wwest

Absolutely, DO IT...! You'll never regret it.

I run Bridgestone Turanzas summer only tires on my '92 LS400 and my '01 AWD RX300 (all year 'round) for ultimate quietness and riding comfort. I haven't driven either at a "sporty" enough level that I felt the tires were being challenged.

It sounds as if the engine is "gunked" up and the oil is not returning, not "free-flowing" back into the sump fast enough. I would drill a small hole in the gas cap or not use it at all until the problem can be ascertained.

There are vehicle heigth sensors at all four corners, they can be be adjusted to some small extent. But it does sound as if your right rear sensor is broken.

Go to ebay for a replacement or repair of the LCD panel. I have BBS 16X8 wheels on my '92 LS400 and my brother has '94 16" LS400 chrome wheels on his '91 LS400. 16" looks and seems to be about right for the LS. We both have BridgeStone Turanza "summer" tires for quietness and riding comfort.

My cars NEVER go back to the dealer for ANY reason. Were a serious, more expensive, warranty repair required I might consider it but mostly I just buy the required parts and do the warranty repair myself.

Keep in mind that your RX300 is actually "worth" the value of the BMW replacement provided you repair it and drive it for another 78,000 miles. Does your '01 have the external ATF cooler?? In any case I would thoroughly "beat-up" on the dealer and Lexus about an out of warranty FREE replacement. And I would NOT do any work myself, drain/refill/filter, until a final resolution is obtained from Lexus. They may need to see the condition of the ATF.

First, I'm somewhat surprised that your '99 engine/transaxle control ECU is compatible with an '01 or later transaxle. ECU firmware changes/updates/revisions are most certainly made on an annual, model production run, basis, and its even possible that running changes were made to the ECU firmware. I would query the dealer on this matter. The second issue is that I have always been suspecious that the change that was made to improve the relaibility of the later, '01 and after, RX300 series was to increase the pumping capacity, pressure, or "duty-cycle", of the gear type ATF pump. IMMHO this also REQUIRED an increase in the ATF cooling capacity and that meant that all of these later models need the external ATF cooler, the TOWING package. So if you '99 doesn't have one I would check with the dealer, or Lexus, to see if the newer transaxle might REQUIRE one.

Vapor lock, air bubble, in the hose leading to or from the heater core... Recent coolant "work"...??

Sounds like a sticking or even a slightly burned intake valve that seats more firmly once HOT. At 143,000 miles that would not be all that unusual. Not using OD until warmed up is SOP and if the engine HP is degraded somewhat, at that mileage it likely is, using OD might even be more delayed, or not at all.

I have to shine a light, a BRIGHT one, on the solar radiation senor in order to get the system to "test" for codes beyond that one.

Chamferring the leading and trailing edges of the brake pads, many come that way, at about 30 degrees will help to alleviate brake squeal. Also the is a brake pad backing material, typically red rubber-like "goo" that will act to dampen the high frequency vibrations. Many sports cars owners, Porsche 911, etc, put the high friction brakes pads in for track times but remove them in favor of QUIET (OEM) ones for street use.

While I don't disagree with your basic proposal I would suggest a JUMP to the Acura RDX instead. Or even the BMW X3 if a fully functional and SAFE R/AWD is desired. In the alternative the newer RX350 at least has some symbolence of F/AWD, the VC, Viscous Clutch, is not used in the RX330 but was again adopted for the RX350 series. But personally, with 120,000 miles accured, I might begin to be more trustfull of a '99 RX300....especially considering the cost of the "trade-up".

The first thing I would do is check and/or replace the spark plug wires and distributor cap/rotor (assuming the '94 still had one) a spark plug "crossfire", the "right" crossfire, during cranking will bring the starter motor to a virtual halt. The cylinder to be fired, the one at TDC and under the most compression, will be the most resistent to easily firing the plug and that often results in the spark energy rising to a high enough voltage to "jump" to an adjacent wire or distributor "contact". Also, a COLD morning after a damp night often means condensation inside the distributor and/or in and around the ignition components. Good time, early COLD morning, to check and look for condensation inside the distributor cap.

We tend to keep our vehicles long term, 200,000+ not unusual, so I expect my '01 AWD RX300 will eventually fail during my ownership. When that happens I fully expect I will DIY the overhaul, find out (***) just WHAT is failing/overheating internally, and at the same time convert it to R/AWD by removing the center diff'l spider gears and welding the rear drive side gear in place, to the carrier. *** Or maybe not. At this point in time I'm fairly sure, convinced, that the overheated ATF is due to the OVERPUMPING by the gear type ATF pump. The ATF pump was oversized for the later RX300 series in order to pump enough fluid to quickly seat the downshifting clutches with the engine at or near idling. With the advent of the RX330 the '99 RX's undersized ATF pump was again adopted but with DBW to "protect the drive train". So, faylow, sorry, but there appears to be NO easy answer. But if you do eventually overhaul I would certainly ask to have (if such actually exists) the '01's larger ATF pump installed. Aalong with the external ATF cooler, of course. Does anyone have an AWD RX300, '01 or later, that does NOT have the TOW PACKAGE...?? Or even a non-AWD without....??? Just curious.

The auto-leveling is disabled above ~20 MPH so if the jitter is above that you need to have it looked at. Your use of the term "jitter" is bothersome since the way my '01 AWD RX300 auto-levels at low speed is more what I would refer to as s-l--o ---w----l------y.

Whoa... Different color does not mean brighter. Brighter would probably entail going to 55 watt HID, new ballasts and bulbs. And brighter will not do anything about the HID low beam cutoff shading so the HID's do not interfer with oncoming driver's night vision.

Think about just what generates HEAT within a transmission.. Pumping the ATF, as in the torque converter or the gear type ATF pump. Or the clutches slipping. If the ATF gear pump doesn't have enough pumping capacity, say at idle, the clutches will slip and HEAT. If the gear type ATF pump has enough capacity, esepecially at idle, the ATF might overheat as the result of being OVER-PUMPED, needlessly, at higher cruising speeds with the engine RPM well above idle. I'm guessing that as a HEAT and FE matter the '99 & '00 had the ATF pump capacity reduced to minimum and that resulted in the clutches slipping and failing prematurely. Mid-to-late '00 production run the ATF pump capacity was increased and that resulted in over heating the ATF due to OVERPUMPING for the '01-'03 RX series and a REQUIREMENT for all those to be factory equipped with the TOWING package. With the introduction of the RX330 DBW, e-throttle, was adopted to protect the drive train. DBW allowed the use of the original lower capacity ATF pump since DBW could be used to prevent the IDLING engine from developing rising torque until the downshifting clutches could be fully and firmly seated.

The thing to remember, the IMPORTANT thing to remember, is that these cars came from the factory with NO recommendation for transaxle maintainance, no recommended schedule for ATF drain/refill, for the life of the vehicle. So the factory engineers had no reason to suspect that not renewing the ATF would result in premature transaxle failures. So the ATF itself is not likely to be the real problem with the design of the transaxle. On the other hand there can be no question that allowing the ATF to degrade due to whatever design problem does exist would precipetate an earlier failure that will eventually happen anyway. In the case of my '01 AWD RX300 the ATF was quite heavily burned at only ~40,000 miles on the odo. Burned = HEAT What could cause the ATF to be overheated other than slipping clutches or continuously, needlessly, pumping the ATF up to control pressure and the simply dumping it right back into the sump? Can any one tell me if the '99/'00 RX300's exhibit the "bumped lightly from behind" effect as you slow from 10-0 MPH to a stop? Or the "slingshot effect" with a closed throttle coastdown at 40-30 MPH. I had an '00 for almost a year but I cannot remember if I first noticed these effects on it or my '01. I suspect that these effects are the result of lowering the pumping capacity/volume of the gear type ATF pump to reduce the ATF heating and thereby loss of efficiency. A lower pumping volume would have required the elimination of certain transaxle shift patterns/schedules. Noteably those with the engine at idle (closed throttle coastdown periods) but with a fair level of engine compression braking torque to be conveyed if the "normally" expected downshift were to be carried out. If the ATF is degrading due to OVERPUMPING then a scheduled drain/refill procedure will prevent any longer term failures. So that may be the solution for my '01. But what about the '99 and '00 failures..?? While the clutches in those transaxles worked just fine long term in the Camry and ES300, and maybe even the Avalon, they are not quite up to "snuff" for the larger and heavier RX series, especially the AWD model.

They would stop building them very shortly after WE stop buying them.

Thats not globally true. I had a 97 Explorer before the Lexus and the transmission failed promptly at 70k miles, as is extremely common for the Explorer. Now, thats a design flaw just like it is with the RX, but the fact still remains that it happens. You Explorer's transmission failure may have been a totally RANDOM event, Murphy's law. Absent numerous failure reports for the Explorer as in the RX series.

Well, I do, understand that is... What you are seeing is "stray" light being reflected off of the chromed surfaces inside the headlight assembly. When we first got ours I was tempted to disassemble the headlights and paint those areas flat black but I guess we both grew used to the effect as we drive down our narrow tree lined driveway.

My best guess is that I have put close tyo 2 million miles on various vehicles with automatic transmissions, 275,000 miles on a 68 Ford alone. Other than time for overhaul, typically 125 to 150,000 miles, I had NEVER come upon an instance of needing to drain, flush and and refill an automatic transaxle until I encountered the burned and odorous ATF in my 2001 AWD RX300 at only ~40,000 miles. It might help all of us if we keep in mind that in most FWD vehicles the engine and transaxle are mounted sideways and if the engine happens to be a larger dispalcement V6 that doesn't leave much room for ROBUST transaxle components. What might work in a small and lightweight Camry or ES300 could well be a problem in a larger and heavier vehicle such as the '99 RX300. I suspect that Toyota/Lexus, and lots of early RX buyers, learned that one the hard way. And here we are with '08 models in the marketplace and they still haven't figured out how to build ROBUST RX300 transaxles.

Since you say safety is your concern I will assume you mean tread width.... No one can give you a definite answer to this but I can tell you the primary limiting factor is the tight clearance at the rear between the tire sidewall and the suspension components. Personally I added 1.6" wheel spacers all around primarily so I would be able to use tire chains safely when the time came. At the same time I upgraded to 17X8 wheels and the appropreate +1" tires. Wider tread = more roadbed adhesion, wider stance = more stability against rollover.

"...right about the maintenance schedule being flawed..." At the heart of this it isn't the maintenance schedule that is flawed, it is a design flaw within the transaxle itself. Were it not for the flawed transaxle design it would be expected that the ATF would be good for the life of the vehicle. Changing the ATF on a more regular basis will only delay the eventual failure, not FIX it.