cardona6569

Thinking about it, the article means very well, good habits all over. Second, I believe this is the second part of work hard and become rich, now is become a millionaire. The problem is that sociology tell us that most of the people that are millionaires had some good foundation from their parents, that were well off to afford good education, habits and formed them with great traits. Many years after 20 or 30, their heirs became millionaires building on the wealth, education and properties their parent gave them as a legacy. Some but are just a tiny fraction, invent or develop something that makes them millionaires, Warren Buffet, and the Gates of the world. For the majority that are poor from birth, they may work a lot and become well off very late in life in their 65's to 70's when life just is not the same as for a person in their 30's. Taken that with good health, you can enjoy a lot of life at any age, but the habits and routines needed to make more than others, the stress usually, not always takes a toll on the people. Leaving them with money to spend on Doctors, Divorces etc. My Opine, this article is an update of the American Dream. The American Dream is hard work, some luck and love and health to support it, without the last two you got money that is useless to enjoy life. CPR

I would try to pay no more than 20% of its original price, lets say 71,000 = 15,000, 17000. Why it will have its issues of suspension and wear and tear. If the car has perfect maintenance records from a Lexus dealer and was not owned by a salesperson, I would pay 20,000 but no more than that, unless you can find one of the rare gems with 30,000, to 40,000 miles than you can pay 27,000, because a car with such mileage is almost new providing the maintenance has been kept up to date. I used to date an insurance agent and she told me you have to discount 20% of the original price every year. Yours has five years so at least you need to pay less than 80% of its original price, taking in consideration wear and tear. In other intances you will pay a lot more if you find one without all those miles. Here in PR the other day I was seeing one that had 18,000 miles 2001 LS for 24,999.00, a great buy indeed. C. PR

I wll go for neither, they seem like omen of problems ahead. The LS with the air suspension, the GS with the lower one. I would try to get other cars that are either less altered or have less problems like the air suspension of the LS. If you are confortable with both of them, I would look the interior of the GS if it is well maintained, that L6 engine should never give much of a problem. CPR

Clean with soap and water the new filter in a year from installation and there you have it, a filter for one more year, then when it gets to the second year you can discard the filter. If they are not supper dirty they can be wash once. CPR The purpose is to minimize dust etc. from getting into the car and the A/C system. The filters are also carbon impregnated to kill some minor odors. In TN it costs $60 at the local dealer for an oil change and I think that is robbery!! Talk to some friends and find a good independent shop that will save you some $$$. Keep your records should the very unlikely happen and you need a major warrantee job. Check with NAPA for even better prices on the A/C filter.

After you replace the alternator, check the battery it is probably toasted by the bad alternator using it too much. It happened to me, my truck had a bad alternator, when they replaced it, since it was using up the battery, the battery went dead also. C. PR

I have found a small coaxial cable on the floor of the trunk. I had an old Diamante and it had one similiar for a six CD Changer. Do the Lex came with a trunk mounted six CD chamger plus a six CD changer mounted in the dash as OEM? Could that be that someone mounted an additional CD changer in the Trunk? C. Cardona

http://www.thestreet.com/_email/newsanalys...n/10345796.html Please copy and paste the link which is part of the street.com publication to see if you agree with the reasons or not. I wrote to the writer he said he practices what he writes and that he is rich and that any rich person will tell you what he wrote is correct. I put it to the test with us the Lexus Club. CPR

The PIC looks within normal range of temperature as previously stated by the other colleagues. What I would change if you have evaporation from the coolant tank is the radiator cap, they seem to go bad and become overlooked. It usually starts with an evaporation of some coolant in the tank in about a week you go and replace the missing fluid in a week or two the tank goes down like an inch from where it should be when cold, I do not check while hot unless is an emergency, if that is happening to you, a new radiator cap is in order. The Stan brand is OEM equipment for most imports, buy it where you can get it cheaper. I had to replace mine, no more coolant missing from the tank ever! C. PR

Hi: Now that you did that, I would take the connector and clean it with electronic parts cleaner and the sensor probes as well. Then I would seafoam the engine, look in the ES 300 forums on how to. A Throtle valve cleaning is also in order. All easy things to do. C. PR

Hello: You seem to have a bad blower fan motor. When the system does not put air tap the blower fan, if it starts to work, there you have it. Get a Toyota replacement or a any other replacement that will not set you back too much money, make sure the plugs are the same. If it were not that you may have a blown heat fuse in the solenoid that control the fan speed, that can be bought in Radio Shack for a couple of dollars if you skilled enough to solder it were the old one was. Any air condioner shop can fix your problem for probably less than a hundred buck. CPR

Good that you replaced the worn out parts. What was causing the clunk? CPR

I got mine a year ago, like 2000.00 in parts and maintenance that car runs great! I love it so much that I have a Nissan Murano 2003 which I bought new and do not like to drive. If I could, the Lexus would be the only one I would drive. If I had waited I could had bought an LS 430 2001 18,000 miles for 29,000, which was a great deal. CPR

Keep the old strut rods, next time they break you only have to replace the inside bushing on them. Second the lower control arm also has a bushing that is the part that goes bad at the rubber bushing, you replace that and it should be good again. CPR

I would try to clean the Air Control Valve, that might help your Idle Problem and is an unexpensive repair. CPR

Use Barr No Leak and see if that stops it. CCF quote name='sheab' date='Jan 21 2007, 08:29 PM' post='224043'] I had a little leakage around the right rear of the engine and I got it to stop by tightening the cam cover bolts. Not hard to do... got about a full turn on each of them. No! I did not smash the hell out of them!! They were barely finger tight when I started...so I "snugged" them. I don't know if it was from previous engine work or from the gasket relaxing a little, but I was surprised that they were so loose. It's worth checking. wow thats great the problem is the same spot as urs and the bolts was losen then i tighten it up just like u did after that there is still minor oil leak so how much its gonna cost at dealer but its the same spot and bolts were losen just lika ya thanks !

The only thing that comes to my mind, that could be doing that is a leaky valve cover gasket. You need to buy a new gasket if you can find the brand Fel-pro those are the best, they are made so you do not damage them in case you overtorque a little more. Needed are the washers for the bolts in the valve covers. But before I'll go and buy anything, I would observed if the leak comes from the valve cover gaskets, then I would tight all the bolts that hold them in a criss-cross patter if possible with a torque wrench if not when they all make contact with the head not more than 15 to 20 degrees that way you would assure more or less got that all of them are at the same torque. Check and see if you find some of them loose if you do and see the leak coming from them, most likely is the gasket, tight everything and probably the leak either would go away or will dimish, if not then you may need to replace the gasket and washers. CPR

You can use in all confidence, Purolator filters, and K&N with no problems for your oil, besides OEM. I have used them both on my 1998. CPR

I had the same problem, I even changed some of the rear pads myself and the problem kept about the same. That was so, until while inspecting the upper part of the engine, I found one of the air hoses cracked. Procedure, take the Lexus Plastic Cover the one with the 2 screws and 2 nuts, and check all the rubber hosing that goes to the brakes and all the related ones, if mine was cracked some of yours will be also, the hose that I had broken was a small one but it went towards the brake boosting area. Remember the engine has a lot of heat and the plastic cover do not help those hoses under it. CPR

I will agree in part with every opinion. The dealers tend to charge a lot, but is part of the Lexus experience and the Quality of the materials, and when it comes to time, if they have the part you will have it in your hands in seconds most of the time, or 3-5 days if it has to come from somewhere. These cars were made for people who has lots of money and do not mind expending some in fixing them, or the school of thought that money is not a problem, with that in mind the rest is just easy to understand. I have read that to own a MB, a BMW, a Lex or one Infinity you need to put aside 200 bucks a month for maintenance alone. With the Lex we do not have to do that because ours do not break very often, or until they are more than 12-15 year cars. That is great in my opinion! Second, we should go and check out the Infinity forums, they have it really bad, not many people want to work on their products, so they are more or less confined to the dealers and the high prices they can charge because they are the kings of the hills, there are to complicated for the shade mechanic or the DIY to work on, and very hard to diagnose, unlike Toyota and Lexus that provide a Tech line, not free of charge, to help you in case you do not like to take it to their places of business. Third a business in a capitalistic system like ours is to make lots of money, that is the bottom line. CPR ...and as a Lexus service writer, I give the buyer two options: Take it or Leave it. However, I've had people price between different dealers, and they say they get different prices from dealer to dealer, so I implore the buyer to check first. Also, you may get a disreputable counterman or service writer who get paid on "gross" instead of other methods, so he'll go for the kill.

I would take it out clean it and replace the crush gasket it has. Second you could also take it to a hydraulic shop and have them rebuilt it, they will use the same fittings unless the fittings are damaged beyond repair. The dealer told me mine was bad, I took it apart checked it for cracks burrs and found that it has a fitting, the one that tightness to the pump was the one that was leaking. It saw the fitting was burr, I took sand paper and Dex III tranny fluid and smoothed out the surface, put everything back together no more leaks. The fitting is probably the culprit of the problem, not the hose itselft unless the hose is puntucred, if that is the case then you have to rebuild it and the fittings are fine. I save all the money for a new hose and did not cost me more than five bucks total. Its been a year of this, and had no leaks from that area, the rack is leaking a bit but does not even leave a puddle just a little, not enough to concern me. Good Luck if you look in the past forums there you should find mine experience in the LS 400. CPR

I am planing to flush the P/S system, and saw there is this product Seafoam for Transmissions and P/S Systems. Do you colleagues think it will damage the packings in the pumps and rack? Your suggestions highly appreciated. I am planning to do this because I took some of the fluid from the P/S tank and put it in a white container and even as it look nice red in color I could see some gunk in it. CPR

Hi: :P I figure it out why the vanes would not stay in place, they had two pieces that fell off and found them in the seats this morning. Took the vents out and after like 3 hours put them toghether and snap them back in the car. I now feel I can rest with the LEX and enjoy life a little more. Oxygen sensor problem, fixed, A/C noise Fixed, now the only things is the bumper that has some minor problems that will need paint, and presto. Also learned the Lexol is the best for the Leather I will go an buy some ASAP. Sincerely: C. PR Hope you do not have to take that vent apart, is a mess putting it back up. I feel it was designed by The N. Pole Santa helper, yes those small personages, of the movies... Hi! I have a 98 LS 400. The little clip on the left vent has come off. I read your post, and looked at the link. IUs there anything, from your experience, that might help me in taking apart & fixing this? Thanks, Willie

Just take off the one in the other side and go to Pepboys, autozone or some other qualified parts place and ask for a similar one. Or go to the dealer or the people of Irontoad and ask for a description of the part. And buy something like an oil filter from them so they do not feel used.CPR

Try researching the post further because the issue has been dealt before look for older post when you do so in this forum. I remember reading about it, but cannot say for certain what the solutions were besides the tapping. CPR

I had 3 Fords/Mercury products, two of them very good one of them very sad to say the least. I learned that what the CEO's do not say it is usually they loudest message. If the Ford CEO had a choice, he'd drive a Lexus. That is the biggest/loudest message in the whole article. He should have created an alliance with Toyota and help his company and Toyota at the same time. Ford has some of the finest luxury brand vehicles in America and much of the early Lexus LS it is of the likes of Lincoln's. The sometimes bad thing about Ford is durability, they just do not last without something breaking at least once a month even if that something it extremely minute. I had a 1987 Cougar XR7 Loaded to the max and that was a great car! Had instant fuel econmy/avrg, distance to empty, Oil pressure gauge, voltmeter, water temp and number of gallons of gas or litters in the tank. Most of these my Lex has, but not all. The ride in my Lex is about the same as the 1987 XR7, but like I said the reliability of the Lexus is far superior. The P/S systems of both are prone to problems and the tranny of the Cougar gave out after 135,000 miles, two alternators, one brake pump, on water pump, some hoses, one rack, the rest were routine maintenance items, plus little parts breaking here and there. I had the car for 11 years of faithful service two accidents. It needed a traction control system, one of the accidents was caused because of the lack of it. Lexus took care of the problem in my car with the ABS, Trac systems. C.PR