SADDLEBUM

I'm glad I asked this question and got good advice... thank you. I had my pads replaced and my wheels stay clean for weeks now, instead of days as before. I notice NO difference in brake performance. Interestingly, the Service Person read me a statement that stated "Braqke performance may be reduced." When I said; "Do it anyway" he said "You're the first person who has taken this option. Let me know how it works out." Seems like Lexus is scaring many people away from a sensible "fix" with lawer induced scare tactics.

I like that feature also. It works exactly like that on my '99 BMW.

Filled mine too. I didn't ask why. I figured it must have been because I'm a nice guy and a snappy dresser! <G>

Beautiful, thanks.

Hi Guys; I read on another Forum that Lexus will change out the brake pads on '05 - '07 IS's if you tell them they create too much dust and you want the less dusty pads. This true in your experience? Thanks... Saddlebum

New Tires & Alignment… Ride & Handling Improved. I bought my ’07 IS250 AWD a month ago, previously driving a BMW 328i. The Lexus had 16,000 miles on it and the Bridgestone Potenza RE92’s were more than half worn. My initial driving impression was that the Lexus was “twitchy”. It just didn’t want to track. Upon inspection, the previous owner was running 28psi front and rear. I changed that to 36 psi front and 32 psi rear and about half the twitchiness disappeared. <_< Still, although I thought the car rode like a dream on smooth roads, it rode like a truck on two lane New England back roads… much worse on the back roads than my BMW. So the big question in my mind was; “Is it the car or is it the tires?” I did some research on the RE92’s at Tire Rack and compared them to the Bridgestone Potenza Serenities I have on my Beemer. You can duplicate my results by logging on to www.tirerack.com , select “Tires by Size” on the left side, enter the size (225/45/17, click the boxes for “High Performance All-Season”, “Grand Touring All-Season” and “Bridgestone”, then “Proceed to Results”. Select the “Compare” boxes for the Serenities and the RE92’s and you will have a great side-by-side comparison of the OEM tire and the one I am recommending. I understand that I am comparing a High Performance All-Season tire (RE92) with a Grand Touring All-Season tire (Serenity) which is a bit of apples to oranges but understand my needs. I am not going to autocross the Lexus but am using it to “tour” the country in this, the first year of my retirement. I want a tire that is quiet, comfortable, handles well should I decide to “strafe an apex” and is superior in the dry, wet and snow. Also please understand that I have ten years of track and autocross racing experience and have twice won my New England division championship in a slightly modified M3. As a mechanical engineer and a racer I am well versed in the nuances of tire construction and inflation pressures as well as the engineering changes needed in the suspension and chassis to build a winning racecar. I’m not trying to brag here, just to establish my credentials as a qualified observer. So… here are my observations of the RE92’s. 1. They ride stiff. 2. They become unacceptably loud as they wear. 3. They don’t hold their directional stability (but this may be alignment or wear related). 4. They are excellent hard cornering tires in ideal (dry) conditions. And… my observations of the Serenities. 1. They ride reasonably comfortably. 2. They are very quiet. 3. They hold their directional stability well. 4. They are acceptably good at hard cornering. I have 225/45-17 Serenities on my Beemer and can tell you they are quite good in the snow. I’ve also had Blizzaks on this car and the Serenities’ are about 75% to 80% of the Blizzak’s performance in 3” to 6” snow. From that experience, and the Tire Rack “reviews” of the RE92’s, I have to conclude the Serenities’ will be a better tire in the snow than the RE92’s. Next, to insure the poor tracking was not all in the tires, I had the car four wheel aligned today. What a difference! It now tracks on the highway and doesn’t require constant correction to keep it centered in its lane. As it turned out, both right side tires had toe-out. Now with an alignment and Potenza Serenities, my IS rides comfortably, handles well, has much reduced road noise and tracks securely.

I had my 250 in for that exact reason yesterday. I had synthetic put into the transmissions of my last 2 BMW's my last three Lexus. My mechanic (not the Dealer) told me the tranny has NO dipstick. The fluid level is checked by a plug on the tansmission case. It's a "sealed system" and not meant to be user servicable. That said, it also takes a very special hydraulic tool to pump all the oil out of the torque convertor. If you do manually drain the tranny at the plug you will only get about half the oil. I gave up. Looks like Lexus has made this a "Dealer only" service item.

I have been reading about what it takes to put a Lexus trailer hitch on an RX330 that does not have the Towing Package from the factory. I bought and installed the hitch and went to my local Dealer (Stealer?) today to pick up the electrical converter (P/N 82670-48050) as mentioned in the installation instructions that came with the hitch. What a surprise :o when the parts dude told me it was $236.22 (list)! I was expecting $80 or $90 following some of the information posted by others here in the past couple of weeks. So I went online and found www.discounttoyotaparts.com who quoted a list price of $196.46 and a sale price of $157.17! :P As an aside, the part number has changed from 82670-48050 to P/N 82670-0E040. What have you guys paid?

Keith- I assume that the light switch is on the MFS (multi function switch) on the column. You should be able to pick up the signal there. Those wires are generally so small they are only triggers for relays but that is all you need to trigger the DL (driving lights) relay. I generally preferred to use an amp clamp to pinpoint the correct wire but you can use a test light. In this day and age I often used a computer safe wireless test light since it likely went through the BCM and I didn't want to take any chance of damage to the computer. You should be able to pick up a pure high beam signal there without much problem. Thanks... that's a very good idea. I also have an amp clamp so I'll start searching for the signal at the MFS. ...Keith

Hi Guys; I installed PIAA 1500 driving lights on my RX330. The relay is triggered by the wire at the headlight going to the high beams but since the high beams are used for daytime running lights, that means driving lights are on during the day. They work fine at night; on with high beams and off with low beams. What I need is either a wiring diagram for this vehicle or a hint on where I can tap into the wiring harness to pick up power (for the relay trigger) that is full power high beam only (not daytime running lights). A fairly sophisticated question to be sure. Has anyone figured this one out yet? Thanks... Keith