1990LS400

IMO, far better information is available in owners surveys and evaluations on http://www.tirerack.com/ than from anecdotal information from a few people on a car forum. Also, my opinion again, the term "performance snow tire" is an oxymoron. As much progress that has been made in snow tire design - and a lot of progress has been made - a performance snow tire is going to be more similar to an all season tire than a true winter tire. The Michelin X-Ice Xi2 is a very highly rated winter tire. I might have bought a set this year if I hadn't absolutely loved the Bridgestone Blizzak WS50 winter tires I squeezed seven winters out of. So I bought a set of Bridgestone Blizzak WS70 tires in July and put them and my snow wheels on my 2000 LS400 the week before Thanksgiving. Based on the Tire Rack evaluations, my take is that the Michelin X-Ice Xi2 is slightly more biased towards dry road performance and the Bridgestone Blizzak WS70 is more biased towards snow performance. The tread patterns of both look almost identical but the WS70 tread has slightly wider gaps. I would expect that either tire would serve you well.

Here is a link to a company that has interface harnesses for phone kits for your 02 RX with nav -- using one can simplify installation: http://www.quickconnectproducts.com/Find/find.php Also attached is the wiring diagram for you 02 RX with nav - from the ARRC website which is available through many public libraries. If you don't want to use an interface harness, I suggest you try to use the mute wire (labeled "TMUT") meant for the dealer installed Lexus phone system -- looks like that would be a "violet" color wire according to the wiring diagram. Also attached is a diagram showing the location where the dealer installed telephone "computer" or ECU would have been installed - looks like under the floor on the right side of the trunk ... same as in my 00 LS400. You might pick up the mute wire there if you can't find it further forward in your RX - I remember that other RX owners have picked up the mute there and ran a mute wire forward under the carpet or door sill trim to connect with their phone kits. Once you find the mute wire, turn the radio on and test the mute wire by grounding it with an un-powered test light or similar test tool - the radio should mute when you ground it. From the 1995 through 2000 model years, most Lexus models had a telephone mute wire under the center console but I doubt if any models had it after that. All this might seem like a lot of work but connecting your phone kit's mute wire to the audio system mute is probably the most important part of a phone kit installation. Let us know what you are installing and how it goes. 2002 RX300 nav audio system diagram.pdf

I never use tire dressings since many (most?) tire makers specifically recommend against them. Maybe some are safe but I don't know: http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=harmful+effects+of+tire+dressings&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=3f2d83e828bdfbc I just wipe the outside of the tires down with a towel each time I wash my car - that keeps them looking pretty good. I also don't allow my cars to be washed or the interior cleaned when I take a car in for service. From my experience, most damage at repair shops and dealerships is caused by clean up crews.

First of all, are the plastic lenses on your headlights crystal clear? I ask because I saw an RX300 a few months ago with lenses so cloudy and worn that I doubt if much light could pass through them. The plastic headlight lenses on my 00 LS were dull and cloudy and the light output improved dramatically after I restored the lenses with a Crystal View kit I bought at Advance Auto. Sure, headlights can be aligned. You can take it to a repair shop with fancy equipment or do it yourself with a tape measure, a flat surface, a wall to shine your headlights against, a bit of masking tape and the appropriate wretches or screwdrivers. You can find general instructions by doing an internet search such as http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=how+to+align+headlights&aq=0&aqi=g4g-o1&aql=f&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=573da4ec7e15bdf2

I know this is an old thread but I thought I should add that a battery purchased from a Toyota dealer is warrantied only if it is installed in a Toyota brand vehicle - even though Lexus vehicles are manufactured by Toyota Motor Company. You can buy the exact same battery, including a warranty, at a Lexus dealer although it will likely cost a bit more - $109/installed for a 24F battery as of last week at my local Lexus dealership. Maybe it's a fluke but of the many batteries we have bought for our Toyota and Lexus cars, the Toyota branded batteries have lasted the longest.

Got Google? http://www.google.com/search?q=car+seat+protector+for+dogs&hl=en&prmd=ivs&source=univ&tbs=shop:1&tbo=u&ei=xUz0TOLtHYK2sAORgaXLCw&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CEYQrQQwAg&biw=1280&bih=867

Well at least it looks like the previous owner had some warranty work done just before the basic warranty expired. Just because he didn't have maintenance done at a Lexus dealership doesn't mean anything. I'm in my 21st year with Lexus cars and I've rarely had anything but warranty work done by Lexus dealers. With a little "sleuthing" you might be able to contact the previous owner and ask questions if you want to. You might find the previous owner's name on documents that were involved in your purchase. Or you could ask the dealership for the name - it shouldn't be a secret. When I purchase my 2000 LS400 in 2003, the local Lexus dealer that sold the car when new even contacted the first owner/lessee on my behalf to inquire about missing keys.

That no records at all are available from the Lexus dealer sounds fishy -- hard to believe previous owner(s) would not have taken it for at least some warranty work. First of all register your car's VIN in the owners section of http://www.lexus.com/ so you can see your car's maintenance history. The owners section (link is at the lower left of the Lexus home page) was down when I just checked but I used it several times earlier today. If it turns out your car really has no maintenance history, I think you should act accordingly and do whatever maintenance might have been missed at the the previous scheduled maintenance intervals -- which is probably not all that much. That the dealer would sell you a service warranty on a car that has no maintenance history seems suspicious to me especially if you bought this car at a Lexus dealer. Maybe the salesman or F&I guy wasn't being straight about the maintenance history in order to get you to bite on a service warranty which has a nose bleed high profit margin for the dealer.

From your navigation manual: "Playing the tracks on all the audio discs in random order — Select “RAND” for longer than a second while the disc is playing. “D.RAND” appears on the screen. The system selects a track on all the audio discs in the changer in random order. To cancel it, select “RAND” once again."

If your location "Sydney" means Australia, it's hard to saw way features are customizable down there - it's not the same in all countries. But attached is the list of features that can be customized on the 2007 U.S. spec RX350. I don't see customization of the rear door lift height as one of the customizable features. 2007 RX350 Customizable Features.pdf

Take a look (with your volume turned up!) at this New York City Times Square web cam: http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/?cam=lennon_hd During the few minutes I watched/listened I heard quite a bit of honking but at least half the vehicles I saw were taxi cabs. As I said earlier, it's been a loooong time (decades) since I rode with an American born cab driver and, IMO, immigrant cab drivers seem quick to use their horns. New York City is an aberration. I've driven in other parts of New York on business (i.e. Albany) and pleasure trips and have never heard the kind of honking that is typical in NYC.

I just read a number of the comments under that AOL Auto article on honking and saw that people who had traveled widely around the world disagree with the author of the article like I do. I particularly liked the comment from the person who speculated that most of the honking in U.S. cities (e.g. from cab drivers) was being done by recent immigrants from countries where honking is far more common. I don't use cabs much but I cannot remember the last time I had a driver who was American born including limo driver cousins Mario and Luis who recently came here from Veracruz Mexico and shuttle us to the airport. Regarding Paul's comment about honking on the east cost of Florida, I didn't notice it when driving there for two weeks in 2007 but maybe it was because it was July. Florida is, after all, the number one U.S. destination for foreign tourists so maybe they are the ones doing most of the honking that is being done there. Or maybe some of the west coast Florida honking is related to the rather elderly retiree/snowbird population there. I know a number of people who work in the Boca Raton office of a company that split off from the company I retired from and they had a constant stream of horror stories about elderly drivers there doing such things as mistaking a wide sidewalk for a street. I've used my car horn only a few times in the past year -- occasionally for alerting a drivers who might have hit me but more often for "notifying" a person engrossed in a phone conversation that a traffic light had turned green or a phone user who was wandering into my lane. The original horns for the LS400 I bought in 1990 are out in my garage in a box. The original gen 1 LS400 horns were so wimpy and ineffective that owners complained and Lexus replaced thousands of them at no cost. I waited too long and paid for the replacement myself only after I was run off an Interstate highway by a lane changing school bus driver who obviously could not hear my horn. If my wife hadn't sold my wonderful Hella Super Tone horns at a garage sale in 1999, maybe I'd put them on my 00 LS. I still have the Italian air horns and electric air compressor I had on my Triumph Spitfire back in the 1960's. Maybe I should rig that up on the LS!

The attached iPod interface installation instructions for the European IS250 show removing the glovebox. IS250 iPod install instructions.pdf

My experiences have apparently been completely different from that of the author of that article. I've noticed that U.S. and Canadian drivers use their horns far less than drivers in just about all the other countries I've visited and sometimes driven in. I've had other drivers in the U.K. riding my tale and honking if I'm driving only a few mph under the speed limit on rural two land roads. Italian drivers are legendary for using their horns. I especially remember a delivery truck in Paris blocking a street and what seem like a hundred drivers leaning on their horns until he moved. The author of the article is full of $#!+. And, Paul, I didn't hear a single car horn today in Des Moines.

The solution is to replace the mirror glass with a new one. Or you could purchase an entire used mirror and housing but you might end up with a mirror that also has problems and the whole mirror housing is more difficult to remove/install than just the glass. I've read that some people just glue a piece of ordinary mirror glass on top of the existing mirror but of course the auto tint function is lost and it might not look so good. You have to be very careful when removing the mirror glass to avoid breaking the clips holding it in place. There may be instructions somewhere on this forum and there may be instructions in the repair manuals for your car since (I think) there are in the repair manuals for my 00 LS. I remember the removal procedure involves using a shop towel or other small cloth to pull the mirror glass out but I don't remember the details. Replacement mirror glass has sometimes been on eBay and can probably be bought from an online parts supplier like Sewell Lexus which gives forum members a discount: http://lexus.sewellparts.com/ Sewell is, of course, in Dallas near the old airport but I don't know if you could get the discount by walking in. Attached is a diagram that shows the glass and part numbers for your car. Register on http://www.toyodiy.com and you can view the diagrams too. The mirrors on my car have a few small blue blotches so I'll probably be replacing the mirror glass at some point.

I have purchased only one used car (my current 2000 LS400 in 2003) in the past 30+ years. Before I purchased it, I checked its maintenance manual log to verify that required maintenance had been performed at the appropriate mileages and on dates that seemed to correlate with the car's age. The maintenance log had the Lexus dealer's stamp on each entry. I had no reason to question the accuracy of the maintenance manual or the honesty of the independent dealer/broker who sold the car to me. Still, since I purchased the car late on a Friday afternoon on the way to a football game 300 miles away and did not have time to check with the Lexus dealer, I stopped by the Lexus dealer on the next Monday to verify that the the dealer's computerized records matched the maintenance manual. Everything matched and I have since driven the car 92,000 miles. If there is no maintenance log and you can not verify the odometer reading with Lexus, ask for maintenance receipts that show dates and odometer readings.

I don't have an IS250C but I suspect it will generally "suck" in the snow without snow tires like every other RWD car I've owned since the 1960's. Whether you need snow tires depends on how much, if any, you need to drive it during the winter and how much tolerance you have for occasionally getting stuck or contending with moments of terror. If you decide on snow tires, IMO you are better off buying OEM wheels instead of aftermarket. Aftermarket wheels come and go and it can be difficult or impossible to find a replacement if you ever trash one. Craigslist or ebay are good places to look for used OEM wheels. And buy only snow tires with the mountain/snowflake symbol on the sidewall. Some tires sold as snow tires are really just all season tires even though they may have something like "M + S" on the sidewalls.

Your navigation disk is in a separate drive in the top right corner of your glove box. Your audio CD's are in a separate CD changer in the center stack. Your navigation manual has instructions on how to eject the navigation CD and install a new one. Be sure the glove box door is open when you do it. If you don't have a navigation manual you can view it online at https://secure.drivers.lexus.com . There is no need to register to see the manuals but you might as well. Have you had a Lexus dealer look at your CD changer problem? It might be something simple and even covered under warranty.

blown head gasket.

The lexls website is for a gen 1 LS400 which is very different from a 98-00 LS. The 98-00 LS engine/cooling system is probably more similar to the 01-03 LS430 than to the gen 1 LS400. Since the 98-00 LS water inlet housing doesn't have a filler hole, maybe you could remove the inlet housing and thermostat and fill it that way. Maybe someone (Billy?) who has actually done this on a 98-00 LS400 will tell you. EDIT! In the radiator replacement instructions of my 00 LS400 repair manual, simply says something like "add coolant" after installing the radiator and all hoses. I'm guessing that means to just add the coolant as you would normally.

Here is a link to the website of one of several companies that sell nav override products for the 08 ES: http://www.prestigioussociety.com/?page_id=138 You can probably find others with Google but the prices don't seem to vary much.

A second front cup holder was added to the SC in 1995. The attached diagram shows where it goes. There used to be instructions somewhere on adding the second cup holder to an earlier SC but I haven't yet found them. For the rear, maybe http://www.ultimatecupholders.com/ can help you. If you don't see something that will work, email him for a recommendation. Maybe an aftermarket folding Mercedes cup holder would work (see attached photo). They've been around for decades but some of those available are a lot higher quality than others. Maybe eBay would be a good place to look for this stuff.

You kidding, Randy? Who would install mudflaps "for looks"? Mudflaps are functional. They cut down on paint chips from rocks and debris kicked up by tires and keep the car sides a little cleaner. I'm especially glad I have them on the rare occasions I find myself on gravel roads or freshly oiled blacktop. The mudflaps I bought from a London (U.K.) dealer in 1990 for my 90 LS were larger and more effective than the smaller ones I bought from a Canadian dealer (Metro Toyota/Lexus, Victoria BC) in 2003 for my 00 LS. My three Volvos all came with mudflaps. I bought a set of mudflaps for my Mercedes 240D from a Calgary Mercedes dealer shortly after I bought it in 1979. I've put OEM mudflaps on a variety of other cars - mainly Hondas - over the years. Do you see a pattern?

L-tuned has them for $300/set: http://www.l-tunedparts.com/product/?id=11 But I don't know if L-tuned has them in colors. Be aware that the rear ones for sure and maybe the front ones are different between the 01-03 and 04-06 LS430. You might want to call them since it looks like the are selling the same set for both LS430 series. I just looked and saw that Ebay seller zeroism702 still has them in his store in colors for US$335 and they are specifically for the 04-06 Celsior/LS430 - I think the seller is in Japan. You might find other sellers by searching eBay or with Google, Bing, etc.

I doubt if I could explain dynamic balancing but you can find plenty of information by doing a Google. Spin balancing doesn't always mean dynamic balancing. For example, Costco spin balanced my aftermarket wheels and new snow tires in July but could not do a true dynamic balance due to the insufficient clearance between the brake calipers and rim and the lack of wheel lips that could accept hammer on weights. That type of balancing is usually just fine if the tires are good and the wheels are true. It certainly isn't going to hurt to replace the transmission mount. It's only that Billy is the only person I remember who reported that a vibration like this was caused by that. There have been many people who have reported that they solved highway speed vibrations on 98-00 LS400s by replacing the strut bar/bushing assemblies. Do you know anyone else with a 98-00 LS400? If you do and his/her car doesn't have a vibration problem, swap wheels and see if the vibration is the same. Have you rotated the tires to see if the vibration pattern changes? And, again, is your car still on the original strut rod assemblies at 122,000 miles? Some people have said that pressing in new strut rod bushings does not provides results as good as buying the entire assemblies but I don't have personal experience with replacing only the bushings.