jrobsea

Go look at an AWDIS250 to see if you like the look. They have 225/45/17 tires all around. ... sorry - I see you have an ES. I was thinking you meant on an IS350. Your ES probably won't look much like an IS just by getting the same size tires.

It modifies the transmission shift points, holding each gear longer. I recently purchased a 2006 IS350. Does it do any harm to the transmission or other components to use this mode all the time? I realize it probably reduces the fuel economy. But, does it harm the transmission? I got a hold of a TSB (TC010-06) that lists the transmission model numbers for various Lexus models. The model number for the AWD IS250 is the same as the AWD GS350. This suggests to me that the transmission in the AWD IS250 can probably handle much more power than the engine can deliver. I think the 2WD IS250 has the same model transmission as the 2WD GS300 - so that IS probably has a beefy transmission compared to the engine as well.

I added an alpine 10" sub in a sealed box and an alpine amp (MRP-M450). It makes a huge difference in the bass. The stock system doesn't have much low bass response. I have the gain turned to the minimum on my amp, and it adds plenty of bass. This was simple enough that I did the wiring myself. I posted a description of what I had to do. I think I spent about $400 on the components, wood for the enclosure and the wiring kit. Running all the speakers through another amp seems like a much more involved project. You can look at the amp in the right side of the trunk to figure out how many channels you need. There is one connector with 4 wires that contains power and ground, one connector with a bunch of fine wires that contain various signals like audio/ASL/turn on signal, etc, and then two connectors with about 10 wires each that run to all the speakers. Each pair on these two connectors goes to a speaker. You can count to figure out how many channels, but I think it's 10 pairs. I'd try adding the sub first and see if you're satisfied with that before tearing apart the whole system. Even if you end up doing that in the end, you'll still need the sub.

One useful tip I recall someone posting is that if you're sure you are following the programming procedure right and it still doesn't work, try changing the batteries in your remote opener. I think this resolved the problem for someone.

I picked the black leather in hopes that it would not show stains and scuff marks as much as a lighter color. I have smoky granite and it looks great. I was worried about how hot the car would get sitting out in the sun with dark exterior and interior, but it hasn't been a problem.

I just had mine changed. I have about 5k miles on the car. I've only driven about 50 miles on the new pads, but I don't feel any difference stopping. I'm not a particularly aggressive driver, so I'm usually not attempting to stop at the physical limits of the brakes. I would probably only notice if there is a big difference. I haven't put enough miles on to tell if the dust problem is gone with the new pads, but the original pads were definitely dusty. I've been washing the car about every 500-700 miles, and the front wheels are always a mess by the time I wash them.

'97 Subaru Outback that my wife bought new her last year of college. It had 160k miles, and it seemed that it was going to last forever. I almost got a new XT outback, but since our other car is a minivan to haul the kids around, we decided to get something smaller and more fun. The XT Outback is an excellent car, but it doesn't look quite as nice as the IS.

I've had pretty good luck selling instead of trading in. My wife and I have been through two new car purchases/old car sales in the last 4 years. In both cases, we called around for trade-in values, and we found there was about 3,000-4,000 between the trade-in value and the retail value. In both cases, I sold the car for about $1500 more than I would get for trade-in. Our '97 Outback sold in 3 days via free online advertising. The '01 Malibu took about a month, and I spent $100 advertising in the local paper and in AutoTrader.

Stock system with an add-on subwoofer is an option. I think the stock system sounds excellent except that it lacks bass. There is a small free-air subwoofer included in the stock system, but it sounds a bit weak in the lowest bass range. That can be remedied for a few hundred dollars ($400-600) if you don't mind giving up a little trunk space. I added a sealed box with a 10" subwoofer and a 200W amp. I have the amplifier gain turned down to the minimum, and it adds just the right amount of bass. I probably could have gotten by with a smaller subwoofer box with an 8" driver, and I think it would do the job.

I'm just about done with adding on a sub and mono amp to the stock system. I wasted too much time figuring out if it was possible, if I could do the work myself, how to do it, etc. I figured I'd post what worked for me and what didn't. Power cable routing: I purchased an 8AWG power cable kit. It came with 22' of power cable, terminals, fuse block, etc. I think I could have gotten by with a 17' kit - which seems to be more common, but 17' would be too short if you route through the driver's side since the battery is on the passenger side. I first removed the battery from the car. There is a clip on the side supporting the main power cables. I had to open the clip - which was difficult due to how accessible it is, but doable. Behind the battery, there is a rubber grommet in the firewall where a bundle of cables passes through to the front passenger side. There was an extra little 'nub' on it that I opened to pass the power cable through. Pulling the 8AWG cable through the nub was tight, so it might be tough to get anything bigger through. Routing the cable through the door sill was pretty simple. There is already a big cable bundle running along the passenger side, and you can tuck it under trim all the way to the trunk. I removed some clips holding the carpet on the roof of the trunk, and pulled the carpet down. I think there were 5 clips to remove, and another 4 hidden clips keeping the carpet tight against the rubber strip around the trunk. Once I got the carpet loose, I had to disconnect a power cable running to the trunk light. Ground cable: On the left and right side of the trunk, there is already a chassis ground bolt. I used an existing ground. I did take some sandpaper and rub the paint off a small area where the existing ground connected since it's not intended to handle the current from an amplifier. This seems to be a decent ground point. Remote/turn on Signal: The stock amp is under a removable panel on the right side of the trunk. I used a volt meter to find which wire was the signal for the amp to turn on. I found it on an orange cable in the connector with the smallest wires (thanks to Justin Pammer in another thread). There is almost no space to work here for making connections. I think there is a way to splice a cable in without cutting, but I used a little plastic terminal instead. I cut the wire, then reconnected it through the terminal - and tied in another wire to send to the new mono amp. Audio signal: This was the hardest part. I used the speaker level signal from the factory sub to send to a speaker level input on my amp. If you can figure out how to get at the factory sub, that would be the best place to wire it. I removed the entire back seat of the car and couldn't figure out how to get at it. I abandoned that idea and took another approach to figure out which 2 of the ~20 speaker wires I needed to use. There were two connectors for speakers (about 10 wires each), so I tried running the system with one at a time to figure out which one the factory sub is on. Each speaker has two wires, so you can use an ohm meter to figure out how the wires are paired up. Once I had it narrowed to 5 pairs, I used my home stereo receiver to power one speaker at a time. I did this very carefully (to avoid shorting the receiver), at low volume level, and with small gauge wire. It was pretty easy to hear which wires are powering the speakers behind the back seat - but there seems to be a sub and a mid/high - and I couldn't tell which was which from sound or from feeling the sub. At this point, I had a 50/50 shot at getting the right pair. I cut one wire and realized I ended up with the losing 50%. I had to put in an extra terminal to reconnect the mid/high signal behind the rear seat. But at least I had narrowed it down to the right pair of wires. After some excruciating work with the tiny wires/terminals in an area you can barely see or reach, I had a wire spliced in to the speaker wire going to the factory sub. Finally, the easy part: Making the final connections to the amp and subwoofer is simple. All the connections are to accessible wires that I put in. I recommend that the very last thing you do is to install a fuse into your power cable fuse block. That way you're less likely to short something out. The end result: The amp and sub sound great. The stock audio is very good except it's a little weak on low bass. A 10" Alpine Type R sub in a sealed box and a 200W Alpine class D amp add plenty of bass. Overall I spent about $400 on the amp, speaker, wiring kit and wood for the speaker box. Part of the advantage of DIY is that you can buy the amp from one place, wiring kit from another, etc to get the best deal. Unless you're extremely cheap like me - and if you don't have the patience to spend about 8 hours doing all this, it's probably worth having a professional install. Just make sure you get someone who will be as careful about doing it right and not butchering your wiring as you would be.

Yes, you must run a dedicated power lead directly from the battery to the amplifier. It's usually a very heavy wire (mine is 0 Gauge). This was done correctly and so was the grounding of the amp with the initial install, so I didn't have to modify this. When I was initially troubleshooting this issue I followed this lead from front to back. It does not look that difficult to install. There is a very convenient hole in the firewall to get the lead through and running it to the trunk would just require removing the lower door jam trim on both driver's side doors. The rest of the run goes behind the back seats which you will need to remove anyway. If I had all the information up front, I might not have done it at all. I say this for a couple of reasons: I rarely work on cars and I'm a bit intimated to work on something this complex (which is why I hired someone in the first place). I always had this fear that I was going to fry the Nav or something. And it is impossible to not break some little plastic clip somewhere (I broke three during my adventure - make sure you have epoxy on hand). Lastly, I don't know what this does to my warranty, but I suspect bad things. If you're serious about doing this, let me know and I'll post more detailed instructions along with the schematic on a new thread. Thanks. I'm not eager to remove seats and trim panels on my car. I might hold off until I find a local installer who's got some good references for an IS250 or 350 and have it done by them.

Did you have to run a dedicated power lead all the way from the battery, or is there somewhere in the region of the trunk that you can tap off of without overloading the circuit? Assuming you had all this info up front, would you just do it yourself next time? I don't mind paying a bit for a professional install, but I don't like the idea of paying hefty fees for a hack job. I'd rather do it myself than have an amateur do the install. I appreciate you sharing your experiences in this thread. I've been considering adding a subwoofer since I got the car, but I hadn't heard how difficult it is. It sounds like it's fairly simple as long as it's installed properly.

Its there, dude. It must be flipped to the off position. You're right. I'm SUCH a tool. Thanks! :whistles: I've had my car about 5 months, and I just noticed the trunk light a few days ago. Don't feel too bad.

I contacted AAA broker and her quote for IS350 was $42,324. This includes: Mark Levinson/Navigation system, Luxery package, XM radio, and rear spoiler. I don't know if this is a good deal but it's better than $45,177 :) But I'm still shopping. :) I might want to try dealership in LA. I paid invoice + $700 + $765 destination fee + some kind of dealer/advertising fee around $500 plus tax and license. It was for an IS250AWD with wheel locks, cargo net and trunk mat.

After going in a couple of times, I waited until the end of the month. I called in the evening on a weekday and offered invoice+500. I told them that was what I wanted to pay, and I would wait until the end of the year or go to another dealer if they couldn't do it. I also mentioned buying it through an Los Angeles area dealer and shipping it up here. LA seems to be where there is the most competition and lowest prices. They countered with invoice+900. I settled for invoice+700. When I went in, there was some lexus franchise/advertising fee (I think ~$500-$700) that was included in what they called invoice - which I wasn't aware of previously. Make sure you're clear on the final price before you go in. I made them show me some documentation of their invoice pricing just to make sure they weren't making it up. I definitely recommend dealing with them over the phone. Keep discussions limited. They are professionals at negotiating, and I think they gain a big advantage by having you on site and seeing how you respond during discussions. I expect Monday 7/30 is an ideal day to make the deal. There seems to be a general consensus that dealers are more willing to lower prices at the end of the month and midweek as opposed to weekends.

They will deal. I bought an IS250AWD from Lexus of Bellevue for invoice+$700+Lexus advertising fee. The final check including tax/license was a little over 35k. They will tell you that they don't sell them for much under MSRP, but don't believe it. My strategy was to string the purchase out for 6 weeks. Let them know you're kind of interested, but make sure they don't think you're eager to get one right away. Come in a few times to test drive/look at the car, but don't talk about detailed pricing. Then call over the phone to talk about price at the end of the month. Tell them the price you want, and say that you want to come in and sign the papers the same day. Make sure you get clear agreement on the final price and whether there are additional paperwork/advertising/destination fees. Tell them that you know they have sold to others for less, and that you can get the deal from another local dealer - but you'll give the salesperson who worked with you the opportunity to get the sale. Good luck.

Looks great! I have the same color IS250AWD without the Navigation package and I love it.

Just curious. Does the invoice price include an advertising fee? I saw a recent post from someone negotiating based on invoice, and when they did the paperwork, the dealer invoice was a few hundred over the 'invoice' price you can find on cars.com or edmunds.com. The difference was that the dealers include an advertising fee in their invoice price. I had the same experience. If you haven't, I would get clarification of what exactly the invoice price is for that car so you aren't surprised when you go in to buy it. I think you've done pretty well to get them to $200 over invoice - even if you're paying a $500 advertising fee on top of that.

Tango gets credit for posting this once before (at least the one I remember): http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...ost&id=6803 Other than the dealing with annoying brake dust for an extra year or two, is there any downside to getting 15k miles out of my original pads before getting them changed?

I use Maguiars Gold Class leather cleaner. It comes in a spray bottle. The instructions say to spray it onto a rag and then rub onto a small area. I tried that the first time, and it took about 2 hours to do all the leather. Now I just spray it onto the seats and rub it with a terry cloth towel. It seems to work fine, and only takes about 20-30 minutes to do all the leather. I think I paid about $7 at the local auto parts shop. My IS has black leather, and this cleaner doesn't seem to cause any discoloration or running of the dye.

I think this might be a matter of breaking in the driver rather than breaking in the car. I noticed the car is pretty jumpy starting up from a full stop when I first test drove it. Now I'm used to it. The Lexus feels normal, but when I drive my other car (Toyota Sienna), it feels like nothing happens when I step on the gas. I always figured this was intentional by Lexus to make the car feel more powerful and responsive.

I think a good way to figure out a fair price is to start with: invoice price + destination + fees the dealer has to pay From your numbers above, this is 36491+357+446=$37294 Then add a little for dealer profit, and keep in mind that they make a few hundred in profit already if they sell you the car at $37294. I'd offer $37,500, and expect to pay no more than $38,000 excluding tax, title, license. Don't pay any other fees. If they try to get you to pay a dealer handling fee, tell them you'd be happy to pay the $399 fee if they lower the price by $399. Otherwise, go elsewhere. Tell them that you know cars are selling for this price, and if they won't make the deal you want, you'll go somewhere else. Give them 1 or 2 chances to meet your price and then stop negotiating. Either they will call you back after a couple of days, or you'll probably find another dealer who will meet your price. It's the most fun when they call you back to meet your price after you've bought the car you want for the price you want from another dealer.

I had a somewhat similar experience. I negotiated down to $700 over invoice on a base IS250AWD. When I went in to do the paperwork, the dealer's invoice was a few hundred dollars higher than what I saw on Edmunds.com and Cars.com. They included some Lexus advertising fee in their invoice. I was a bit irritated, but there were a couple of extras they had thrown in that I wasn't expecting, and I think I was still getting a really good deal. I bet you can get a better price unless there is only one dealer in the area. I think they made about $1400 on me factoring in the holdback + $700 over invoice. They have to make something - otherwise, we wouldn't have fancy dealerships around to give us free coffee and overcharge us on maintenance.

I just got an unrepairable flat. Luckily I didn't need to replace all 4 tires as the others only have about 2500 miles. The treadwear difference was within whatever tolerance they consider acceptable to prevent tearing up the AWD system. I have the Dunlop 17" SP Sport 5000 tires. The Lexus dealer wanted about 220+tax for one tire installed. The local Goodyear charged about 160+tax. I haven't heard the best things about these Dunlop tires. I think they are 'performance' tires, which are intended for good handling and stopping on dry roads, but not designed for high mileage. If you race your IS, maybe it's the right tire, but I plan to replace them with something designed to last longer, and get better traction on wet/snowy roads once they wear out.

Check out www.xpel.com. If you try to buy the precut kit for hood fenders and mirrors, it costs you about $200. If you can get a Lexus dealer to do it for $350, that's pretty good. I think its worth the money to get it installed by someone who knows what they're doing. I had mine done by a guy who has his own business doing these full time. He came to my house on a Saturday and did it for $300. He usually gets subcontracted by dealerships to do them. The XPEL website will give you a list of installers in your area and they have some kind rating of how many they do - that's how I found him. The quote I got for the whole front end including the bumper was about $550 (the Lexus dealer offered the special price of $1,000 for the full front end). I think the bumper is pretty complicated with all the curves and cutouts, but I declined to do the bumper as it's plastic and if I get paint chips, at least I can touch them up without worrying about rust.