Bykfixer

Kind

Sharp

Hope this helps. Realizing he is doing an RX with a V6 he shows how to get all of the slack out of everywhere but the tensioner area.

In a word, yes. Try that first. Some say the crud stuck onto parts and pieces of a high mileage tranny are what keeps seals from leaking.

The other day I was in Harbor Freight and saw they have sheets of 1000 and 1200 grit sand paper. Now with a 3m kit the 1000 grit disk is good for about 2-3 headlights. If you have 4 of those sheets of 1000 grit you could ensure your 3000 grit disk can be effective on all 4 lenses. They are with the sanding tools there. I wanna say 4 sheets was $7.99 but not sure. I was in there for a watch back press.

Paper

Moved to the RX section where more potential buyers/viewers can see this one. I had an issue with another brand of vehicle that technicians worked on and replaced thousands of $ in parts (if I was paying). Since it was still under warranty it was on their dime. Turns out it was a loose wire that had not been crimped properly and was found by "the rookie" whose dad was a mechanic and taught him how to look for signs a computer would not find. Those guys have a million billion $ of diagnostic equipment but a simple issue is beyond most "technicians" grasp anymore. It's like nobody can do a long division math problem anymore simply because a computer does it for us. (shaking head back n forth). Another issue plaguing modern vehicles is the drivetrain is run by a computer. Example is you push on the accelarator and the computer is trying to achieve government mandated fuel mileage. For some drivers it works flawlessly. For some drivers, their natual accelaration habits and the computer just does not play nice together. Erratic shifting, stalling, and just down right ridiculous issues occur. When it was all mechanical things were great. But nowdays a computer is trying to predict too much for things to always go well. As soon as the computer thinks "hey it's Dave driving" and attempts to predict ole Dave's light foot or lead foot habits and Dave places his foot 3/4 of an inch left of the usual spot on the pedal…… uh oh, it aint Dave, what to do, what to do…… That same brand vehicle mentioned with the loose wire has a terrible shifting issue at times. "WHAM" it slams into 3rd or 5th or both. After the tranny was reprogrammed the third time the technician told me "it boils down to this tranny is no longer programmed to smooth shift then focus on mpg, it focuses on mpg then smooth shifting". In other words "live with it daddy-o". If I drive it like a crazy man, 0-60 in 4 seconds it shifts great. But to putt around town in Sunday driver/retired old guy mode? Oh it's awful.

A Toyota was 2 and a Mazda 1. I would surmize Lexus is 3 because of all those extra creature comforts that break over time where the Toyota/Mazda would not have those.

If it still drives take it to a shop and pay the $125 diagnose fee. That'll save you a ton of aggrevation and quite possibly money too. I've swapped motors and rebuilt cars stem to stern but when I can't figure something out mine goes to a place who can. It could be as simple as a vacuum leak, valves out of adjustment or something the monitor can find. They have machines now that can tell you all kinds of things you'd never find at home. My mechanic was working on a van that kept running hot and the machine discovered the engine was low on motor oil.

It seems some cars now have reminders to check the back seat for a child.

These cars have incredible resale value. Keep in mind that most sale prices you see are at a dealer who jack up prices versus a private sale. Market area plays a role too. In San Fransisco CA for example it would likely have a higher resale value than say Diluth Montanna.

😎

This may sound stupid simple, but years ago both bulbs blew at the same time on an S-10 I drove for work. I figured it was a short or a bad switch or who knows what caused my low beams not to work. "Nah, can't be both bulbs failed at the same time"……but it was. Hey, it's worth a try. (Fingers crossed for ya)

I keep a socket of the correct size and a 1/2" drive breaker bar for leg power. Then switch to a 1/2" ratchet to finish the job. Don't forget they come with a special lug nut to thwart kleptos from steeling your wheels. Don't lose that thing.

Gone are the days when you could give the side of starter body a few whacks with an adjustable wrench and get 'err going again for a few weeks. Heck gone are the days you could even get an adjustable in the cavity and have enough room to give 'err a few whacks. A long time ago I changed a starter on a 66 mustang with the inline 6 without even laying on the ground except to tighten it back to the block. Anyway, best regards and I hope you get it solved today. The swivel socket is your friend.

Welcome to the site. If I could fine some for $65 I'd probably do same. Eh, but then again there was just that sense of satisfaction when it was complete.

Happy endings are 😎

^^ Good idea!!

My headlights were so dull one could not see the light bulb. For the daytime lights that was fine, but at night the frosted lens really cut down the distance of effective lighting. I started out using Plasti-X and a microfiber cloth, which helped a lot. Yet a some point somebody had placed a coating of some sort on mine. Factory? I dunno but it was coming off and causing weird patterns in the beam so it had to go, whatever it was. I tried the no sand route with a few products none of which worked. Ordinarilly things like Plasti-X or Mothers wheel polish would probably do fairly well but my lenses said "pffft, got any other bright ideas bucko?" Stashed in my trunk from another project was an older 3m no drill kit from when they came with 3 discs. First one being 500 grit. Now they have 2 discs, first being 1000 grit. I dry sanded whatever that stuff was with the 500 disk. Uh oh! Now they are really frosted. But the remains of that coating were gone. Got out my spray bottle of water and commenced to rubbing the lenses with a new 3m kit. The 1000 grit rubbed up a nice slurry of yellow tinted paste. Wipe that off and by the 3rd rub down the yellow was gone. So then I did the 3000 grit. Low and behold I could see the light bulbs again. Afther the third rub down I could see "made inbJapan" again. Nice! Yet it was no gin clear yet. I rubbed on Blue Magic wheel polish and could see light at the end of the tunnel was not a train. Wait about 10 minutes and buff it again and it looked pretty good. Then the last step was to apply the 3m supplied clear coat. They looked about as close to new as they ever will without using a drill. The 3m drill kit is amazing but I prefer to hand rub my headlights as one slip and you have a scratch on your car, even if using masking tape. All told it took about an hour and a half to rub down all 4 lenses on my GS300 and get back almost new looking headlights. I considered keeping the DRL's frosted but opted not to. Now by the 4th lens the disks were kinda worn so extra hard force had to be applied to get good results. If you look closly, the right side lenses are not quite as clear as the left side ones so I'd reccomend buying 2 of the 3m kits if you don't want to have to use a "scrub" amount of effort. The kit was $10.49 at my local auto parts store.

When my son hooked the battery up backwards it blew the alternator fuse along with several others. If I recall correct in his 04 GS 300 (now mine) there were fuses blown on the panel on the right side kick panel fuse panel and the left side kick panel fuse panel. The last one replaced was the alternator fuse. But I want to say there were 5 or 6 blown. Also on the GS there is a fuseable link that runs beside the positive wire that may have fried. Check that one with a volt meter since it's insulated and may hide the burnt spot. A fuseable link 101 video Best of luck finding the issue.

Check to make sure a wheel weight hasn't fallen off. After swapping the axles to the Camery kind it should have begun happening on the first drive if that was the issue. If you haven't had an alignment in a while it could be your tires have cupped. In other words small flat spots.

Sounds like the seller will need ice cubes in the afterlife. Where did you get those codes from? Reason I ask is if you are using one of those $49 readers that was on sale for $29 like I use, the thing starts out telling you what it thinks the issue is followed "but it could be"…… Example, it may say the issue is the code for random misfire, but it may be a knock sensor or xxxx or xxxx or yyyy or zzzzz. If you are using one of those inexpensive DIY type it would be a good investment to take it to a shop and have them nail down what is really wrong. I'm surprised your car isn't running really bad with all of those codes. Best regards.

"Brrrrrrrrrrp! Brrrrrrrrrp pop pop pppop" seems to be the thing to do these days by the crooked hat community with 95% of their skivies exposed. Ah, I take solice in knowing that this year I have to put up with the racket but next year I'll be picking good parts from what's left of them at my local junkyard because they're either crashed or the drivetrain is destroyed. I restored two Honda Preludes from junk yard cars with broken engines or bad transmissions.

It seems pretty common that the driver door actuator is the only bad one in many cases where none work. My 04 GS 300 has one at the driver door and one on the passenger side rear. I just leave the car unlocked and don't leave anything visible a thief would want unless they're some kinda weirdo who wants to steal my drinking cup or window shade. I do leave the valet option engaged so the trunk cannot be opened without a key. But it's a car not a hatchback SUV. Don't know if that one has a valet option that prevents the rear hatch from opening without a key.

If I recall correct, yes the o'rings in the rack can go bad on these cars. Sometimes there is no leak because the "boot" isn't full enough to burst it or it isn't brittle thereby leaking even small amounts of fluid. It could be the power steering pump pressure sensor as well. From what I've read a symptom of that is the engine rpm's falling when turning the steering wheel. Once it has completely failed it may cause the engine revs to fall enough to stall the engine.