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wwest

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Everything posted by wwest

  1. REmove the mud guard and then there is one screw at the bottom and one 10mm "bolt" at the top, about three inches from the front. Be sure and reseat the ball & socket that holds the assembly in place. Yes, rear marker.
  2. If I wasn't so turned off by the appearance I would always purchase a FX35 RWD torque biased AWD over the RX any day of the week.
  3. Just reduce the contrast!
  4. No. Different electrical plugs/connections
  5. Put 16x8 BBS-RSes on mine right after I bought it. 90k miles and no complaints. See it in the gallery...wwest picnic
  6. THe drl circuit in the 2000 GS300 was pretty complex and not restricted to one location.....
  7. The ONLY way is to open the nav dvd door. Have an engineer working to figure out how to do that remotely.
  8. On my 01 RX300 the only things that kill the previously set CC speed is turning the CC off manually or the ignition. You must remember to use "resume" and only after getting the speed up to the point where the CC will engage, usually ~35MPH.
  9. Super bright stop lights... To detect that a bulb is burned on there is a current flow sensing resistor in series with the positive battery source. This resistor may not be of high enough power disapation wattage to support the additional current flow.
  10. Don't forget wheel clearance.......!
  11. J30, lighter, by a lot, lower CD, and more(??) or equal HP. Also, since this is an SUV extraordinary measures are done (TALL OD gearing, 2200 RPM @ 70MPH) to improve MPG.
  12. wwest

    Brakes

    You probably want to buy the brake pads that provide the most stopping power, even if that means replacing the rotors more often. Rotors are a lot cheaper than tombstones. Unless you often travel down a mountainside I wouldn't worry too much about brake fade with an LS.
  13. wwest

    Brakes

    NAPA pads come with new shims. Grease, GREASE.....!! NEVER put grease on your brake pads or the backing shims. You can buy a specially formulated rubber-like material to coat them with.
  14. Next time you start the car use the parking brake not the foot brake and if the warning is not on and it comes on when you apply the foot brake the brake lights are not all working. Don't forget to check all the bulbs in the high mounted brake light.
  15. You asked the cruise control to maintain "65MPH" and it wants to do that within +/- just a few MPH. What is not apparent to you is that before the downshift the CC kept moving the throttle further and further open, all you NOTICE is the sudden downshift when the transmission ECU says "enough already!" Without cruise control on, YOU are the one pushing the gas pedal further and further down (or letting the speed decline) and so you are fully prepared, mentally, for the "feel" of the kickdown. My bet is that if you really pay attention going up a hill and try your best to maintain a specific speed you will find that "your" shift point is exactly the same as the CC.
  16. Your foot isn't stupid, it has the definite advantage of your vision. You can take the transmission out of OD or even downshift it because you see an upcoming steep climb. The Transmission doesn't know about the steepness until the engine starts lugging down.
  17. THere will be no "fun" in the snow with an 01 or later RX, the engine gets dethrottled immediately upon the detection of wheelspin. That's why the VC got dropped, with the VSC/Trac programmed to prevent ongoing wheelspin the VC can never come into play.
  18. The 50/50 split only applies to high traction circumstances with no serious level of accelerating or decel torque applied to the driveline. Lexus does this by using different final drive ratios in the front vs the rear. Try going around a tight corner when accelerating hard, but be prepared for some horrible torque stear if you don't experience the hesitation. And your 99 4runner was/is a perfect vehicle for your winters.
  19. In automatic mode if the interior is cold when you start it up and set the temperature control to 72 the airflow will be moderately high and almost uncomfortablely warm (actually uncomfortable if the outside temperature is COLD) until the interior rises to about 5 to 10 degrees within the 72F setpoint. Once it reaches the setpoint it will automatically switch to cooling mode and now the airflow to your face and upper body will be discomforting by the coolness and dryness of the airflow. In the wintertime the best procedure is to first put the system in automatic and then place the airflow routing, outflow, to the footwell mode. all other functions will remain in automatic mode but the outflow will be locked.
  20. Anchorage..... The very first thing you should do is read the owners manual, the part where it states that snowchains can be used on the front wheels ONLY! Then go out and buy and install 1.5" wheel spacers all around so you can use snowchains safely, on the rear first, and both ends when it becomes necessary. I live in Seattle and in the wintertime I always have two sets of snowchains on board. MY 01 AWD RX300 has the spacers and 235/65-17 Michelin cross terrains. So far only had to use the rear ones on the RX but they were worth their weight. There are already lots, TONS really, of complaints about the RX, HL, and Camry having severe hesitation with sudden acceleration inputs. Most of these seem to have to do with also entering a turn. I suspect that Lexus and Toyota are finally coming to the realization that in some circumstances FWD, or front torque biased AWD (like yours) can quickly go from quite beneign handling to very HAZARDOUS circumstances. All of these vehicles exhibit torque stearing and torque stearing is at its worse in a tight accelerating turn. So I suspect that the VSC system has been programmed to "dethrottle" the engine in the above potentailly hazardous circumstance. Anchorage, WINTERTIME. Be careful out there.... Oh, and by the way, the ABS pumpmotor is used to replenished the pressurized brake fluid as it is depleted by the brake apportioned AWD torque distribution system. You have ~45 second of continous AWD capabilty before the ABS pumpmotor is disabled to prevent it from overheating and failing permanently. And remember, at the first instance of wheelspin the engine will be automatically dethrottled to prevent brake system overheating and possible rotor warpage.
  21. Next time....... Use the air compressor to pressurize a cylinder to/at BDC (bottom dead center) of the power/exhaust stroke. On some automatic transmission cars you can remove a small panel and access the flywheel and hold/lock it in place.
  22. I have had this happen to two separate 92 LS400, both times while traveling over mountain passes during hot weather. The first time, June 92, was over the Continental divide westbound out of Helena MT. Since the A/C was doing no good, virtually no airflow, I turned it off. When I turned it back on west o fthe pass it worked fine and has ever since. Last year I drove a 92 from Tucson to Seattle and just north of Mt Shasta had the same thing happen again. Suspected the same problem so I turned it off for a few miles and then it worked fine when I turned it back on. On many occassions, for both cars, I have noticed that the refrigerant return line to the compressor will ice over with rime ice up to at least 3/8" thick. So I suspect that for some reason the evaporator is icing up and blocking all or most of the incoming airflow. Lexus, on the 92, does not directly prevent the evaporator surface temperature from reaching freezing level. They only regulate the pressure gradient downstream of the evaporator and my guess is that atmospheric pressures in high mountain areas somehow "fool" the regulating device. Side vents hotter.... Lexus lays claim to the use of a bi-level climate control system wherein the airflow in the lower parts of the cabin is typically 20F warmer than the airflow into the upper parts of the cabin. For whatever reason the side vents are considered to distribute airflow to the lower portion and therefore is connected via the lower airflow outflow path. That 20F difference is also why your windshield will be much more prone to fog over in the wintertime, with comfortably warm airflow coming from the footwell vents the airflow to keep the windshield warm will be as much as 20F colder. And be careful and attentive to the fact that the climate control system wil automatically switch to cooling mode on the coldest night in the dead of winter once the cabin temperature approaches and/or reaches your comfort setpoint level. At that point the windshield will be recieving virtually no airflow at all and the impinging COLD outside airflow will soon chill it to the dewpoint of the interior atmosphere. You will soon see little wisps of condensation on the inside of the lower portion of the windshield and like most of us you will instinctively react by activating the defrost/defog/demist mode. Then..... ZAP! Fogged over windshield! Completely! No forward vision! Don't EVER let the system switch to cooling mode on a COLD day. The new RX330 has a C-best open that can be set to prevent the automatic switch to cooling mode for exactly the above stated reason. Maybe next year the entire Lexus line will have that feature and maybe even be shipped, at least to the northern regions, already set correctly.
  23. Hilly areas, no CC... Who started that rumor?? Maybe not if the hills are so steep the CC can't hold speed going up or down but otherwise I never heard of such a thing. Unless you mean in slippery roadbed conditions and in that case you should NEVER use CC, on the flat or hilly. And its possible the RX330 kicks down out of OD so quickly because the OD gear ratio is so tall the engine cannot deliver significant additional torque at those RPMs, ~2200RPM at 70MPH. The torque converter needs to be unlocked so the engine revs can rise while maintaining the same roadspeed.
  24. ABS wheelspeed sensor or its wiring was damaged...... A slight movement, not something a quick visual would detect, of the sensor away from the gogged surface and it will not be functional.
  25. wwest

    Mpg

    I have an 01 AWD RX300 with 38k miles and the best I have ever done strictly hwy is ~23MPG and that's with the A/C compressor completely disabled. 17MPG seems to be about right for around town.
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