Jim Nazium

Just thought I would share some Pictures of my '06 RX 400H with my front summer Good Year 255/55-18 on Factory 18" Rims. You'll see that I have the factory mudguards installed as well. Cheers, MadloR Front RearView Front RearView Right Turn Front View Left Turn Front Left Turn Front RearView Front Top

Hey, just curious. The daytime running lights run a certain percentage below "maximum or on", what I would like to know is, at daytime running mode is the colour match similar to the 4700K Xenon HID in colour? Thanks MadloR

Hey, has anybody attempted to upgrade the factory H11 Fog Lights with a conversion kit... HID. I have noticed that there are the traditional 35Watts versions as well as 50Watts versions in the marketplace. Can the factory foglights handle the additional light, and be able to control the output?

It's possible others have come up with there own designs, reversed engineered an existing design, produce a product for less etc... Would be nice to get some feedback and make an informed decision. MadloR

Bump! I would like to know as well. Why don't you email Lexus with your questions. If you go to their web site, they have an area where you can email questions. Since Lexus sells 400h's outside of the US, they should be able to help you with your various questions. Lexus reply to the matter will require the replacement of the Speedometer (i.e. to change the Miles to KM) and hence negating the warranty in full. This is there typical reply on the matter. As for the Temperature, I would imagine they would not release any information on the matter since this usually involves either reflashing or modifyng the ECU, or knowing some kind of means to enter the simple diagnostic or service menu that could involve messing up other parameters other than just F to C. MadloR

Bump! I would like to know as well.

I'm interested as well. I am not interested, though, in swapping out the Speedometer cluster in order to do so. Doing so, voids all warranty from Lexus. I heard of someone offering this service in Canada. I'm wondering if by somehow passing through a service menu (like i.e. BMW) one can convert Miles to Km or F to C. MaloR

Anybody have any feedback or opinions concerning Ipod integration kits for the RX __0 I came across this on ebay... http://cgi.ebay.com/2006-LEXUS-RX400-DIREC...VQQcmdZViewItem Interesting as there seems to be another choice other than the original from Vaistech. As well, correct me if I'm wrong, but are there not more kits in the marketplace? The price seems to be really attractive too, my major hurdle for pulling the trigger on the $299.99US Vaistech. Cheers, MaloR

Sorry, but this is exactly backwards. The B postion does not regenerate (it uses engine compression so the energy is lost as heat) and you can overheat the brakes on ANY vehicle if you ride them on downhills. Bingo! Couldn't of said it better myself.

Why in god's name would you remove the roof rack? Was it purely for the look? Was it for the "wind noise"? Was it to be different? Where do you store the roof rack? Do you ever plan to put it back on? What benefits have you gained by not having it on?

Bottom line, if you are descending a hilly section and you require constant "foot on brake" to maintain a safe speed to negotiate various turns and sweeps in the road as you descend, then you should be in B mode so as to not overheat the brakes. The engine braking will help in the descent, and keep the brakes in a safe operating temperature and avoid brake fade. However else you use B mode, I believe this is the main benefit and intention for it. Cheers, MadloR

Damn... must of been the same pump that I went to and the service station probably hasn't realized it's defective. Went to another service station today and filled up without any problems. I'm wondering when full is really full. MadloR

I was getting the feeling my factory batter was low. I know I was reading about how bad it was to remove the front battery, but my battery was never fully charged. I disconnected it last night and let it charge overnight with my battery charger (has overload, and over charge protection). As soon as I plugged it in I found the battery was pulling about 7 amps (my charger has a guage to measure draw). Sure as !Removed!, I knew it. Battery was still drawing about 7 amps after about 2 hours of charging. Next morning, Meter was showing less than an amp in trickle mode only. I have always disconnected the ground pole before charging any car battery, seeing as how you do not want to damage any electricals. This morning I reconnected the ground, closed up the battery cover and waited about an hour (I was installing mud guards). After I started up, I noticed right away I was able to pull out of my garage on battery power alone (even though it is winter). As well, I drove clear around two city blocks before the engine kicked in as I was merging onto the main road. I will say this, the factory battery sure is puny. OK, it's ligther than a typical vehicle battery that relies on one source only, but for the amount of electronics and heft of this vehicle you would think Lexus would of offered a beefier battery. And, it's not like you can upgrade the battery, there's no space for anything bigger. Now, I know about this... http://lexushelp.com/Ownership/Bulletins/EG/EG010-05.htm But I'm not going to fret over it just yet. I will bring it up to the dealer in a couple of weeks as I will be taking the RX400H in for oil change. I will see what he has to say about this. I will tell him I think the battery was disconnected while my vehicle was in storage, see what he says. Cheers MadloR

Mudguards Installed! Piece of cake. Took about an hour to do all four. Tools required: jack and stand, impact driver, torque wrench, drill, various drill bits, allen key type bit, phillips bit, alcohol pads, coffee. Front Mudguards are a snap, seeing as you use the same allen type screws. You only need to drill on additional screw to support the bottom of the mudguard (this part drill into plastic only). Took longer to remove and put back tires than it did to install. Rear Mudguards requires drilling. Only plastic is drilled into, no sheetmetal. Just requires a little pilot hole so as to find the 3 drilling points. Rear Mudguards are held in place by 3 allen type screws and one phillips type screw (this one fastens from the underside of the mudguard and is a self tapping type). The alcohol pads I used to clean the rear plastic body molding so that the mudguards would adhere. The rear portion of the mudguards come with a 3m type adhesive strip to enhance and keep the edge of the mudguard up close and tight to the edging and shape of the black portion body molding. A nice touch. Just need to take a couple of snap shots and upload to some type of picture site. Cheers, MadloR

I have fueled my share of vehicles in the 26 years... hehe. It's not rocket science. I'm leaning perhaps to a bad station pump (I don't remember if I used the same one twice or not), but I only fuel up at the same Major Oil Refinery Brand of Fuel. Tomorrow I plan on refuelling again, if only my RX 400H sucked gas like my 4.7 JGC Limited did. Thanks all... MadloR

HID bulbs draw on average 35 Watts of power, hence they consume less energy than conventional halogen bulbs which draw 55Watts of power. The other benefit is that they output considerably more light despite the fact they are over 35% more efficient. As for completing the look, you will need to find whether or not the HID bulbs in question are available or made for the RX 400H foglamp housings. Also, you will need to find a place, relatively close to the foglamps themselves, in order to mount the ballasts. You might want to check out a few things... 1) quality, not all retrokits are created equally, most are junk. 2) You will need to plan your installation and guage whether or not it is feasible or practical. Cheers, MadloR

HID's are available in a projector style lamp housing, or they can be had in a "conventional" style housing. The brightness is the same, due to the fact that the type of bulb and the way the light is generated is the same. The real difference is in the matter that the light is focused or, projected out. Typically vehicles like the one's produced for BMW's have always used the projector housing (the RX 400H has that as well) and they allow for accurated beam focus as well as adaptive (they automatically adjust as the vehicle is moving along a road that is undulated). The 1st generation HID's typically found in the Acura product line did NOT use a projector housing but rather used the more traditional headlamp housing (RX330 without the HID's use a standard headlamp housing) where the traditional bulb was replaced by HID type bulb. The projected light is much more diffused and much less focused (alot of light, emitting in all different directions, including into the eyes of oncoming drivers). This type of headlamp does not permit adaptive light control, traditionally the beam projected follows the movement of the front of the vehicle. This setup has proven much less effective. As well, many aftermarket resellers have offered various kits of HID bulbs to be retrofitted into standard headlamps without much success. Many of these kits are illegal. The quantity of light produced simply overwhelms the headlamp is light is typically sprayed in every direction. cheers MaloR