jkatsoudas

Hi all, I have a 2007 RX400h. I love everything about the car, except the front seats. My wife hates them even more. It's my daily driver, and the seats are OK for my 30 min commute, but whenever we take the car out of town my wife's back is sore for a week afterwards. She absolutely loves the seats in her MBZ E350, so I'm looking around to see if I can replace the seats with something better. Are there any options here? Has anyone replaced their seats in their RX with another mfgr's seats (like MBZ), or with aftermarket like Recaro? Are there other Lexus vehicles that have sportier "MBZ-like" seats that would be a simple drop-in into this car? Thanks, John

I can't speak to the Vaistech ipod interface specifically, but I've been very disappointed so far with the Vaistech XM interface for my 400h. I'm on the fourth unit so far: Unit 1) poor sound quality, significant distortion (unknown firmware revision) Unit 2) arrived broken Unit 3) also poor sound quality, buggy to adjust sound level, nav screen distortion every time I change channel via presets (firmware 4.33) Unit 4) worst sound quality of all, with all other bugs still present (firmware 4.34) Each time I've called and explained the situation I've been reassured that the newest firmware revision will fix all the problem. The last one I received and installed sounded so bad that I immediately removed it and put unit #3 back in. I'm terribly tired and frustrated with this whole thing, and I understand why they recommend installing it in a place where you can get to it easily- you'll likely end up replacing it several times. I need to call Eugene tomorrow and discuss the most recent failure.

Would someone post some pictures, already!!!

I REALLY like that part, compared to my Landcruiser that took 22 gallons of premium every 5 days, or so.

I would agree with the others that this is probably a problem with the particular gas station, rather than an issue with the vehicle. I've never had this problem with my 400h, but I did have this exact problem with my 2004 Toyota Landcruiser. Each time it was the same gas station (different pumps). By the third time, I complained to the attendant. I stopped going there for about 6 months because it was soooo frustrating, but when I went back one day I was happy to see that the problem had been corrected. You might want to mention it next time you go there and see if it's something they can calibrate/tune/tweak.

Saying that offset vs spacers will put the same stress on the suspension (as a whole) is correct. The free body diagram of the load and moment arms for the whole car would be the same (assuming the same geometry). But that is not what I was saying. I was specifically talking about the combined stress IN THE BOLT. With the spacers you are adding bold bending stress on top of the tension (from the 79 lb-ft torque) and shear (due to drivetrain forces). That additional stress is non-trivial and needs to be allowed for to maintain the same level of safety or margin. You can choose to believe whatever you want, but it DOES add risk. Again. Avoid the spacers. Buy new wheels. You may want to take a minute and familiarize yourself with the spacer design- at least those of H&R (see link below). The larger (25mm and 30mm) spacers (DRM type) attach to the factory studs with special lugs and then have another set of studs attached to the spacer that are the same length as the factory spacers. Therefore, your concerns regarding added stress on longer bolts are not applicable. As others have said, the stress to the suspension in general and the wheel bearings specifically is identical whether you use a spacer or a new wheel with the same amount of additional offset. If this was an issue in the real world there would be wheel bearing failing all the time, given how many folks have gone with aftermarket wheels with more spacing. IMHO the criticism of spacers in this thread is waaaaaay overblown. I'd buy a spacer from a reputable company and not worry about it any more than I'd worry about the effect of aftermarket wheels. http://www.hrsprings.com/site/index.html Disclaimer- I'm in no way afilliated with H&R. I jus think they have a nicely thought-out product.

Spacers are a bad design. They but bending stess on the bolts which will shorten their life and lower there capacity. And I would not change bolts from the factory supplied bolts because you are never certain of the material strength. If you want a wider stance spend the money and buy new wheels that have a deeper center location. That way you will have the reputation of the wheel mfg that they have done the correct stress analysis on the wheel design and you should be able to use your exiting bolts. Plus you may be able to move into a wider tire as well. Avoid aftermarket spacers and quick fixes that may cost you or a loved one thier lives... it's not worth it. I'm not sure I follow your argument. Are you claiming that wheel manufacturers have all done stress analysis and therefore wheels are safe, whereas no spacer manufacturers do stress analysis so all spacers are dangerous? Do you have proof of this claim? I'm sure that Eibach and H&R Spring (both manufacture spacers specifically for this vehicle) would have something to say about this.

Sorry if I'm not understanding the problem, but couldn't you just take the cover out of the car for a while and see if the squeak goes away?

I've been thinking along the same lines, but I don't think that the Camry or Highlander sway bars would be any thicker than what already comes on the 400h from the factory. Hadn't thought about the Sienna- it's worth checking out. The 400h rear bar has an upward bend on it to clear the spare mounted under the trunk. Not sure where the spare is mounted on the Sienna, so that bar may or may not have that bend. I don't think any of these cars mentioned are typically modified so I don't think I'm any more likely to find aftermarket Camry or Sienna sway bars than I am to find 400h bars. The rear didn't look like that complicated a bend, so I still haven't ruled out having one custom fabricated. I'll probably lower it first and see how the new springs feel. If I find someone to custom fabricate, maybe I'll try to negotiate a volume discount and see if people here are interested in a group buy. I'm sure 5-10 sets would be cheaper than one set.

Thanks- good suggestion. I was going to look into having a fabrication shop custom bend me a set from thicker bar stock, but this sounds like a cheaper way to go and I won't need new bushings. Maybe I'll look for a used set from a salvage yard and have them reworked so I'm not out of commission as long.

Has anyone found a source for aftermarket sway bars for the RX330/350/400h? I love everything about my new RX400h other than the amount of body roll. I've seen springs from Eibach and H&R, but I can't find any sources for sway bars. Not looking for anything radical, just to drop it an inch or so and tighten up the roll a bit. Thanks, John

I've been struggling with adding a sub to my RX40oh with ML, so I'll share what I've learned so far. The ML system in my RX doesn't have aux outs, and I'd be surprised if any do. The ML systems do quite a bit if processing and equalizing of the signal, and not all speakers in the vehicle get a signal that contains bass below a certain frequency so you need to be a bit careful which speakers you tap to get the signal for the amp. If your vehicle has a factory sub already, that's the signal you want to tap. Unfortunately for me, the RX's don't so I have to tap the front doors (rear doors are mid-woofers and don't get the full bass signal- learned that one the hard way). As far as where to tap for the signal, you definitely want to tap an output from the amp to the speakers, as opposed to the signal from the head unit to the amp. The signal from the HU is not volume or mute controlled- there are separate wires from the HU to the amp that convey volume/mute info. Once you've ID'ed which speakers you want to tap for the signal for the sub, you can tap into them anywhere that's most convenient- either directly at the output of the amp or at the speaker, or anywhere in between. You can find wiring diagrams here (but you need to pay $10 to access and download): http://www.techinfo.toyota.com/ Anyway, sorry for the long-winded post. Hope my painful trial-and-error helps someone. -John

First off- this is my first post on this forum and I want to thank everyone here for the incredible information. Reading the forum helped me decide to buy my new 2007 RXh. Since buying it I've added a VAIS Soundlinq SLX (XM radio), and this thread got me interested in adding a Basslink. My attempts so far have been less than successful. I decided to run a 10ga wire directly to the battery, as the idea of running a 200W amp off a cigarette lighter made me a bit nervous. :P Several cut-up knuckles later that's done. I then tapped the rear speakers exactly as shown in this thread. I also downloaded the wiring schematic off the TIS website and can add some info on the wiring in order to ensure proper polarity of the wiring. The driver's side speaker leads are: white +, yellow -. Passenger side is: red w/yellow +, Blue -. Using this setup I couldn't get the Basslink auto turn-on to work. After verifying a good 12v and ground connection with a multimeter I jumpered the +12V to the remote turn-on. It turned on and proceeded to produce some of the nastiest, muddiest bass I've ever heard. No amount of tweaking could get anything remotely resembling decent sound out of the thing. After more closely studying the setup I suspect that this has to do with the equalization of the ML system. The rear speakers are described as mid-woofers, which would imply to me that the low frequencies are rolled off. Therefore, the Basslink isn't getting a full spectrum signal off the rear speakers. Those that have added a Basslink off the rears, can you advise if you have a ML or non-ML system? Next, I called Infinity for some moral support. The guy I spoke with basically said forget about trying to get decent sound out of any of the speaker outputs from the amp on a system that does a lot of processing/equalizing. The signal is so massaged and equalized that it will not produce satisfactory results. He suggested trying to get the signal from the head unit to the amp, so I tried this next. I was already familiar with pulling the HU from the VAIS install, so I tempted fate again with the two top screws (managed not to lose them the first time). I found the connector that leads from the HU to the amp and temporarily connected a pair of leads from there to the Basslink. Bass was indeed noticeably improved! One small drawback is that, apparently, all volume control and muting is handled by the amp not the HU so the Basslink now played at the same volume regardless of the volume (or no volume) of the rest of the system. Scratch that- back to the drawing board. So this is where I find myself. All I want to do is add a little bit of clean, tight bass without spending a ton. The only inexpensive option that I haven't tried yet is to tap the front woofers (door speakers) and hope they have the signal in the 20Hz - 150Hz range, and that it's not too distorted for the Basslink to use (Infinity tech support didn't think this would work). Barring that, the only other viable approach is to use something like the JL Audio Cleansweep to un-equalize the amp output, but this is far more than I'm currently looking to spend. So, I apologize for the long-winded post but I'm all ears if anyone has any other ideas. Thanks, John