1990LS400

I wonder if the "smoke" type is what you need. From www.toyotiy.com ... 42621 CAP, WHEEL 42603-24240 TYPE B:REFER ILLUST. 42603-24330 CHROME PLATED(SMOKE) TYPE, TYPE C:REFER ILLUST. 42603-24340 SATIN TYPE, TYPE C:REFER ILLUST. I googled part number 42603-24330 and found some, including on eBay, that definitely were darker than regular chrome. The color looks like that of the "black pearl" emblems on the 2000 LS400 Platinum Series I sold last year.

Some people buy nav discs on ebay, Amazon, etc. but be careful to get an original disc and not a hot copy. OEM discs are relatively inexpensive. The following web page shows the generation 2/3 disc you need at bottom of the chart: http://www.lexusnavigation.com/what-to-order/ I don't know what the West/East dealer verbiage is about; I thought the disc covered the entire U.S. You might look around the lexusnavigation website - there is a page where you can enter the VIN of your car. The final gen 2/3 map update was released in 2013 and has part number suffix "-13". I think you can see the release year of your current maps by selecting settings without having to remove and eyeball the disc. Attached are instructions on how to install a map update disc in a number of models including the SC430. Navigation_Update_InstallationGuide.pdf

Only you can decide whether to follow the manufacturer's maintenance schedule. Previous owner(s) obviously did not. The cost of the 90K service might seem high in light of the car's current value and age. Is this a car that you would like to keep for a number of years? Is it something you would be OK with walking away from if the engine was severely damaged by a failed tensioner, idler, etc.? It is totally your call on what to do. I follow maintenance schedules closely but I know that many people do not. There is a fuel filter in the fuel tank but it is not a normal maintenance item. If your SC has the navigation system, you might be interested in knowing that there will be no more annual map updates for the generation 2 navigation system although the final map update was fairly recent.

The hitch for the 2010+ GX460 is dramatically different and smaller than for your 2007 GX470 - probably due to structural changes. The larger hitch for your GX470 should not be all that much more difficult to install. I buy my hitches and other towing related stuff from www.etrailer.com

Be sure that the water pump, tensioner, and idlers are also replaced when the timing belt is replaced during the full 90K service.

Remove the battery from the extra fob. It can still be used to start the engine by holding it close to the Start button as you press it.

I wish I had known about www.taninautoelectronix.com when I had gauge problems. I recommend contacting them and describing the problems you are having.

Johnny, Paul is insane and drools in his soup. He has a hunchback, a peg leg and thinks he is Napoleon one day and Fidel Castro the next. Pay no attention to him. Jim

Those Auto zone guys have mis-firing brain cells - complete B.S. What are the error codes? Many issues can trigger the CEL and VSC OFF. Any other symptoms?

Your questions is especially interesting to me since I recently tried setting the reverse tilt mirror angle into memory on my 2014 Toyota Sienna Limited using instructions in the 2015 Sienna owners manual that apply only to the Sienna Limited. The procedure to set the reverse mirror angle did not work on my 2014 Sienna Limited and no one on the Sienna Chat forum can get it to work on their 2015 Sienna Limiteds either. I was hoping that this would be an undocumented feature on my 2014 Sienna. I doubt that the feature you want is on the 2006-2009 RX but I would not be surprised if it was available on the current RX. Maybe the reason that your mirrors are not tilting a consistent amount is that they have sometimes been adjusted at different angles I think the tilt-down angle is fixed and the same position regardless of how the mirror is adjusted. Since I'm mainly concerned with getting the right side mirror to tilt further down, the workaround I use is to leave the mirror selector switch on "R" (Right) and then to press the "down" portion of the mirror adjustment switch to further lower the right side mirror from its reverse tilt position. It's not the best solution and sometimes I have to do it more than once when parallel parking but at least it allows me to see how far the right rear tire is from the curb. Our Prius v wagon has the self parking feature which we never use due to it being so small and easy to parallel park. It would be wonderful if our Sienna had the self parking feature since it can be a bear to parallel park even with its reverse camera and front and rear parking sensors.

I think this means that you have a rear light bulb out. Do you see the indicator in the following owners manual section?: http://drivers.lexus.com/t3Portal/document/om/OM53489U/pdf/om1sourc/2005om/05is300o/13.pdf The full owner, navigation and warranty manuals can be viewed in the owner section of the Lexus website: http://drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrivers/home It is not necessary to register on the Lexus website to view manuals but if you do you may be able to see the service history of your car.

I may be legendary in my own mind but nowhere else. Well, you would blind the $#!+ out of people for sure if you had put an HID kit in the OEM headlights. As long as you have a sharp beam cutoff that is below the eye level of oncoming drivers on level roads then you might not be hurting people too badly. The 1990 LS400 that I owned for 13 1/2 years was very sensitive to passenger and cargo load. When I had a full load of passengers and luggage in the trunk, its OEM headlights did a great job of lighting up the tree tops and blinding other drivers. The only gen 1 LS400's that don't have this problem are the ones with air suspension which keeps the car level with a full load. All gen 1 LS400 sold in the UK and Europe had a beam adjustment switch on the dash to adjust the beam level downward when the car was loaded - wish we could have had that here on the gen 1 LS400. I thought it was funny that the 2014 Sienna Limited van I bought last year has a beam adjustment switch on the dash that looks just like the one in the UK/Europe gen 1 LS400.

You would need a very knowledgeable installer to replace the Nak head unit with an aftermarket one since interface harnesses are not commercially available. A super Best Buy installer replaced the Nak head unit in my 2000 LS400 with a double DIN screen based DDX470 in 2013 using the Nak amp and all the Nak speakers including the subwoofer. He spent about half the install time building a small interface harness using special pin connectors that individually plugged into the slots in the connector leading to the Nak amp. Install cost was $125 which bought the total cost to almost exactly $500 including the DDX470 and a $15 bracket/surround kit that I think I got from Amazon.com. I liked the Pandora interface of the DDX470 better than the Pandora interface in Toyota Entune and Lexus Enform. If you just want an aux-in and don't want too spend much, try Factory Radio Service in California: http://factoryradioservice.com/page.html?id=1 Factory Radio Service added its most deluxe aux-in to the Nak head unit in my 2000 LS400 for around $110 including shipping it back to me in Kansas. They installed an on/off button on the front of the Nak head unit and put the aux-in port on the back of it. They included a 6-foot aux-in cord that I routed to a phone holder. The aux-in was into the FM section of my Nak but it sounded absolutely CD quality. My CD changer was working and I could tell no difference between music on an original commercial CD and the same music that I had burned from CD to my phone. I did have to use a cheap ground loop isolator to suppress engine whine if I remember correctly but it didn't effect sound quality.

One guy said: "OEM connector located under the drivers side rear located adjacent to the rear bumper. You need to remove the pan where the trailer hitch goes to get to the connector." I don't know if the attached document is accurate but take a look. It seems to conflict with the above statement. Adding RX Tow Converter for trailer lights on FWD RX 350.pdf

NOOOOOOOOOOO! How could I shift while holding my beer and cigar? I now can't believe that my wife and I both bought so many stick shift cars from when we met in the middle 1970's through the 1980's ... VW Rabbit, three Volvos, four Hondas, one Mercedes. What were we thinking? The reliability of automatic transmissions passed that of manual transmissions decades ago. I've never had problems with automatic transmissions but synchronizers in two of the manual transmission cars I've had failed to the point that I had to double clutch in order to shift gears. OK, one of those two cars was an awful Triumph Spitfire (S#itfire) I drove in the 1960's but the other was the Mercedes 240D I bought new in 1979. Every time I'm in an endless bumper to bumper traffic jam creeping down an Interstate highway I am thankful that I don't have to constantly shift and push a clutch pedal.

Sometimes it is easier to just delete your phone from the nav system and then to set up and pair your phone again. My understanding is that my 2014 Toyota Sienna has the same generation 5 navigation system used in the 2006 to 2009 Lexus RX - far from the current generation 8 but it works well enough. I can add a contact directly to the address book in my Sienna by following these steps: Press the Off-hook button the steering wheel. Press the "Contacts" button on the nav screen. Select "Options". Select "Manage Contacts". Select "New Contact" (or "Edit Contacts" if you wish to change any). Enter the contact name and press OK. Enter the contact number and press OK. iPhones generally don't have as much compatibility with Toyota/Lexus nav/phone systems as Android phones. For example, the nav/phone system in our Prius will read incoming email and text messages aloud from my Samsung S5 (Android) phone and allow me to respond with "canned" replies but my wife's iPhone 6 does not support any of that.

Very tasteful. I see chrome grill slats, clear turn signal and side marker light lenses and aftermarket headlight/foglight units (Depo, Eagle Eyes?). I would stop there but I'm very conservative. I'd bet that you could hide the minor curb rash on the lip of your bumper with some spray paint like from http://www.paintscratch.com/touch_up_paint/Lexus/1994-Lexus-LS400.html

You'll have to go with substantially lower profile tires on 19" rims to keep your speedometer accurate. You can determine the tire size you will need by using one of the many "tire size calculator" websites (Google it). Or consult a company like Tire Rack. 19" inch tires will be substantially more expensive, wear out quicker and provide a harsher ride. Having TPM sensors will be even more important since it is more difficult to visually identify a very low profile tire that is low on air pressure. And the ECU in your ES will have to be programmed to monitor the new TPMS. If your ES ECU allows for only one set of TPMS then you will have to reprogram the ES ECU each time you switch between winter and summer tires. Repair shops and dealers usually charge $100+ for reprogramming the ECU with TPMS ID's but you can do it yourself if you buy a tool like the ATEQ Quickset I have which cost me about $150 on Amazon.com. I sometimes downsize when buying winter tires and wheels. For example, our 2012 Prius wagon came with 17" wheels and tires but I bought 16" wheels and tires (Blizzak WS70) for winter use. Our 2014 Sienna came with 18" wheels but I bought 17" wheels and tires (Blizzak WS80) for winter use. Smaller diameter wheels and higher profile tires make for a more compliant ride on potholed winter roads and smaller higher profile winter tires are usually less expensive.

Is "they" a Lexus dealership and at what mileage was the water pump replaced? The timing belt is supposed to be replaced every 90K miles or nine years (whichever comes first) per the LX470 maintenance schedule. Here is a link to it: http://drivers.lexus.com/t3Portal/document/omms/06LexSCHU_MS0011/pdf/06LexSCHU_MS0011f.pdf Timing belts rarely fail on their own but are ruined when another component fails - water pump, idler, tensioner. I had a water pump fail and take out the timing belt at about 75,000 miles from new on my first Lexus (1990 LS400). Most of the other timing belt failures I've known about have really been failures of an idler or tensioner. We've had a bunch of Lexus and Toyota timing belts changed pretty close to the maintenance schedule although I've gone one year past the recommended number of years one time. Other than the timing belt that was trashed by the water pump failure, all the old timing belts looked like new when they were replaced at 90,000 or 180,000 miles. At least timing belt replacement is becoming a thing of the past. Depending on model, most vehicles made by Toyota after 2006 or 2007 have a timing chain.

One of my tasks during the 2010 U.S. Census was to interview administrators of nursing homes (and group homes, prisons, convents, hospitals, hotels, etc. - places where groups of unrelated people live in structures they do not own.) I quickly noticed the potential of vehicle damage while parked in nursing home parking lots. Residents of nursing homes are usually elderly and so are a significant percentage of the people who visit them. I'm not saying that all or most elderly people are bad "parkers" - it just usually gets more difficult to maneuver a vehicle as one gets older. So ... from my experience, a nursing home parking lot at top of my list of places to be vigilant when parking.

Maybe the damage was not caused by vandalism. I've had similar damage caused by shopping carts including one event in the parking lot of the grocery store I frequent which badly scarred a headlight lens and the surrounding bodywork of the 00 LS I sold last year. I've seen my own wife drag the zippers of purses and softsided briefcases along the sides of our vehicles - I keep asking her to STOP IT! And I've seen people drag briefcases, shopping bags - you name it - countless times along the sides of vehicles in parking lots. I've had exterior mirrors of my cars get banged up by people walking between my vehicles and vehicles parked beside them. I've knocked against exterior mirrors myself numerous times when the mirrors of two vehicles parked side by side were aligned and left little space to walk between them. My take is that most people view cars only as transportation devices and about all we can do is to try to park defensively as much as we can and have damage repaired when it occurs. Now that I have a vehicle with electric folding mirrors, I always fold the mirrors inward when I park in public areas An alternative to having paint damage repaired at a regular body shop is to use a mobile painting service. I've had the same guy who touches up cars for the local Lexus dealer touchup our cars while they were sitting in our driveway. I thought the metallic white of my LS would be hard to match but "Picasso" (that's his nickname) did a perfect job and charged only $100 total to respray areas of the LS and the Camry the last time he visited. And I love Dr. Dent. They apparently use magic since I can't tell where the dings were.

Well dang. But at least your persistence paid off.

Some opinions can be found by using the Search feature of this forum. I found a number of threads about Katzkin including positive comments from a person who bought Katzkin. http://www.leatherseats.com also has leather kits for the RX300.

Total production numbers and the numbers sold in the U.S. and Japan can be found on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexus_SC The SC430 was sold in Japan as the Toyota Soarer up through 2005 but I don't see production/sales data on the Wiki page for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Soarer

Optional on which Lexus model? They don't look like official Lexus wheels to me but that doesn't mean that a Lexus dealer didn't sell them. The Lexus dealership here has sold aftermarket wheels since the day it opened in 1989.