1990LS400

The first place I looked, I found OEM rear shock absorbers for your 1995 ES300 for $129.89 each ... but I have no experience with this particular parts website. I noticed that http://www.toyodiy.com says that the 95 ES front shocks are the same as for the 95 Camry V6. I can't testify for the accuracy of the information on these websites. Edit: The same parts website lists OEM front shock absorbers at $115.33 each.

Rolling resistance of tires varies substantially and doesn't affect only cross-over vehicles like the RX. There is a nice 3-part overview on Tire Rack's website: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=29

Maybe there really is a problem with your Trac system. As you may know since you have had two 99's, the VSC/Trac warning lights in those go off automagically within a few minutes of driving after the true problem is rectified - without even having to follow the VSC reset procedure in the 99-00 owners manual.

"W/o High Intensity Discharge Xenon Lamps" means that the low beam headlights use halogen bulbs. "W/ HID" means that the low beam headlights use "discharge" D2R bulbs. Look at the front of your headlight lenses. The bulb type will be shown on the lens. If you see "D2R" on your headlight lenses, you need the "W/HID" ($199.95) headlight units. Very few 1999 LS400 sold in the U.S. had halogen low beam headlights. Most had the more expensive HID headlights which were a $500 option or included in various option packages.

Here is information from page 579 of your owners manual: When "Electrical equipment operation is limited" is shown: This message indicates that the battery is low. When the message is shown, operation of electrical equipment that uses a large amount of electric power, such as the air conditioning system, may be limited temporarily. This does not indicate a malfunction. Operation of electrical equipment will be restored after the battery is charged. Is the "limited" message displayed?

I had to put on my hip boots to read this one. <_<

OK, it's out of warranty. What did the dealer diagnose as being the problem.

I don't remember anything on the window sticker of my LS400 I bought new in 1990 and drove for 13+ years saying anything about it having the California emmission system - I bought it in Missouri - but it used all three vacuum lines. I just snagged photo of its engine and exterior from Portland Craigslist - it's second owner just listed it for sale. It is at 295,000 miles and still looks pretty good. The engine photo clearly shows all three "nipples" in use.

You are doing extremely well if you are getting that kind of gas mileage. I rarely did that well with the gen 1 LS400 I drove for 13+ years and I drove fairly gently.

I have no idea but I read all threads with nipples in their titles. :whistles: My guess is that the extra "nipples" are for supplying vacuum to operate devices/options/systems that your car does not have. Or maybe they are for diagostic use.

OEM Toyota/Lexus oil filters are inexpensive and are of uniformly good quality. I don't understand why people bother with aftermarket and particularly with K&N filters whose quality, based on what I read on car forums, seems dicey. Not that the 2002 ES300 V6 is known for having serious or as serious sludge issues like the Toyota/Lexus V6 engines of just before that but the potential sludge issue is one the reasons I've used only synthetic oil (Mobil 1 5w/30) in our 98 Camry V6 - purchased new and now at about 125,000 miles. Our Camry is now driven only about 5,000 miles per year which is another reason I'm more comfortable with synthetic oil. I'm changing the oil in it by mileage only -- not going to do it every six months. The only oil "consumption" we have in our Camry V6 is a little bit of leaking from the valve cover gaskets - the oil level barely falls over 5,000 miles. The main thing is that oil is changed on a regular basis. Like Latify, I've known people who have gotten well over 300,000 on Toyota engines running on regular oil.

I just love seeing these old threads dug up! fsuguy! Have you had an eye exam lately? I've got a rather severe problem with glare due to a degenerative cornea disease and DRL from oncoming cars or SUV's doesn't bother me except rarely at night when some (usually) geezer forgets to turn his regular headlights on and is essentially driving with his high beams albeit at reduced intensity. You might want to get checked for cataracts, etc. if you are having that much difficulty. Now ... aftermarket HID kits on cars and especially on SUV's are another matter. You don't want to get me on my soap box about that.

It might be because governments have been diddling with daylight savings time start and end dates. Daylight savings time started and ended on the same dates for about 40 years until the dates were changed in 2007. Now, untold millions of devices made before the last change no longer automatically adjust correctly for daylight savings time.

Years ago I used lace on leather steering wheel covers on a several cars. I think these covers were more common back when steering wheels were more typically hard plastic. The most common brand I've seen over the past few years is Wheelskins. Installation is rather intensive since they lace on with "needle and thread" like the ones I used back in the 60's. Here is a list of Wheelskin products for the 93-00 LS400 I found by googling: http://www.racinglab.com/wheelskins-cover-original-lexus-011.html 1998 was the last model year where the LS400 steering wheel was all leather. A wood and leather steering wheel was optional in 1998 and made standard in 1999. I thought it was odd that when a wood wheel was made standard on the LS in Europe, an all leather wheel was an extra cost option.

I looked at the 02 RX300 owners manual and saw nothing about it's antenna automagically adjusting based on radio frequency like the antenna in my first Lexus (LS400) did. The automatically adjusting antenna was very noticeable in my old LS when searching through radio frequencies when the engine was not running. If your RX had a similar feature, you likely would have noticed.

But all the antenna positions that might be called "tuned" have the antenna extended by far more just an inch or a foot. I never measured but I don't think the antenna on my previous Lexus lowered more than 10 inches from fully extended as radio frequencies changed.

The common term for the "parking lights" we are talking about is "city lights". I don't know if there are any cities left in the world that still require them but many - most famously Paris - used to prohibit full headlight use in city centers at night. Only the use of city lights with 5 watt bulbs were allowed - historically why the bulbs in your front "parking lights" are 5 watts. Another reason for the city lights was to make a car visible at night while parked on narrow streets while minimizing battery discharge. You could leave your city lights on all night without running the battery down. The headlight switches on a number of European cars (e.g. Mercedes) had/have two extra positions for activating only the left or right side city/parking lights to further minimize current draw while parked. Since your ES300 has DRL, it is not possible to have only the city lights on while driving.

One "problem" with buying a Lexus at the kind of mileage yours had when you bought it is that one misses the years of mostly touble free ownership one gets with buying a new or slightly used one. Add to that ... many owners let problems pile up and suspend normal servicing during their final years of ownership. For example, spark plug replacement is only every 120,000 miles on your GS430 - you would not have had just this one expense if the previous owner had followered the maintenance schedule or, more to the point, if you had bought a car with documentation that all scheduled maintenance was up to date. I assume the radiator was replaced due to corrosion. If so, that is probably another indication that the previous owner didn't take good care of the car and have the coolant changed at the recommended intervals. IMO, the gen 2 GS (98-05) has held up stylistically better than any other Lexus and I don't think the exterior design of the gen 3 or recently introduced gen 4 GS holds a candle to the gen 2. My 2000 LS400 is nearing 145,000 miles. It has never missed a service and no needed repair has ever been deferred. I'll probably be "spending through" front suspension issues like you are having if I keep the car to our goal of 200,000 miles. As I found with my previous 1990 LS400, the annual cost of repairing and performing normal maintenance a V8 Lexus vehicle can easily average over $1,000/year after 140,000 miles but that is a heck of a lot less expensive than buying a new car of the same caliber. I'm pretty sure that all normally replaceable front suspension parts on my 90 LS were replaced between around 130,000 miles and 183,500 miles when I sold it. I suspect I will be doing the same to get my 00 LS to 200,000 miles.

Lexus has offered dealer installed "park aid" systems for the IS in many countries but I don't know about the U.S. The "400" is rear only and the "800" is front and rear. Attached are the cover pages of the installation manuals for both systems. The installation manuals are too large to upload to this forum.

Page 61 of the 09 RX350 owners manual - see attached.

There is a button under the dash of my LS to turn the "beep" on/off but I don't know if it's the same for your GS. You might check under your dash for a similar button or consult your owners manual.

The diagram for the U.S. spec 2002 ES300 I'm looking at doesn't show a console mounted courtesy light. I wonder if the diagram you have is for a different model year or another world market. I've sometimes noticed that some Lexus parts websites don't have the right diagrams for U.S. spec Lexus cars.

The reason you have breathable air are federal regulations controlling polution. It was very scary back in the 1970's when I could barely breath during rush hour. It's wonderful now compared to then. I'm for killing as many jobs as necessary as long as I can breath without pain and go outside. I've spent a bit of time in large third world cities where the air polution is far worse than anything we have ever had in the U.S. We are fortunate here.

gabep, if you truely believe in what was said in the video you posted then stand up and argue your views. I was a student of and excelled at Aristotelian logic and can be convinced of any well argued point. In fact, I've been accused of being "wishy-washy" a few times in my life when I suddenly and completely abandoned a strongly held opinion to adopt another which had been well argued. But I admit that I'm difficult to convince since my psychological orientation and life's work is "fact based". There is zero tolerance in my field for ideas that people "wish" or "believe" were true. Bolt if you must but it would be better if you would stick around and convince us to adopt your views.

I think you said you have a diagram showing it's location as the one I am attaching also seems to do - at least it shows the flasher's approximate location ("X marks the spot"). I suspect you are going to have to lay on your back and look or use that borescope I suggested. You can't expect to find people on a lightly used forum who have replaced turn signal flasher relays on a Lexus RX350 -- flasher relays hardly ever wear out like they did on cars of a few decades ago. I've spent an amazing amount on my back in the driver side footwell of cars. Just "suck it up" and take a look.