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Not familiar...... Shouldn't be in that position then. Oxygen sensor mounted in the exhaust downstream of the engine but before the catalytic converter.

Make sure that NONE of your rear brake lights have failed or are intermittent, including the high mounted one. Don't know exactly why, but a failed brake light bulb will disable the cruise control.

NO....! Unless the dealer is willing to jack yours up and run a new one under and you're willing to pay the bill.

I spent many years in north central MT. Always drove standard tires with RWD but NEVER hesitated to install (lways nearby)snowchains. FWD vehicles, and/or front biased AWD, undoubtedly have better traction capabilities than RWD or in many cases even 4WD. Right up until you need to allocate a majority of the surface traction coefficient to stearing, lateral forces. That's when you will sincerely wish that front driveline coupling to the engine would vanish, instantly. So, as long as you drive your FWD ultra conservatively you will have no trouble during the winter. But remember, if you decide to go for an AWD vehicle be sure, certain, it has a definite RWD torque bias such as the X3 & X5 or the 4runner, and if your really must have a FWD or front biased AWD be certain it can be driven with rear snowchains ONLY, not front only like the RX & HL.

Well...... Most modern day vehicles disconnect all other electrical loads during engine cranking.... Remove both battery terminals (negative first), clean and burnish the battery posts and the connections, reinstall(negative last), tighten lightly, repeat each spring.

Oh the advantages of modern day electronics, coil per plug.....

Fans work.........??!! At low speed and HIGH speed??

Most modern day automatic climate control systems, especially high end luxury systems, run the A/C all year around, except only if the OAT declines to freezing level. All airflow through the system, recirculated or fresh, is first cooled and thereby dehumidified (sometimes) and then a portion or all of it is passed through the hot water heat exchanger to raise the outlet airflow to your desired comfort level. I suspect this feature came about because many people complained of the discomfort caused by the use of HOT airflow to remove condensation from the windshield when and if it should occur. There are a couple of things you can have the dealer do that will be of help especially if you live in a cold wintertime climate. There are three C-best options of interest. The dealer can set the system such that the A/C does not automatically run in auto mode. He can also set the system such that it does not run automatically in defrost/defog/demist mode. In later RX models, certainly in the RX330, the system can be set so it does not automatically switch from heating mode when the interior temperature reaches or nears the setpoint. During the summer months I do not use the A/C if the OAT is cool enough or only until the cabin has cooled to a reasonable comfort level. When I do have the A/C enabled I always set the system to max cool and then use the blower speed to adjust and maintain the cabin at my comfort level. During the winter months it becomes really easy to build up excessive humidity within the cabin as it is quite thoroughly sealed and insulated and the cabin air outflow is severely restricted. In the wintertime if the windshield and windows start to fog over the most certain solution is to turn the heat and blower all the way up and then select defrost/defog/demist mode. If the condition is really severely it helps to lower a rear window slightly. Speaking of lowering windows that does take some practice on those "auto" switches.

It might very well be the VSC helping to "stabilize" the vehicle. Suddenly increasing the engine torque output while simultaneously turning the steering wheel off-center would potentially "upset" a FWD vehicle, or any vehicle for that matter. But on a FWD you are increasing the lateral stress on the front tires at the same time as the longitutnal stress, were the traction surface only slight slippery..... I can readily envision an engineer/programmer thinking " gee, what a neat idea".

Height sensor is wired directly, only, to the auto-leveling ecu directly above your left knee as you sit in the driver's seat. Therefore it is unlikely that this sensor affects any other operation, at least for vehicles without air suspension. With air suspension the sensor might have dual use. I tried to modify my 01 RX330 such that the lights would tilt upward during high beam use by injecting a constant current into the height sensor (actually a simple potentiometer) output. It worked fine with the vehicle stopped or at low speed but not above ~10MPH. On further research we discovered that the LAN, multiplex system, was "telling" the auto-leveling ecu the vehicle's speed and the leveling is disabled altogether above some selected speed. I would imagine the AFS has the same feature, it makes sense, AFS could be hazardous at some reasonable higher speeds.

AFS.... If you think about it you will come to the conclusion that this is a virtually USELESS option. Entering a right turn the AFS cannot "follow" until you turn the steering wheel in that direction, which of course means that at any reasonable road speed you are already "committed" to entering the turn "at speed" before illumination the road directly ahead. And think about just before, as, you exit the turn, the road ahead is straight but until you straighten the steering wheel your headlights are still illuminating the forest beside the road. Marketing GIMMICKS!

If you can wait for the RX400h, if the currently announced design actually makes it into production, for all intents and purposes it includes a supercharger, V8 performance from the 3.3L V6. But personally I don't think it will get into production before being redesigned with an I4 yeilding V6 performance.

Since sales proposals are not allowed here may I so very gently suggest that you list it on ebay and then provide a link?

My vote went to the RX330 only because of the "soon" in the question. Just yesterday a Lexus salesman advised that the new delivery date is spring of 05. He didn't want, seemingly, to express any enthusiasm that even that date wouldn't be slid. IMMHO the RX400h engineering team will soon, if not already, be reconsidering using the V6 with V8 performance in favor of an I4 with the current V6 level of performance. V8 performance will undoubtedly have great appeal to lead foots and would be teeny-boppers but the "green" team ( the "mass" of the customer base) is definitely more interested in fuel economy with a more sensible level of performance.

Anything there is ANY engine diagnostic/failure indication the VSC is automatically disabled. Many have asked why but no good answer that I know of. Sounds to me like an intermittent electrical connection from the ecu to the oxygen sensor. And speaking of that, there is an aspect of the oxygen sensor that most technicians may not be aware of. I'm not absolutely sure of this myself but I believe the sensor is electrically heated to bring it into the proper operation range. Most technicians would simply wiggle the wiring harness and/or connections to see if that results in a diagnostic code due to an intermittent connection. Since the heating element would usually have a fairly long cool down period a short term open connection would not likely to be detected by the ecu.

Just suppose... Your mixture is running a bit lean.. The engine tends to overheat slighltly but only to the point of disabling the A/C and an engine diagnostic indication.

Lexus has again started coating the A/C evaporator with a fungicide to help prevent the horrid dirty gym socks odor resulting from the out-gassing and "leavings" of family of microbes that contitute mould and mildew. The 10,000 sq inches of evaporator surface area is coated with a porus nylon film into which is embedded an anti-microbial chemical. Over time the chemical will leach from the pores and thereby flow into the cabin atmosphere. Next, once the chemical has mostly leached away, you will have a very good sponge to hold mositure for fogging over your windshield on cool or cold mornings.

I assume you mean the ones in the quarter panel itself since the bolt heads for removing the ones in the door, hatch, are plainly visible. with the rear hatch open if you look closely at the tailliight assembly at the edge closest to the cargo area you will see to two black plastic "dress" inserts with a slight "flat" in the circumferance for removal the insertion of a small flat blade screwdriver. Phillips screw heads under those inserts and the assembly can be removed.

Turn the headlights on, then turn the ignition on and start the engine, The auto-leveling process of the headlamps should be plainly visible against the garage door.

I moved mine to the driver's side front bumper opening so it would not be radiant heated by the radiator nor A/C condensor.

Pre-delivery inspection.......? Your're kidding, right? Why would the dealer waste such valuable time when the buyer is willing to do the inspection for them. I'd bet that if you had the list and did the inspection yourself you'd find about 10% of the item not up to snuff.

And I'm willing to bet that when it does come it will be based on a ~2 liter I4 with V6 performance using hybrid technology but with the engine upgraded from the atkinson cycle to full BLOWN miller cycle. Subaru's B4 "Boxer engine" ?? And the waiting list will then triple, if not quadruple. And if Toyota has the good sense I credit them for it will be rear drive rear engined with batteries and electrically driven accessories in the front and an electric drive motor at the front for the AWD version. Latter part is a dream of mine, but......

I traded up from 00 to 01 to get HID, VSC, and regretably the useless gps/nav was part of the package.

I have always had to take the car to the dealer for this "tricky" procedure.

On the factory equipped RX series rear snowchains, of any type, cannot be used due to the very tight clearance at the top inside of the tire tread and the strut. I upgraded to 17x8 wheels and 235/65-17 Michelin cross terrains by adding 1.5 wheel spacers all around and this past winter used snowchains ONLY on the rear quite safely.