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Dropping the sump/pan allows you to remove the 1/8 inch of debris accumulated there in only about 40,000 miles. You can also check the magnets placed in the bottom to see if they are "holding" an inordinate amount of metalic "fines".

I guess my main point is this... FWD and F/AWD vehicles have pretty much the same wintertime driving safety hazards of an SUV when in 4WD/4X4 vehicle. The differnce is that the 4WD/4X4 can be made SAFE by simply moving the mode to 2WD/RWD once the vehicle is underway, in motion. Leaving the mode in 4WD/4X4 will unduly subject the vehicle to understearing/plowing, and with ABS/VSC disabled, on an adverse roadbed. That's probably why you see so many 4WD/4X4 vehicles in the borrow pit, drivers without enough sense(***) nor experience to know the assets AND limitations of the vehicle they're driving. *** "Look at me, I bought a 4WD/4X4 vehicle so I could drive safely throughout the winter".

Either put in a new battery and/or clean and burnish the battery terminals and ALL related connections. There are many ways of knowing it's springtime. Degraded battery terminal connections is one of the better ones.

Hmmmm... Fact: Having the A/C "on" helps to prevent a CEL (and by default, a VSC code).. FACT...it is RARE that the A/C compressor will run continuously, FULL TIME, with the A/C "on". But.... The electric radiator cooling fans always run at high speed WHENEVER the A/C compressor clutch is engaged. Conclusion: Your engines are over-heating, or threatening to overheat. Until this moment I was puzzled as to why a "windy area" would have something to, would be pertinent, to the CEL and VSC. Not if my theory, above, proves to be correct.. A "tail wind" or a "quartering tail wind" vs, say, no wind at all, or a head wind, might very well result in making it harder to keep the engine coolant within a reasonable temperatrue range. Conclusion (#2): The engine direct driven radiator cooling fan's VC (Viscous Clutch), and/or the low speed mode of the electric radiator cooling fans, has/have failed. Conclusion (#3): Some engine component/sensor has failed resulting in the engine operate in a non-optimal range wherein it is highly subject to marginal radiator cooling capability. The A/C operation provides just enough cooling "boost" to make a difference. Throttle body can't be cleaned...BS, PURE BS, more dealer profit for/from installing new parts. Probably cleans the old one in preparation for the next.....

If you get a CEL indication the VSC is disabled by default. Only a VSC indication alone should considered an actual VSC fault. You don't say how many miles are on your '98. With enough wear it is possible that the cruise control cannot maintain a "set" speed due to the lack of engine torque. Use of non-premium fuel might rarely result in the CEL you are seeing. Loosing the ability to accelerate, the engine management control system entering "limp" home mode, implies, clearly an engine fault, a serious engine fault. I would have the stored codes read ASAP...!!!

The seat belt retractor has 2 "speeds", actually. Open up the cover for the "B' pillar and disconnect the electrical connection to the seat belt retractor. The idea was to reduce the retraction force once the seat belt is fastened..., bad, BAD idea...!!

The NEXT thing you should do is tighten your gas cap and then disconnect the battery for 5-10 minutes to reset those diagnostic codes. The only really important diagnostic code in that group is the CEL, the others are DEFAULT codes that are displayed due to the system automatically disabling those features with a CEL indication. CEL... The most common reason for a CEL is someone having removed the gas filler cap but not refueling, not refueling "enough", or even leaving the gas cap slightly loose. Or laying back there on top of the station's pump... For emissions reasons, fuel evaporation prevention, the fuel system is kept under a slight vacuum. Obviously when you remove the gas cap the vacuum is lost. But if the cap is off for refueling the system will recognize the increased fuel level in the tank and not "set" the CEL, assuming the gas cap is tightened and the vacuum can be quickly restored. I can't imagine a dealer service shop without the needed repair components in stock so my guess is you are referring to a third party service shop. One with inexperienced technicians or one in RIP-OFF the customer mode, Goodyear or Firestone, maybe..?? Many of the named third party repair shops in the US pay the technicians a bonus for finding(selling) "needed" repairs and parts that are not a part of the original service writeup. Sounds as if maybe you found one of those.

"and the pads are lifetime guarentee..."" I would NEVER buy brake pads that came with a lifetime guarantee, nor a clutch disk either. Guarantee against manufacturing defects, yes, but a guarantee against wear rate.....??

Some "credit" for long lived spark plugs is due to the construction of the plug itslef but mostly its a result of the modern day technological advances. Coil/plug eliminates a distributor. Solid state CDI ignition. ECU ignition timing parametric mapping. In the olden days the spark had to jump TWO gaps, two gaps in series yet, the one in the distributor cap and the plug itself. Then there was mechanical and/or vacuum DYNAMIC ignition timing modulation within the distributor itself which inadvertently moved the distributor rotor position in relation to the contact for the plug to be fired. Oftentimes the HV spark would find a shorter path, especially as the HV wiring degraded, and sometimes to a plug wire that was not under compression. Surprising to me, today, that those ignition point/condensor/distributor systems ever worked at all. These days it could very well be that your spark plugs NEVER need to be changed for the initial, non-overhaul, life of the engine.

Do you mean BLUE, really, actually...?? Or do you mean "Cool White", white light with a slight tint to the blue side? The Cool White LEDs are fairly common in the marketplace, start at Ebay, modern day Sears-Roebuck catalog (except for the outhouse use).

Do you mean BLUE, really, actually...?? Or do you mean "Cool White", white light with a slight tint to the blue side? The Cool White LEDs are fairly common in the marketplace, start at Ebay, modern day Sears-Roebuck catalog (except for the outhouse use).

Even back when we had Jeeps, an '85 and then a '92, I never hesitated to chain up if the going got rough. By rough I'm talking snow, packed snow, and ice. Remember that you're not the only driver out there, far from it, amd the clear majority of other drivers are sheer idiots (mostly coupled with FWD or F/AWD) when it comes to driving on the slippery stuff. We don't get very much really adverse weather here on the eastside of Seattle so I've only had chains on the RX maybe 2 or three times. I don't remember ever using the second set for the front even with a few wintertime trips to north central MT, Lewistown. Oh, I probably wouldn't chain up either on "powder days", but what we get around here mostly is something we refer to as Pacific Boiler-plate. Oh, with chains just on the rear the VC reacts as if the front is continuously slipping....

Personally I would have "baked" the tail light assemblies in an oven long enough so that I could easily remove the outer clear plastic and then painted the non-reflector surfaces black.

I did not get any road haz ins, but if I had to, I would go with the michelin and save $400. It is not that easy to damage the rim on an SUV. If I had 30'' rims w/ ruber bands for tires, may be then I'd think anout it. Additionally just what constitutes "failure" of the rim according to the company that issues the policy. Curb rash...NOT..!! Just another way to line the dealer's pockets with YOUR income.

That could be something as simple as a gas cap left off/loose after refueling or the gas cap temporarily removed but the car not refueled.

And while you're in there check to see if metal "cold flow" might be the problem. Due to spring pressure and time the soldered (lead/silver) connection for the bulb will "cold flow", from a rounded/raised connection into a flat or concave connection.

That is incorrect. Please research before you post info like that. What you say maybe true to something like a CRV but not RX350. "The RX 350's all-wheel-drive system drops the previous solid center differential, which relied on the traction-control system to shift power between the front and rear wheels. In its place is a limited-slip viscous coupling device that Lexus says offers quicker response. Under normal situations, power is split 50-50 between front and rear wheels; if slippage occurs, additional power can be sent to the front or back." The RX series has NEVER had a "solid center differential". The RX300 AWD series has a simple open center diff'l just like the rear diff'l for RWD of days long gone by, one wheel slips, you're DEAD in the water. The difference is that the RX300 series has a viscous coupling mounted "across" that open center diff'. Si if the two drivelines, front and rear, for some reason developed different "spin" rates, the VC would stiffen within a few seconds and thereby partially "lock" the center diff'l. In 2001 the RX300 series got TC, Traction Control, along with VSC, and a few other ABS pumpmotor enabled "features". The mechanical LSD that had been available for previous AWD models was dropped since TC would now be used to provide a "virtual" rear LSD. GOT that...?? As of 2001 TC would be used to implement a VIRTUAL REAR LSD. With the introduction of the RX330 Lexus initially announced, and widely advertised, that the RX330 also included the VC. That proved to be wrong, it did not. With the advent of the use of TC to virtualize the functionality of a rear LSD someone apparently forgot to tell the firmware programmers not to do the same thing with the open center diff'l. So there was absolutely NO reason to include the manufacturing cost of the VC nor the added weight to the product once this implementation is done via TC firmware. Actually this "feature" TC braking implemented rear and center (and "soft" front LSD..???) virtual LSD goes all the way back to my 2001 AWD RX300. I'm quite sure that the VC in my '01 AWD RX300 is useless. The instant wheelspin/slip occurs due to engine torque and road conditions the slipping wheel(s) are braked and the engine is dethrottled via EFI fuel starvation. But now, here we are with the RX350 available in the marketplace. Almost anywhere you look, dealer printed materials or internet, Lexus.com, you will find marketing materials touting the center VC. Almost. The exception being the FACTORY shop/repair manuals for the '07, '08, and '09 RX300. All of these indicate that the MF2A "transfer", with no VC, continues to be used in the RX350 product series. In the shop/repair manual series available at techinfo.toyota.com if you look under NCF, New Car Features, it goes in detail in stating that the "new" RX350 again makes use of the VC, the VC NOT used in the RX330 series. The NCF says that this is done via use of the MF2AV "transfer". A search of the term MF2AV in the ENTIRE '07, '08, and '09 RX350 document set indicate that this term is only found in the above referenced '07 NCF statements. Obviously all of you are free to believe either the marketing materials that state throughout that the VC is used vs the shop/repair manuals that indicate otherwise. But if you come down on the side of it having a VC then ask yourself how is it possible for the VC to have functionality with a TC system that responds INSTANTLY to wheelspin/slip via braking and dethrottling. There is yet one more consideration that you must give some thought if you intent to purchase an AWD RX350 and actually have need for AWD functionality. And that's is the patently UNSAFE nature of FWD and F/AWD when operating on an adverse roadbed, slippery roadbed, surface. Is there ANY AWD vehicle out there in the marketplace, excepting the SH-AWD system, that has a sideways mounted engine and is NOT natively front torque biased..?? Absent TC, FWD and F/AWD vehicles are a serious safety hazard on adverse roadbed conditions for all passengers.

Excluding the high mount there 6 dual filament bulbs in the rear, if more than one of these is replaced with LL, Long Life bulbs the indicator might come on, or be on intermittently.

The MPG "gains", FE improvements, "FUEL" recovery, are only obtained during coastdown periods, braking periods, or downhill runs that basically amount to long coastdown periods. Getting improved FE while driving along the freeway at a relatively constant speed results ONLY from the fact that your RX400h has a severely DETUNED V6 engine. So it would be a total and complete waste of money to fuel it with anything higher than the lowest grade fuel commercially avaulable. Since the other, "opposite"(the ICE), CVT/ETDT (Electronic Torque Distributing Transmission) torque input(s) must be continuously driven even at constant highway speeds the hybrid system is actually a detriment in that circumstance.

The downstream oxygen sensor(s), downstream of the converter, will "tell" you if the catalyst becomes not functional.

SOP... The connection simply proved to be only intermittent.

A descretly placed small piece of black electrical tape is the best solution overall.

The only time I have encountered a red glowing cat was becuase the honeycomb structure inside the cat had broken up and parts were blocking the exhaust flow.

I've noticed this already a few times on my 08 RX400H when stopping while driving over a small pothole or similar. Although the car does stop normally, and I don't think it is a dangerous "defect" it surely feels strange since you think the brakes stop working for a fraction of a sec. And if my theory is correct there CANNOT be a fix, at least not an easy one. But maybe pre-charge, lightly pressurize, the brake pistons like one of the european marques does if the windshield rain sensor triggers....?

If it's the AWD version you're considering the Rx400h should be your only choice. But have a serious look at the Acura RDX in that case. It would be the AWD ... Why are you saying the 400h if I am talking about the AWD? The RX350 is not really AWD as you/we might need it to be here in this area. For that matter neither is the RX400h, truly AWD that is. But the 400h comes out on top of the two insofar as AWD capability is concerned. The RX350 AWD is quite firmly FWD in normal operational conditions, 95/5 F/R, and can make use of tire chains ONLY on the front wheels absent an aftermarket modification. Were I to purchase a 400h I would immediately modify the driving torque distribution so the initial, startup, start off, drive would be ONLY from the rear wheel electric drive. With the front drive only brought on line if an extraordinarily high level of acceleration rate were required. I would also add the same wheel spacers I now use on the RX300 which allows me to use tire chains on the rear FIRST and then add the front ones when/if the need arises. Idiotic FWD, F/AWD, and F/awd systems, the RX series with the latter. If you wish to buy an upscale AWD hybrid SUV for fuel efficiency then look at the Mercury Mariner hybrid and if not a hybrid the Acura RDX. With the Mariner hybrid you could increase the safety factor substantially (convert it to RWD) by removing one (or both) of the front halfshafts and apply a constant voltage to the rear driveline clutch. The SH-AWD system is the ABSOLUTE BEST for AWD implementation of vehicles with sideways mounted engines. When/if they put SH-AWD in the Ridgeline I'll be giving up my '01 AWD RX300 and my '93 Ford Ranger PU.