rhkwon

Correction the orange safety plug is on the drivers side.

I just replaced the cooling fans. These are just a few helpful tips that I would like to pass along. Replacing the fans took me 2 days as I took my time and took a lot of rest breaks If your are serious you could do this job in a couple of hours. The 3 fans cost me $300 and I saved about $1000 in labor. You will need assorted extensions and 14, 12 and 10mm sockets 1. There is no need to disconnect the 12v battery in the engine compartment. Just make sure you unplug/disconnect the main orange shut off switch on the passenger side of the hybrid battery. I did not need to wear electrical gloves but I did anyway just to be extra safe. They can be cumbersome but especially worth it when lifting up the top cover as it will prevent cuts. 2. Taking out the back seats is not complicated but a time consuming process so keep that in mind. Move the front seats forward as much as possible. Remember to cover the metal seat rails with tape so that it doesn’t scratch the plastic sills and sides of the car. Or just be extra careful when taking the seats out of the car. I made this mistake and scratched the inner plastic covers but thankfully when the seats are back in will be covered up. 3. Use interior trim removal tool to lift up the black plastic clips. Much better than having your fingernails lifted. The sides of the rear trunk trim behind the seats are a 3 way process. Each end of the piece is secured by velcro. The middle part is secured by white plastic clips. Use a big flat tipped screw driver and lift up one clip at a time. 4. When the seats are out vacuum the carpet and lift it up and lay against the front seats. There is no need to take off the side door sills or the rear inner plastic covers as mentioned in the Youtube video. Just carefully free the carpet from beneath the plastic. 5. No need to disconnect any electrical connectors or even the 2 orange plastic plugs on the cover. Just remove all the bolts and the cover will lift off. Also remember to disconnect the center seat belt anchor. There is also a bolt that anchors an electrical connector underneath the center panel so make sure to undo the bolts to that center cover (this cover has the tape on it) 6. After removing the cover replacing the fans is easy. Undo the 3 10mm bolts to each fan. Disconnect the connector and pry out the connector plug using a small flat tipped screw driver. When inspecting the fans they looked good to me and had minimal dust but keep in mind they are over 15 years old and have spun many millions of revolutions They also have a green circuit board underneath the fan Remember the job of these fans is to keep the battery cool Others saying it is not that they are keeping the battery cool but the communication issue imo is not correct unless the circuit board is malfunctioning 7. Take pictures to keep track of where bolts go. This is a tedious job but not complicated. I’m glad I did this because now I am enjoying my 7 second 0-60 runs which I could not do before 😆

I believe in addition to the recalls, the 3 cooling fans for the hybrid battery are prone to failure. When one or more are no longer working the battery is not able to be cooled properly. Thus, the battery will quickly lose power especially under hard continuous acceleration. Given the cars are now over 15 years old (think of how many revolutions those fans have done), the fans need to be replaced. My light came on one time and the scan showed a P3015 code. The dealer had previously performed the recall as well as fix a loose pin to the ECU. I reset it but of course it came back after the incident described below. I also had a similar situation on the freeway. I accelerated very hard several times and then noticed the battery charge was down significantly. Soon after the car lost all power and I had to cruise off onto the feeder. You can DIY to replace the fans or take it to the dealer for about $1,000 to $1,500.

The sound is a low groan sound kind of like when your skin rubs on a leather couch and occurs when the steering wheel is turned to the left or right. Very noticeable when the car is first started and less so when warmed up but can hear it occasionally. Mostly when the car is still. It feels slightly stiff and feels like maybe there's air in the system? The noise is coming from the steering wheel area and almost seems like it's inside the column. I have checked the power steering reservoir and it's still full sans a minor weepage of the hose where the air control valve is. I have not had to top off the fluid. Pump has never been replaced but fluids flushed with correct auto trans fluid regularly. And no smoke at startup so I don't think it's the ACV. And no issues with fluctuating idle. Idle is stable and does not cause any problems when wheel is turned or ac is turned on. The steering rack doesn't leak but the driver side rubber boot has some weepage. Rack has never been replaced. Car has 140,000 miles. Any ideas? This thread describes my symptoms exactly. http://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-3rd-gen-2010-2015/597580-groan-from-steering-wheel.html

I'm pretty sure I've got some slight weeping of the No. 2 oil pan (lower) gasket. Any tips or how to's? Looks like I would need to remove the engine undercovers and then unbolt the bolts, remove and replace? Do I need to remove any major components? The service manual is not really helpful as it says to do the whole timing belt removal first in order to get to removing the oil pump and No. 1 oil pan. I've heard others say this is not necessary if just wanting to remove and replace the lower oil pan seal. All I'm wanting to do is remove the lower oil pan and reseal it. Looks a little tight but any pointers would be appreciated. Thanks

Just buy a used WHAT off of eBay? The climate control module and the radio aren't even linked except that they obviously take power from the same electrical circuit since they both are not working. Check your fuses -- in the fuse box in the engine compartment and in the fuse box under the dash. Thanks. It was the 15A radio fuse under the dash that was out. Their was an extra fuse right below it that I used and now everything is fine.

This one is my daily driver. A 1994 ES 300 with 126K on it. Any suggestions? Just buy a used one off of Ebay? If it is a fuse, where and what do I check?

Guys, all of a sudden, my climate control and radio lights went out last night. During the day, I can see the clock still works and the hazard flasher button still works. However, the radio does not play or light up and the climate control buttons do not work at all so I have no heat or AC! About a third of the climate control on the left side lights up. I don't care about the radio as much so I'd like to focus on repairing the climate control issue first. Do you think it's dead and not repairable? Should I get a used one to replace it? If the buttons are pushed and nothing happens, I assume replace the LCD bulbs would not bring it back to life? Thanks for the help. It's getting cold!

Thanks for the detailed response. I assume the shifter surround wood piece you mean the wood piece around the transmission shifter? How do you take it out? From underneath? When I remove the circuit board, will I have access to the plastic cover so that I can clean it? ie is there a plastic cover before the lcd and one after it (the plastic cover that is exposed?)

I've got a 2004 RX330 with the standard Panasonic radio. Inside the plastic see through glass where it reads the radio station, there appears to be some kind of stain that looks like milk inside. I don't know how it got there but I would like to remove the stains. Hopefully it can be removed by windex and I hope it's not a glue substance. How do you remove the plastic glass thing? Can I pry it out with a screw driver or is it more complicated than that?

It's a sensor located at the bottom of the tank. Replace it or disconnect it. It's hard to get to because the front inner fender shroud is in the way.

It's annoying as hell and aggravating to feel that clunk going over bumps and ruts. Thanks guys. That's why I love this board.

It's got 90,000 miles. I guess that's what it is, a rubber bushing or both rubber bushings. Expensive to replace?

Whenever I drive over some speed bumps at a moderate speed (5-10mph) it feels as if the front suspension is knocking metal to metal. Or when I drive over a crack in the road it does the same thing. When I swerve sharply left or right it does'nt do this. Nor is there any sound or problem driving at all other speeds either in the city or on the highway. It almost feels like some kind of rubber bushing has gone out. The shocks seem fine. Any suggestions as to what this may be?

OK, found out the expansion valve is bad and needs to be replaced. It's located underneath the glove box. $60 part plus 3-4 cans of freon. Total should be about $250-300 including labor. What happens when the valve goes bad is that it freezes up, literally and when it freezes up, no cold air can be moved. Has nothing to do with the heat of the day but stops working after an hour or so. If you wait an hour or so, it melts and works again.