1990LS400

The strut bars run from the front suspension units forward and attach to the car's unibody "frame". You can see them if you kneel down and look ahead of the front wheels. Worn strut bar bushings are not obvious even when they are really worn out. I must have had five mechanics look at it before a Lexus dealer mechanic identified the problem. If yours have not been replaced in the last 75,000 miles then don't bother doing a diagnosis and just replace them. My 00 LS400 was being blowing all over the road by cross winds before I had the strut bars and bushings replaced and I had to constantly make steering corrections to keep the car on course. After replacement the car tracked perfectly. The strut bar bushings may be available separately but the cost of having them pressed into your existing strut bars may be more expensive than buying the whole units. If you buy the bushings separately, make sure they are positioned correctly when they are pressed into the strut bars. Not all mechanics have the equipment for pressing in new bushings.

The current Highlander's length/width of 191.1/75.8 inches isn't that much bigger than the current RX's length/width of 187.8/74.2. We were waiting for a 2014 Highlander Hybrid Limited until we found that the Toyota dealer was misleading us about it coming with HID headlights. (Ain't buying no more vehicles with halogen headlights.) My assumption is that the dealer thought we would accept the Highlander anyway regardless of the headlight type. For us, a drawback of most of the current mid-size crossovers like the Toyota Highlander, Acura MDX, Kia Sorento, and Hyundai Sante Fe is that their third row seats are suitable for children, small adults or for larger adults only for short distances. The Highlander has the least amount of third row legroom at 27.7 inches, with the MDX at 28.1, the Sante Fe at 31.5 and the Sorento at 31.7 inches. To put these figures into perspective, the rear seat of a Lexus IS has 32.2 inches of legroom. The 2000 LS400 I sold last year had 36.9 inches of rear legroom and the Sienna that replaced it has 36.3 inches of legroom in the third row. The "smaller" Ford Explorer that Midwesterner suggested is actually larger than all the vehicles mentioned above at 197.1 inches in length and it has 33.2 inches of legroom in the third row which is more than adequate for a normal size adult. Regardless of the limitations of three row seating configurations, people increasingly expect a mid-size SUV or crossover to be able to carry six to eight people even if adults in the third row aren't very comfortable. It would be nice if new RX has at least as much legroom for the third row as the current IS has in its back seat.

Worn strut bar bushings can cause sloppy handling. The original ones on the 2000 LS400 I used to have were worn out long before I replaced them at around 83,000 miles. Car drove like new with the replacements.

Toyota has to increase the size of the Lexus RX to add a third row of seats if it wants to compete against the Acura MDX which was enlarged and equipped with a third row of seats for the 2014 model year. The Lexus NX is now positioned to compete with the Acura RDX and is only slightly smaller than the current RX so it seems obvious what has to be done with the new RX. People who won't like the new larger RX will still have the NX to fall back to. An RX the size of the current larger MDX isn't a bad thing. The MDX is a like a cleverly disguised minivan but the SH-AWD version of it is incredibly fun to drive; I hated to cancel our order of one last year when the delivery date kept slipping. The MDX was vastly more fun to drive than the smaller RX F-Sport that we also considered. A big negative of the RX F-Sport for us was that it was only a 5-seater and we wanted to be able to carry at least six people in a pinch so we crossed it off our list pretty quickly. So ... I'm all for a larger RX that can carry seven or eight people. And Toyota needs to bump up it's game and add more features to the redesigned RX ... such as adding LKA, RCTA, auto dimming headlights and make VDIM standard. WTH is going on when my Sienna has VDIM and RCTA but you have to buy the RX F-Sport to get VDIM and RCTA isn't available at all on the RX.

Yes, the VSC button is supposed to light. I didn't find diagrams showing replaceable bulbs or diodes on www.toyodiy.com but that doesn't mean much. I've never heard of these buttons failing to light. Can you see a bulb or diode behind the buttons when you remove the wood console panel? Is there any sign of light in the VSC off button if you turn up the dash light rheostat to the highest brightest level?

Yes, you will not have a phone ECU in the trunk since this is not a Lexus phone system. Most people who haved asked about phone systems in Lexus cars have had dealer installed Lexus phone systems which was why I assumed that your car had one too. The cable you found running from your phone cradle foward towards the dash probably connects to a junction box that was part of the aftermarket phone system. It is probably not necessary to remove junction box or any other of the components of the aftermarket phone system unless they are causing problems. The junction box I am talking about will have ports for plugging in the cradle, microphone, speaker, ground and power and probably has connection for a mute wire than the installer may have connected to the HVAC and radio systems. The main connection to be concerned about is the power wire which I assume is connected to either the ignition switch or the underdash fuse box - the main reason you don't want to cut the aftermarket phone systems power wire is that you don't want to start a fire! Once you disconnect the microphone cable from the junction box, you can probably just cut the microphone off its cable and push the cable end behind the interior trim ... unless you want to do more interior disassembly and remove all the aftermarket phone system wiring and components. If he ever looks, the current owner of my 2000 LS400 is probably going to wonder what the heck all all the extra wiring is for.since I simply cut the microphone off its cable and removed the phone cradle but left all the other aftermarket Nokia phone system components in place. After giving up on the Nokia system, I mainly used the handsfree phone function of a Garmin GPS in my 2000 LS400. I had the Garmin mounted on a Pro.Fit bracket by the radio and it's traffic information receiver and power cord hidden and hardwired into the car's accessory circuit. The Garmin worked extremely well with my Samsung Android phone and I could send navigation requests from my phone (address book, Google search) to the Garmin by Bluetooth via the Garmin Smartphone Link app running on my phone. There's a thread on this forum about that from several years ago.

OK, now I see your photos! You have an aftermarket phone system and not a Lexus phone system. You'll have to trace the wires to see where they go. I had aftermarket Nokia phone systems in both my 1990 and 2000 LS400. The Lexus dealer had the aftermarket system installed for me in the 1990 when I bought it and I installed the one in the 2000 LS400 myself. If your aftermarket phone system muted the radio and lowered the fan speed, who knows how the installer did it. He may have done it one of the tacky ways and tied directly into the head unit, amplifier and HVAC controls instead of doing it the easy way and connecting into the OEM phone system. Most professional installers don't understand how to connect into the factory prewiring and tend to conect directly to the radio, amp and HVAC system. I assume you will want to remove the cradle from the upper console tray. Assuming that the installer did not drill all the way through the upper console, the upper console tray insert can be pried out with a putty knife or plastic interior trim tool. Be careful not to break the insert because they cannot be purchased separately.

OK, I'm typing on a real computer now - easier than typing on my phone. I don't drop by this forum much since I sold my 2000 LS400 last April. We are talking about a dealer installed Lexus branded phone system, aren't we? My experience with dealer installed Lexus branded phone systems in the 98-00 LS400 has been limited to the fixed phone system - the old fashioned fixed car phone type. Is this what you have or is yours the portable version that you can take with you? I have no experience with the Lexus branded portable phones. There should have been a cradle connector plugged into a fairly large six pin connector under the armrest vents on the driver side - the front center pins happens to be a radio mute pin but the radio can also be muted by grounding a pin on one of the phone conectors in the trunk. Your phone cradle may also have a thin antenna coax cable that connects to the car's thin gray antenna coax cable under the same vents under the armrest. You should be able to disconnect the antenna cable at a coupling under the vent under the armrest. I don't remember any cables going from the phone cradle forward to the dash unless this is the antenna cable and you should be able to unplug (unscrew) the phone cradle from it. You may have to follow the wire and see where it goes. If you need to remove the radio ahd HVAC controls, it is easy to do. It can be tricky to remove the center dash air vents without breaking them. Insert a small blade screw driver into the air vent on each side and pull the retaining clip on each side inward and then the vent should slide right out. The radio/HVAC unit is held in place by four 10 mm bolts.

There is no wire going from the phone cradle directly to the head unit. Simply unplug the cradle connector where they plug into the car's phone harness underneath the vents you see when the armrest is raised. Also unplug all the connectors from the phone ECU under the removal floor panel on the right side of the trunk, plug the two large connectors together and attach them to the white plastic bracket on the bottom of the tool box receptacle so that they don't get wet. Do not cut any cables!

Uhaul sometimes gets a bad rap but I've had three positive experiences at two Uhaul locations in the past year - mainly while helping a coworker get her Subaru equipped for towing and renting a trailer for a cross country move. I watched the etrailer.com installation video for the Curt hitch on the RX350 and it sure looks easy. It's odd that the Curt hitch I installed on my 2014 Senna is rated at a "4 out of 10" level of difficulty and the Curt hitch install on a 2015 RX350 is rated "5 out of 10" since the installation on the RX350 is definitely easier than on my Sienna which was pretty darned easy. I would rate the installation on your RX350 as a "3 out of 10" level of difficulty. Installation on your RX350 should be similar to that on my Sienna which is pretty much just a much larger RX350, Both your RX and my Sienna have three dedicated threaded bolt holes on each side for installing a trailer hitch. The only difference is that you will have to remove/discard your tow hooks to make room to install your hitch. Trimming the underbody panel looks very easy - substantially simpler than on my Sienna. You won't have to be concerned about cleaning the bolt holes since your RX is new. The underbody plastic panel is super easy to cut with a utility knife. The only part of the installation that is at all difficult is torqueing the six bolts that hold the hitch in place since a significant amount of force has to be exerted ... would have been easier if I had had a helper. If you do it yourself, you will likely need to put the rear of your RX on jack stands. Be sure to block the front wheels with wheel chocks. Harbor Freight is a cheap place to buy jack stands, wheel chocks and other tools if you need them. If you think you are ever going to tow a trailer, consider installing at least a "4-flat" trailer wiring harness at the same time. It may not be the same on your RX but on my Sienna it was easier to install a trailer wiring harness before installing a trailer hitch. etrailer's "complete towing package" is a bargain ... includes draw bar(s), balls, pins and a nifty storage bag. etrailer is a excellent place to buy trailer hitches and accessories. If you have questions during the install, etrailer will coach you through the problem by phone. I've been buying stuff from etrailer for many years - love that company!

$1.739 per gallon of regular at Costco in Des Moines, Iowa this morning. $1.689 per gallon of regular at Costco in Lenexa, Kansas this afternoon. The price has been dropping by about 10 cents per gallon every one to two weeks. I remember when regular leaded gasoline typically sold for 19.9 cents per gallon in the late 1950's and early 1960's and sometimes as low as 15 cents per gallon during "gas wars" as they were called when filling stations sold gasoline at or below their cost to "steal" customers from their competitors. And don't forget all the free stuff you got with every fill-up ... glassware ... dishes ... and other crap.. I remember the horror when "Clark Super 100" (leaded, supposedly 100 octane super premium gasoline) topped 30 cents per gallon in the 1960's. NOOOOOOOO!

$1,000 per side is a good price since current retail per Sewell Lexus is around $1,550.

Google OBD2 code readers.

Ask your Lexus dealer to increase the microphone sensitivity setting in the hidden service menu. Do not attempt to access the hidden service menu yourself since significant damage can be done if you don't know what you are doing. But it could also be a defective microphone causing the problem.

Check for stored problem codes. Numerous issues can cause these warnings with most having nothing to do with VSC.

Are any of the parts you need shown at http://lexus.sewellparts.com/oem-catalog/4804480013-PowertrainAndChassis-ES300-1998.html Register to with Sewell to get discounts. Find the part numbers you need and see if they are the same on the 1998 Camry.

Do you happen to be in the UK or does your LS400 have an aftermarket Nokia phone system? The way to get rid of the "beep" on the 98-00 LS400 sold in North America is to unplug all the dealer installed phone components WITHOUT CUTTING WIRES! On the North American dealer installed Lexus phone system, after unplugging all the connectors from the ECU under the false floor on the right side of the trunk, plug the two large connectors together and tuck (cable tie?) the cables and connectors up out of the way so that they don't get wet and cause a short circuit.

Fnd the part number for a US-spec vehicle at http://www.toyodiy.com/ and then use the "Search by Part Number" feature to find which vehicles in which world markets the part is used on. You may have to register to see the diagrams.

You have been fortunate. From our experience, dishonesty regarding repairs at car dealerships usually starts when the warranty expires. In the early 1990's I had a Lexus dealer service writer tell me that my just-out-of-warranty 1990 LS400 required a new $1,000+ ECU to get it running. Oddly, the need for that ECU vanished when I asked if I could use their phone to call a flatbed to have my car transported a couple hundred yards to an independent repair shop that specialized in repairing Lexus vehicles. The Lexus dealer service writer then told me that they would take another look at the problem and ended up charging me a nominal amount for replacing a battery cable or clamp. There was not even an apology. Just last summer (2013), a Lexus dealer service writer told me that my 2000 LS400 needed a brake job only a few miles after one had been done by an independent Lexus repair shop. A few years before that, another Lexus dealer service writer told me that I was endangering my family by not letting them do a brake job - when I had just measured the pads myself and verified that they were well within specification. Premature brake jobs seem to be the local Lexus dealer's favorite scam ... gotta cover the cost of those loaner cars! I have a hard time sitting in the Lexus dealer waiting room listening to the yarns service writers spin to sell services to other customers - especially to female customers. I know too much about automobile mechanicals - ignorance is bliss. The main reason I ended my 24 year run with Lexus vehicles this year was that I am fed up with integrity level of the local Lexus dealer monopoly. At least by driving only Toyota brand vehicles now (both currently within warranty), we have a choice of seven Toyota dealers in town and lots of independent shops to repair them. The problem is not just reserved for Lexus dealers. I had a Mercedes dealer tell me that the rear suspension of an out-of-warranty car needed a multi- thousand dollar rebuild. That problem also vanished when I told the dealer that I was going to take the car someplace else for a second opinion. As much as my wife and I like milking all the value out of vehicles by keeping them for 10 to 15 years, sometimes I just want to drive only vehicles that are within their warranty periods to avoid the nonsense that happens after the warranties expire.

There have been numerous reports on Lexus forums over the years about serious problems that resulted from Lexus owners accessing hidden service menus and inadvertently changing critical settings. I just did an advanced search for +hidden +menu on this forum and the only thread I found so far that might help you is: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/topic/28913-navigation-screwed-up/?hl= hidden menu1 Much grief has come from playing with the hidden menus and most people have not been able to recover.

The main job of Lexus dealer service writers is to sell, sell, sell services and that is how they keep their jobs. I've had Lexus dealer service writers tell me many times that repairs were needed when they were not. I avoided Lexus dealer repair shops as much as possible during my 24 years of Lexus ownership and found much lower prices and better service at independent repair shops that specialized in servicing Lexus. The prices you quoted seem odd. Replacing a timing belt usually costs substantially more than $500 if the water pump, idlers and tensioner are also replaced which is what is usually considered to be the normal procedure. Are you having a lot of vibration that indicates that you need new engine mounts? Do you live in an especially hot climate? (Engine and transmission mounts seem to deteriorate faster in hot climates.) Did you see my response to your previous thread about your wheels? Yes, your wheels can be repaired but it is cheaper to buy those $140 refurbished wheels. Yes, you can use regular tires. There are threads on this and other Lexus forums discussing which temporary use spare tires/wheels fit in an SC430 trunk. A differential service is probably not really needed but I always had it done on my LS cars every 30,000 miles or two years .... but I towed a small trailer. What does your maintenance manual say?

Do any of these rims look like your wheels? http://www.wheelsandcaps.com/p-22076-aluminum-alloy-wheel-rim-18x8-74160.aspx Refurbished starts at $139.73. I bought a set of refurbished Toyota Sienna wheels from Wheels and Caps a few months ago to use with snow tires and they look and ride as if they are new. Transwheel is a subsidiary of Keystone which I think is the biggest supplier of refurbished parts with warehouses scattered around the U.S. including a few miles from where I live in Kansas.

Are you certain that your 97 LS really does have the wiring for heated seats? Have you verified this by popping out the wood console panel and looking? The 90 LS400 I drove for many years did not come with heated seats and I am certain that it was not wired for them. Toyota has been including the wiring for heated seats in some newer models that don't have heated seats (e.g. Prius v and Sienna) but I don't know when they started doing that or have a list of models.

From a wheel seller website, the 2001 RX300 wheels are: "5 Spoke 16x6.5 inch, 5x4.5 bolt pattern (35mm Offset), One Piece Alloy Factory, OEM Wheel, Rim. The position on the vehicle is: Universal. Interchange Number: 74152." So ... it will fit any vehicle compatible with those specifications.

There were a number of service bulletins and at least one recall issued for the 2007 LS460 with the most serious being a recall for valve spring breakage. Does Canada have anything like the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration where a person can check for service bulletins and recalls?: http://www.nhtsa.gov/