terry993

My hood has some road rash on it, but my wife would find that a poor excuse for CF.

"CF, the man's diamonds."

"No audio on XM - but display shows songs."

I get the reverse every 20 starts or so in my Porsche. Radio plays last station it was on, but no display and can't change station. No problem starting car ever, though. Cures itself after a couple of engine restarts.

Dealer says XM Sat unit is on a fiber optic bus, but cannot diagnose it even with their computer. Could be a kinked fiber cable that also goes through the ignition switch.

In your case, could be just a bad copper wire connection. You could start by checking the power and ground to the Sat unit, especially if you are using switched power.

PCCB was about 5.3% of my out the door price on last year's Porsche 997TT purchase. Small price to pay to keep my life and my car on roads like this (Hwy 212 MT) which I have driven 3 times:

Reduced unsprung weight (30# less) for handling was my major reason. Other benefits were ancillary, but I can assure you after 296K miles on 3 Porsches in 19 years, that the $8800 will pay for itself in rotor and pad replacement.

Bill, you will find similar discussion on the Porsche boards. Early adopters, late adopters.

I have now driven steel rotored and PCCB Turbos back to back on canyon roads, and am even more pleased with my decision. Like I was careful to state in my original post about 7 pages ago on the dust free IS brakes, it is just a subjective opinion. I run nice sticky tires, too, as they are part of, but not all of, the result.

And I admit, I enjoy being suckered by the snake oil people. :D

If brake pads have nothing to do with stopping the car, then internal combustion has nothing to do with moving it. Must be the tires. :D

At the bleeding edge of brake material technology:

SGL Carbon wins award for, among other factors, stopping distance

"The carbon-ceramic brake discs from the SGL Brakes GmbH, a subsidiary of the SGL Group, are manufactured from the innovative composite, carbon-fiber reinforced silicon carbide (CSiC) and offer many benefits. In addition to having a long service life (the length of a car’s service life), half the weight of conventional steel brake discs and almost no abrasion at all (dust emission), improved driving dynamics and a shorter braking distance also represent innovative characteristics of a carbon-ceramic brake system."

"In 2007, the SGL Group is expected to fit approximately 8,000 vehicles from brands including Porsche, Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti."

I spent $8800 on the Porsche PCCB upgrade. By Knightshade's logic, perhaps we should have stopped (pun intended) with drum brakes decades ago.

I had the TSB dust fix done under warranty. No dust now, but my subjective impression is my stopping distance is not as good.

Lexus replaced my battery at 1 year and 15K miles. Under warranty. They did not, in detail, say what was wrong with it. All was working ok when I brought it in for the 15K service.

I paid the dealer $523 installed. Free wash and vac, free loaner. No fuss, no cuss. 3 months free XM. Did I over pay?

Well...the parts are under $300 and it'll take about an hour to install... it's all plug in stuff just pop a few trunk panels off then back on and such... everyone gets 3 free months as a trial regardless of how the unit gets in the car... so it's up to you if the extra couple of hundred was worth an hour or so of your time... (plus the wash and vac :P)

Most expensive wash n vac I ever had. Then again, I did not break anything. :D

I paid the dealer $523 installed. Free wash and vac, free loaner. No fuss, no cuss. 3 months free XM. Did I over pay?

If you are lazy like me, you can use a spray on wax like Griot's after the rinse, using a MF towel to dry.

My XM was $480 installed by the dealer service people. Well worth it on long trips not to have to listen to all that FM yap. If you have Nav and the shark fin already, do not go near the after market units. When I renewed Sirius a few months ago on my wife's MB, they offered $400 for life. I had my CC out before the guy finished the offer.

You are lucky in Canada, getting all the current great European diesels. Such as the MB B 200 D I rented in Europe for a week.

MB diesels are not expensive to maintain. I owned a 300TD for 22 years and 245K miles. Oil changes and infrequent major service gets you about 500K miles before rebuild.

In the 60's in CA, good gas, good bread and good cigs were all around 29¢.

Today in CA good gas, good bread and good cigs are all around $4.50

Quit working?

I paid $1450 for 7/100 at time of purchase. Reliable as these cars are, they are not the simple to fix Toyotas of the past. At 1.5 years and 15K miles, I already have almost $2K of work paid on the present warranty: door handle inside, dash rattle TSB and brake dust TSB.

I had the same problem from driving to Vegas years ago in my Porsche and encountering a brief sand storm. Cost me about $75 each glass. Lexus should be less. On April 30, I narrowly escaped the sand storm in Indio that picked up with 50 mph winds just as I made it into the hotel parking garage. It is not covered under warranty.

I have used Lexol, then Griot's, and my favorite Leatherique for the past 10 years. One thing you can do for your seats is park your car facing the sun and put a sunshield in the windshield.

Maybe the wheel controls are looking for the old XM box presets. If you already reset the presets to the desired channels in the new Sirius box, I don't know what else would help. Maybe Sirius tech support, or the Lexus dealer or the installing Sirius dealer? I don't have my manual handy.

I think you have to reset the presets to the Sirius channels you want. In "info" mode, press "text" to get the stations preselect screen, then hold your finger on the selected station till it locks on.

Service advisor at Lexus San Jose near SJC airport took care of everything with a smile. And smile he should. I get the car back like new, they get $1035 from Lexus for the warranty work, Lexus will get a repeat new car customer one day, and new IS customers will hopefully get a car without those problems. :)

My guess is 2-3 weeks: 2 days to dock in J, 7 days at sea, 2 days to undock in US POE, 7 days truck to Ohio.

Ask your dealer for ship name and US POE. It will show up on that port's schedule a few days prior to docking, for example:

San Diego Port docking schedule

How long is the free trial (if any) of XM if it is installed in you car?

Got 3 months free when I had the Lexus dealer install it over a year ago. Last one I bought for another vehicle had no free trial, but when I called to activate they gave me 3 months for getting a 2 year contract. And I saved on the yearly rate. Depends on what promotions they have going at the time.

When I renewed my wife's Sirius they offered lifetime for $400. I jumped on it.

Depending how hard you drive the car, or what emergency manoeuver you might have to do, mixing brands F and R could negatively affect handling. If all your tires are <50% worn, I would just replace the one Bridgestone . If wear is over 80%, no question put whatever you like on all 4, probably Michelin. In between 50% and 80%, it's your wallet and peace of mind.

If it is just a loose connector, do they need to remove the dash to get to it? My service advisor told me it should take less than an hour to fix it.

Most likely it is broken or disconnected at the back of the dashboard Nav unit. Based on what you described. That was not the case with mine on another non-Lexus vehicle. Lead was broken where it plugs into the antenna. A whole new lead was installed, requiring plugging the new lead into the back of the Nav unit at one end and the antenna at the other end.

I had the same symptoms on another vehicle when they had to disconnect the Nav antenna to install a new windshield. It was a broken Nav antenna connector. The lead is coax, and the inside wire is very thin.

1-I think you are referring to the last number dialed button, perhaps? Bottom right speed dial button?

Perhaps that explains it. I did not see that in the manual.