landar

If there were no Lexus available it would be a tough choice, but I would probably have to opt for the Tata Nano :whistles: http://www.autoblog.com/2008/01/10/what-2-...-nano-unveiled/

I'm not sure you're hearing what I'm saying. Around here winter specialty tires aer so rarely needed that it isn't cost effective to have them. I bought a good set, two sets really, of quick-n-easy install tire chains when I first purchased the '01 AWD RX300 and only the one set is now slightly worn. I expect the chains might just outlast the vehicle at this rate of use. But what I have realized, in running summer tires constantly, is that in many cases, mostly on packed snow or ice, they actually outperfrom many vehicles equipped with winter specialty tires. Most of them will bypass the designated chain up areas, somewhat justifiably so, but then I come upon then up the road aways pulled over installed chains while I drive on by with only my summer tires. But again, I do not hesitate, absolutely not, to stop and install tire chains if roadbed conditions warrant. In some cases not so much roadbed conditions but the idiots out there trying to drive their at SUVs (or worse) with no chains or studs. But yet again, if these is NO BITE to the roadbed, noting for those rubber blocked or heavily siped tired to bite into, they will have less traction than my summer tires. Give em 'ell, wwest! I drove on packed snow/ice for the first time this winter with Turanza's, fully expecting the worst(because of the posts). To my surprise it handled really well. We dont get a lot of snow here(80"/yr) and I really dont want the hassle of changing out tires. So far, no problems.

Bravo NC211, bravo! You are a indeed wise. Good post.

Actually M500, I would not even consider using the factory jack on the side unless absolutely forced to do so. I would use a good hydraulic jack under the frame.

Landar--I now run 19s in the summer, so the Nokians on stock wheels are back to dedicated winter duty. So, did you find that the Nokians were just noisy in the summer? Why did you choose to switch out in the summer. Just curious. I had Nokians on a previous car. Worked great in the snow but thought they were perhaps a bit noisier that summer tires. FWIW, I think a good (big qualifier, I know) all-season tire can be effectively used in the snow. Perhaps of greater importance than the winter/summer tire debate is just the ability to know when to slow down, how to steer, brake, etc in adverse conditions. I see more 4 wheel drives in the ditch than any RWD vehicle. Over confidence and speed can get you into a lot of trouble.

Wow, WWEST--you normally have some really good wisdom here, but the comment above is flat out dangerous. Sure, summer tires may have more contact surface area, but the compound makes all the difference in the world, and any summer tire is patently dangerous in any icy, snowy, or even cold conditions. Summer tires are made of a softer compound, that while excellent in warmer, drier weather, gets very hard in colder temps--even on dry roads in cold weather, summer tires suffer traction greatly. I don't know what magical summer tires you have that you claim "outshining" winter tires, but in cold weather, whether dry, wet, icy, packed snow, or fresh snow, summer tires are far inferior to dedicated snow tires. Period. I live in an area where we get 90+ degrees in the summer and over 350 inches of snow per winter. It would only take you 1 drive on summer tires in the winter to swap them out immediately for dedicated snow tires. I run ultra high-performance summer tires in the summer, but when temps drop, I run dedicated winter tires. The LS400 is a real handful (and dangerous) on the summer tires in winter, and plows through anything winter can throw at it when running dedicated snow tires (combined with TRAC). new2mud, I was under the impression from post #21 ("I've got them on my car, firsthand experience. It is summer now, and the smooth ride is, well,... smooth!") that you ran Noks all year round. No? What make are your summer/winter tires? BTW, wwest is correct, that South Bend is pretty flat. So, I dont have to climb many high incline hills. At least not from a standstill. Plus, we get an average of 80 inches a winter, not really all that much. Being RWD, I was impressed with how well the LS went in snow with the Turanzas. I am not looking for Hummer-like performance here. Dont need it. In fact, I like a good excuse to stay away from the office and work from home :whistles:

Just an update to an older thread. We got the first significant snowfall of the season here of around 10" today. I drove my Lex for the first time to work (about 30 miles one way) on snow-covered and somewhat icy roads. I was very apprehensive at first after reading this thread because I do not have snow tires(unless Bridgestone Turanza's count). The Lexus did extremely well. No surprise or squirrelly swerving, good rear traction, and it just seemed to plow right on thru. I grew up driving RWD vehicles and this just felt confident, surefooted and predictable. I could not disagree more that it is "undrivable" w/o snow tires. Oh sure, I dont doubt that the performance would be improved with snows, but undrivable? Oh BTW, I do slow down when I drive in snow(as do others) and I was using the "snow/ECT" setting. Maybe the expectation is to continue the 60 mph on snow-covered county roads? Not me.

Ok, first you have to take a digital picture <_< . The file should be a jpeg with a .jpg extension. Do a reply on this thread and you will see an "Attachments" section. Click on the "browse..." button and browse to your picture file. Then click on the "UPLOAD" button. When that is done, click "Add Reply". Simple, no? If you could, please post a picture of the exterior and interior. Just a couple of pics will be fine. Tnx.

Brad, I think you are on the right track by suspecting the mounts. You could do a visual on them to see if they might need replacing. The good news is that this droning occurs in park @ 2k rpm and should be fairly easy to nail down. If it were me, I would be tempted to take my hydraulic floor jack along with piece of 2x4 for cushion and 'gently' apply a slight upward pressure to the 1)engine 2)transmission 3)exhaust at seperate times making note of the droning noise. While there might be interplay, with some experimenting, you could isolate the cause of vibration/droning noise.

You did fine, Jeff. Welcome to the Lexus club. When I bought my LS400 earlier this year I was told that I would be nothing but impressed with her. You know, its true. I still pinch myself when I get into that car just to make sure I am not dreaming. It just starts, runs, drives sooooooo nice that I feel like royalty behind the wheel. I actually feel sorry (kinda) for the other poor slobs on the road that are not driving a Lexus! You will be constantly impressed with the performance and years of bliss ahead. Congrats.

How about the visor vanity mirror power supply or even the rear view mirror? I dont know if the voltage is correct but worth try. Hmmmm, clever idea, pishta! That could be perfect except that the voltage is always there on the mirror, not switched by the accessory position of the ignition. I would have to manually turn the radar detector on and off. Still, I like it .........(thinking).....perhaps the rearview mirror, that is switched, just dont want to 'bugger' it up trying to get inside or cut any wires.

Thanks for the suggestion, I had never heard of a 'piggyback' connector before. Will check into it.

I have my Valentine One clipped to the visor with the power cord plugged into the cigarette lighter directly below the radio. It works ok but looks cluttered and (slightly) obstructs my view. I would like to run the power from the visor down the side pillar but not sure where the closest accessory power connection might be that I could tapped into with the minimum of damage.

SRK, I would love to know how to check the ignition wires with an "old-school" O-scope. Can you enlighten us?

The symptoms do seem to indicate that your ignition switch is end of life. You might try spraying some cleaning agent(not WD40) into the lock cylinder and then blowing the cylinder out with compressed air. Sometimes lint and dirt gets into the lock and strange things begin to happen.

I dont believe it matters how quickly you pull your seat belt. but rather how quickly your car stops. Try decelerating quickly(ie: putting on the brakes) while doing 30mph (48kph) or so, and pull on the seatbelt. It should lock. There is a mechanism which senses deceleration to tighten the belt. Like when you stop suddenly from hitting another object.

melon, Congrats on your Lex and welcome to the 'club'. You did the right thing especially since the belt was cracked. Replacing the other parts was smart. The only other step I might take when I do mine is to rebuild the starter while in there.

The problem is ... the vast majority of gamblers lose in the long run. It is an age old story - the tortoise (the conservative) and the hare (the gambler). It is ironic that the success of 1% of gamblers is what keeps the other 99% of the losing gamblers going. “Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?” - Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry. I like "punks" - they make us tortoises happy and wealthy. This isnt exactly like the odds of rolling the dice in Vegas but I see your point. The gamble is for/against Lexus quality and durability from a time perspective. We all know that Lexus gets high marks in this area. I did talk to the Lexus mechanics and they were not concerned that the time period was overdue on the belt. Just the mileage. That said, whether the belt is nearing the end of the trail would depend on how the car was maintained and driven. Well-maintained/serviced and easily driven would favor a less conservative view on changing the belt. Now, Lexuses71, is that a pic of your ride in a burgundy color? Tan leather, perhaps? Man, that thing is gorgeous. Get the belt changed and we will all sleep better. The $700 price is a bargain especially if OEM Toyota parts are being used. You dont want non-OEM parts in there or its a bigger crapshoot than just letting it go.

This same subject has been bandied about before ad nauseum. The bottom line is as Robert Thomason has stated...are you a gamblin man? I have a 98 with 66k miles. I am gambling that Lexus made the belt to go much farther, time-wise, than advertised. See this thread: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...;hl=timing+belt

I am drooling, you lucky dog! How much?

There's where I always fill up :) I live in Nazareth, PA. Haven't really noticed any differnce between 92 and 93 octane rating, maybe that's because second generation LS400's have tighter engine tolerences than first generation LS400 engines. I do like to point out, however, that Shell gasoline does not give you more mileage, despite the claim on the commercials. But of course that's based on my experience and my driving habit. I too, tried Shell to see if it had any 'magical' powers as far as mileage improvements. Didnt notice any. flanker...You dont fill up at the Hess station, Schoenersville and 22? <_<

Thats a great suggestion to twist the rod with a wrench on the flat part, jaed2. Wish I had thought of it! You have absolutely nothing to be embarrased about. For someone who has never done any auto work, you sure jumped in with both feet. I am proud of you. Good show. And you offer encouragement to those who might be on the fence about doing their own work. I actually enjoy working on my Lex. Its very therapeutic and comforting knowing I can do the work myself, especially with a great forum like this one to help out. "I spit on the dealer....poooey" (ok, where's that wood to knock on.....;-) What you gonna do for an encore? Rebuild the tranny? <_< Mucho congrats to you, jaed2! Salute

Interesting Sanpete. No BP in the list. TOP TIER Gasoline Retailers: QuikTrip Chevron Conoco Phillips 76 Shell Entec Stations MFA Oil Company Kwik Trip/Kwik Star The Somerset Refinery, Inc. Chevron-Canada Aloha Petroleum Tri-Par Oil Company Shell-Canada Texaco Petro-Canada Sunoco-Canada

Not your year but take a look at this thread: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...l=steering+rack

The other week, I noticed a slight ping while accelerating from a stop. I really could not hear it with the windows rolled up. But with them down, there was an unmistakable 'rat-a-tat-tat' coming from the engine. Its not a loose 'something'. I know pinging. I usually gas up with Phillips 66 brand, 93 octane. But that week, I had put in BP brand, 93 octane. I only use 93 no matter the brand. After all, its my baby and I know how to treat my baby right (where's my wife? She's not standing over my shoulder is she? Whewww....). Anyway, when the tank reached 1/4 full, I re-filled at the Phillips station. I listened carefully and within a day, the pinging had stopped. I am going to repeat the process to see if I was just dreaming. Could major brands really differ that much within the same octane rating? Or did I just get some bad gas (like eating at Joe's Diner)?