1990LS400

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/

I wonder if your jack was the early version for the LS430 which was replaced by a revised jack in November, 2001 - I posted the part numbers for the original and revised jacks in this old Club Lexus thread: http://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls430/538520-jack-failure.html

My, that 4wheelonline website is hard to navigate. How does one select the make, year and model of the vehicle so that parts can be found? I buy most of my hitches and towing supplies from www.etrailer.com and recommend them highly - one of the best companies I've dealt with. etrailer has hitches for your GX from Hidden Hitch, Draw-Tite and Curt and has photos and how-to-install videos. I know that Curt also has videos on their website since I installed a Curt hitch on my Sienna van a few months ago and watched some. I see that etrailer has a Class III Draw-Tite for you GX for $215.95 with free shipping. etrailer has trailer light wirings kits for the GX with or without the tow package. Trailer hitch installation is usually a pretty easy DIY project.

It is the right headlight washer cap/nozzle. It is an inexpensive part (< $40 retail) and comes in colors to match the body color but I don't know how to install a replacement.

Did you use a headlight lens restoration kit? My favorite is the $25 Sylvania kit - involves sanding, cleaning and then applying a lacquer-like sealing coat.

I disagree. I had both a 1990 and 2000 LS400 hit hard in the rear requiring straightening, rear fender, trunk lid, tail lights, bumper beam and bumper cover. Both cars came out looking and driving like new and I drove each of them another four years or so before I selling them. The 1990 was repaired by a body shop that mostly repairs Mercedes, Porsche and Ferrari and the 2000 was repaired by a body shop owned by the local Lexus dealer.

I checked a part website and it looks like a CD changer was not available for the 2002 IS200 in the UK, Europe, Australia or for the Japanese market Altezza. CD changers are declining in popularity and not available on very many new vehicles in the U.S. Maybe you could add a 3.5mm aux-in port to your radio which would allow you to store the music from your CD's on an MP3 player, iPod or mobile phone. I don't know if it fits a non-US IS200 but www.viastech.com offers an aux-in adapter for the U.S. specification IS250/300/350.

The available options for 90-92 were the same except remote entry and leather seats became standard by 92. Otherwise the 90-92 are essentially identical. Similarly the vastly improved 93-94 are identical.

Not exactly. Remote entry and leather seats were optional on the 1990 LS400 but standard on the 1992 LS400. The 1990 LS400 I bought new and drove for 13 1/2 years had cloth seats but it did have the optional remote entry. If you are looking to buy a "generation one" (90-94) LS400, the 93-94 is a huge improvement over the 90-92. What makes them a huge improvement? There was a very long list of improvements -- see the list at the previously posted link to www.lexls.com/info/lsgenerations.html

Not exactly. Remote entry and leather seats were optional on the 1990 LS400 but standard on the 1992 LS400. The 1990 LS400 I bought new and drove for 13 1/2 years had cloth seats but it did have the optional remote entry. If you are looking to buy a "generation one" (90-94) LS400, the 93-94 is a huge improvement over the 90-92.

I haven't seen a Toyota/Lexus navigation system yet that has an option to mute the radio when the system gives audible instructions. Try going into the settings and increasing the volume of the navigation instructions by one or two notches .... or turn down the radio when you using the navigation feature.

VSC has nothing to do with "wheels hop" or spin - that's TRACtion control. The newer versions of Toyota's traction control seem to allow far more wheel slip and hop than earlier versions - I have no idea why but I've noticed this on several newer Toyota and Lexus vehicles. It sounds like TRAC on your ES is working properly. The "pedal dance" does not seem to work to turn TRAC and VSC off on a number of vehicles made by Toyota that do not have an Off switch. I have no idea why some vehicles made by Toyota get a VSC/TRAC off switch and others do not. I could turn off TRAC in the RWD 2000 LS400 I drove for 10 years and really needed to turn it off to get it moving in deep snow. The 98 Camry my wife drove for 14 years had a TRAC-off button. Neither VSC nor TRAC can be turned off in our FWD 2012 Toyota Prius. Oddly, both VSC and TRAC can be turned off in our FWD 2014 Toyota Sienna van. This has seemed to have been a hotter issue in Canada where a "pedal dance" could used to turn TRAC off on some Lexus models while the same models sold in the U.S. had VSC/TRAC Off buttons. If you are new to VSC, take your ES to a big empty parking lot on a rainy/icy day and drive it in a tight circle until you start to spin out and VSC intervenes which is indicated by a beeping alarm. VSC is a wonderful technology.

Even though it may seem that the water is coming in from some other place, it is almost always the trunk gasket. There are lots of online Lexus parts sellers including Sewell where you can get a discount if you register with your forum member name. One problem with purchasing this kind of part for an older vehicle is that it could have been sitting on a shelf for 10 to 20 years. I had that happen with a new sun visor for the gen 1 LS400 I used to have. The vinyl on new visor, supplied by Lexus, was deteriorated and cracked after only a year or so. Some people have found gasket material and purchased it by the foot or meter but I don't have any supplier information.

You need a new trunk gasket - they get compressed and leak after a few years.

All you need to do is to follow the maintenance schedule in the maintenance manual that came with your car when it was new. If you don't have the maintenance manual, you can view it, the navigation and the owners manuals in the owners section of www.lexus.com . Hopefully your IS has been properly maintained before you bought it since lack of maintenance cannot be "undone". It's your choice on who maintains your IS. I no longer own Lexus but most of the maintenance and repairs I had done during the 24 years I did were performed by independent repair shops that specialize in Lexus vehicles - the indie shops I have used are/were owned by former Lexus dealer service writers and generally charged about 80% of what Lexus dealers charged. The main problem I've had with my local Lexus dealer is their service writers trying to sell completely needless services and repairs to me. I've have almost always done tire rotations and oil changes myself on all our vehicles and wouldn't dream of letting a Wally-mart, Fire-and-Brimstone, Badyear or "Iffy-lube"-type quick oil change shops touch our cars. My view has been that the only time to take a vehicle to a dealer for service is during the basic warranty period or when during the period after a new car purchase when maintenance is included.

There is only a beep when you lock and two beeps when you unlock with the remote - explained on page 9 of the 97 SC owners manual which you can view at www.lexus.com in the owners section. The 1998 SC was the first SC on which the turn signal lights flashed when using the remote and the first SC where the remote was built into the key.

What is your definition of a "small trailer"? A standard 7-pin RV electrical connector provides for charging a trailer battery and for operating a travel trailer's electric brakes. If your 2001 RX300 is AWD then it came standard with the tow prep package which includes a transmission cooler, a heavy duty alternator and radiator. If it is FWD, the tow prep package was optional. The listed towing capacity of a 2001 RX300 is 3,500 pounds which I am assuming is only with the towing package. If the RX does not have a tow prep package then its maximum towing capacity is probably more like 1,500 pounds. I don't think you will be running a travel trailer furnace or air conditioner off a battery. There is a class of "bambi" (single axel) travel trailers that come in just under 3,500 pounds when fully loaded. If you don't have the tow prep package and can't add the components you might be stuck with a light weight tent camper. A friend has one that for sure weighs less than 1,500 pounds but it does not have a furnace, A/C, bathroom or kitchen facilities. I wouldn't know as much as I do about this subject ( which is not much!) if I hadn't recently bought a 2014 Sienna with a tow prep package and a 2" class III trailer hitch with the intention of towing a "small" (about 2,800 pounds unloaded, 3,500 pounds loaded) travel trailer that has a furnace, A/C, bathroom and a "kitchen" including a microwave oven, cook top and small refrigerator. You might want to consult with a local trailer supply company that sells trailer hitches, electrical harnesses and brake controllers.

Lenore, I've seen a numerous reports on Lexus forums about the stop light switch at the brake pedal failing on all models. One on my 90 LS400 failed slowly over a period weeks or months. Sometimes the brake lights worked and sometimes they didn't. Sometimes I had to use the shift lock override button to shift out of Park and sometimes not. If the OP's 99 RX is on the original brake pedal switch, then I think we have a miracle here!

The part is $280.33 from Sewell not including shipping if you register. I assume that your mechanic will get a healthy mechanic's discount from the Lexus dealer - he certainly won't pay retail price for the part. Mechanics depend on making a profit both from parts and their labor. However! The part number you provided is for the "Lamp Failure Indicator Sensor". This sounds fishy. Has the brake light switch on the brake pedal lever been checked? That's what most often causes brake lights to fail. The brake light switch on the brake pedal is cheap - less than $45 from Sewell. Your indie mechanic may be trying to scam you buy charging for an expensive part and replacing a cheap part - a very common scam.

Both our Prius wagon and Sienna van have PCS. PCS stands for "Pre-Collision System" in North America but in most of the rest of the world Toyota calls it "Pre-Crash System". PCS has never activated on our Prius we have owned for two years or the Sienna we have owned for about five months. If it were to activate, it would be when a potential crash is detected. The system first sounds an alarm to alert the driver to brake and pre-charges the braking system. If the driver does not brake, PCS applies the brakes forcefully and tightens the front seat beats. PCS does not prevent a crash and is designed to reduce the force of impact. People sometimes confuse PCS with the ARCC (Adaptive Radar Cruise Control) which share the same components. ARCC allows following the vehicle in front of you at one of three following distances set via a button on the steering wheel. In North American markets, Toyota's (and Lexus's) ARCC operates only above about 25 mph but in other markets it operates all the way down to 0 mph which allows it to operate in stop and go traffic without pressing the accelerator pedal. There have been reports of PCS malfunctions but they are rare. Malfunctions of the ARCC are more common but are seen to be acceptable. I've had the automatic braking of ARCC kick in a few times on my Sienna when I encountered a steel plate on a street at the point when the street started uphill but the automatic braking of ARCC is not as forceful as the automatic braking of PCS and it has been easy for me to override the automatic braking. PCS and ARCC are the main reasons we bought our Prius and Sienna and I cannot see buying another vehicle with these or similar features. I absolutely love ARCC due to it making it much easier to drive in heavy traffic where the speed of traffic flow varies up and down.

I thought about this thread when I saw a U-Haul logo hitch on a Chevy Trailblazer on the way home from work tonight. The U-Haul hitch on the Trailblazer looked completely OEM and hidden behind the bumper cover so maybe U-Haul is using more OEM-like hitches these days. Trailer electronics depends on what you are going to tow and state laws. Some states require trailer brakes when towing a trailer over only 1,000 pounds. What do you plan to tow? Are there trailer supply stores in your area? We have a wonderful chain of stores in the Kansas City area (Croft Trailer Supply) that sells and installs hitches, brake controllers, etc. Or you could call Etrailer and ask. I recommend them highly. The same person at Etrailer who helped me in 2004 helped me again a few months ago. Etrailer is in Wentzville, Missouri near St. Louis. I bought my 2014 Sienna this Spring intending to buy and tow a small travel trailer ... was enamored with the Airstream Sport 16 which has a dry weight of about 2,800 pounds. The more research I did and the more I talked to owners of small travel trailers and RV dealers, the more I have become convinced that it is more cost effective to continue "camping" in Holiday Inn hotels or to rent a travel trailer by the week. If I do buy a travel trailer it might be a "teardrop" or a something small like a Scamp ... just large enough to have six foot head room, a shower and a toilet.