jragosta

I would recommend NOT going thru your insurance for something minor. Every claim raises your premiums. Even if you switch companies, they all share information and the additional costs will transfer with you. Insurance should only be used in catastrophic incidents and accidents. The money you save by not having your premuiums raised will more than cover the cost of getting your scratch fixed.Plus, the longer you go without a claim can lower your premiums over time. ← On the contrary, your insurance premium will NOT increase because this damage done to your vehicle was not your fault. I filed a claim and was concerned about that myself but stuff like this beyond your control, has no influence on your risk factor for the insurance company. You will only be responsible for your deductible. ← Yep same here, my rates did not increase at all when I filed insurance claims for vandalism/break in or for the hit and run on my door. All I had to do was take care of the deductible and my insurance company took care of the rest. Your ES should have full coverage and that problem should be covered. ← For vandalism, your experience is going to be almost universal. Filing a claim for vandalism will not increase your premiums anywhere that I'm aware of. However, be careful about hit and run. In some circumstances, a hit and run COULD increase your premiums. Not always, and not everywhere, but it can happen - particularly if it happens more than once. Best advice is to always call your agent to ask.

I would recommend NOT going thru your insurance for something minor. Every claim raises your premiums. Even if you switch companies, they all share information and the additional costs will transfer with you. Insurance should only be used in catastrophic incidents and accidents. The money you save by not having your premuiums raised will more than cover the cost of getting your scratch fixed.Plus, the longer you go without a claim can lower your premiums over time. ← Sorry, but that is not good advice. I come from an insurance family and used to work in my father's insurance office. If you were filing a collision claim, you do have to be concerned about rates being increased. This one would be a comprehensive claim - and there are generally no penalties for filing a comprehensive claim. In addition, most people have lower deductibles for comprehensive than for collision, so you probably won't be out as much. I'd suggest calling your agent right away and ask them if there will be any consequences if you file the claim. I'll bet you there won't be -- and you can share half the insurance money with me as a reward.

Why? The other driver wasn't at fault. Granted, he should have stayed around as a witness and more importantly to see if anyone was hurt, but 'I didn't like the guy behind me driving too close' isn't an excuse for speeding through a stop sign at 30 mph and driving off the road.

Sorry, but that doesn't measure the filtration efficiency of the filter. Not to mention that it's nearly impossible to compare the test results (unless your driving is identical).

Look up "placebo effect".

That doesn't mean that damage hasn't occurred. No one claimed that EVERY car would be damaged or that it would be damaged quickly. The K&N filter increases the risk of engine damage significantly, though. As for the mileage, there's something else going on. An air filter doesn't restrict flow that much. Under identical test track conditions, there's no way that replacing the paper filter with K&N would increase mileage by 10%. It's just not going to happen. Something else changed (your driving conditions, speed, weather, something).

Not according to the URLs above. It doesn't look like any of the tested filters beat a good quality pleated filter.

I don't know the answer, but I know what I'd do. I wouldn't attempt any stereo modifications myself. It is critical to balance the speakers with the audio system if you want decent sound. That requires a competent audio shop - and they would be able to handle any spacer issues for you. Good luck.

NO one asked you to. I explained my credentials - and gave a detailed explanation of why these filters are no good in an earlier thread. You have a choice of who to believe: 1. Someone who has filtration credentials and explains in detail why the filter is no good or 2. Someone who doen't have any idea how filtration works, but thinks that they might see a 2% increase - but have no way to measure anything. Interestingly, someone came up with the actual test data - and it confirmed the explanation I gave a long time ago. The K&N filters leak particles like crazy.

I would suggest that statements such as those above would require the presentation of some valid statistical data from a reliable and disinterested source. ← I agree with jragosta statements! ;) ← http://home.usadatanet.net/~jbplock/ISO5011/SPICER.htm http://www.bolhuijo.com/airflowtest/index.html ← Thank you for saving me the time of looking these up. Basically, the first article says that the K&N filter is going to allow all sorts of particles to get into your engine. Since the reason you want an air filter is to keep these particles out, that's not a good thing. Interestingly, it also says that the dirt holding capacity of the K&N is lower than OEM filters. K&N's site says it has a higher DHC. My guess is that K&N used coarser particles. The second article was somewhat interesting. Based on K&N's web site and reports from various people, I expected that it would give higher air flow than an OEM filter - and therefore a slightly better horsepower. The tests reported here indicate that the K&N is no better than a high quality paper filter, but it is somewhat better than a cheapo paper filter. In any event, the difference is tiny. Bottom line is that these tests confirm that any gains from using K&N are placebo effects. And you risk damaging your engine. Again, thanks for digging up the references.

I would suggest that statements such as those above would require the presentation of some valid statistical data from a reliable and disinterested source. ← I've already explained my credentials for making that statement PhD in chemistry and years running the R&D group of an industrial filtration company. I've read the K&N site and reviewed the 'data' they presented there. The design of the K&N filter is flawed for its intended purpose.

Once again: I'm happy that you don't think you've had any engine damage. First, I don't see how you can say that unless you've torn down the engine. Second, that's what's called an anecdotal data point. Filtration companies test many, many samples of various filters using sophisticated test methods to determine how well they work. No one in their right mind would rely on a single test. And based on many thousands of man-years of testing experience in the filtration industry, I'm saying flat out that a K&N filter is not as good a choice as a standard OEM filter. Particles will bleed through and you also have to make sure you get exactly the right amount of oil on the filter. You can be as happy as you want with your placebo filter. FROM A SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE, it's a bad choice.

Dosen't Toyota (TRD) also offer a K & N type of re-usable air filter? B) ;) You can check it out at www.trdusa.com :whistles: Not sure of the prices however. ;) ← That doesn't look like a Toyota filter. TRD appears to be a third party selling non-OEM parts. ← http://www.trdusa.com/companyinfo.asp ← OK. My mistake. It IS a Toyota filter, but it's designed for racing, not for street use. A filter designed for racing engines is not likely to be suitable for private use. You trade off particle retention with air flow. On a racing engine, air flow is much, much more important - since a few percent HP gain could make all the difference in the world. Also, the engine isn't likely to last long, so a small amount of extra particles might not matter as much. For the home user, the opposite is true. Longer engine life is far, far more important than a couple percent more HP.

Dosen't Toyota (TRD) also offer a K & N type of re-usable air filter? B) ;) You can check it out at www.trdusa.com :whistles: Not sure of the prices however. ;) ← That doesn't look like a Toyota filter. TRD appears to be a third party selling non-OEM parts.

Can you please write that in English?

You'd be wrong. There is a relationship between filtration efficiency and pressure drop but it's not anywhere near as simple as you're making it. It's also a time-dependent equation. Before trying to define the relationship, you need to consider: 1. Filter area 2. Fluid flow per unit area 3. Viscosity 4. Flter pore size distribution (a filter usually does not have a single pore size) 5. Contaminant particle size distribution 6. How heavily loaded the filter is (under some scenarios the pressure drop increases quickly, in others, the pressure drop increases slowy) 7. Time 8. Concentration of contamnants And many more Believe me - I use to do this for a living. Filtration is not as simple as everyone's trying to make it out to be.

I would assume that a lower pressure drop has absolutely nothing to do with the filtration efficiency. So, I consider this statement incorrect! <_< ← The statement is incorrect, but not exactly for the reason you stated. First, be careful not to confuse dirt holding capacity with filtration efficiency. They're very different concepts. That's one of the things K&N uses to mislead people. There is a relationship between filtration efficiency and pressure drop, but it has a lot of other variables and is not something that can easily be used by the layman.

This is the kind of thing I mentioned in my earlier post. While poor filtration most certainly CAN cause throttle body and IAC valve problems, when it happens, people who buy K&N tend to immediately blame something else. Without extensive testing you can't say for sure that the filter caused the problem, but it's equally foolish to just assume that it didn't - particularly when the failures happened shortly after installing K&N filters. Toyota spends billions of dollars on car design - including things like filtration. Stick with what the manufacturer recommends.

This has been discussed ad nauseum. To summarize: 1. K&N filters require maintenance - cleaning and oiling them. A little too much oil and you can damage your engine. A little too low and you will not be getting good filtration - and risk damaging your engine. 2. K&N makes claims that their filter is 'better' than OEM filters. Unfortunately, the test they're using is the wrong test. They measure dirt holding capacity - which is rarely an issue. They specifically fail to measure filtration efficiency as a function of particle size. By its nature, the K&N filter is likely to allow many small particles to get through. 3. In principle, a K&N filter will give you less pressure drop and therefore more air flow into the engine. That allows your engine computer to use more fuel to maintain the same ratio when you really need the power. You can therefore expect SOME increase in horsepower. However, unless you're on a drag strip using a digital timer, you won't notice it. In real life, the difference is miniscule. 4. Replacing OEM filters on a normal replacement schedule isn't that expensive. 5. If you are living in very dusty conditions where you'd have to replace OEM filters more frequently, it might be tempting to use K&N for cost savings - but don't. Those are precisely the conditions where you don't want particles getting past the air filter. Bottom line is that I would never do it. The benefit is tiny and you run the risk of ruining your engine. I realize that lots of people will tell you that they've been using K&N for years with no problems. The difficulty is that you'll rarely hear from the ones who ruined their engine to save $10. Also, the damage is likely to be long term. I would never expect a catastropic failure. Rather, you'd expect an engine to last 150 K instead of 200 K miles (or whatever). If the engine fails early, no one blames the air filter. My credentials on filtration? Doctorate in chemistry and 7 years as VP of Technology for a filtration company.

Well, since you're due for plugs and wires, anyway, that's where I'd start.

Please let us know. I'm not due for routine service for a couple thousand miles, but if they really have a fix, I'll take the car in now.

The problem is that the tranny problem won't always show up in a test drive - even if you drive it for a while. The transmission learns your driving style. My car didn't start to act up for several weeks after I bought it. I am recommending to everyone I know that they NOT buy a Lexus. Not only does the car shift like a wheezing Yugo, Lexus' handling of the problem stinks. Instead of being honest, they pull stuff like 'the car works as designed'. Right. They designed the car to have a 2 second lag when you step on the gas. I might have even let that go, but they did the same thing with my memory seat. The seat doesn't return to where I set it - it stops about an inch or so away. Again, instead of either fixing it or saying that there's some variability allowed for engineering reasons, they say that they designed it that way. Basically, any problem with the car will be YOUR problem because Lexus will never admit that they have a problem. As much as I love my Lexus other than the transmission issue, I'd suggest looking elsewhere.

Sorry, your dad doesn't know what he's talking about. Replacing the plugs won't cause any problems - unless you do the job wrong.

Something doesn't add up. You say you can work on cars and repair them but don't know how to check the transmission fluid? Hmmmm.... Open your owner's manual. Read the section about maintenance. That will tell you what needs to be done and how frequently. It will tell you how to do all the common checks like checking the transmission fluid. Given what you've written here, I'd suggest finding a mechanic to do the work. If you must do it yourself, you can probably pick up the shop manual somewhere (I know you can buy it from Lexus if you want) to explain how to do all the repair and maintenance items.

That's an inconsitent statement. If you're not doing preventive maintenance, the car's not being well taken care of. I would suggest that you check your manual to see all the things that require routine maintenance and get caught up as quickly as you can - or you're likely to experience some more expensive problems.