wwest

LPS, Lexus Personal Settings, are an abbreviated list of a more comprehensive set called c-best. A complete c-best list is fairly hard to come by by can often be found in the shop/repair manuals.

Were they actually corroded are was the electrical protective grease, sometimes over-abundance of same, used on connectors by the factory mistaken for corrosion...? Hmmmm... Humbucking pickups Last heard that term from Donald Ducker in ~1955 in Memphis.

If you suddenly give more gas, before the car had a chance to accelerate significantly, does the shifter vibrate more? If so, I'm 99.9% sure its U-joints. If you feel the vibration is coming from under the seat, have the brake rotors looked at. I recently changed the 4 rotors discs and all vibrations are gone. Vibration from "early" brake/rotor problems generally exhibits the most with light braking at moderate speeds, 35-45 MPH.

Do you happen to have the one you removed? Mine is scratched up showing the white plastic underneath and i'd like to replace it with a better looking one. Or do you know where i could purchase another? They have one on ebay but it's designed for the 99-00 steering wheels that don't even have the chrome. The dimensions aren't the same so i'm out of luck. Thanks! It was a destructive removal, small pair of diagonal cutters.

U-joints.....

Nylon tie-wraps of one size or another will usually work.

And I'm quite sure that every one of those other two people out in Sequim will take notice. I rewired my fog lights for practical reasons, not to be "cool".

You may have bad wheel bearings, I am pretty sure! Bad, failing wheel bearings almost always come with a definite accompanying noise. Generally front/rear/side. Whereas bad roller bearings in the driveline u-joints more commonly result in a "neutating" rotational, unbalanced, effect of the drive shaft. If you rest your hand lightly on the shifter do you feel the vibration..??

Driveline u-joints.

Sorry, sadly I cannot be of much help, our 95 LS now has 210,000 miles on the factory ATF and is still pulling strong. Until it fails I can't really give you an opinion.

On my '92 LS I removed the fog light relay and modified it internally to accomplish that. Too long ago for me to remember the detail.

I actually do not know, but then again there is a front differential.

Here I wholeheartedly agree with WWEST: if you're going to run summer tires and only see occasional snow, then keep those chains handy. And know how to use them. (WWEST, I'll bet you'd be appalled at how many of today's driver's would take over 30 minutes to put on chains). But once those roads get dry, take those chains off immediately! Even though, as I posted elsewhere, it's been a "dense head" day for me today, I will have to admit that WW's position on chains can't be beat. If ya got heavy snow, chains is the way to go! So WW, now that we agree on something, when are we going for a beer? Anytime you show up in Redmond just call me. I have no current or future plans for visiting Canada. Don't have very much faith in the reliability of those CANDU reactors. Or in reality the QED "knock-off" PDP-11s that control them.

Thanks, when I do try this this weekend I will let you know how it goes. It actually takes more like a full 5 quarts to refill a simple drain provided you remember to drain the ATF from the differential case via the separate drain plug there. At 40,000 miles my '01 AWD RX300's ATF was definitely burned. The sump had about 1/8 inch of what looked like ground up pencil lead which I took to be clutch frictional surface wear. It took two separate drain and refill cycles before my ATF looked good to go.

I'm not sure you're hearing what I'm saying. Around here winter specialty tires aer so rarely needed that it isn't cost effective to have them. I bought a good set, two sets really, of quick-n-easy install tire chains when I first purchased the '01 AWD RX300 and only the one set is now slightly worn. I expect the chains might just outlast the vehicle at this rate of use. But what I have realized, in running summer tires constantly, is that in many cases, mostly on packed snow or ice, they actually outperfrom many vehicles equipped with winter specialty tires. Most of them will bypass the designated chain up areas, somewhat justifiably so, but then I come upon then up the road aways pulled over installed chains while I drive on by with only my summer tires. But again, I do not hesitate, absolutely not, to stop and install tire chains if roadbed conditions warrant. In some cases not so much roadbed conditions but the idiots out there trying to drive their at SUVs (or worse) with no chains or studs. But yet again, if these is NO BITE to the roadbed, noting for those rubber blocked or heavily siped tired to bite into, they will have less traction than my summer tires. Give em 'ell, wwest! I drove on packed snow/ice for the first time this winter with Turanza's, fully expecting the worst(because of the posts). To my surprise it handled really well. We dont get a lot of snow here(80"/yr) and I really dont want the hassle of changing out tires. So far, no problems. Just be sure and keep those tire chains handy....I do.

Why not, with initial but light braking, only apply pressure to the rear brake system...? Now that most vehicles have an ABS/VSC brake pressure/flow electric solenoid valve system wherein the front brakes can be kept from actuating, why not ALWAYS have only "drag" braking initially? Anyway only as long as only light braking is required? "Drag" braking can be a GREAT aid in adverse, slippery roadbed conditions, and seemingly no detriment otherwise. The instant a certain braking "high" threshold is reached the front brakes are brought on-line. Might even help to even out the wear rate of the front and rear brake pads and thereby provide an economic advantage to the owners.

NO. SOP.

Remove and re-install fuses one by one until you find the load.

Corrected link. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/disp...temnumber=96642 Better deals on Ebay.

About the white paper that you refer to, is that whilte paper with regards to the 08 Avalon or the older Lexuses? If it applied to the Lexuses, it would'nt really make sense to me, as that would me that it is essentially re-learning a new pattern of driving every 120 seconds, so you might have hesitation one moment but yet no hesitation 2 minutes later. THat is not the pattern that people seemed to have described on the forums for those cars that do hesitate. As for the car that I bought, I gave it a good 30 minute test drive with no apparent changes in performance at any time. A further question about this whole issue - while I may not understand the full mechanical implications of the hesitation, but - if a car did have significant enough points of hesitation or poor shifting to result in little "clunks", would'nt those "clunks" eventually over time lead to premature wearing of the transmission parts? Has anyone with an 03-06 Es with high mileage had premature transmission failures? "every 120 seconds.." Think of it this way...You pull out of your garage early in the morning and drive through YOUR neighborhood, lets say about 2-3 miles through YOUR neighborhood, slowly, sedately and quietly,......then you get to the freeway ramp and become a formula ONE driver. And it's a "running record", everything, all information, as it reaches 120 seconds of "age" rolls off into never/never land but the ECU ALWAYS has the most current 120 seconds of driving to rely on, "learn" from. And no, the while paper, as I said, is something I remember reading on the internet many years ago now. But the primary point is that the driver style/technique "learning" software must NOT be biased by some previous driver of the vehicle, and if correctly designed will adapt to driving style/technique as/if the driver changes. And yes, absent the adoption of DBW, E-throttle in the fleet to "protect the drive train", we would likely still be seeing RXes with premature transaxle failures as happened for the '99-'00 series, or ATF that is severely burned as is happening with the '01-'03 RX series.

There is a NCF, New Car Feature, for the '08 Avalon which may be used to address the 1-2 second downshift delay/hesitation symptom throughout the Toyota/Lexus fleet. Basically the idea is for the engine/transaxle ECU to closely "watch" the rate at which the gas pedal is released and provide the "correct" transaxle shift shedule/pattern accordingly. A slow release of the gas pedal will result in an upshift as would be normal for a driver wanting to enter cruise mode from a period of acceleration. On the other hand a quick/sharp release of the gas pedal might/would indicate a wish to use engine braking to slow the car to a lower speed. The problem arises in defining "slow" vs "quick" for each and every individual driver. Now, I am of the FIRM belief that any driver "learned" technique or style is erased, completely, when one turns the ignition key off. Any driver unique charactoristics MUST start from scratch each time/cycle of an engine restart IMMHO. I have read, years ago, an engineering white paper that indicated that within a very few seconds of starting the car in motion the driver style technique is refined into one of four types. Within another longer period it is more finely refined into 1 or 16 style/types. Thereafter it keeps a 120 second running record (anything beyond 120 seconds is lost/erased) and continuously refines the driver style/type according to current technique. So, now, if the 1-2 second downshift delay/hesitation is to be a function of the rate at which the driver eases off the gas pedal, or not, then obviously the system must have had the time to "learn" the driver's style/technique in this regard. That just might explain the randomness of test driving different cars in this regard. The base problem.. If you are accelerating slightly, say in an acceleration lane upon entry into a freeway lane, and lift the gas pedal in order to slow enough to match that upcoming opening in traffic, the transaxle may or may not upshift in response to your actions. If it does happen to upshift then obviously it will not be in the correct gear ratio if you now want to quickly return to the same, or greater level of acceleration. And if it did upshift all of the reserve ATF pressure has been exhausted and there is none left for the downshift you have just "requested". As a result the DBW, e-throttle system, will delay the onset, rise, of engine torque in response to the newly depressed gas pedal position until enough ATF pressure can be attained to provide the pressure/flow to accomodate the newly required transaxle downshift.

Strange, my '01 911/996 C4 has a separate halogen bulb high beam plus projector type HID's with a shading aperature for low beam use and an electric solenoid to flip that aperture out of the way in high beam mode. As did my 99 911/996 C2. I know the Cayenne works the same way and I'm pretty sure the BMW-X5 does also. Also the 2004 RX330 owners manual indicates that a D2S HID bulb is used for low beam and an H11 for high beam.

I'm not sure you're hearing what I'm saying. Around here winter specialty tires aer so rarely needed that it isn't cost effective to have them. I bought a good set, two sets really, of quick-n-easy install tire chains when I first purchased the '01 AWD RX300 and only the one set is now slightly worn. I expect the chains might just outlast the vehicle at this rate of use. But what I have realized, in running summer tires constantly, is that in many cases, mostly on packed snow or ice, they actually outperfrom many vehicles equipped with winter specialty tires. Most of them will bypass the designated chain up areas, somewhat justifiably so, but then I come upon then up the road aways pulled over installed chains while I drive on by with only my summer tires. But again, I do not hesitate, absolutely not, to stop and install tire chains if roadbed conditions warrant. In some cases not so much roadbed conditions but the idiots out there trying to drive their at SUVs (or worse) with no chains or studs. But yet again, if these is NO BITE to the roadbed, noting for those rubber blocked or heavily siped tired to bite into, they will have less traction than my summer tires.

Those, in the videos, are ALL conditions in which I would have immediately installled my chains. Your physics theory probably works out if there is LOTS of traction to be had to begin with. But when traction is marginal to begin with I'll take the tire with the larger CSA.

Throughout the year there is a set of tire chains riding along on the top of, in the "well" of, the spare tire in my '01 AWD RX300. During the winter months I add a second set of tire chains on board. In any case as the RX is not truly an AWD vehicle, and is so heavily front torque biased, it never leaves its nice cozy garage if conditions warrant a vehicle more appropreate to conditions. That for the '94 AWD Ford Aerostar, also shod with nice quiet and comfortably riding summer tires, but with a TRUE AWD system, a REAR torque biased AWD system. But I only carry rear chains for it, for cases of need. I well know the dangers presented by those summer tires in the appropreately adverse conditions so I NEVER hesitate to install those chains. But again, we live here on the eastside of Seattle and we more often have occassion to go to the "snow" rather than have it come to us.