smooth1

Yeah, the Eagle GT's a good, but do you mean the Michelin Pilot Sport all seasons or the PS'2?

**Moved to the ES forums.**

On my way into the shop today I saw a few stations at $1.69. That's not to far from where we began this whole mess! I never thought we'd see under 2 bucks again! So atleast we get a morsel of relief in this downsliding economy.

Hmm, how do I put this??? Luxury cars are for all purposes of this discussion are the opposite of a sports car. Sports designs are intended to keep the driver more apart of what is going on with the car and the ground below it. Luxury cars are designed to isolate the driver away from what is going on and the ground underneath it. The complete opposite of what sport is trying to accomplish. So, when you try to blend the two together, you end up with either a sporty car that has some luxury attributes, like the IS 350, or you have a luxury car that has some sporting qualities to it, like the GS 350. Then you have what are called "narrow focused" cars like the Corvette that makes no apologies for a harsh and loud ride, and quick steering. And the Maybach that just glides along on a cloud like pillow.

For that piece, I would look into a salvage website and look for IS 300's listed. Then just call them and barter a price over the phone and they can just mail it you. Or you can go to Sewell Lexus.com and call them. Just tell them what your looking for and they can look up the part number for you. Then you can just order one.

No, it's all pretty straight forward. The only thing I would do is drop the stock door speakers also, as they are a different impedance. (2 ohm)

my poster child of bad modding:

Otherwise known as a : FAIL Some people shouldn't mod.

Maybe the speed limit is 60 mph there!? :P Did you change the size of your tires?

And resetting the light doesn't really mean an oil change occurred. It just means you reset the light.

That's probably cause I don't know how to take pictures very well. The pictures all seem to bluish grey to me. Maybe I have the wrong setting on the camera. Anyway, I have a few rock chips on the front of the car, and a very small scratch on the passenger side. I think I just about have enouph to justify taking it to my guy to have them fixed now. ( He pretty much just charges me a flat rate), but his repairs are flawless! When he's done you can't even tell there was ever an issue there! So in a couple weeks I'll take it in have the chips and scratch fixed. One of the benefits of having a single stage paint. I've had DWG and DPS on the car now for a week, and I have come to like this stuff even more now. Thanks guys for the advice! I'm happy . :)

This was the windshield they replaced a few mnths back that did a bad job then also? If I remember right? they charged for side mouldings twice and all that?

I'm thinking stay with the 5W-30. Inside an engine, oil is in a Catch-22 scenario: it has to seal rings and valves, but it also must reduce friction. In simple terms, oil has to accomplish two functions that have directly opposite requirements.

So he doesn't do any maintainence on any of his cars? No air filters, oil filters, oil changes, fluid changes, spark plugs and tune ups nothing? Oil starvation, I agree. Oil intervals, could you tell me how? For instance, if, instead of 5,000 mile changes, I did Mobil 1 Extended Performance 15,000 mile changes, could a dealer tell without sampling the oil (and, by my own experience, I don't think a dealer could tell from a single sample, either). In other words, what are the signs inside an engine that indicate infrequent changes? As for my friend, he is the preventive maintenance worst case scenario. Never changes oil. Never changes filter. Runs his tires almost flat. Fills when the oil low warning message appears. I've never asked about other PM, but I assume it is the same way for all filters, fluids, plugs, etc.: fill, replace, or repair at warning or else at severe performance degredation. Preetty much runs the cars into the ground. However, despite his complete lack of care, they last about 200K. It's amazing. They won't need to determine your oil change intervals until you showed up with a problem like a bent rod, bearing failure or piston ring wear, etc. etc. You will have some very specific issues that occur. Once they open that motor up, you can tell very easily by looking at a group of wear points like cylinder walls, connecting rods and wrist pins, and valve train wear. Oil starvation would lead to a thermal breakdown, all you have to do is look for "blueing". It's a blue/black/purpley spot that occurs at the point of thermal breakdown. Extended oil change intervals tend to have "trenching" in opposite sides on the journals and bearing in the valvetrain and connecting rods. Sludge deposits left behind are a even further evidence of extended oil drain intervals. Almost all of these cases are not an issue until you have a problem. Which is why oil changes are done. To prevent a problem. Remember, oil should be changed BEFORE it needs to be. Oil does alot more than just lubricate. It suspends dirt and metal particles, it cleans friction points, cools the motor and prevents corrosion. Of course vehicle manufactures are very conservative about recommended oil change intervals as they know alot of the average consumers won't adhere 100% to that schedule. They of course have a schedule that protects them from maintenance claims. Which is probably more of a reason to listen to it. Your friend with the caveman attitude regarding maintenance.....There are many more ways to measure the effects of poor maintenance then the longevity of the motor alone. I assure you science and physics promises that he has very poor gas mileage, has terrible acceleration and power, emmitts much more toxins into the air, and probabaly burns enouph oil to counter any savings from just doing oil changes instead. ( Oil doesn't "go bad" on a continual scale. The quality of oil life drops very fast near the end of it's span, and begins to burn very rapidly as the viscosity breaks down.) Not to mention the restricted oil filters and poor air intake by not replacing those. But this one person, or few like him in no way justifies skipping, or not doing scheduled maintenance. And if he's putting 200K miles on cars, then we are talking what 1 car? maybe 2? I have a strong feeling that enouph oil wasn't put in before. You don't just burn 5-6 quarts of oil and not have a problem with leaking or burning.

Yeah, but I try to start with the easy stuff first. If after you pulled the breather tube and cleaned the intake you still had this issue, then that's where I would look next. Cleaning and checking the breather tube and intake costs about 5 bucks and 30 minutes of your time. Valve seals takes a bit more. ;)

Pull the breather tube from the intake duct and see if you have some oil blow by going on. It sounds like you may just need to clean the breather tube and intake out.

I've never measured the seat belt assembly, but here's how to get the OEM seatbelts : Lexus Toyota OEM parts

I'm still waiting to hear the differences between the 7.1 and 8.1 update for the nav. tex is right. everything nicLX470 wrote sounds the same except the "also some screen functions work that were previously inoperable" part, but no one seems to know what they are or if they are. And are the first batch of 09's coming with the 7.1 version?

Yeah, sorry, but I don't think anyone here wants to trade an IS for and A4. I let your post stay up out of curiosity to see what the reaction was, and I figured this would go unresponded to. Audi makes a good car, but most people I've met don't just love thier IS, they've connected with it. I know for myself, there isn't another car in this price catagory that even interests me. In fact, even the next price level or 2 still offer nothing other than the ISF. LOL!!

It's not very difficult to determine oil starvation issues. Or issues that occured due to improper oil change intervals. So he doesn't do any maintainence on any of his cars? No air filters, oil filters, oil changes, fluid changes, spark plugs and tune ups nothing?

Yeah, you can have them here. There are a few friends of mine that have imported some Supra's from over seas and they are right side drivers. It's pretty awkward to get used to though. In my opinion, left side driver is better for most right handed people. Especially manual transmissions, as I like having the clutch on my left foot and the shifter in my right hand. But we will never switch sides as a rule. The United States will always be left side.

what he said!

Tell me about it! I'm not too far behind ya! Not to long ago I realized during my morning zombie stroll to the kitchen to get my coffee that parts of me ached and hurt, and I hadn't done anything! They just hurt. Then I thought about all I used to do and never felt like this! Gettin old sucks man.

Are you now looking a for set for the winter and and keep a set on there for summer? Or do you want an all season that can do some snow also? If you have a descent set of wheels on the Mazda, then I would recommend getting some winter wheels and outfit them with some good dedicated snow tires, and set the summer tires in that beautiful new garage your gonna have. LOL!! Then in the spring when the snow goes away, switch over to the other set.

What do you mean?