VBdenny

Uhh, Not exactly the way this works. Be really nice if you explained prior to re-posting?

Oh yeah, been out to Santa Barbara, LA, SD and Coronado a bunch and I think y'all need some more water. Cars are really dusty there.

Hey LuIS, (love the way you did that by the way) Of course I couldn't have that on mine because I'm old(er), but that being said, I do love the way it looks on your car. In spite of my being a little older, I still enjoy driving like you do which has it's pleasures and the other stuff. I have found that driving like I enjoy in my IS is difficult because of people who drive like snails. Light turns green? do the AARP thing and drive like there is an egg between your thier foot and the accelerator (to save gas) which causes 10 people behind them to miss the signal. Aghh Well when I have the opportunity I either move to SPORT mode or M and give them some pipe. Unlike the snails, I really try to get the worst possible fuel economy which may sound stupid but hey, gasoline is very economical right now and I for one and going to put that to my advantage. Got my IS250AWD down to 19.7mpg, best (lowest) so far. My friend just HAD to go out and get a 2015 IS350 f-sport after I got mine. No sweat since I swear his is the one I test drove. Well took that puppy out for a "test" drive yesterday and here is what I think. In every regard except raw of the line acceleration was his better than mine. I certainly never liked the big tach since I mostly drive on roads and it is an automatic. My tach works fine and the rev limited will not let you over (I tried). So you boys keep having fun and certainly encourage all you Lexus friends to check in here. Denny

The lines are most likely transmission or AC.

Ahh well, just something I've had happen. Might just be from oil that got on the splash pan during draining? Might not be oil? Either way Mark, welcome to the LOC where hopefully we learn from others mistakes. Denny

Recently replaced all 4 tires on my wife's 2013 RAV4 Limited. With 15,000 miles she (accidently) drove on a flat and ruined one of the tires. The factory sneakers were Bridgestone Potenza 18" I replaced them with Goodyear Assurance tires for a tick under a grand. I was very surprized that they were much better than the factory Bridgestones. While Michelins are great tires, they wear too long for me. I do not need a 60,000 mile tire, I prefer to replace them around 30,000. Only the first half of any tire is worth a hoot anyway.

It is probably because the crush ring on the oil drain plug is either missing or crushed. You can sometimes get several uses, sometimes not.

46 bucks for a new GS350? Yeah, not bad at all.

IF the car was from the south, I'd say it is worth that however a car from the north has much less value after a five or six years as the salt deteriorates everything. With a second home near Boston, I know what the vehicles are like in Massachusetts. You may be looking in the $2500 - $3500 range. Have it painted and put new tires on the car and you may get $5K. I like the SC400's but I already have 7 vehicles and my wife already finds me annoying enough.

I'd turn the seat ventilation fan on high.

When the wire in the trunk breaks, the "R" (REVERSE) light comes on when you press the brake pedal. Also cause shifting issues. There are several wires which could (and do) break which could cause weird problems. Really doubt it is the ignition switch unless someone hung a million keys off it.

I guess the main question that comes to mind is... How much?

Upon hearing the suspicion about the brakes, I had a thought. Having done many brakes on these cars I do know there is a wishbone spring that must be installed in the pads to keep them from rattling. Many aftermarket brake "Specials" use junk pads and just discard the plates and wishbone springs. I'd start by taking a look at that. Take off the tire and you can either see them, or not. Just a thought passing through.

I frankly can't see how anyone can watch commercial television with all of the NO advertisement shows are available, Better yet, these shows are not restricted by FCC rules which leaves much more room for interesting shows. While sitting around with my broken leg I watched the entire series of The Wire, House of Cards, Generation Kill, The Red Road plus a lot of singular movies. My wife watches crap like Chicago Fire which I consider to be one of the most pathetic shows every aired. Starts out with big social drama in the supply room as they all stand around like facebook groupies. THEN, there is a huge massive explosion in which everyone is in danger until they save the day. Then, all blackened and rough looking, they head back to the storeroom to resume the social drama. Completely predicable and a complete waste of time.

Mounts are rubber and it gets hard, cracks and allows the transmission to move slightly upon torque. Probably not a bad time to do a drain and fill on the transmission. I bought a case of Toyota transmission fluid and luckily, there is a drain plug. Drained, measured, refilled, drove, drained, refilled etc. Took 4 times to go through the case. Car now has over 200,000m and shifts like new WITH the original mount. Go figure.

How quickly technology becomes obsolete. When Lexus came out with the built in console cell phone, I remember thinking it was the coolest thing, now what was once a valuable asset has become a liability. People back then actually had holes drilled into the roof of their cars to install the antennas before the window sticky ones became popular. I have seen many LS400's in junkyards with console parts. If you have a Pick-n-Pull in your area, they list daily the new arrivals and if you can beat our friends from the south there, you can get some good parts. For the driver's seat, buy one from England because for whatever reason they drive from the passenger's seat.

Every year I give up something for my New Year's Resolution and I pretty much stick to it forever. I believe 2009 or 2010 was the year I gave up caring about surveys and opinions. Gave up smoking cigars in 2011. Gave up work in 2013 which I really like. 2014, I gave up driving like an a**h*le which has been a challenge in the IS. For 2015 I gave up News and Political crap mainly because after watching House Of Cards I realized they don't matter. I have my Twitter feed so that is about all I need for news. Both UK and German cars break expensive stuff often. Lexus doesn't which is fine for me.

"Beautiful cars and hunky fellas" Well that certainly makes me want to run out and see the movie. While I do sometimes go to a theatre with my wife, I just don't think she has enough of Becki's appreciation for cars to outweigh the hinky fellas. SO, that pretty much means that when it comes to either Amazon Prime, Netflix, or HBO go, I'll see it then. I like movies at home better because I have beer and theatres just mostly don't. Oh yeah, with beer, the PAUSE button is also very handy.

The brakes on my 1990 LS400 were marginal at best. I did increase the tires size to 225/60-15 which I can't really say helped the braking at all. For a car that can go over 150 mph, the brakes were inadequate. My understanding is about the same as our friend from the prairie, that being that a 96 should have pretty aggressive stopping power out of the box. Me? I'd replace the rotors and pads with some good stuff, flush things out and I think you'll be amazed. Rotors and pads both glaze with time. I generally always replace pads when they reach half life because after that point they become so hard they just glaze the rotors. Pretty cheap and easy fix. If your BRAKE light isn't illuminated, you don't have an issue mechanically. Denny

Alcohol as a fuel is terribly inefficient. Gasoline provides much more energy hence the automatic drop in fuel economy when ethanol is added to gasoline. Remove the alcohol, increase the miles per gallon you get. I found some pure gasoline at a Nice 'n Easy in the Syracuse area. expensive stuff ($3.69) and only available in Premium but I filled the Silverado up and got 20mpg. Not too shabby for a 5,200lb. truck with a 300 something horsepower V-8. In town with a heavy foot I get about 14 mpg while the best on the highway previously was 18 mpg.

Alcohol belongs in people, not cars.

A lot of acronyms to deal with here. Not sure exactly what any of them mean. Not much fog ever here at the Beach so never use mine anyway.

I don't think Bluetooth has to be activated on the car, it is just there. Apparently someones phone was in a search mode and linked with your car but not sure how that would happen.You do not need a smart phone to use bluetooth, many older flip phones had bluetooth capability. Now having BOTH your wife and mother-in-law on the phone would be something I would have to learn about as I could see where that could be a handful I was probably one of the very last holdouts for a smart phone but I will say, it really is something that one would want to live without. Once the clock rolled over to 2015, I went a picked up an iPhone6+ which is perfect and easily pairs with things. Bite the bullet, get an iPhone and things will be good.

There are too many used cars out there to consider one with a shake or vibration. Sure, it COULD just be the tires but I doubt that. Sounds like a suspension issue which could be a money pit. $10K seems way too much for an 02, especially one that might need work.

Most interesting. I didn't even know that you could get text messages. I guess I need to spend more time with my car and iPhone.