amanda

hmmm. i don't think my wood trim is yellow. but even if it were considered yellow, i prefer it to the darker brown ones for the ivory interior, which goes to show diff'rent strokes. a cd magazine in the trunk. that's gotta be a pain.

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so then what is a non-dash cd player?

Platinum Series - Uniquely textured Royale leather seating surfaces and interior trim - Power tilt-and-slide moonroof with one-touch open/close, pinch protection and sliding sunshade - In-dash, six-disc CD auto-changer - 16-inch, five-spoke alloy wheels - Black Pearl badging - Bird's-eye maple interior trim and steering wheel - Platinum Series embroidered floor mats - Complimentary annual fee for American Express Platinum Card® for two years mine also has homelink security system which i thought was part of the platinum package. but i guess it was something else. i don't know how my royale leather surface differs from the regular leather surface, but i guess that's what i have. i never understood why it's called in-dash cd changer when the disc magazine obviously sits in my glove compartment. the extra wooden trim, however, is very nice.

maybe i should get that to drown out the vibration.

i think i am going to go for that new gadget iQue 3600. you guys with the navigation package, do you get good reception in the cabin? if any 2000 owners have experience, i would be interested in hearing from him/her. i don't think i am going to take it in to the city, but we do have some development even out in the burbs. also, if anyone else has considered or has bought a GPS, i'd appreciate any tips. thanks, as always.

looks great. but what is xm?

i don't know, i might.

dewd, let me just say, you have my sympathies. i would give my left pinky toe to get rid of that darn vibration in my car. like yours, my vibration goes down just a wee bit when i turn off the a/c. i took mine to an import mechanic and he says there is absolutely nothing wrong. it's just the engine. so i am getting ready to shell out some more dough at the local lexus dealer. but frankly, i think they are also going to take my money and say there's nothing wrong too. maybe we should both take steve's approach (to the bad tranny in '03) and hum a tune to the darn vibration or something. i can say one thing though, the dog bone should be pretty easy to change. even i was able to fumble my way and find it somehow. it's actually in plain sight, but to me, all the parts under the hood sort of looked the same in the beginning. oh, and i can say another thing. i think the import mechanic mentioned something about needing a new timing belt at 125K miles or something. so maybe that really would help. but if i were a betting person, i wouldn't. good luck -- i really mean it.

i didn't think my 2000 model had any antenna anything. am i just loopy?

there's also a toyota dealer who services lexus. would they be able to do something like this too?

i was curious as to why you couldn't just cut off the part that's hit the ground. is it just too difficult?

okley, dokley.

sears says the stems get corroded and must be replaced, so i guess replaced, they will be. but does anyone know how i can tell the new stems they put on will be good? should i insist on metal? i've read some place that cheap stem valves go bad easily. how i can tell if they are cheap, it didn't mention.

so i took the car to an import mechanic who seemed to have a lot of german cars lying about. he was sort of dismissive about my vibration concern and told me to do nothing. he says it's just the engine. when i told him maybe the mounts were screwy, he gave them a glance, but not too hard of one. i did shift gears for him and he said the movement he saw was normal. he wasn't trying to cheat me, so maybe there's some truth to what he's saying. but still, i hear that ever-so-annoying vibration! should i take it to lexus this friday and have them hook it up to their computer or whatever and see if they can help? thanks.

hi, all. i am getting new tires this week and sears says i need new stem valves even though the ones i have now are metal. does this sound right? they aren't charging much, but i would still like to keep using these if i could. you know, "reduce, reuse, recycle..." thanks.

very curious.

hey, steve, i don't want to bother with all that equipment. is it possible to just use clear-coat safe rubbing compound and a lot of elbow grease? my finish looked very good too, but i think the minor scratches must have been glazed by the pesky dealer who sold me the car. no swirls though, so that's something to be thankful for.

hey, this reminds me that the back of my backwindow has that sticky stuff from the temp tag. i would just use mineral oil to remove it but how delicate is that anti-fog thingmajig?

hi, steve. the lenses haven't clouded up yet. i used 2000 grit wetdry sand paper (because i am a ninny) then polished it with bluemagic plastic/plexiglass cleaner. it looks pretty good now but i do see a slight film/opulescence when i look at it from an angle. i think it's from some petroleum in the plexiglass cleaner. i guess i should have used gloves. anyway, what i understand is, i have scratched off the scratch-resistant hardcoating and i believe it. so it should soon scratch/haze up. so i would like to find a preventative product is that novus stuff so much better than this plexiglass cleaner. it seemed pretty good to me.

what do the computers at the dealer tell you?

yes, sir. been lubing like there's no tomorrow, though it hasn't helped a ton yet. i think i might soon visit a lexus dealer for that job. i have an appointment for friday for a general checkup on the car at the dealer. but i wonder if that's really necessary. i have a feeling they are not going to be able to pinpoint the cause of the vibration and will charge me separately for that diagnosis. plus, if the mounts are bad, that's obviously going to be extra.

shockingly, i've found the dog bone. i think it looks ok, but how can i be sure? some ribbed tubing was split in the middle, though. but it looked like it only housed wires. so should i assume that's ok too? --------------- so i gather that the transmission fluid being too high is bad. what damages can it cause? -------------- i think i've finally figured out where the air filter is. it's to the right of the engine when standing after popping the hood, right? i think it looked pretty clean. very white and only few specks here and there. so i assume that means the filter isn't a problem, right? thanks again, everybody.

i wasn't certain after i filled the fluid the second time whether i had a leak. but it seems to have maintained the level, so i think it's fine. i filled the reservoir to the top before a long drive and when i checked the next morning, it had drained down about 6 inches, which alarmed me. but the reservoir was pretty empty to begin with so the pump and the hoses must have been empty too. then when i drove around, the wiper fluid must have trickled into the fluid pump and hoses so a lot was drawn down from the reservoir. unless there's some leak that manifests only when the engine is running, i think my wiper fluid reservoir is ok. and i am thankful because that darn vibration and the wind noise is headache enough for me.

hey, there, ticman. as with my earlier question, did you remove any hazing before you polished them or were they in good (original) shape? i think they do ok with anything if you haven't scratched off the hardcoating, but once you've scraped the coating off, i don't know if polishing or waxing or whatever will last any longer than couple of months.