SC1911

Just thought I'd toss this tidbit into the fray. I recently drove about 3400 miles from Central Washington State to NE Ohio. Drove through California, AZ, NM, OK, to avoid the severe winter storms at the time. I had a Thule Atlantis 1600 on the roof racks. The Thule clamped directly to the OEM Lexus roof racks. Two cautionary issues worth noting were the clamp jaws touching the roof sheetmetal during mounting, and once mounted, the clearance or non clearance of the cargo box tail end and the plastic visor over the rear window. The Lexus cross bars have to be spread apart as far as they can go. I got the box on the roof racks by myself. I put a towel on the rear window plastic visor, leaned the box against the rear bumper and rear visor, lifted the box and shoved it forward. Once on top, open the box, one side at a time, and unscrew the clamping knob to open the jaws. Before its fully open enough to get the jaws around the cross bar, the jaws will contact the roof sheetmetal, you lift the box up while opening the jaws enough to fit over the cross bar, then rotate the knob to close the jaws while holding the box up an inch or so. Same for the other 3 clamps. See pics at http://s303.photobucket.com/albums/nn145/g...mview=slideshow I maintained an apartment at my long term temporary location & moved it all back home. My milage averaged about 22mpg with the Thule rooftop box and a full full load.

Any tech venture a guess as to why the battery pack failed prematurely?

Back of that 2010 RX reminds me of the rear end of a Subaru Tribeca. Or is it just me?

I've installed Xpel brand headlamp protection shields on my BMW 528i and Z3 myself, but my bimmers fog lights were flat. The round dome shaped fog lights of our 07 RX400h's have too small a radius (curvature) for the 40mil thick covers to stay put. They would have to be heat shaped from the fabricator to fit well. All the stuff from the headlight cover makers so far are flat. Headlights are much larger than the RX400h's small 3" dia fog lights so the flexible thick film can be contoured to fit. The adhesive that is on the back of the covers is ferocious once pressed down and it starts grabbing. I've had my Z3's covers for 2+ years and they are still as clean and clear as when they went on. Xpel cuts the material and franchises the cutting system. The material they used was Scotch 3M automotive film. I have the Xpel "invisible" paint protection film on the front end of my Z3. Twas costly, but worth it for me. I'm leasing my RX so chose not to spend the bucks for the film. Stan Chang 01 Z3 3.0L 07 RX400h AWD

In my 07 RX400h, the trip A/B odometer resets by holding in the round button until it resets to zero. The larger rectangular button toggles between Trip A, Trip B, and the odometer. I reset the milage reading by pressing the reset button on the MID Consumption screen lower right corner, which I have done inadvertently at times. My milage, calculated, milage/gas pumped has been 25 - 27 at each fillup, with an occasional 28-29mpg. The on board computer has differed from .5 to 2mpg from my calculated milage. Stan 07 RX400h AWD 01 Z3 Roadster 3.0L

Yes. I had Xpel film applied to my Titanium Silver BMW Z3 2 years ago. It is visible from the line on the hood where the film stops. Casual observers would not notice it at all. The nitpickers would need to get within 6 ft or so to be able to see the tell tale line. I had the front bumper, hood and both side mirrors covered. I did the headlights myself. In the two years I've had it, it has not yellowed that I can notice. However, my Z3 is garaged, when not on weekend jaunts. So I do not have any experience with the film exposed to daily sunlight over time. It has taken a few rock hits that did not penetrate the film. I do have one hit that went thru the film and chipped the paint. It would have been a lot worse if the film was not there to absorb some of the energy. I do have one spot that probably had a microscopic hole in the paint finish, or some other defect in the paint that a brown rust-looking tiny 1-2mm spot is visible under the film. The film is undamaged and appears perfect. I'm attending the 2007 BMW Homecoming in SC this year, and will have it fixed there. My RX400h however, has 4-5 good chips on the bumper facia and hood. So its Lanka and some touchup paint time. Its leased so I do not plan to cough up the greenbacks to cover it. Stan Chang 07 RX-400h AWD 01 Z3 3.0L 5spd

Well, you're wrong, and luckily not DEAD wrong. "B" mode most definitely enables engine braking. Engine braking on a FWD vehicle on slippery LEVEL roadbed can be faught with hazards. But on a downhill slippery slope, run, you are damn lucky you didn't lose control on one of those downhill turns. Granted, "B" mode is to be used to prevent the friction brakes from being overheated and fading in almost EXACTLY the circumstance you describe. The exception is NOT on a downhill SLIPPERY roadbed! In that case it would probably be best to use the e-brake judisously, lightly, to provide the light REAR braking you need to keep your downhill speed within reason. Advice from someone having accrued THOUSANDS of miles in MT winters. And by the way, that BMW-7 was RWD, a totally different animal on the downhill side of a snowy/icy mountain pass. All he has to do is lift the throttle slightly to attain light rear braking and "pull" the car back into "line" should it begin to wonder. And even better if it had a manual transmission. Golden rule, never follow a "LION" into its natural habitat. Oh, and one more thing. Those "rigs" were most likely stopping at the top to remove the chains from the tractor, driving, wheels where they would be inherently unsafe, but for an even improved safety factor leave them on the rearmost axle of the trailer to provide "drag" braking on the downhill side, just as you might wish to do with the e-brake. I followed the 7-series, a RWD vehicle, same as my BMW 528i and Z3, thru the hole he found between the rigs. From my vantage point, I couldnt see there was a clear path between the trucks. Tho my RX-400h is labeled AWD, it has Michelin all season tires, or more accurately, NO SEASON tires. I had no intention of trying to keep up with the 7-series, who prob had real snows on and knew how to drive in those conditions, as I didnt see his car in the ditch or piled up on the guardrail. I've only put a couple 1000 miles on my RX400h and am still figuring out what's what. I crawled along (in retrospect, my speeds were 1-5-10 mph thru the worst of the storm, and gradually increased as conditions improved). After I got past the stopped big rigs, I stayed in "B" till the road surfaces improved. I didn't see anyone on the top of the pass mounting chains, but it was apparent they weren't going anywhere without them. In a mile or two, the snow stopped falling, and the road surfaces were getting better. I was white knucked, going slow -- and taking hands off the wheel to do e-braking is out of my skill set. I'll give the e-brake technique a try when I find a nice safe slick place to play with it.

I finally had an opportunity to use the B trans mode today. On a cross country trip, I was making my way westward, across the I-90 at the downhill side of the peak- somewhere on the Montana side between Coeur D'Alene and Missoula. It started snowing harder and the word Blizzard came to mind. Big rigs were slipping and pulled over to the side of the road. There was 2-3" on the roads. The truck ahead of me stopped behind 3-4 other big rigs who stopped, apparently not wanting to risk losing control and sliding into another rig on the downhill side of I90. A BMW 7-series (who obviously has done this before) came from behind and went around several trucks and thru an opening between the crooked line. I followed, and not wanting to use brakes on this snow covered 6% grade at near 7000ft in 28 deg temps, wanted to drop it into a lower gear, but B was my only choice. It felt like engine braking. I turned the nav display to look at the energy screens. It showed the battery was charging. I applied some gas to see if the display changed from charging to supplying juice to the electric motors- the display continued to show battery charging. Handy in this situation. On that 6% grade, B kept speeds at about 20-25mph. I had my RX400 loaded with myself, wife,and 200-300 pounds of gear. Dang spooky for a while there. But I got down the mountain just fine. So, for me, the "B" gear is for Battery. ;) S. Chang 07 RX 400h AWD

I have the Lexus rear cargo mat. Its lightweight, and keeps curling up at the sides. :chairshot: I'll try turning it upside down for a while to see if it evens out. My BMW trunk mat is light and appears to consist of a plastic foam and does not curl up. My Lexus mat seems to be made of similar stuff, but a bit denser. The Lexus mat has a low relief rectangular grid pattern , basically flat (cept the sides, which persistently curl up) with a raised boarder to keep dust, dirt, or liquids on the mat from sliding off onto the carpeting. When I drop the rear seats, it looks fine (cept for the curling sides).

They are posted in the exact order that they are listed on lexus.com. Well, I did try to organize the files as best I could as the order they appear on the webpage starts with p 469 thru 624, then a Forward, some general info sheets, and pages 1-15 Basic Operation, well, you get the idea. Included is a spreadsheet of file sequence. I had to break the file up into 2 pcs as one file was too large for yahoo briefcase. Lexus Manual Files in my Yahoo Briefcase The link is dead. :^( Nuts, Yahoo won't allow public access to briefcases w/o a paid subscription for storage space. Lets see if this forum will take the files as attachments....

I've had my RX 400h for just over a week. I checked the cold tire pressure. 37psi from the dealer. I intend to maintain them at 37-38 psi. Its a fair balance between comfort and milage economy, keeping in mind that ride comfort is subjective. Dealer is Metro Lexus, Brookpark, Ohio.

SNIP They are posted in the exact order that they are listed on lexus.com. Well, I did try to organize the files as best I could as the order they appear on the webpage starts with p 469 thru 624, then a Forward, some general info sheets, and pages 1-15 Basic Operation, well, you get the idea. Included is a spreadsheet of file sequence. I had to break the file up into 2 pcs as one file was too large for yahoo briefcase. Lexus Manual Files in my Yahoo Briefcase

[snip The files are posted in the order one would find them in a paperback owners manual. Happy Holidays :D I opened up a few pdf files to check the contents in order to confirm the order to assemble the files. Assuming the file at the top of the web page is the first one, then the manual starts with section 3-2, Starting and Driving, pages 469 to 492. Hmmm, so I opened up files at the bottom of the list thinking the files were sorted bottom up. The last file, Seat, does not have a page number, but is a safety message to buckle up. So, the Adrian Monk in me says to go thru and open each file and see where it should go relative to eachother. Page "Hybrid" is Basic Operations and contains pages 1 thru 15. Seems a good place to start. My manual is for my brand spanking new 2007 RX 400h that I just picked up this morning. Its quite different from the 2006 manual. So I will do the best I can to figure out how to assemble the files, unless the OP can provide me the sequence. I got a lot of time to read thru the 5# of manuals and books that Lexus provided. I'll begin on Saturday doing the best I can if I do not have the sequence from the OP. Stan Chang 2007 RX 400h AWD, Nav Millenum Silver, Black Interior

I rented a Mustang convertible while I was in OC. It was either that or a Taurus. I had it for a week. The Mustang had 3 thick spokes on the steering wheel, all in bright aluminum. Thought nothing of it, until driving it in daylight and the sun reflecting off that bright aluminum made seeing the instrument cluster difficult. The top was up. The chassis squeeked and creeked when I creeped over speed bumps. On the second leg of my trip, I rented a Ford 500. Nicer. Engine not as noisy or unrefined as the 6cyl Mustang. But still not as refined as my 1997 BMW 528i. The Ford 500 also squeeked and creeked as I drove very slowly over speed bumps. At least it didnt have that aluminum clad 3 spoke steering wheel. So, what does this have to do with Lexus'. Its only to give the poster who considered a Lincoln to be aware of these traits in other Fords if he test drives Lincoln's newest SUV. Also, it appears the RX line is nearing its update cycle. For me, this means the factory has had plenty of time to learn how to assemble an RX without fasteners half backing out, or wiring harnesses getting crimped and cut on sharp sheetmetal, etc and the proper torque applied to all nuts and bolts so they dont back out or break/strip due to over torqueing. They know how to build this vehicle as well as they can by now.

One way is it use Adobe's pdf writer software that can create pdf files from just about any source. I assume you don't have this, hence the question. I have Adobe version 7 but not at my current location (2000 miles away from home with somebody's else's laptop). I will, once I get home, combine these individual files once I figure out the proper order, and figure out how to post them to this site. The 39 files total 7.86megs. Don't know the size limit of files posted to this site..... I may have to post it on my MSN Group site and provide the link to it here.... unless someone else does it before I get to it... Stan Chang Brunswick, OH Will be picking up my 07 RX 400h when I get back home..... Friday before Christmas.