looked" new already. Boy, was I mistaken. The water coming out of those seats looked like hot chocolate. It's been about a year since then, and she still smells "and feels" new. Granted, I see you've got a wet/dry vac and used the oxy-clean, and I'm sure your results were the same as mine. But the little green machine is soooo easy & quick to use, it's almost unfair. Next up for you, the official LOC detailer....BOATS! Where you can charge north of a $75 per foot! I use to do boats when I was in school along the coast of NC, and made a nice nickle or two. Granted, it took a couple of days "and a couple more to recover", but it's hard to argue with $1,900 for a 25 footer!

Excellent, thanks DC! Man, you know your stuff!

Maybe I wasn't looking in the right spots of Target and Wallyworld. So, what you guys are saying, is there is a specific battery called the CR-1616 still? I wasn't sure if that battery name had been changed to a different kind of number.

Uh...yeah...that might be the problem... ;) Chances are your caps are wet... you might want to check to see if your airfilter isn't a mushy mess of paper too "that, would be bad".

The battery in my little key is nearly dead, and can barely send the signal to unlock/lock the car. The manual says to use a Lithium CR-1616 battery...but I can't find one of those anywhere! Somebody has certainly replaced their battery before on here? Any suggestions on what to use?

Anybody called to see how much an oil change costs at that place?

The perceptions of the types of owners of a BMW, and a Lexus. No wonder neither get along... I'll let you figure out which one is which ;)

My father in law recently decided he had had enough of his 02' Jag S-Type with the V8, and traded it in for a 07' BMW X3. I'm sad to report though, I don't think his decision fixed the underlying problem that drove him to the decision to make the switch, as evidenced by the leaking of oil and brake fluid in the driveway of the family beach house in NC two weeks ago, from the BMW. He got rid of the Jag, with something like 49k miles because he was on his 3rd a/c compressor, the battery kept draining and wouldn't start "2 alternators", and was recently told that the camber on the rear wheels was way off and required some kind of Jag issued camber fix, at $800 a pop. Interestingly enough, as we were standing in the driveway, looking down at that puddle of goo from the BMW "hadn't had it but a week", he pointed to our 4runner and asked "how many miles you got on that thing? 77,000 I said". He asked "have any problems with it?" I said "not a one". I kid you not, he said "I should have gotten the RX instead". Last I heard, he was going to take the X3 back to the BMW dealership in Raleigh to see what he could do to switch it out for an RX they had. I drove the X3, and it was nice! It smelled GREAT! Something about the smell of a BMW interior is just intoxicating. And no doubt, the BMW drove much tighter and sportier than any Toyota product I've ever driven, it was fun to drive! But, like I said earlier: if you've bought enough, fixed enough, taken hits enough....Lexus is the perfect car. Although, I'm sure you can find more than a few posts on here from me from back in my LS days saying otherwise! RX: If you ever want proof of how far Jag has come over the years, you should check out my brother's 1994 Xtype with the highoutput 4.0 6banger. You talk about a maintenance PIG! It looks fantastic, only has mid 40k miles...and bleeds him dry to keep going! It's always something, from the brakes, to some funky spectromitar-scoope-whahuzit-neezle-reader thingy. Last advice I told him "he refuses to sell it, loves it too much, but !Removed! about it 24/7", was to pull the light bulb out of the check engine light socket. Let's just say, it's been on far more than it's been off. This is an original car to our family, my dad had it and sold it to him years ago when he was starting to clean out his fleet of toys, before retiring. Of the 13 or so cars he had at one point "was renting out garage spaces within the neighborhood at one point", ranging from the 73' caddy he still has, to a KC Chief's party bus, his alltime favorite is their 06' Solaro convertible. Although, he hates the throttle lag.

It's your strut rods. If this is your first problem with the suspension on the car, then 99% sure it's those rods, as they're almost always the first to go. My advice? Avoid the dealership altogether on this one, and buy them online, then take them to an indi-mechanic. I would say you can do these yourself, but you need a few tools first, and probably not worth the extra $200 to mess with them. You can buy them online for about $95 a piece "you need two of them, do this repair in pairs" from www.parts.com to avoid the stealership's prices. You're looking for #12 in the attached photo "Strut Rods", in the "Front Suspension" section, under "Components". The strut tower mounts "The rubber seat at the top of the shocks - you can see them under the hood" probably aren't ready yet. You'll know when they are, as they give a "pop" noise only when hitting harsh bumps at around 20 mph. You'll also beable to zero in on where you're hearing the noise from inside the cabin "high, or low and under the car". High = Strut mounts. Low & under the car = strut rods.

I would have them tape them off and keep them, for sure. Otherwise, when it comes time to trade/sell the car, it will be more difficult to explain why they're not there "I'd notice this right away", than why there appears to be a tape line. With the tape line, you can simply tell them the truth without having to worry what they're thinking (if they notice at all and ask the question). But if you remove the labels, then you can bet they'll notice, and you can bet they'll probably wonder if you're telling them the whole story, or if something else happened that destroyed them. When I bought my first Lexus, I was told by a couple of Lexus owners to make sure to check all the doors for their tags, to make sure nothing had happened to them, as it's a tell-tale way to check. Keep the labels!

Lexus cars are smooth, comfortable, luxurious, quiet, and reliable. Plus, they keep these elements as they age, which most car makers can't match. For many, that says "boring". But for those who've had enough cars, spent enough money on cars, chased enough problems in cars, taken enough advil after a long drive to get out of a car, and lost enough money in residual values on a car....a Lexus is the PERFECT car! Plus, as many of us know, if you're not cruising in a straight line on the interstate, then you're probably stuck in traffic and going stop light to stop light in a 35mph speed zone. So, I fail to see the need to spend the extra money, the extra hassles of maintenance, and the sore butts from hard leather seating areas, for a car that appears to "drive" better. But at the end of the day, Lexus is associated with Toyota, and when you're number one, you're wearing the biggest target. I say, fire away!

https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfoPortal/...o.toyota.com%2F You need to spend the $15 and a few hours downloading the entire repair manual (including all the updates "TSB's") for your car man. This will be a HUGE help to you in the future. Even if you don't do the repairs yourself, the ability to print off the specific repair that you want done and hand it to the mechanic says "I know what I'm doing, don't screw around with me, I'll be watching." I had a serious problem with the repair shop at Johnson Lexus in Raleigh with my old LS, until I called BS on them, insisted only the senior tech do the work "and met with him directly", and made damn sure I had two copies of what I though the repair was (one left in the passenger seat for him to see, one for the service writer to have too). After that, I had nothing but beyond the call of duty service from them. The problem is, and I mean this with no disrespect man, you're taking the car in for really basic stuff, like the air filter. They see you as a guy with money to burn, and they also see you as someone who doesn't understand the car, the type that says "it's broke, you fix it". In their mind, you're two things to them (1) A cashcow, and (2) the guy who's car is being used for the new kids who are clueless to gain experience with. I promise you, that if you email the pdf of the repair you wanted to the manager, ask him "how can this proceedure produce these kinds of results I got from your shop?", you'll make them look so stupid and embarrassed, they'll have no choice but to fix your car. At which point, you say "I want the most senior guy you've got working on my car, and I want to meet him face to face to show him what's wrong, no more service writers only".

01' GS430 - 58,100 miles. Considering I bought it in March of this year with 57,200 miles on it....it's gonna take a while (like a decade) to hit 100k.