Jump to content


Grumpa72

Regular Member
  • Posts

    353
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Grumpa72

  1. Add me to growing list that really likes these tires. I put a set on my 05 330 and they are fairly quiet, ride quite well in the rain and no snow since putting them on but I expect good traction. I did some reading on this and other forums and these have an excellent reputation.
  2. Wow. I don't what you guys and gals are doing wrong or what we are doing right but my 2005 330 with 46000 miles on it has its original everything except wiper blads. The pads and rotors get checked every 5000 miles when I rotate the tires and I still have tons of miles left in them. At least 1/4" from memory. This is my wife's car (she DOES drive like a granny ;) ) so I take no chances that she will tell me about a noise like the wear indicator. It is also used occasionally to carry grandkids so nothing gets left to chance or even remotely close to the limits Just wondering.
  3. Exactly what I would suggest. I would take the cables off, clean the inside of the cables and the battery post with a specialized tool. Lacking that, good old steel wool or steel bristle "tooth brush" will work. I would also wash the top of the battery off with lots of water and then clean it with baking powder. Wash again to remove any of the baking powder. If your battery has caps that can be taken off, do so slowly and gently, wearing eye protection. Then, check the level of electrolyte in the battery. If it is below the normal level add some distilled water. The final thing I would do is to charge the battery. I have foung on another newer car that my solenoid doesn't click if the battery is low. Either charge it or try to jump it.
  4. ANYTIME I buy a used car, the first thing I do is to go through it and change every fluid from the front to the back, top to bottom, even the windshield washer reservoir. I don't know if you can prevent tranny failure but it makes good sense to change out the ATF in a high mileage vehicle. So, the answer is, yes, do a flush.
  5. First, I doubt that you need to change the battery unless it is more than about four years old and been discharged several times. A vehicle's alternator is not a device designed to put a deep charge on your battery. It is designed to top off the battery after you start the engine and to run the electrics in the car when it is running. I always do a deep cycle charge on any battery that has been run down. That is using a battery charger and letting it charge for 5-6 hours. Letting a car idle for 20 minutes in the hopes that you are going to fully charge your battery is a HUGE strain on your alternator and probably won't put a dent into the charging needs of a fully discharged battery. Fwiw, a quality battery only has a few deep discharges and charges in it before it no longer becomes a reliable battery.
  6. Can you unlock the doors manually - the old fashioned way?
  7. oops, double entry - same post
  8. Don't these tanks have a vent line that allows you to put gas in, thus displacing the air in the tank. The air has to go somewhere and is contaminated with gas fumes so it is forced into a charcoal or similar canister to keep from polluting. I would suspect that you have a blockage there related to the age. Gunk, animal junk or something else may be the problem. This may require someone with a lift that will allow you to work under the car and trace the vent lines.
  9. Great comment. I have talked with other owners who were unaware what this ECT does. Just like the old manual transmission days, when we started out in second to keep from spinning the tires. Your skid was an unfortunately timed event and was NOT the result of the ECT but ice/snow/other "bad" stuff. Similar comments about vehicles with all-wheel/4 wheel drive that slide off the road. Road traction has nothing to do with AWD but with tires, road surface, speed, etc. About four years ago I was helping my daughter drive her Mustang from AZ back to PA in April. I hit some snow and sleet in MO and, if you know anything about mustangs, you know that they are abominable in snow. I slowed way down to less than 30 mph and kept on trucking. About every second mile there was a vehicle in the median and it was usually a 4WD drive pickup or an AWD SUV. My miserable little Mustang had a couple of momentary scary moments but never lost it completely. Gary
  10. Try draining your reservoir completely, refilling with the standard "blue stuff" and that should be good to well below zero, provided you don't have water mixed into in the system. My cars start getting 100% blue stuff when the weather starts to cool and by the time it is realy cold, it is at 100% solvent, no water. Btw, they never freeze, even in the bitterly cold Pittsburgh Jan/Feb weather.
  11. I got 44000 miles out of OEM Michelins. However, I just put a set of Bridgestone Dueler Alenzas on the car. Great warranty (60000? if I remember correctly) and a bit quieter than the Michelins. THere has been a lot of discussions in the archives on this subject. Do a search and see what pops up. Gary
  12. The only question that needs to be asked, imo, is whether or not the Dextron meets the Toyota criteria. If it doesn't, then I wouldn't put it in my transmission, no matter what the savings. While I have no doubt that a 30000 mile run in isn't going to ruin your transmission, I wonder what the long term results are. What is the replacement cost of a Toyota/Lexus transmission. Vehicle manufacturers, auto, truck, bus, even airplane, specify lubricants that meet their engineering specifications. There has to be a reason that Toyota specified the Type IV. I think you are in a minefield - you might make it out ok, you might not! :)
  13. Our 2005 has had zero, zilch, nada, nothing go wrong with it in 44000 miles. I would buy one again. Gary
  14. The responder is close but not exactly right. In order to save some frustration, I thought I would jump in on this. You first have to take the two knobs that the glove box pivots on and twist them. Play with them because I don't remember which direction they go. However, once you figure out which way loosens them, pull them out and the glove box compartment rotates forward. That THEN exposes the panel for the replacement filter. Gary
  15. As others have suggested, you may have a battery issue and nothing else. Put a multimeter across your battery termianls and see what the voltage is. It should be 12+ volts. If you only get accessories, I would suggest that this is a clean indication of either a bad ground or a tired battery.
  16. Hmm, learned something new. Does that apply to the 330 - too lazy to go to the garage and look
  17. I agree that this is a cross-contamination issue, most likely. Has your mechanic checked it? You have a radiator cooler for the transmission and I suspect it is leaking.
  18. I use Mobil 1 5W-30 and a NAPA premium filter. Both are the best, imo.
  19. Wow. Talk about alphabet soup. Anyone old enough to remember simple things like carburetors, timing, dwell, and plug wires? :) Taking my 72 Corvette out tomorrow on a 200 mile trip. VVTi, OCV, ECM, ECU. Next, you will find that the flux capacitor has gone bad.
  20. Our 2005 330 has its original MIchelin OEM tires at 45000 miles and still have a couple of safe miles left in them, perhaps 2000. I would spend the money on an alignment just to eliminate that. To wear tires out at 12000 miles is really suspicious at best. All four or just one side or front versus back? Have you tried another dealer?
  21. Well, you could go the alternative route and buy a stand alone GPS unit. That way, updates are done on the interent, you can move the unit from car to car, and you will probably save money in the long run. I have an RX and a 3 series BMW, both without Nav and I don't miss it. I take my TomTom with me in whichever car I drive. Gary
  22. First, it is in the interest of the store to sell you their "best" battery and of course they call it platinum or some other excuisite material. Imagine them asking you if you the wood, tin, or lead series battery. ;) Regardless, you have the battery so move on. I mentioned in my previous post that LEDs are very susceptible to voltage flucuations. I am betting that even a .5 volt variance can be seen in an LED. The reason that you see the difference only when the engine is running is that there are variances in the alternator whereas the battery puts out a constant voltage.
  23. It is my understanding the LED require a constant voltage and I would guess that the minor fluctuations that normally occur in an alternator may be the culprit. I know that the various decorative household LED lights cannot have a resistor on them that allows you to dim the lighting. Have you tried going back to the tried-and-true factory setup?
  24. From my reading here, the sludge issue was THICK, GOOEY sludge formed because of inadequate oil changes and a poorly designed oil system, especially in the 300s. The area that you show in your photos is, obviously, where we pour our oil (no kidding?) and the residue that sits on that "shelf" gets quite warm and winds up looking like sludge. If you really had sludge, it would be much thicker and would be evidenced by removing the valve covers. Like the song says, don't worry, be happy. :)
  25. Grumpa72

    Heat

    No Lexus specific but I had similar issues in another car. It turned out that the coolant was low! The readiator had enough coolant to keep the engine from getting hot but not enough to provide warmed air. Don't ask me about the plumbing of the system or anything because I don't know. I know that it happened a second time and I then put in a new radiator - no more problems. If it isn't that then you may have something wrong with the selector switch. Does anyone know what the conditioning system uses to switch from hot, to cold, to ambient? In older cars it is vacuum. Gary
×
×
  • Create New...

Forums


News


Membership