wwest

You are not going to get a used motor and get it running? BLOWN MOTOR..... As in..........?? Model year? AWD? Nav? Air suspension?

Keeping a 1996 Jeep until 2007 would indicate, seemingly, that the resale "investment" value is a rather small issue. And yes, having survived winters in PA, NH, Goose Bay, MT and Alaska, now at age 67 I admit to being a bit obsessive about the safety of wintertime driving. I could throw ~40 years of WA into that but the Seattle area doesn't compare to the others insofar as wintertime day after day adverse roadbed conditions are concerned. Snow... I have NO problem with... Until it is frozen and packed down to the ICE equivalent.

???? When you walk into your house and need the lights on what do you do? Fix the driver's door switch...!!

My 2001 AWD RX300 will NEVER leave the garage if the roadbed conditions are already known to be adverse. For those times where it has already left the garage it has been modifed with 1.5" wheel spacers all around so that rear tire chains can be fitted FIRST and the fronts additionally if warranted by conditions. One set of tire chains remain on board in the "well" of the spare tire, all year around, and the second set is always on board in wintertime. And keep in mind that the RX330 does not have the VC, Viscous Clutch, across the center diff'l to help apportion engine torque to the rear upon slippage at the front, while both the AWD RX300 and RX350 do. Strange, but true. The RX330 series relies strictly and ONLY on TC, Traction Control, front braking, and QUICK engine dethrottling to help alleviate front wheel slippage resulting from too much engine torque for the conditions. To get unstuck, should such a thing happen, you will likely need to know how to disable TC. There are several methods posted for this here and there on the various forums.

WOW, I'm impressed, you found a Seattle area dealer willing to "special" order a vehicle. I've been buying Lexus's from Bellevue Lexus since '91 and they have utterly refused to do that, as have the Seattle and Portland dealers. You do know, I hope, that the RX is less than ideal for our (rare) but expected wintertime roadbed conditions...? I don't think I would DARE take ours (2001 AWD RX300) skiing nor even over the pass during the winter months and it has several modifications that make it more viable in same. I suggest you read up on the issues concerning engine torque delay during quick successive gearshifts, due to a design flaw in the transaxle currently being overcome, "fixed", via DBW firmware. The Lexus climate control system is so horribly flawed in design it can easily get you killed if you're not fully aware of it's idiosynchronocies. And by-the-by, IMMHO the RXh AWD will give, should give, substantially better wintertime roadbed performance over the standard RX. If you should proceed with the RX purchase there are at least 4 C-best options that can be set by the dealer that you should know of.

First, SCRATCH the Ford. Second, the only clue you give us about your wintertime driving needs is that your prior vehicle is a Cherokee Sport. Jeeps, most of them anyway, have an absolutely stellar AWD/4X4 system. If you're by any chance looking for anything close to the Jeep's performance in that area I would drop the RX like a hot potato(e{in defference to any Bushies reading this}). Were I you I would then look for an SUV that is NOT derived from a FWD base, look for a RWD/AWD vehicle such as the BMW X3/5

No, or little actual expereince..? Head gas ket leaks come in all kinds of "flavors". Our son's 92 Aerostar 4.0L developed a head gasket leak and at the time he couldn't afford to have it fixed so we traded him our 94. Our's wasn't a daily driver so we "drove" his 92 for almost 6 months, only occassionally having to top off the coolant. It was only as winter approached and I didn't wish to waste anti-freeze in this manner did I decide to shell out the $1000 to have it fixed. On the other hand I have had head gasket leaks that would empty the coolant in 10 miles.

One end of the rear driveline/shaft goes to the rear diff'l and the other goes to the "transfer case", more appropreately referred to in the RX as the PTO, Power Take Off.

Resistor...?

Use the key to lock/unlock the driver's door.

Air suspension.... To really tell the difference between normal mode and sport mode you need to drive on a rough, cobblestone, railroad tie, type roadbed, in normal mode vs sport mode. In sport mode a 20MPH drive on a rough surface will definitely be somewhat uncomfortable. Sport mode is really intended for somewhat seriously aggressive driving, pushing the torque/traction envelope, say like "track" time.

If you have enough miles taht the stearing rack needed to be replaced I would have someone check the driveline u-joints.

The idea is to use RED LED bulbs for RED, AMBER LED bulbs for turn signals, etc. V-leds, velocity leds on ebay.

"Not often seen..." Perhaps only as the engine warms up..? Or.... When you let off the throttle after a fairly hard. HIGH RPM, acceleration...? In the latter case the HIGH manifold vacuum resulting from closing the throttle butterfly valve with the engine still at high RPM would often result in sucking water into the intake manifold via a leaking head gasket. But. A leaking head gasket also typically results in undue pressurization of the engine cooling system resulting in coolant overflow.

More "sporty" ride would typically mean lowering the RX an inch or so.

That's it? Well heck! I'll give the simple try, as try first! Thanks for the FYI. Nice to know I'm not the only one who'd like to turn 'em off if so inclined. Who knows? Maybe the DRL's will end up lasting longer this way, too! One quick question though . . . using this method, I'm presuming the DLR's will simply stay off when the HID's are on? In other words, this doesn't afford the option to LEAVE the DLR's on, right? In actuality I substituded a 12 volt relay for the DRL dropping resistor and then wired the N.O. relay contacts so the street/parking/tail/marker lights illuminate instead of high beam DRL voltage. I then added 5 watt Luxeon LEDS with collimator lens to the headlamp assemblies for alternate, improved, DRL functionality. Seemingly operating the halogen HB bulbs so far below their operational design voltage as DRLs result in melting the bulb's glass encapsulation.

Red Lodge bought Ford Taruses as patrol cars in about '97.

It seems as though we're on the same track here. However, you've gotten into the cruise control issue a lot more deeply than I have. Electrical system troubleshooting wise. Even though ALL the bulbs had seemed fine anyway, I've only replaced the stop tail light bulbs with the longer lasting 1157LL bulbs but not the high mount tail (it seemed fine). I am also suspecting and have ordered the stop light brake switch. I'll hope it's why the cruise won't engage or work. The other possibilitity I had thought of is the cruise control steering wheel's stalk (switch). I can't imgaine the main ECM's going bad but it could I suppose. Let me know what else that you have determined. Thanks. Cruise control is typically disabled any time there is a brake light failure. And you MUST use OEM or equivalent bulbs with equal or greater current draw, NO LEDs, unless you modify the bulb failure sensor. Oftentimes not even the LL, Long Life, bulbs will not "trip" the bulb failure sensor. Driving around I sometimes see cars wherein the tail lights go slightly dimmer when the brakes lights come on. This is usually a sight of poor chasis ground connection, negative side battery return, at/from the dimming tail/brake light fixtures.

Thanks a MILLION for the thread Silver! . . . not only was it just the right info, there are VERY good links that were added with additional data/goodies. Hopefully I can get'r done in a few days. WOW..! I simply unplugged the DRL voltage dropping resistor under the battery mounting plate.

Just apply the e-brake if you're stopped, or modify the e-brake "on" switch to always have DRLs off.

You are sort of on the edge of the "snow zone", south of you no AWD availability, farther north a plentiful supply. So your local dealer has something special. And there has been some indication in the past that the towing package is not really an option but a requirment, especially w/AWD, to provide the extra cooling the transaxle needs for normal, non-towing, operation. You might want to also look up and try to replicate the 1-2 second engine/transaxle downshift delay/hesitation in the object vehicle as there has been no good indication that this design flaw has been solved.

Yes, but generally speaking the engine dethrottling will/should not be as quick nor as strong as in a FWD. But that's a subjective "measure". I have very rarely experienced inadvertent, non-intentional, VSC or even TC activation in my 2001 AWD RX300 and engine dethrottling only with TC activation. But then all of my (few) VSC activation experiences have been so brief I couldn't really say that engine dethrottling wasn't involved. In most cases I only assumed that VSC had activated looking back at the actual circumstances wherein I heard the "groan" of brake on-and-off application, by the time I looked down at the dash no icon was illuminated.

Many cars have two springs on each valve, a heavy one and a lighter one inside of that. I cannot explain the engineering aspects, I just assume it takes both springs to cover the wide range of frequency, 500 to 6000 RPM, of valve opening and closing operation. I could see how one spring might begin to allow the valve to float, say at 4000 RPM, before the second, lighter(??) spring comes into "play". Many years ago I would have suggested a valve job, but at today's labor rates and with 200,000 miles....

I wonder... The electric power stearing cannot (is not??) be nearly as stiff/solid at holding the front wheels (fully/tightly) alligned with the actual stearing wheel position, is that maybe a contributing factor to early tire wear??

I would have advised you to get a 2001 or later model with VSC/Trac and maybe HID but you at least got TC, Traction Control. Just be careful going up to Hood Meadows or Bachelor to ski with tire chains on the front ONLY. Drive SLOWLY and VERY CAREFULLY...! Even with no rear drive I think I would still add the wheel spacers so I could have tire chains, when needed, on all four for safeties sake. You have fuchsias out already, blooming yet...!