cmartin248

You need a new mechanic. It cost absolutely nothing to have Auto Zone or Advance Auto (others also) to check your charging system and load test your battery. Why would anyone not use this free service? As for your alternator and battery failing on both cars, I'd come closer to catching a meteorite bare handed. My wife's 2003 SC430 has 240K miles on it and has the original alternator, but just last week I had to give up the original battery which was over 8 years old. To anyone else that reads this, ALWAYS request your old parts. Had this owner done this he could have taken the alternator to store and had it tested free. It would be great to take it back to the mechanic and tell him there is nothing wrong with this one....

I know exactly where it is located. That is the one that brought my code in and I replaced it myself. Ordered one from ebay and it was only like $25. Bank 2 means passenger side exhaust and sensor 1 means the first sensor from the engine. Jack the passenger side up and look on the inside of the exhaust pipe right where the firewall turns up or where the passengers feet would be. The sensor is fairly easy to get to with the special socket you can get from an auto parts place for O2 sensors. Now the wiring plug is a different problem. It is snarled under the engine mount and plugged in up near the front passenger side of the engine near the bottom corner. I had to bend the mount that holds the plug to get it out and I tie wrapped it back up. After you replace the sensor, reset the engine code and then jumper the OBD II pins that is explained in another article to reset the VSC.

You need to change alignment shops. Both the toe and camber are adjustable. With that said, even adjusting the rear camber to maximum, it will not go to zero. I actually modified my rear arms to allow "O" camber and I am now getting 50k on my tires. This is not a simple fix but the only way that I have found to get normal tire wear. Do a search on tire wear and you can see mine and others posts on the subject.

Check the computer code either at Autozone or with an OBD-II and you will find the code you need to repair to fix the "check engine" light. Several of the codes cause the "check engine light" and the VSC light to illuminate at the same time. Mine was an O2 sensor and after I replaced the sensor, I use the OBD tool to reset the check engine light. The "VSC" light was still on and I had to use the jumper described on this board (do some searching) to reset the VSC light.

If you would spend just a LITTLE time searching, you would see this subject has been covered and covered....

I had a similar problem with mine when I had the windshield replaced. The glass repair shop stuck a screwdriver into the hold where the limit switch made up when the top closed. I had to remove the molding on both sides of the windshield and do a continuity check for each limit switch when the top was up to see which switch was bad. Mine was the passenger switch and I removed it, found how they had bent it and simply fixed the switch. I would bet money that one of your limit switches in the top corner of the windshield is not making up for some reason. A bent hinge would simply prevent the top from lining up when it closed. If the alignment pins are going into the holes in the corners, then the hinge is not bent, but rather a limit switch problem. Even if the hinge bent, $4400 is an outrageous price. Let me know if I can help.

Go to Walmart and get the tire repair kit that has a little 12 volt compressor and a bottle of tire sealant (Green Slime) for about $20 and forget about the spare tire. We have 250,000 miles on our SC430 and never had a problem....

I put a lot of information on here about what I personally did to stop my tire wear. I will not re-type it. The fact that you have found the information about adjusting the swing arms tell me you have found my information. Because I have a lot of mechanical background and welding experience, I have actually modified my swing arm adjusting pivots to allow additional camber. My tires wear completely even across the tire. I am getting 40,000+ on tires now. Its my wife's car and she has over 240,000 miles on it. That would be 24 sets of tires with the original camber. This is an excellent car, but I don't understand for the life of me why Lexus didn't at least make the camber adjustable to "0" for older drivers that don't push the car through slaloms. This is the only real problem I have had with the car... about ready for a second timing belt....

My bad,, are you talking about a SUN roof on the SC430? I have never worked on those.... I thought you were talking about the convertible top... didn't even know the SC430 came with a sun roof...

You're are not telling the complete story here. Your son pressing the button while the car was moving does not work. Unless the car is in park the switch will not function. There are two limit switches in the top of the windshield frame that can become damaged if you try to force the top closed. Please give ALL the facts and what you have tried to do and where it is stopping when you try to close it. Looks like you thumb typed the question,,, how about giving up old guys the full words and not the shorthand????

So you would rather your grandma be jerked around by only the seat belt than be cushioned by an air bag? I think if you do some research you will find that only infants in carseats and those are the reverse facing carseats, should have the air bag OFF. If it were my grandma I would want a half dozen air bags all around her.

Well these old ears have heard a lot of stereos from the 78 LP's (before the 33 and 45 LP's) and the 8 track tapes. The Levinson stereo is one of the best out there. If you are having problem with the sound, you probably have speaker damage. I recently removed my left door speak and repaired it by simply gluing the cone gasket back together. As for replacing the Navigation screen with a DVD, you would loose your service information and various other intergrated circuits. It is also unlawful to have a DVD player in view of the driver.

you have a bad copy, probably a memorex disk,, they don't work well,, try to copy your disk onto a TDK disk. The data is there, but the Lexus Nav system is picky on the type of disk it likes.

Oh, is that all you want? better gas mileage and performance... when you find it, I am sure Lexus would gladly pay you a handsome amount for such a chip. I think the last Unicorn I saw had one attached to his horn...

There have been several discussions on this matter.... not trying to be a smart$$$, but did you try a search???? saves a lot of us re-writing everything....

I replaced the timing belt on my 03 myself, but then I do all my mechanic work. Would not recommend it for the average tinkerer.... My first replacement was at 120k and the belt looked fine, the car now has 205k and I will probably replace again at 250K. The timing belts on these cars are much wider and stronger than most timing belt engines. When you decide to have it replaced, go to the Toyota dealer or a local garage, which is much much cheaper....

It is very rare that one knock sensor goes bad and astronomical that both go bad. I suspect that you have a different problem that is causes the knock sensors to malfunction. It is possible that your cat is plugged and causing this problem. Please post the exact codes that showed up on the scan and go from there...

wow,, I bet there is an engine behind the plastic air foil... with a 10 mm wrench you can see for yourself... I always change my own oil, replaced my own timing belt, have just under 200k miles on my 2003 and not one mechanical problem. Even getting 50k on tires after my swing arm modification.....

Check the gasket around the tail lights. Had a lot of problems with them on other cars....

I should have answered you sooner, but here goes. The oil filter is very easy to get to from underneath. There are two 10mm bolts that hold a small section of the plastic cover underneath just below the oil filter. You don't have to remove the complete cover, but rather take the two bolts out and the cover has a flex joint in it that bends down. The oil filter is right in your hand. If you remove it from the top, you will wipe up oil for weeks that gets caught on the plastic pan. Put your floor jack just behind the driver front wheel on a beefy part of the frame. This not only gives you room to get to the oil filter, but tilts the engine correctly to drain all the oil. The drain plug is 14mm and be sure to change the oil while hot, which flushes the pickup screen and carries the deposits out the drain. Looks like that are very few of us that actually change our own oil anymore....

The battery can not be replaced. You have to replace the complete sensor and they run about $125 each. Even after the replacement you have to have the sensor programed to your car by the dealer. I took one of the sensors apart to see if the battery could be replaced and its a special battery as well as spot welded to the connections. This is one area that I am very disappointed in Lexus that the battery can not be replaced. Battery life is about 5 years, so you are about to need more than one. Here is what I did: threw the sensors away, installed normal valve stems, bought a set of valve stem caps that turn red on low pressure from Walmart for $6, and disconnected the TPS light per one of the postings on this board. Yeah, the wife has to walk around the car once a week and look at the valve caps, but it saves $600 + on sensor replacement and I can use any rim that I want.

The trunk struts are charged with very high pressure nitrogen. After a few years they loose some charge and will no longer hold the lid up, especially in cold wether. There is no adjustment, only replacement. I ordered a set from ebay a couple of years ago for a fraction of the dealer price and they are still working fine. Takes about 5 minutes to install them, if you have ANY mechanical skills.

There are many many tire post on here,,, not being a smart "A", but if you would read the posts on tires, you could educate yourself.

Disableing the tire sensor alarm is very easy and takes about 10 minutes. This has been address in other posts and I did it the other day in about 10 minutes. You simple remove the gear shift knob, take a few screws out of the console, a couple of snaps at the rear of the console, lift the console and unplug the two cables in the front. As for replacing the wheel, you should look at ebay or I have a one that is a little scratched up, but no cracks.... cmartin248@aol.com

nothing but tires, tires, tires....... guess the other guy never takes his foot off the brake, wife has 170k on hers with no brake pads