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Leakage. A new car will have an almost perfect seal around the o-rings, etc. After a bit of wear-in there is just enough leakage that the ATF oil pump does not have enough capacity during a 3-4 upshift at moderate throttle openings (~low engine RPM) to pressurize two (three?) gear engagement drum clutches and the lockup clutch AND makeup for the leakage volume all at the same time. Most especially with the ATF still cold and therefore of fairly low VOLUME, not enough to fully fill the sump. And of course the leakage around those seals will also be worse with the transaxle COLD. Sum of tolerances.

You will not be disappointed. The 400h has better 40-60 time due to the massive amt of torqrue available instantly without downshifting. The traction will be the same. Just because there is no drive shaft does not mean those rear wheels are useless... the traction control (dare I say power control) doles out traction to the rear wheels under a variey of conditions. All to provide seamless and instant pedal response that you cannot get on the 350 no matter how big the make the engine. Night and day, my friend. I thought that I had read somewhere that the 4WD RXh only doles out power to the rear motor upon wheelspin/slippage at the front. Thereby the 4WD designation, implying part-time, versus AWD which seemingly implies full-time. There is also the overall "power" budget to be considered. Constantly, or even under hard acceleration as in the SH-AWD system, doling out power to the rear would needlessly lower the FE. The acceleration numbers, 0-60 MPH, times for the FWD version, front drive motors only, are certainly good enough except for boy-racer types.

What you have forgotten, is that your hybrid has a bi-directional DC-to-Dc converter. On the go, your hybrid battery is not only used to maintain a low "charge" on the auxillary 12 volt battery, it supplies most of the 12 volt "juice" for all of the accessories. So, basically, there is no reason to EVER fully charge, top off, your 12 volt auxillary battery nor is there any good reason for it to be of very high capacity, size. In point of fact if the system were to do that constantly, "over" charge the 12 volt battery, the life of the auxillary 12 volt battery would likely be significantly shortened. Did you know that the hybrid battery can be recharged via the dc-to-dc converter? That, apparently, effectively, is what you have done. By topping off, "over-filling" your 12 volt battery you have "forced it" in effect, to carry the entire accessory load. Since it was over-charged, 13.62345 volts, the hybrid battery did not supply any current flow to the 12 volt accessories via the DC-to-Dc down converter. So of course it took longer for your hybrid battery to discharge to the point wherein the ICE had to be started. Again, there is absolutely no reason for the system to maintain the 12 volt auxillary battery at a high state of charge.

I tried several supposedly quiet tire types on my 92 LS and finally settled on Bridgestone Turanza summer only, which is what has been on my 2001 AWD RX300 for about 50,000 miles and will need to be replaced before next winter. Quiet and comfortable riding.

Model year? AWD? Towing package?

My 2001 AWD RX300 has run on nice quiet and comfortable riding Bridgestone Turanzas summer tire all year 'round for 60,000 miles. I don't think they can be beat for quietness and comfort and with more rubber on the road for traction they are a good compromise over all-season or even winter times. On ice or packed snow they even out-perform most of those.

I'm surprised you made it that far before noticeing. Mine, 2001 AWD RX300, was BURNT at only 40,000 miles. I'm pretty sure this is all the result of Lexus using an over-sized ATF oil pump to overcome the lack of sufficient ATF oil pressure to accomplish two sequential gear changes in quick sucession. That lack of oil pressure is what most likely is causing the '99 Rxes to have premature transaxle failures. I'm watching the condition of the ATF at every DIY oil change, now at 60,000, and will only do another drain & refill if it begin to look/smell burnt.

Assuming it only exhibits this "flare" prior to the ATF warming up to operational temperature your problem is probably due to there not being enough ATF volume in the sump until the ATF warms and thereby increases in volume enough to fully fill the sump. Regretably the only way to overcome this is to allow the ATF to come up to operational temperature, at least partially, before driving off. You cannot add more ATF because a "too high" COLD volume will expand into the area of the gearsets once heated and begin to foam due to the resulting "stirring". Fitting an engine, torque converter, transaxle and diff'l sideways, East to West, in the smallish engine compartment of a Camry is no simple problem. Add the ES350 V6 and 6-speed and you no longer have room for an ATF sump with ANY surplus space. Unless you expose the bottom of the sump pan to damage by road debris by dropping it TOO low. Like I said, no SMALL problem, PUN fully intended.

"..treadwear lifespan..." "...Safety and longivity..." Every time I see those ads, brake pads guarannteed to last for the life of your car, or dust-free, I wince. When I buy brake pads I want the ones that GRIP the rotor so tightly the rotor is worn down by the time I need the third set of pads. Same with tires, I want TRACTION first and foremost and that generally means high tread wear rates.

NO.

The car magazines could easily put an end to this nonsense by testing with and without ABS enabled and publish the results. Software/firmware engineers are now determining how quickly you stop vs how much directional control you need while stopping. That information would be of help in determining if the ABS activity is beyond that needed to stop as quickly as could an experienced driver on the brakes and with good/equal braking at all four. Additionally it is now well known that on some surfaces ABS is detrimental to stopping most quickly. There are also some new tire formulations on the market that will stop quicker with lockup than not, at least on some modern day dry surfaces. The best solution would be to not allow ABS activation unless loss of directional control is threatened as detected by VSC.

The only time I have to go beyond(***) my comfortable riding and quiet "summer only" Bridgestone Turanzas is on an icy or packed snow surface, otherwise I find that work just fine all year around, rain, snow, mud (mud??), etc. ***Tire chains, rear first and then added to the front if things get really slippery.

Only for about a year now, and wife thinks that now that I'm retired all the home owner honeydews have first priority.

Mine, a 2001 AWD RX300, is a KEEPER...! BUT. With all these modifications. 1, Crossbars and tow hitch removed and stored. 2. 1.5" inch wheel spacers all around primarily so tire chains can be used at the rear first, initially. Wider, +1, 17X8 wheels and tires for improved stability and wider stance against potential rollover. 3. Moved OAT sensor to left front away for radiant heating influence by condensor/radiator. 4. DRL modification, eliminate HB from circuit in favor of new "DRL" relay that energizes street/parking/tail lights and forward facing high power white LED with collimated lense. No more melted HB bulb glass encapsulations. 5. LED lamps for all street/parking/tail/stop/turn lights. Involved modifying bulb failure sensor current flow detection electronics and turn sensor flasher current flow sensing. 6. Changed wiring so that fog lights can be turned on and used independently of main beams and still turn off automatically 7. Replaced OEM fog light bulbs with 9006AW, all-weather. 8. Changed out rear dome light with Ford model so that passenger map/reading light projection was from the rear, over the shoulder, and did not interfere with driver's forward night vision as much. 9. Added electronics, additional ECU, detecting airflow outlet servomotor feedback sensor "target" as soon as servomotor started moving. That was so heat and blower would come up to maximum the instant defrost/defog/demist was activated. 10. Now in process of removing internal red lens from all four rear lights. 11. Removed rubber one-way flow control "flapper valve" within the exhauster port to provide more flow-through capability and reduce "helicopter" throbbing with rear windows down. 12. Experimented with MAF/IAT modification to provide richer mixture, more torque/HP, but discovered that was defeated by downstream A/F mixture control via the oxygen sensor. Oh, 13, Had dealer set C-best options, 1, such that the A/C could be indefinitely disabled throughout the winter months. And 2, to unlink the A/C from operating automatically in defrost/defog/demist mode. Newer models even have a feature that automatically raises the blower speed in defrost/defog/demist mode. And even later models have yet another C-best option that can be set so the the climate control does not automatically switch from heating mode, footwell airflow, to cooling mode once the cabin temperature climbs to within a few degrees of your comfort setpoint. In cooling mode absolutely no warming airflow is routed to the interior surface of the windshield. If the system remains in heating mode you will not be discomforted by cool and dry airflow to your facea dn upper body but more importantly the windshield will be kept warm against the possibility of fogging over. Mostly but not fully in chronological order. A couple more.. 14. Monotone burnished gold paint supplied by the dealer as a purchase term. 15. Tail lights in rear door are disabled (not stop lights) in order to provide a more pronounced indication that the brakes are being used. Should the transaxle ever fail I consider it worthwhile that while it's out of the RX to remove the center diff' spider gears and weld the rear drive sidegear in place so the vehicle has a SOLID drive coupling to the rear and only the VC for front drive.

Isn't the 2004 RX330 the first RX to use DBW to protect the drive train, delay the onset of engine torque for the 1-2 seconds it takes to accomplish a second transaxle gear change, downshift, upon a sudden re-application of gas pedal pressure almost immediately, shortly after, a FULL lift throttle event? I think that encapsulates the TSB wording... You have one of these death traps and you haven't yet been PANICKED, SHEER terror, by the delay to accelerate in DIRE circumstances as many other owners have reported? Lucky you.

Even with enough clearance at the rear the RDX still requires tire chains be used ONLY on the front. After several telephone call interchanges with Acura no good explanation was offered other than it might be simply a typo based on Honda/Acura history being ONLY FWD. Other than that I personally consider the RDX' SH-AWD system to be the best of the best for an AWD based on FWD product. And personally since Acura could give me no good explanation why not I would always use rear tire chains initially and then add a pair to the front if it became necessary. I didn't care much for the "business" of the dash/instrument panel area. I would suggest test driving the BMW X3 before making a final decision.

Bridgestone Turanza summer tire, quietness and comfort surpreme.

Yes, it doesn't take very long for our minds to begin to equate sound with speed, more sound, more speed. Since "sounds" in the RDX grow much faster with speed it becomes difficult, mentally, to equate the RDX' accleration rate with the equivalent in a vehicle with less speed associated sound. Not saying "you" haven't, didn't adjust to it, just that many, most(??) wouldn't. Those GT3's at Daytona were a lot more "impressive" operating with a gutted muffler.

The part numbers are the same for both. I check with the supplier after this posting and he was going to check with his overseas supplier because mines was the second complaint on the sensor he sent out. The initial code I got under the old part was p1133 and after conducting a search on this forum, I found a thread that indicated that a p1133 code meant sensor 1 bank 1 was bad. The posting also stated that sensor 1 bank 1 was the sensor next to the firewall. That's the one I changed with the new sensor and got multiple code readings. Yesterday, after this posting, I read on this forum where someone had a p1133 code and stated that they change the sensor underneath the vehicle just before the CAT and fixed their problem...now I am wondering just where bank 1 sensor 1 is located? Thanks again for the help. The oxygen sensor that is used to check A/F mixture is between the engine and the catalytic converter. The one downstream of the converter is used to verify that the catalyst is functional.

..yada...yada...yada... Everytime I come to this forum, you're here bi!tching and moaning about the worst car you've ever owned and now you don't even *own* it any more and you're *still* here b!tching and moaning. Do you think you might just have a little bit of a problem? Have you considered anger management courses? You remind me of a guy that used to hang out on a vintage watch forum and every time someone would post about possibly buying one of these watches he would jump in and whine about how the stem fell out of this supposedly high end watch and how horrible the service was and how expensive everything was and he could never recommend this watch because of all the problems he had with it...and he hadn't owned one in years! He became such a joke he finally got embarrassed and went away...think about it. Actually IMMHO it would be much better if the naysayers with absolutely no experience of problems, actually a good thing, otherwise, would GO AWAY...! At this point there can be NO QUESTION that the early RX300 models are highly subject to premature transaxle failures, engine sludging. Additionally there are the issues of poor climate control design, and for the AWD models simply inadequate AWD capability. Not to mention the requirement for use of tire chains only on the front, a patently unsafe procedure even by the standards set forth in the vehicles owners manual. When folks come here seeking purchase advice it does them no good to read advice passed through rose-tinted eyeglasses.

Sorry, I just can't imagine anyone relying on the early LS400 version of traction control. I not only found it useless I developed the habit of turning it off each and every time I start the car. The only purpose I've even known it to be good for is as a warning, "head's up" of street conditions of which I was unaware for some reason. That being said CEL does result in Trac off.

Yes, when those turboes finally kick in the RDX goes like a scalded cat, and makes about the same noise level. But I sincerely doubt the factual nature of the RDX running circles around the Rxh. AWD Rxh? RDX turbo noise/SOUND making you mind think you're going FAST..??

Be sure your brake ligts aren't constantly on due to a failed or maladjusted switch maybe. On some cars the engine coolant must be above ~140F to enable the lockup clutch.

Please keep in mind, foremost, that you wife's current "wheels", Toyota 4Runner is a RWD model or at least rear torque biased if AWD/4WD. She could be in for some very unpleasant surprises given the rather radical difference, on occassion, of the handling/driving charactoristics between the 4Runner and the RX300. If I were moving my wife in this direction my selection would be limited to the BMW X5 or the newer X3 even the MB SUV. If she never encounters low traction or icy roadbeds then disregard all of the above.

Shortly after purchasing my 2001 AWD RX300 I discovered that the suspension clearance at the rear was so tight that tire chains could be used on the front ONLY. Here in the beautiful Pacific NW I don't have need for tire chains very often but when I do I absolutely refuse to risk my life in the process. FWD or front torque biased AWD vehicle already have more traction on the front so adding the disproportionate level of traction at the front with tire chains could prove to be patently unsafe, just as stated in your owners manuals. So I added 1.5" wheel spacers all around, upgraded to +1 wheels/tires, 17X8. Wider stance, more rubber on the road and I run Bridgestone Turanza summer only tires all year "round. Even more rubber on the road, and nice quiet and comfortable ride. 6 years and 60,000 miles and I have had tire chains on maybe 6 times, mostly only on the rear but a few times on all four.