wwest

There can't be a US restriction since many US vehicles allow fogs only and european cars with that feature are allowed in. Maybe like DRLs, smoke'em if you got'em. No US laws for, or against.

Top center of the firewall in the engine compartment.

Since the low beams are ALWAYS on with the fog lights why do you even care if the fog lights are on or off, it makes no difference whatsoever. You could probably just remove the fuse and never notice. And the fog lights on my RX300 are the AW type, only a slight amber tint. Immediately on purchasing the vehicle I changed out the bulbs and rewired the system so I could use my fog lights independently of the low beams. I can assure you that the RX300 fog lights are mounted low enough, and the AW's have enough amber tint that they are VERY useful in foggy conditions. The night lighting at all the local ski areas is of the HID type, and you would be amazed at much better you can see with an amber lens in your googles.

"unless visibility is severely reduced....." DUH......!! FOG lights, for use when driving in fog (and MT snowstorms) wherein normal forward lighting will create back-scatter which interferes with the driver's forward vision. Fog lights have a wide pattern and a low cutoff and the typical amber color aids human vision in low light conditions.

Out of context....... Your J30 is worth wnat it will cost to replace it.

Most Asian manufacturers seemingly do not know of the benefits of using fog lights without the backscatter interference of the low beams. Hard to understand and even harder to figure out how to get around their fog light circuit restrictions.

Low beam indicator serves as fog light indicator since absent modifications the fog lights can only be on with low beams.

Snow chains on the front only can get you into an early grave! I assume this is an AWD RX330. If not there is a 92 AWD Ford Aerostar currently on ebay with the entire purchase price to go to the Tsunami victims. That would be the perfect vehicle for your skiing trip. Read your owners manual, the section about the use of winter tires on the front and not the back, higher traction on the front vs the back can quickly lead to loss of control. Not the exact wording in the manual but close enough. Now, if winter tires on the front and not the back warrants a strong caution note from Lexus one would think that snowchains on the front only would warrant a HAZARD note. The problem Toyota/Lexus has, RX300, RX330, HL, Sienna, etc, is that there is not enough clearance in the back between the strut and the tire for the use of snowchains at the rear. As soon as I bought my 01 AWD RX300 it was upgraded with 1.2" wheel spacers all around and 17X8 wheels with Michelin cross terrains. During last years ice storm it handled quite nicely with chains only on the rear. But I always have a second set handy if needed. Ford, in the new FreeStyle owners manual says that one should NEVER install front chains without also using rear chains. Then in another section of the book they tell you that rear chains cannot be used due to poor clearance. Duh!

This was taken from the Lexus shop manual for the 2001 RX300. For all others I would seriously consider the wireless remote relay approach.

Both are required. Without the stalk modification the fog light "grnd", negative return circuit will not complete without the low beams being on. And without the ECU mode the grnd signal from the stalk mode cannot pass to the fog light relay. And as I said, you don't have to remove the wires from the ECU connectors, just add a jumper connection between them.

A friend has a 98 LS400 without seat heating and wants to add it on. Does Lexus always ship with the heat elements installed but without complete wiring like many manufactuers?

At the combination switch located at the foot of the turn signal/lighting stalk, move the (solid green) wire at pin 17 of the combination switch to pin 16 or simply connect it to the ground wire already on pin 16. At the body ECU, under the dash and up to the left (toward the driver's door)of the stearing column, connect the green wire with the yellow stripe at B6-7 to the brown wire with a white stripe at B8-6. They need not be disconnected from the body ECU. There are four multi-pin connectors going into the vertically mounted body ECU. Regretably the first wire you need to reach, B8-6, BR-W, is at the very top (center pin of three) of the topmost connector. The second wire, B6-7, G-Y, is in the bottom row of the second connector from the bottom. This will result in the fog light control relay always being energised if the "stalk" light control is in the fog light on position and the tail light relay is energized. So now the fog lights can be on anytime the parking/tail lights are on and they will extinguish automatically, in the normal fashion, as always.

If you press "auto" (ONLY!) then all HVAC functions, outlet flow, blower speed, and temperature setpoint, will be controlled automatically. If you then manually select any one of these functions then that function, ALONE, will go into the selected manual mode. All others will remain automatic. In automatic mode, the "auto" indicator lit, the blower will not start until the engine water jacket temperature rises to 130F. If the passenger cabin is extraordinarily cold then the blower speed will move from just slightly on to full blast within just a few moments. Once the cabin air temperature approaches your setpoint the blower will slow and the level of heating will be reduced. Once the cabin temperature gets fairly close to your setpoint the system will switch to combined foot/dash and then into dash, cooling mode, alone. If you have just started the car and it is still cold, engine and cabin, and you switch the airflow mode to windshield or combined windshield/footwell then the blower will go on full blast on the assumption taht the windshield needs to be defogged.

You can jumper wires together in two places, one at the foot of the light control stalk, and another at the lighting control ecu. Or you can pay ~$30 for a wireless remote control relay.

:chairshot:

Quotes from: AAAWORLD.COM January/February 2005 Snake Oil by Peter Bohr Corporate Average Fuel Economy, CAFE for short, a US law that requires automakers to build vehicles that meet certain standards. Automakers are desparate to meet them, or they have to pay millions in penalties. {Hmmm.... MILLIONS IN PENALTIES....$$$$.} Meeting CAFE standards might be a cinch if Americans favored little gas misers. But we don't; the ten most fuel efficient cars account for just 1 percent of total cars sales. Moreover, automakers are thrilled to indulge our taste for BIG IRON. Were it not for high-profit---but often, thirsty-, SUVs and pickups, some automakers would have pretty bleak balance sheets. Roger Clark, a senior manager at General Motor's Tech Center...."We scour the Earth for ways to save gasoline." "Eager to have their cake (avoid CAFE penalties) and eat it too (sell highly profitable vehicles), GM and other automakers employ thousands of engineers to devise and evaluate fuel-saving possibilities." Paul Williamsen, Toyota executive, speaking of cheap gizmos advertised on TV to improve fuel ecnomy....."We'd use any inexpensive device--we'd use it even if it were expensive. The grief our engineers go to in order to save a mile per gallon would blow you away!" After a friend loaned me his Prius for a week, in return for his having my Porsche, I went out and bought a 2003 model. The Prius has a control function that allows you to set a mode wherein actual engine compression braking is used when you let off the gas, during coastdown. There is a note of caution concerning use of this function that says that fuel economy will suffer... The Prius normally uses regenerative braking to simulate, give the feel of, engine compression braking. So, use engine compression braking, but when you do your batteries don't get charged. From this all blessing (engine hesitation symptoms) flow. The next time you're out cruising in your Sienna, say at about 65MPH, let off the gas completely and time how long it takes to coast down to say 40MPH. Now repeat that but pull the shifter down into 1st. See how much quicker you get down to 40MPH? All Toyota is trying to do is save you a bit of pocket change. Anytime you touch the brakes, the presumption being that the throttle valve is fully closed, why shouldn't the transmission be "upshifted" via unlocking the torque converter, slightly reducing engine compression braking. Even if you only release the gas pedal, why shouldn't the transmission be upshifted to extend your fuel mileage? So what if you suddenly change your mind and decide to accelerate quickly? Your transmission now has a mind of its own and at this particular moment it wants to go in the other direction. Guess who wins, EVERY TIME! Sorta like a two-headed snake.... What, how much, positive effect do you suppose this might have had on Toyota's CAFE with the hundreds of thousands of vehicles, Camry, Solara, ES330, HL, RX300, RX330, etc, sold since they started (2000?, 2001??) the upshift program? How much, do you suppose, that would add up to in CAFE penalties should Toyota agree to fix each and every vehicle shipped using this technique?

And while you're at it check and be sure someone hasn't installed one or two, or all LED bulbs like I did. Indicator light is always on but I just ignore it.

The owners manual for my 2001 AWD RX300 says something to that effect. No engine compression braking with cruise engaged.

but only because the transmission ECU told it to. 2001 RX300 Repair Manual, Volume 1, page DI-191, (Input Turbine Speed Sensor): "CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION This sensor detects the rotation speed of the input turbine. By comparing the input turbine speed signal NT) and the counter gear speed sensor signal (NC), the ECM detects the shift timing of the gears and appropriately CONTROLS THE ENGINE TORQUE and hydraulic pressure in response to various conditions, thus performing smooth gear shifting." In other words the RX300 shifting sequence is completely an open loop servo system. Once the transmission ECU energizes the correct electrical solenoids for the new gear position the only feedback to verify new gear engagement completion is via the comparison of the transmission input shaft speed and the output shaft speed. And I would imagine the engine torque output is controlled via the "throttling" of the fuel injectors since my 01 does not have DBW/e-throttle. So, let's assume I'm at 21-24(19-23{AWD})MPH and fully close the throttle while waiting for a merge opening on the freeway. The system detects the coastdown circumstance and begins the upshift sequence (page SS-22, same volume) from 3rd to 4th just as I depress the gas pedal to mid-point to accelerate and merge. Being open loop means that the upshift must complete and the upshift must be "verified" via the correct rotation ratio comparison between transmission input and output. And now once that shift completion is verified a new downshift command will be issued and verified. In the meantime the engine torque is suppressed via fuel injector "throttling". And this is for an 01 RX300. So, now the question becomes when did Toyota/Lexus discover that these transmissions were failing prematurely due to the "too quick" reapplication of engine torque. Remember that while the engine is being starved for fuel via closed injectors I may have the throttle control valve wide open resulting in an extremely LEAN mixture. The knock sensors will be complaining mightily! Could they extend the dethrottling period for the fuel injectors without affecting the emissions requirements? Could the engine, or engine related components, suffer premature failure due to short periods of extremely lean mixture over just a few years of operation? Certainly not if as of 04 Toyota/Lexus uses DBW/e-throttle and shuts down fuel and air flow during these 1 to 2 second double shift sequences.

Since the RX map light is useless, and tends to interfere with the driver's night vision when used, I replaced the dome light with a Ford Explorer fixture that has a dome light and two individually switched map lights. Much better "map" lighting for my wife and no blinding for me.

SOP, sort of......... Clean and burnish the battery terminals and connectors will help somewhat. When engine falls to idle, and rear brake lights add to load, alternator doesn't pick up the load right away so battery must fill in. Unless the battery can't turn the engine over for starting everything electrical is SOP. On newer models Lexus disables the torque converter lockup the instant you touch the brake. But then that should "feel" like an upshift. Don't

Simple. If you can get a reasonable level of heat by manually operating the hot water valve the the mixing vane servomotor is still operating correctly, and the control cable to the hot water valve has become disconnected from it somehow. In the alternative the servomotor is stuck in the full warm position but you will soon know if that is the case as the system will not be capable of moderating the heat level.

99% of the time my gps/nav works fine. It's that 0.01% failure rate that I can never know will occur makes me distrust it full time. With >70db noise level at cruise the ML cannot be appreciated any more than the standard OEM system. No opinion on laser cruise except I don't see the need above standard OEM.

High mounted brake light?? And be sure bulbs are all proper wattage rating.

Good solid steel surface.