VBdenny

Great article on clay. I have used clay for years and will make one suggestion to add to your information. Claying and using the spray just takes to long. After the car is spottlessly clean from a dedicated washing, rinse out your wash bucket and mix up a new batch with plenty of car wash soap. Get yourself one of those fuzzy mitts and hold the clay in it. Keep the area flooded with the soapy solution. This will allow you to clay an entire car in a half hour to an hour. The biggest concerns with working with clay are; 1. dropping the clay. IF this happens, throw it away. and 2. letting the area you are working become dry as it can cause the clay to stick. After a quick wash off and dry, I go over all the paint with Maquire's #1 Paint Cleaner if the paint appears somewhat compromised, or #2 Polish if the paint looks good. The add a few coats of Collinite #845 Insulator Wax and you are good for a long time. With regular washing and a quick detail with Maquire's Detailing Spray and a microfiber towel, your car will look good for over a year. I add additional coats of wax every 3 to 6 months. I have 5 cars and don't have to time to deal with waxes that prematurely wear off.

Which I found out not to be true. The MIANT REQD light means you need to change the oil. I had forgotten to reset the oil change indicator at the last oil change.

I purchased my 2004 ES330 in November 2007 for $22,900. It had 23,000 miles at the time. It still had the original tires which were half worn and not what I wanted. I put a set of Yokohama Avid V4,s (225/60VR15) on it, changed the oil to Mobil 1, put on K&N filters and I was good to go. The car is silver and pretty optioned up. The car drives very nice but still not as nice as my 1990 LS400. I suppose that is because the ES is front drive.

2004 ES330 34,5000 miles 20 MPG Avg in NYC traffic On highway I once got 29MPG. but as low as 35MPG A/C on year round Avid V4's tires (225/60VR-16) 34lbs. PSI. Mobil 1 5w-30 K& Filters normal driving

The MAINT REQ light came on today in my 04 ES330. The car only has a little over 34,000 miles. It continues to run fine. Not sure if this light is the dsame as a CHECK ENGINE light?

In town with moderate driving I average about 17-18mpg. On the highway at 65-70 I can get 25mpg or better. When I cruise at 80-85 with occasional faster and slower, I average 23.7 last weekend. I know this car could get about 27-29mpg if it was run on flat terrain without me driving. I tend to run a little faster than some.

Sorry? why? This was a good topic and an issue I had never before heard of. I dunno, it just sounds to me like you are getting some kind of run-around. The very first thing I would do would be to put the car up on ramps or a lift and do a look-see. IF the thing is leaking you would certainly see oil around the area indicitive of a problem no matter what the cause. But, if there is no fluid leak apparent, I would unscrew the fill plug (use a 1/2 drive breaker bar or ratchet with a short extension. Then dip a finger down into the hole and reach down as far as you can and see if you come up with any gear oil. If you do, then they are most likely BS'ing you. Sometimes cars are such a pain and the people who work on them are sometimes even bigger in that department.

If you've lost freon you've lost oil. Well, maybe, maybe not. Most slow leaks do not lose much oil and adding too much to your system can reduce your cooling. I would just put a stick thermometer in a vent and add a couple cans of R-134a. The compressor should stay on all the time when set to max. When the temp until it gets to around 50 or so.

what did you see when you looked at the differental?

Recent 400 activity Well folks, I cleaned and waxed my truck, changed the oil and parked it in the garage. Then I rolled out my LS400 which I hadn't been driving much in the last few months. Not that there was anything wrong but I just like keeping it clean. The oil was new Mobil 1 with a fresh K&N HP102 filter. I cleaned the K&N air filter and since the tank was full with $3.75 premium and I was all waxed I figured I better put this beast on the road. Man oh man, I just love driving this car. I rolled up to New Jersey then back down south and then out to western Virginia and back to the coast. Just amazing how nice this car drives considering it is almost 20 years old. On my last trip my fuel milage was slightly over 22mpg which I consider pretty good since my average speed for the trip was 80.2mph. Yeah, I took it up to around a buck a couple times and it still wanted to go, but using what little common sense I could muster, I bled off 15 or 20 for crusing. Yeah it cost a lot but what the heck? In the next week I think I'll head up to the finger lakes in New York and cruise around there. By the way, I video all this stuff for later enertainment, even the fill-ups. Ouch! $70.60 yesterday. Anyone else out there cruising around still?

Sadly, I will never probably own one. My 90 is just too nice to ever give up. I love your new last car.

I noticed that mine has a smell like that when the cars sits around for awhile and is driven only a little. I changed the oil and went out and burned up a couple hundred dollars of premium at about 80mph on America's Interstates in the last few weeks and wow, no smell anymore. I guess these 400's like to run and the more you drive them, the better they run. My Rx. Adminster one tank of 93 and go burn it up. PS Be careful you don't get caught.

DC fish called it exactly right. I have seen the same symptoms in mine and sure enough, upon inspection, the wire was broken. I added a link and put it all away and it worked firn for 3 years. The, it happened again. I opened her up and sure enough, the wire had broken again. Although I have read that the wire was made slightly shorter than it should have been, I strongly suspect that the problem is caused by the flexing of the wire. Upon my second repair I just taped it neatly and left it out. I have pictures I took when I fixed mine but it is really simple. Open up the wires on the left trunk hinge. They are taped up pretty well so it takes awile to get it all off but I'll bet you a dollar to a dime, the white wire will be broken off clean. Why the problems occur is that sometimes they made a contact and it isn't a good one. Should take you about an hour or less. You need a razor blade, a peice of wire, I used crimp clamps because I was too lazy to get out the solder gun. Oh yeah, you need a roll of electrical tape. Finally, you will need 2 asperin and a cold beer to ease the pain in your back from laying in the trunk. Go get it.

For the minor scratches on the exterior, use a slightly damp old sock (from water, not sweat) and Maquire's #1 Paint Cleaner. Work the scratch or ding and if the metal is not dented, you can usually remove about all of it. Finish by replenishing the wax. As far as service, as much as I would like to, I just don't trust dealers to do the services people pay for. Having dealt with them a couple of times I found them to be expensive, smiling, idiots. You will feel better if you do it yourself since that way, it actually gets done.

You ought to look on the permanent threads. There is a long one on there about this very topic. I think it is Jim Walker's thread.

A good reason to always carry a camera. Pretty strong cars and in all my miles I have never seen any Lexus broken down.

What I would do would be run the car up on ramps and do a visual inspection. Since you just had the oxygen sensor replaced and it failed shorty there after, I would suspect that some of the wires might have been pushed against an exhaust manifold and burned through, thus the open circuit. Doesn't cost a thing to look and it (hopefully) will be a quick fix. Good luck and all.

Just as I was getting ready to change the differential gear oil in my 90 LS, I read that you are suppose to change the gaskets on the plugs when you do this. I have never replaced them in any other cars I have done and the gear oil on this car was (supposidly) changed at a Lexus dealer 4 years ago. I decided to change it and use Mobil 1 75w-90 which I have in stock. I figured I would go ahead and change it and IF it leaks, I'll just change it again after I get the washers at Toytota. Suggestions and experiences are welcome.

check your power steering fluid level.

Kind of the same question. I have changed it before but never the washer. I hate driving all the way to Toyota to buy a couple washers. Oh yeah,, 75w-90 is what you use in the 400's?

I had mine retrofitted for R-134 at a local Honda dealer. Cost me a shade over $300. The A/C works great, ice cold. I would first suspect a leak. If you had gauges, you could confirm the loss easily. Since most people don't have a set handy, nor want to take the time to learn to read them, there is an easy way for you to check. Open the hold a see if the compressor is running. When they are low charge, the compressor will cycle which is a pretty good indicator of insufficient charge. Add a can of R-134 and see if it makes the compressor run continuously.. You can buy the stuff and a connection hose at autoparts store and usually Walmart. One VERY strong word of caution: Look up on here and make sure you know which service port you are connecting into. If you accidently connect it to the high pressure side, the can will explode. Now, probably not, but just ammunition for you should you need it. A worst case scenario: The compressor oil used in R-12 systems and R-134a systems in not compatible.The sytem must have multiple vacuum draws and be purged with nitrogen prior to adding the new refrigerant. The other portion of the job involves replacing the valves on the service ports. If those grease monkeys working on you car didn't know what they were doing and just mixed them, well... I guess at that point you'll need a lawyer and a mechanic. Some places are sneaky as snakes, they will lie, cheat and deceive when cornered. Probably a simple leak, I think all the older cars leak a little all the time. Just strange to have it occur after the retrofut. Good luck

The gas light comes on and it takes 16.5 gallons to fill. Anyone know the fuel tank size?

that you will probably have to order from a dealer. IF you can find an LS in a junkyard, then maybe there but I have only ever seen 1 in a yard

fpr $600? I'd jump on it.

Mobil 1, 5W-30 in all my vehicles (even lawn mower).