nc211

I had this problem with my drivers front brake. I replaced the rotors with Mountains, then I replaced the pads with ceramics, which clunked around in the slots, so I replaced those with oem pads and new shim kits / anti squel kits. I had a horrible screaming sound when going slow, in reverse. I pulled the pads out and regreased a couple of times, cleaned the slider pins, sprayed that disc squeel stuff, scuffed the pads on the driveway, etc......nothing worked for more than a day or two. Then I had the rotor turned at the local Mieneke shop....No more noise. That was a few weeks ago, and I have not had a single noise from the front brakes since. get the rotor turned "cut". Costs like $40 bucks.

The GS is an option, definetly! We haven't looked at them for her too seriously, as most we've seen around here have been in the 80k mileage range, which is a bit too much for her taste, and mine quite honestly. I would rather have the high mileage car, than her. If something brakes on my car, i know how to fix it on the side of the road. Her on the other hand...well, good luck! I've also talked up the IS300 a lot, haven't looked at one with her though, so it's a crap shot. Lexus is definetly at the top of my list for her, especially with a resourse like this in place. I'm beginning to remember some advice I gave to Kewl a few weeks ago, of let her pick it, you buy it, she's happy = you happy.

Actually, your's would be a best buy, knowing how well you take care of it. We looked at the TSX's, but couldn't find any under 20k miles, automatic and sunroof within our price range. Plus, my wife couldn't drive a manual transmission to save her life. Her very first car was a stick, and it went back to the dealership within 3 days. Her with a Nav system would be like sitting Steve Jobs infront of an old b/w TV. "what the hell is that?" I kid you not, we about had a mental meltdown last night at 8:00pm because I was buried under my car changing the differential fluid, and she couldn't figure out how to turn on the new tv and cable box for American Idol. Nothing like being covered in gear oil, tip toeing through the living room of white carpet, and trying to not grease up the remote control to hit "cable~on / tv~on / channel 250". She won't go for the ES, because her former boss "retired" bought one, and she hates him with a burning passion that bubbles up from the pits of hell. I'm not dealing with a full deck of cards here. It's a blend of go-fish and texas hold'em. If we could find a TSX, white, auto, roof in the 20k mileage range, in the high teen$, it would probably be the winner.

We thought about the two door scenario with the PT Convertibles. There is a slight possiblity of one. If so, I would hope it to be a Solera. My folks have a convertible Solera, and it is flawless. But, practicallity will most likely win the debate, even though she hates station wagons, and SUV's. She hates Maxima's too, especially since I came to the LS from the Maxima line. See what I mean about I'm gonna' have to just go get her a car, and deal with her afterwords? All the "right and obvious" choices, apparently are all the wrong and ugly choices.

Dang, now you know you've been around here too long when you're pulling up your own threads, from 2005. We'll see what the synthetic fluids do to the differential, as I just replaced mine with the 80-90 synthetic valvoline last night. I do feel a smoother power delivery this morning, and less resistance. I decided to replace the fluid because since this original posting, I've put on probably 30k miles, and the differential had been removed from the car twice "to replace the mounts, and the drive shaft". I was not sure if the shop had replaced the fluids, or spilled any. I had a suprise last night to find that they had done both! The fluid that came out of the differential looked brand spankin' new! Looked exactly like the new stuff I was putting in, which was a huge shock to me! The magnetic drain plug was dirty, so I knew someone had replaced it. Now this is what I don't understand. The last time this could of happened was over the summer, with the conclusion of the wobble thread, but the fluid still looked brand new. HOWEVER, I was shocked to find that it was only half full!! I measured it as it drained into my clear plastic bottle. I even jacked up the driver's side to help assist it to pour out the drain hole....it was about 7/8th of a liter. The differential calls for 1.2 liters. There are no signs of leaks, none at all. I'm not sure what happened, or who made the error, but I was noticing a crabbing sensation in the rear of the car when going slowly, and a slight drooning noise at speeds of 50mph. That has stopped. No crabbing this morning "other than me complaining about coming to work", and no drooning noises. So, we'll see how this synthetic stuff holds up... I'll update again later on.

For a girl who has more CRAP in the backseat of her car than probably legally allowed, the $700 a month payment is definetly a no-go. Besides, NC needs to update is number, to 430 someday! Actually, the way my car has been running lately, this 95 is going to carry me to the nursing home in 40 years, damnit. Blake, up here that baby blue color is referred to Carolina Blue, Tarheels baby! I agree though, the color doesn't do much for me, but the Mrs. seems to love that color. We talked about the Accord as well, but she's against that too, because her mom has one and she's not ready to feel like her mom. I'm beginning to think I'm gonna have to come home one day with a car for her, and face the punishment. Gee, sure hope she doesn't banish me to the garage, that would be just horrible, with my heater, tv and pneumatics. hahahaa..

www.lexuspartsonline.com mechanical / engine / mounts: Front mounts "need two of them, one on left side, one on right side": $90 each Rear mounts "aka..tranny mount" only need one: $32 Total in parts: $210. The tranny mount is easy as pie to do, the passenger side front motor mount is decent to do, the driver's side engine mount however is a pain in the AS$. That's were they probably had to spend the most time. Did you over pay? Yep, probably by $300-$400 in all. But, don't sweat it man, you've now learned the valuable lesson of the dealership... reserve it for truely complicated stuff, and in my opinion, balancing and alignments. They seem to nail the balancing and alignments everytime. Costs about an extra $50 buck, as I just had my tires rotated/balanced/aligned at the Raleigh location for $159 bucks. Plus, my mechanic guy who has helped me out several times, gives it a once-over review just to make sure. There isn't a sole who hasn't been hit by the dealerships prices at least once or twice on here, just part of the growing pains I guess. At least your repair is one that will last another 100k miles, which makes the price seem more justifyable. "God I can't spell this week" If you're looking for a cheaper alternative, check out Phil's Toyshop in Cary. They specialize in only older Lexus and Toyota's, nothing else.

:snoooorrrtttt:

My biggest problem isn't really the fear of buying a 1st year production run car simply because after restoring and maintaing my ls400, I really do not fear toyota cars and some of thier quarks, plus, it's a Toyota..aka...Oh what a feeling! My biggest problem is convincing my wife to consider the Camry. She seems to be head-strong, aka "southern-stuborn" against owning a car that everyone owns already. Which to me makes absolutely NO sense whatsoever considering she drives a Honda Civic. I can tell you that it's probably going to be a fight to get her to the dealership. But I think if I could just get her to look at one, drive one and consider one with an open mind, it would be a slam dunk. The tuff part here isn't getting the horse to drink, it's leading it to the water. No pun intended. I'm really impartial to the 4 or 6 engine, other than the additional $4 grand. The car will be hers, and she drives like crazy. She already had 83k miles on her late model 03' Civic. I'm thinking the 4 would be fine for her, and my wallet!

Well since life has begun to slow back down a bit, the issue of my wife's car has come back around. If you recall, we were looking at the PT Cruisers a few months ago, but decided to hold tight until we got through the home buying process first. Now that we've cleared that hurdle, her car is back in our discussions. Her 03' Civic w/ 83k miles is beginning to show it's age a bit, or should I say, it's mileage. Funny thing, we have about $5,000 in equity in it, thanks to advanced payments. But that is to stop, since I feel like we're just throwing money away on a car that has so many miles and, quite frankly, drives like a freakin' John Deere Lawn-Master. Last weekend the dealership sent me home in the new 07 ES350 "those *BLEEP*s!" and now my wife is in love with it! We're FAR from adding that payment to the books, but we can handle the existing one she has now, which is $300. So, being as Toyota is Toyota, and quality is quality, I'm starting to work on the 07' Camry. I've seen some with less than 10k miles for around the $18k mark. Put in the Honda's equity, and maybe a kick or two from good ole' Hubby, I think we're good to match the payment, if not beat it. Question: Anyone have any experience with the new Camry's? I'm more interested in what people think of the 4 banger engine than the 6. We know how silky smooth the 6 is, and powerful. But she doesn't care one bit about power. She just wants a sunroof, power options, ac and a good stereo. Thanks a bunch!

my main problem with this issue isn't necessarily the illegal immigrants coming here to work, and sending their money back to their families in Mexico. A father has the responsiblity to provide for his family, and we are the land of opportunity. My problem is with what they contribute to the system while they're here. And that problem is not solely on the burden of the immigrant, but the employer him/herself. They're not paying taxes, not the employer for ss wages, and not the illegal for income taxes. The illegals are driving around, and in more than one incident, cause accidents, sometimes fatal due to a sheer lack of respect. However, in this day and age of our country, I can't blame the illegals with wanting to come here and do the jobs that we don't want to do. In my neck of the woods, you go 40 miles east of Raleigh and you'll find thousands of illegal immigrants picking the soybeans and curing the tobacco, living in former chicken houses for 6 to 8 months out of the year. It's a tough job, and I can say that only the illegal immigrants are the ones lining up to do it. The legal citizens would rather survive off of unemployement benefits and government cheese. But when they're applying sheetrock to new houses, and installing vinyl siding for a major corporation, well, that's BS!! Because you know that major corporation is paying them under the table through subcontractors, and not paying payroll taxes, not prividing insurance coverage to them, and certainly not acting in a manner that benefits anything other than their own profit line. Those types of situations I believe should require a mandatory 10 year jail term for the employer, and permanent deportation for the worker. I was shocked to learn that NC is one of the top 5 states with an illegal immigrantion population problem. That is, until I go to my inlaws house 45 minutes east of Raleigh, drive through the country and see exactly who is bent over in the hot sun picking beans in the fields.

I might of missed it in the armrest section, although I did find the aux power outlet in there, but didn't see the Aux input selector on the stereo. I'm just saying that I think it's funny that you can't hook up an ipod through an aux power input on the front of a car stereo these days, unless you bought the option package for it. I'm talking in general, from Honda to Chevy. Although I have seen them being advertised for other cars now, like it's the latest and greatest invention, when in reality, it's not! To me, it seems like every car stereo, aftermarket or oem, should have input options on the front of them for people's devices. It just seems like buying a new $400 home stereo receiver, but only being allowed to connect 2 speakers, one left, and one right, and hook up a tape deck. Just doesnt' make sense, especially these days.

www.lexuspartsonline.com or any other from www.parts.com or www.irontoad.com looks like you'll have to call them for the price, it's not listed. but they do have them. i wouldn't recommend anything but true lexus oem for that part.

I haven't had any noises, but I have had a "flooded engine" stumble once or twice under the same conditions of a quick start, stop, then start. It is quick, maybe a second or two of a stumble, then it smoothes itself back out. I use the generic Fram oil filter you find in stores. I've never had a problem with the filter. But, I have also run a cup of seafoam in my engine oil, at idle speed for 15 minutes, right before doing an oil change the past 3 or 4 times, which has flushed out a lot of black gunk. And I use Mobile 1 full synthetic. I have also seafoamed the intake once, about a year ago, and still have the original spark plugs in there, never replaced them after the intake flush. This is on my list of things to finish this winter, as Blake was kind enough to send me his left over plugs many months ago, which are sitting on my work bench at home.

Need a few more answers to narrow it down, but my guess is tie-rod related, but not sure....Answer these below: 1) Does the car wander, pull, shift left to right? If so, when was your last balance & alignment done, and who did it? 2) Do you feel any kind of vibration from the brakes at highway speed? Warped rotors on the LS can be an illusive menace. You won't always get pulsation in the peddle either, which might confuse you from thinking about the rotors. My rear rotors are warped, and when I apply the brakes, I get a low frequency hum with vibration. Second I take foot of the brakes, it goes away, and I have absolutly no peddle vibration at all. How many miles do you have? If it's not your brakes, or an alignment / balance thing, then my GUESS is your outer tie rod ends or lower ball joints are going out, which is common in all cars, and their usefull life is subjective to road conditions. They're usually the first parts to go in the steering and ride system, as they take the most abuse, and it's usually the passenger side that fails first. Reason being as most pot holes and debrie are along the curb side of the road. Since you're getting a pulsation feeling, is speed sensative, then I think it relates to the balancing of your tires. And since you only say you feel it only in the steering wheel, that makes me think one of your outer tie rod ends is worn out, and that imbalancing of the tires is being magnified through the loose connectivity of the tiny ball joint inside of the tie rod end, which is probably where you're getting that metal on metal feeling...aka..the slack is banging against eachother. But, this will also probably be accompanied by a slight wandering sensation in your steering. Any clunking noises when going over bumps at slow speeds????

How is it possible a 1992 Mitsubishi Diamante can have a little Aux. jack input on their stereo, yet all these cars out there today still don't have one as standard????? AND, the cars today don't have a tape player either, which eliminates that option of connectivity. It just baffles me I guess that in the Ipod world, this one little connector has been over-looked. I've got a 07' ES350 sitting in the driveway "loaner", and it doesn't have one of these inputs either. It has everything else you could think of, but that one little input option. Cudo's to Mitsubishi for thier 1992 Diamante!

I was at the dealership yesterday dropping my car off for service. They had the entire line up sitting out front, in the order of IS, ES, GS & LS. To be honest, it reminded me of McDonalds..... small, medium, large & super-sized. To me, the GS looks the most distingquished, more stretched in length I guess. They all look like they have more sheet metal, and less glass, like they cropped the tops down a couple inches. I'm not saying they didn't look great, because they didn't....they looked beautiful!! They're enitre line is awesome! I still like the 430 better though.

I have the ES350 now, while mine is being serviced.... It is very nice! and might i say, VERY fast! i like the 6 gears, and the shifting points are perfect. To me, it feels like they've finally fixed the throttle tip in issue. The car isn't jumpy at all, but rather smooth and easy. I like this new ES. I liked the other's too, but this new one is something else. I'm impressed by the power, the room in the back seat, and especially the trunk, it's freakin' HUGE! I must say, I really liked the fact that at 2,650 miles, it shimmied just like my 12 year old, 125k mile LS400, for which is in the shop getting adjusted for! That made me feel great! I figured if a new one did it, then it's just an alignment issue and i"m not going to be WACKED again on the bill.

Nite, man I hate to say it, but this sounds like the classic worst-case scenario when it comes to the power steering pump failure. You have three things going on. 1) your pressure valve is bad, which is pulling the fluid into the engine, which is giving you that puff of smoke. 2) your pump seals are bad, and had probably filled up your alternator with fluid, which I hate to say, has probably killed it too. You know the pump is still leaking, even after all of those trips to your local indi mechanic. I suggest you document this with a video camera or still photos with a time stamp, or even better, have your local newpaper sitting next to the car when you take the picture, to prove what date it is. THEN, I would inform the indi shop of their continuing failure to fix your car, and their mistake has now created even more problems. If it were me, I would give them 3 options to make this right by me; 1) give me full refund for entire proceedure, 2) have them share in the repair bill from the lexus dealership, or 3) be prepared to have a complaint filed with the BBB, and possibly small claims court. I have absolutely no tolerance for people who say they can do something, but clearly can't, and offer nothing more than a "sorry pal" response. The white smoke in the engine bay, is probably the electrical current passing through the alternator from the battery to your stereo. The reason why I say it's probalby full of fluid, is because it's probably shorting out the electrical current from the battery. I highly suggest you don't mess around with this anymore and get it fixed, because to me, it sounds a little too close to possible engine fire to make me comfortable. To save you some money: You're in it for some bucks, there is just no getting around that. You might beable to have the alternator rebuilt with new brushes "do a search, I think dcfish knows how to do this". I also suggest you check out the rebuilt stuff from Maval?? "sp?"... they have rebuilt racks that are great "talk to SRK". I suggest NO MORE general indi mechanics. Either find a lexus specialist in your area, or pony up for the dealership to fix it. If you do go the dealership route, I suggest you price your parts from www.lexuspartsonline.com first, or one of the others from www.parts.com or www.irontoad.com. Use this information on part pricing to negotiate your prices with the dealership's parts department, remember to include $20 more for shipping. I have done this, and saved about $400 on my driveshaft replacement from my wobble days. Told the dealership I could get the part for $850, they wanted $1299, sold it to me for $899, which was right in the ballpark if you include shipping and the hassle of mail order. I have learned, that sometimes the dealership is the only option. This is usually when you have something major happen. You pay extra for thier service, but it's done right the first time "most of the time", and if it isn't right, they'll make it right! In the end, for this level of repair, you can acually come out ahead if you go the dealership route, because you're not fixing extra stuff that broke due to the indi's flaws.

$850!! Ouch!! You take it to Johnson of Raleigh or the new one in Durham? If you were at the one in Raleigh last night, we probably passed eachother, as mine went in for an alighment/balance/rotation and a "once over" to make sure nothing is wrong. I've hit a few Jacuzzi sized potholes recently on my way to work.

Have you PM'd or introduced yourself to JIBBY yet? I would suggest introducing yourself to him, as he knows these engines under the application you wish to have very well. He probably knows all of your answers. He has a SC, and is pretty active in the SC forums.

"Pa', is that an IED up on the trail?" "No Halfpint, that's just a pile of horse "

Don't make me bring back "W"

So you'll be paying $1,080 a year for the garage, or paying that plus some for an extended warranty for a vehicle that is made by the most reliable manufacturer on earth... The garage, hands down. If not for the protection from the elements "last time I checked, Texas has some INSANE mother nature elements in the spring time", but the protection from thieves and vandals. You've got a new Lexus....you live in an apartment complex with a ton of strangers that come and go..... get the garage! If you feel like you need an extended warranty, you can always buy one down the road, so long as it's w/n 3 years or 36000 miles...or whenever the standard warranty expires. From Lexus's standpoint, you're covered from bumper to bumper for the next three years....the rest is up to you! Get the garage!

Oh this HD stuff is cool.... My love life has tanked, thanks to the Military Channel though. :whistles: The tv does have a HD tuner, and I was pulling in the main networks in HD, on channels like 5-1 and 17-1 type settings. Now, it's just straight numbers, all the way up to like 1400! I don't get all 1400, as many are pay per views and such, but I do get like 350 or so. My only complaint, of which I'm sure is a setting somewhere, is having to adjust the aspect ratio all the time inorder to fill the screen. Some HD channels in the 1080i frequency come through in the 4:3 ratio, even with the tv set to "full" mode. I have to tell it to show in "just" mode to fill the screen. I wish I knew how to set it in "just" mode by default on all 4:3 signals. It adjusts to full mode automatically, just can't figure out how to make it do it for just mode as well. Wife is hooked on HGTV now, and my weekends are booked solid for what appears to be eternity! Damn HGTV network! I"m gonna have to figure out how to hack into the 10 channels of Spice, and not get caught by the wife..:whistles: The DVD doesn't say it upconverts, but it was only $100 bucks, so I figure it doesn't. I'm going to wait and see who wins the blueray / hddvd race before buying another one, and wait for the prices to drop a bit. Might be next year's Christmas gift. the 480i signal from the dvd player is perfect to me, for now anyway...