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jragosta

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Everything posted by jragosta

  1. I don't beleive for a second that seafoam caused a bearing to seize to the crank. So as far as I am concerned that link has nothing to do with this thread except that seafoam was mentioned. There was obviously a problem before the seafoam was added. ← That may be true. However, lots of people have given lots of reasons why using Seafoam might be a bad idea. The car manufacturers do not recommend it based on their tests and may void the warranty if you use it. This person used it and seized a crank. You can believe there's no correlation if you wish, but those things are enough that I think it's pretty silly to use the stuff.
  2. It's worth noting that there's another active thread right now where someone used Seafoam and is now looking at a new engine. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=22839
  3. Here's an article that covers it. They calculate that a 20% drop in rolling resistance will only increase mileage by about 3%. Another report says that 20-30% difference from the highest to lowest rolling resistance is typical. They calculate a MAXIMUM mpg improvement of under 6%. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/05/low_rolling_res.php HOWEVER, the stock tires already have very low rolling resistance (for CAFE reasons), so most aftermarket tires will increase rolling resistance rather than decrease it. Both numbers are based on how much energy is actually used to overcome rolling resistance. There's another article which gives more information - and the PDF file on their site lists rolling resistances for a bunch of tires. http://www.gotoreviews.com/archives/cars/r...ance-tires.html The Michelin MX4 is about middle of the pack. This article also confirms that CAFE standards require new cars to have low rolling resistance tires. Almost all replacement tires are higher than the stock tires that came with your car. You brought up the Prius. That's actually going to be a worst case scenario - because rolling resistance is a higher percentage of total energy usage on a tiny car like that than on a larger, more powerful car like the Lexus. Even there, I'm finding claims of no more than 10%. Overall, based on published reports, single digit increases might be possible, probably toward the low end.
  4. Sorry if you felt that I was saying that you were lying. My point is that when people report huge mileage improvements, they're usually mistaken for one reason or another. It could be simply memory (as in your case, it seems) or it could be that something else changed (they got the car tuned up at the same time), or the driving conditions could be different (they liked how quiet the car was so they went on a long road trip). I believe that's a pretty universal truth - people almost always overstate the mileage improvement from changes like this, but that doesn't mean that they're lying. Bottom line is that it's possible to improve the mileage of a vehicle by a little bit, but there's no magic bullet that increases the mileage dramatically (and, yes, a 20% increase in mileage is a dramatic improvement).
  5. So we're down from '20%' to '10-15%'. As I said, 20% didn't sound realistic and you're already dropping back. Furthermore, what were your tire pressures before and after? And are you sure you didn't drive any long trips to try out your new tires? Bottom line is that I'm skeptical of any claims of massive mileage improvements from simple things. Almost always, the improvement is overstated (by at least as much as you overstated it).
  6. I'd be absolutely shocked if the mpg increased by 20% simply by changing the tires UNDER IDENTICAL TEST CONDITIONS. The problem is that in the real world, you don't have identical test conditions. You probably were on the highway more after the change. Tires only contribute a few HP of energy loss. Even if you drove that to zero, it's not going to increase your mileage by 20%. If you believe all the mileage claims here, all you have to do is change the tires, install an aftermarket air filter, adjust the timing, and use synthetic oil and you'll get 50 mpg.
  7. That's rather silly. If you let it boil off, the sludge remains in the engine. If you put it in just before an oil change, it probably won't do too much harm. Just remove ALL the oil and the filter and you're probably OK.
  8. Would you comment your car MPG after you put those tires? Please. The LS-x tires have worst rolling resistance around that makes MPG down about 10%. The good part of LS-x is high life. tnx. ← Actually, the best part of the tire is the ride quality and noise level. Tire life isn't a concern for m. As for mileage, I don't measure it. I doubt if the tires are going to cause that much difference. My guess is that you'd need to measure mileage under very carefully controlled conditions to see the difference. I really can't imagine a 10% difference.
  9. Well, I'm not calling people who use this product dummies, but if you wish to, I won't stop you. It's very different from flushing. You're diluting the oil with a solvent (unlike flushing where you drain the oil and replace it with new oil). That means that the viscosity drops by at least a grade, maybe 2. You're going to have much less protection than if you use the factory recommendations. Look at the increased maintenance requirements for severe usage conditions. You're basically worse off then even that.
  10. Now you can see why the car manufacturers don't recommend additives. Cars are designed very carefully so everything works well together. The industry spends BILLIONS of dollars on this. Now along comes someone who thinks they know better than the car manufacturers and they dupe people into paying for their product. I'll create a new product that's pure kerosene. Put it in the crankcase and I guarantee you'll have less sludge in your engine. When you fry your bearings, I'll say it's not my problem - the engine must have had that problem before you put kerosene into the crankcase. Or maybe you did it wrong. While it would be nice to have systems that don't get dirty, it's not going to happen. While people are free to do what they want with their own engines, I think it's wrong to try to pawn these things off on someone who doesn't know what the tradeoffs are.
  11. As I reported earlier, I put a set of Turanza LSVs on my ES330 last month. I just wanted to provide a quick update. Today was the first signifcant rain storm since I put the tires on. I was very, very impressed. The tires stuck to the road as well as any tires I've ever driven (better than most). Not only that, but the noise level was much lower than normal on a rainy day for this car (using the older Turanza tires). Overall, I can't say enough good things about the LSVs. The only thing I haven't been able to check is snow and ice. If you have much snow an ice, you might want to do some more research, but if you have that much snow, you'll probably want winter treads, anyway.
  12. I also felt that the post was demeaning and condescending. While he made some good points, he came across as 'you must be pretty stupid since I have to tell you even the simplest things'. HOW you present something is often at least as important as what you say. Just my $0.02.
  13. Before you sue, I'd give the old mechanic the chance to refund all your money and expenses. He's like to be forced to do that by the court, anyway, but if he does it willingly, he'll save a ton of legal expenses (yours and his).
  14. I don't think you're going to find that a Toyota dealer can do the same job for half the cost. They're probably not doing everything. The savings are probably more like 1/4 - and not having to deal with rental car issues make up for most of that.
  15. I think I'd get an estimate for the repairs and head to small claims court. The dealer HAS to provide a car that passes inspection. Also, the fact that the dash is in the back seat is evidence that he planned to replace it.
  16. I don't know about 'everyone', but I take the car in at the recommended intervals and have the recommended work done. Maintenance is one place I don't cut corners.
  17. While there's no doubt that the in-dash units look best, you might want to consider another (less expensive) option. We're going to equip our sales force with dash-mounted units. I've ordered an iWay and a TomTom from Best Buy for evaluation. We'll buy whichever one we like best for the staff. Each of these units costs about $800 and stores maps of the entire US. You can update them from your PC without buying a new DVD disk from Lexus. As an added advantage, you can easily move them from car to car. This solution isn't for everyone, but looks like a good solution for us.
  18. Spoken by someone who doesn't at all understand leasing. Leasing is most definately not a ripoff. Is it right for everyone? Definately not but for certain people leasing can be the only financially sound decision they can make. Leasing is a financial management tool, and for certain people in certains types of tax structure with certain type of cashflow requirements leasing can be the holy grail of finance. I bought mine out of the lease cash to save on the monthly payment while I start a new business. I will definately lease my next one though. As a self employed person who trades cars every 3-4 years and needs the tax advantages leasing has over buying, it only makes sense for me to lease. Straight out of the mouth of my financial planner. Don't immediately write off something you don't understand or that doesn't work for you. The "gurus" that down leasing are just as ignorant as the "gurus" that down interest only or negative am mortgages (like Suze Orman, yuck). These things are all financial management tools and all have value to specific consumers. ← That's true. (Although I believe that both are abused). A lot depends on the car you're buying. If you're getting a Ford (where the residual is low), leasing makes a lot less sense than if you're getting a Volvo (where the resiidual is high). In our case, we leased a Volvo for my wife. Due to the extra incentives Volvo has for leases, we got the car for $292 per month - including most maintenance for free. My brother bought a new similar Volvo at about the same time. After 9 years, if we get a similar deal, we'll have paid out about as much money as he did (on a time-adjusted basis). The difference is that we'll have driven 3 new cars in that time and he'll have driven on - but he will have a 9 year old 100,000+ mile car in his own name. Plus, he pays maintenance and we don't. Neither of those appears to me to be a clear winner. Depending on how much you value driving a new car, either one makes sense. The point is that leasing clearly offers something that's comparable in value to his purchase- just a little different.
  19. I had the most recent one in June. It worked quite well for the first few hundred miles, then got progressively worse. After about 2,000 miles, it was terrible. Not the same hesitation at 40 mph when pulling onto a freeway, but a lot of very hard shifts at low speed. They reflashed it in my last visit. Initially, it was great again, but then it started to stumble and shift hard. If they would reflash it again and somehow stop the transmission from learning all its bad habits again, it would be fine.
  20. I don't know anything about the tire, but I've learned not to put too much faith in one review - either positive or negative - if it goes against a majority opinion. In this case, if lots of people are complaining about the tire and there's one strong review, I have to wonder if it's a Firestone sales person or something.
  21. What would it cost to lease a 3 year old RX in top condition? Let's say 36 months, cap cost reduction of $1,000. My credit rating is very high.
  22. Latest update on the Bridgestone LSVs. When I was having the tires replaced, the dealer told me that 3 of the struts were leaking. I took it to the Lexus dealer yesterday (they say only 1 strut is leaking and they'll change that one). The loaner was an '06 ES 330 with Michelin MXV4 tires. In comparing the tires, the Michelins are much quieter than the original Turanzas, but iit seems to me that the LSVs are a bit quieter than the Michelins. Not a huge difference, but noticeable. Of course, the michelins have 6,000 miles and the LSVs have only 100, so I don't know what difference that makes. Either one is dramatically better than the stock Turanzas, so you couldn't go wrong either way.
  23. Is that 4 for 3 deal everywhere? If so, I need to go back to my dealer and ask for a refund. I just paid full price for 4 LSVs last week.
  24. That's better than their usual deal, but is still $100 (33%) higher than the $299 lease rate for the Infiniti G35.
  25. That's true. However, you don't save as much as you should on a used car lease. In principle, when you lease, you're payiing for the depreciation the car will have while you are driving it. While the numbers will vary, you might expect a car to lose half of its value every 3 years. That is, a $30,000 car would be worth $15,000 after 3 years, $7,500 after 6 years, and $3,750 after 9 years (the actual percentage will vary, but the progression should be similar). If the lease were set up properly, it should cost roughly half as much to lease a 3 year old car as to lease a new one. From what I've seen, the actual lease rate is more like 75-80% of the new lease rate. That's a lousy deal, IMHO.
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