resmer

I had a similar rattle and tried all of the areas identified in this thread with no luck. Finally my dealership found the problem - the back seat was not bolted down properly to the floor - once they tightened the bolts the noise went away.

I recently had the misfortune to catch my passenger side mirror while backing out of my rather narrow garage door and break the glass. That it cost nearly $600 to replace was bad enough, but the real problem was that the mirror contains some kind of oily green fluid that splattered all over the side of the car when the glass broke. I assume it is somehow related to either the fact that the mirror has electronic dimming or that it is heated.

Either way, the fluid is apparently highly corrosive to paintwork and has eaten right through the clear coat on both doors, the front fender, the roof and the rear of the car - i.e. about half the vehicle. I now have a nearly-new RX400h that looks as if it's been splashed all over with paint stripper. The dealership that repaired the mirror did everything they could to try an minimize the damage, but the car still looks horrible.

The only solution seems to be a complete repaint of half the vehicle, and it's not clear whether Lexus or the dealership will pay for it.

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something like this and if so how it was resolved - as far as I'm concerned it's a serious design defect if breaking a mirror destroys your car!

10K miles and averaging 28.1 mpg.

Interesting that you live in Colorado and get such good mileage. I used to get around 27-28 when I lived at 7200 feet up in the mountains west of Denver. Now I've moved to Dallas, my mileage has dropped to 24. I wonder if it's the increased air resistance of all the extra atmosphere we have down here :-)

I experience another strange Bluetooth anomaly with my RX400h and Motorola RAZR phone - when you get a second call while on the phone through Bluetooth, answering the second call causes the first one to be lost. If you don't answer the second call, the first one works fine until the second caller hangs up (i.e. call waiting beeps stop) and then the first call hangs up.

I used to use a Motorola v510 and don't remember this ever happening - is this a Lexus problem, or something weird in the RAZR?

I agree, the oil filter is a pain in the %$#E, been doing them on my RX300 For 7 years. Under the exhaust manifold is a great engineering feature. tempted to get a oil filter relocation, but everytime I think of it is right after I do the filter change. Then I dont think about it until the next oil change. Oh well, live and learn and dont buy a Lexus.

Silly old me - I thought that having reached the level of disposable income required to purchase a Lexus, I could afford to pay someone else to change my oil for me... Reading this thread sure convinces me of the wisdom of that approach! :)

What State allows a write off?

I got the federal under clean air vehicle,

But State ??

Colorado does - I have claimed two Priuses in past years, and my RX400h this year. There may be others...

The key to getting the VAIS unit to work correctly with the RX 400h is to set it to CD emulation, not MD - there's no problem identifying which unit is active, since the display on the radio shows CD for the real CD player. and CD1 for the VAIS unit. Setting things to CD emulation allows the CD text feature to work correctly so that you can see song titles etc.

The rest of the interface quirks are real and apparently insouble, but you get used to them after a while...

There is one other possible explanation - many states require oxygenation of the gas in winter (sometimes using the infamous MTBE). The additives used reduce the energy content of the gas and typically result in lower MPG. Most people don't notice this, but us Hybrid owners tend to be more aware of our precise gas mileage...

It's been getting nippy at 55-60F here in the early morning hours, but I'm looking forward to December days when we will be cranking up the seat heaters! Gas milage has been fairly steady at 25 MPG-gentle driving during the week (her)and my rocket-power punches every now and then during the weekends.

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There is a module you can get i saw from some prius owners which allow you to work the nav and the bluetooth while in motion, sorry i don't remember the name of it or where but it is about $100 and taps a few wires behind the radio.

It is locked out for basic legal reasons ,you can;t blame Lexus for that. You can only blame the thousands of idiots who loose concentration while driving because they are talking on a cell phone getting in an accident as the reason which affects all of us.

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Sorry, but the web page messed up and I don't think my reply to this post was posted. Here it is: "Does anyone know where to find this bypass module?"

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The url for the Prius modification device is:

http://www.coastaletech.com/nav_kit.htm

Sounds like they have not started shipping it quite yet. No indication of whether it will work with the RX400h or not. If anybody buys one and gets it to work please post here and let us all know...

the doord of the bins open all the way to a 90degree angle providing a barrier to keep your bags from sliding.There is hooks on the inside to hang grocery bags

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Because those hooks hold 4# maximum-- I find them useless.

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...though if you typically use them for grocery bags, the weight limit is not really an issue - the bags are usually big enough to put all the weight of the contents of on the floor, and the hook is only there to keep them upright when you go around corners. I've been putting up to three full bags on each hook and driving around the mountains with no problems...

I just figured because I am waiting for the RES model, perhaps this feature will be there.

Does anyone that has the RES have any radios keys on the Nav screen?

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There is no direct entry of radio frequencies on the big screen, whether you have RES or not. Radio info only displays on the small LCD on the radio itself.

In Colorado at least, both the Prius and the RX400h are permanently exempt from Smog checks - there's a special State of CO sticker on the windshield applied by the dealership that indicates this.

Ok, that's good news. The VAIS-AIC100 is the inerface, what XM radio did you use?

I have a commander, wonder if I could still use that?

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I think so. The VAIS documents say that it works with XM Direct or XM Commander.

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It works with either, but the Commander is a lot more expensive than the Direct, and offers no advantage with the VAIS interface, so unless you already have one like Jerry, it's not worth buying one for this purpose - i.e. stick with the Direct.

Another question about the RES. I have a problem with it whenever I turn off the car and then turn it on again - e.g. to fill up at a gas station. When I restart the car, the movie continues to play, but is not visible on the rear screen - the screen simply stays blank. The audio is fine, and the movie can be watched on the front screen if I put the car in Park and set the emergency brake.

The only way I have found to get things going again is to eject the DVD and reinsert it, at which point the rear screen comes back to life, but of course I've lost the place on the DVD. Does anyone else have this problem, or do I have a defective unit?

another great feature if you lose the remote inside the car, hold down the toggle switch on the unit for a few seconds and it will send a signal out and locate the remote.

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Does the "roof" mounted RSES unit block your view to the rear when you look in your rearview mirror??

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Yes - slightly, but not enough to be a problem.

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The RX 400h has the headliner tucked under the rubber seal. It is not as forgiving as the plastic (and I never figured out how to remove it, being afraid to destroy the headliner). I was able to pull it back just far enough to guide the antenna wire down from the top of the door to the side.

- The antenna wire wasn't long enough for me to route it the way I preferred. Therefore, I ended up taking a shortcut under the driver's seat and mat. I would have preferred to go behind the carpet under the brake pedal, but it wouldn't reach. This is likely due to my reluctance to get aggressive in tearing the rear interior of the vehicle out to shorten that part of the antenna wire's trip. I mounted the antenna directly behind the existing antenna. The wire enters the car through the left-most wire harness tubing.

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- Sound quality seems better than my RX 300's configuration of using the Roady2 through the cassette adapter. My wife (who isn't usually picky about sound quality) could not tolerate the FM modulator approach on the RX 300 and demanded that she use the cassette adapter in her RX 300. So, the XM Direct in my RX 400h is even better (albeit with XM's still compressed/digitized sound).

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Couple of comments on this:

- The rubber seal on the tailgate opening on the RX is glued on with a re-stickable mastic adhesive - you can pull it off, run the wire through it, and then push it back on again and the rubber will go right back as if it had not been removed. The glue has a tendency to stain though, so be careful to keep it off the fabric and plastic around the seal.

- My installer ran the antenna wire through the door sills along the entire length of the vehicle - i.e. front and back. This seems to be pretty easy, and avoids having a thin and fragile wire under the carpet, where it might eventually fracture.

- On all XM radios the sound quality varies depending on the connection method used. Internal FM modulator (e.g. Roady II) using the antenna give the poorest reception, External FM modulator (e,g, SkiFi I) that is wired into the antenna gives slightly better quality. Tape adaptor is better still, and the best is a direct audio connection - as on the VAIS in this case.

I am curious about the "ground loop" issue. I don't understand how that could happen. I've dealt with ground loops in my home electronics before (due to components being on different circuits), but I wouldn't have expected in an auto's self-contained electrical system. In this case, the new components (XM Direct and AIC) are all drawing their power from the head unit. I assume there was a "hum" that you could hear before adding the radio shack piece. Could you please post the part number?

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The issue is not so much hum as electrical interference from the various high-voltage circuits in the vehicle. Apparently the XM Direct is particularly susceptible to such interference unless its case is very well grounded. The recommendation to use the ground loop isolator came from the owner of VAIS. Since it's not expensive, and it would be a real pain to have to tear everything apart to install it afterwards, I decided to just go ahead and use one without experimenting first.

As you requested the Radio Shack part number is: 270-054

The URL for a description and picture is:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?cook...duct_id=270-054

I understand that there is an aftermarket chip that can overcome the lockout feature - does anyone have any information on it?

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There is one for the Prius - see:

http://www.coastaletech.com/nav_kit.htm

I don't know if it will work on the RX, but as somone who owns both the RX400h and a 2005 Prius, I've yet to see any differences between the Nav systems on them, so there's probably a decent chance that it will. BTW - on the RX400h the Nav box (with DVD etc.) is under the tool tray in the back of the car, not under the front seat as it is on the Prius - it takes some disassembly to get to it.

Let us know if you decide to try this and manage to get it to work on the RX.

I have now been successfully using the VAIS AIC-100x to receive XM radio on my RX400h for over a week - generally very pleased with the results. The unit was installed by my Lexus dealership (Kuni of Denver) which did a very professional job.

Installation details:

- The VAIS unit itself installs with just enough clearance directly behind the radio - with the cables emerging on either side. The installer added a piece of foam between the unit and the radio to ensure that there was no chafing of the wiring harnesses.

- The required XM Direct tuner generates quite a bit of heat, and was thus installed behind the center console at the bottom - accessible from the passenger side panel on the console.

- Both items mounted nicely using double sided adhesive strips - no drilling or other modifications required.

- The tuner requires a direct metal to metal connection to avoid ground loops. Since this is not readily available on the RX400h, the alternative, which works well for me is to use a Radio Shack Ground Loop Isolator (about $17 from any Radio Shack store) to connect the audio feed from the VAIS to the XM Direct unit. Since this comes with RCA phono plus on each end, it avoids the need for an additional RCA cable, which is not provided with the units.

- Antenna - mounted at the back of the vehicle on the roof a few inches from the existing radio antenna. Pulling the antenna cable to the back requires a lot of trim disassembly - took the mechanic about two hours to pull the car apart and put it together again, but the result is completely invisible, and protected from damage - the only place the wire is exposed is the last couple of inches on the roof. Note: start at the antenna end - the plug is small enough to fit into the gap between the rear door and the body of the car, the antenna is not!

Operations:

- Set the unit to emulate a CD with Text before completing installation - it is the only mode that provides song/channel display on the RX radio LCD. The unit is set by default to MD emulation - this needs to be changed, and you need physical access to the unit to do so. The instructions are confusing/wrong - after the changing the mode, turn off the car, and then remove the dongle before turning it back on again.

- Song titles tend to be too long to display completely - press and hold the Text button on the radio for two seconds to see the second half of the song title.

- The unit alternates between XM and a second Aux input which cannot be disabled when you change modes - this is a pain if as most people will do, you're not using that input for anything. When displaying song titles the second Aux input displays the version number of the VAIS software - to get back to XM, just keep pushing the CD button till you get back to the correct input.

Doing business with VAIS:

- I had to call a few times before they had a unit in stock - this is a small home-based business, and they appear to be manufacturing the units as orders come in.

- The owner was extremely helpful - took 20 minutes to walk me through the entire installation process and gave plenty of tips for optimal installation.

I'll be glad to answer any questions...