Hadyourphil

Just bought a brand new OBDII scanner and it will not communicate with my RX300. It is a D900 and is made by Autel, I believe. Any ideas? The software in the scanner is new as of 2013. And the scanner works fine on my wife's '02 Saturn.

That's one of the great things about digital cameras and cell phone cameras. The ease with which one can save a picture of something. I totally agree with michaelbmike, in fact that is why I was going to post pictures of the servos.

I found out after two of my posts were lost that it is impossible to post a picture as links (e.g. Photobucket) cause the reply process to freeze... The servos are similar in that they use a small motor to spin a worm gear. The worm gear can slip after a lot of use. This happened to my air direction servo. Roughing up the motor shaft to allow the gear to not slip fixed it. The heat/cool servo died on mine, but the gear was fine here... The motor had essentially died. Searching on the internet turned up a vendor in England that had one the same size and operating at 12 volts. And at approximately $8 shipped, it is far cheaper than replacing the servo! I will report back when the motor arrives and let you know if it works, Just an FYI... Be sure to replace the motors exactly as they were removed as they are polarized! And try to keep the actuator arm right were it was so that it will operate the damper door properly!! Sorry I could not post any pictures.

Hard to believe that 105 views of this topic and no comments...

My car seems to dart to one side or another when I accelerate. Similar to a torque steering effect. Would this have anything to do with the tie rod ends? The next paragraph I cut and pasted from a post I made somewhere. The outer tie rod ends look pretty easy to change. My right one has play, and at 217,000 miles, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. No special tools for this, right? And, if I count the turns to unscrew the old one, do you think I can get away without an alignment? (Update) I replaced the right one as that was the one that a mechanic told me was bad. Easy to change, with the hardest part getting the tie rod end out of the piece on the wheel. Unfortunately, there is no difference. The steering still seems odd. Any suggestions??

Since the transmission holds a lot more fluid than normally drains out, how do you go about getting the rest out??

The outer tie rod ends look pretty easy to change. My right one has play, and at 217,000 miles, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. No special tools for this, right? And, if I count the turns to unscrew the old one, do you think I can get away without an alignment? One more question... Should I go ahead and replace both tie rod ends??

No one has had to do this??? I hace the 2001 repair manual on CD, but it doesn't cover this aspect of the steering. At least not that I can find in digging through the very cryptic abbreviated topics...

This morning, everything seems to be working much better.

There is play in the right front wheel and it seems to be the tie rod end. Does this require special tools? Seems like, aside from a possible alignment being needed, this shouldn't be too difficult. I would search this forum for previous posts, but the search feature seems to be gone.

The front page looks disarrayed and there is no "search" feature any more. Hope this is accidental.

Only way I know to test the antenna is to unplug it from the radio. There are actually two antennas, one being some imbedded wires in the rear window. This one only works on FM, BTW. Part of the "diversity reception" for FM. Grounding issues are most likely the culprit. The antenna needs to be securely fastened to the car frame or you'll get ignition noise. There is little chance that something in or on the engine is defective. It is most likely the antenna and/or its mounting.

If it is like my '01, you have to essentially drip the last two gallons into the tank.

I bought some that fit into the window channel. The only negative is that, for some reason, the driver's window (and only that window) will no longer go up automatically. It comes back down, erroneously thinking something is blocking the window. Don't think that is adjusable on the older RX's. A minor annoyance.

Sadly, that link is dead...

Mine doesn't seem to work any more. The indicator light is on, which I assume means the auto-dim function is on. How can I test it? Is it a bear to replace? What should one cost? I don't drive that much at night so I have no idea how long this might have been broken. I have 202,000 miles on my '01.

I found a replacement key at 1010keys.com. Very reasonable, fast turnaround and it came with a nice-looking key ring.

This may have come up here before but the idiotic search feature does not allow three letter words to be searched (??). Dumb. Anyway, mine is developing a bit of play at 192,000 miles. Is this a reasonable do-it-yourself repair?

You do raise a good point. That's why I posted the manufacturer's puffery here. My original plugs have 180,000 miles on them, so I guess it is possible that they might have some wear...

Interesting. Mine is brass colored and is not magnetic, so that rules out steel. And, as magnetism plays a role in how the air valve works, it makes sense to me that the washer would not be made out of anything magnetic. As far as the gasket goes, I think I will replace it since I did have to cut mine to fit it back and I do not want to leave it that way. Since I'm going to replace the spark plugs fairly soon, I'll replace it then. Wish I had tried the heat idea, but I didn't know about it. You guys are great.

Anyone had any experience with Pulstar brand iridium plugs? Here are the claims: •Latest in performance ignition technology •Provides up to 12 percent more horsepower and torque plus livelier throttle response than conventional spark plugs •Allows more efficient burning of fuel and generates a much larger spark at twice the speed than ordinary spark plugs •Promotes an increased gas mileage and greater horsepower to the wheels •Reduces carbon dioxide emissions and provides cleaner exhaust and more efficient combustion •Uses an internal circuit that delivers up to 1,000,000 watts of peak power that increases peak spark current by up to 20,000 times that of a traditional spark plug

Well... guess no one had any thoughts! I've noticed my idle speed settled down after a couple of days. Now, on initial startup, the idle is around 1200 rpm. It settles down to 700 after a few minutes. OK for me.

I did discover that right after I posted. Great instructions!!! Some observations after doing this yesterday: A #3 Phillips and a firm grip loosened the throttle body screws just fine. The "wavy washer" fell out and was not discovered until the car had been reassembled. I do notice the idle is now double the 700 rpm listed as normal. And, I also have noticed that others have had higher idle after doing this procedure but no one seems to have offered a solution! The wavy washer is brass, so if it falls somewhere, a magnet will not retrieve it. And, if I decide to reinstall it, where exactly does it go? Over the magnetized piece on the end of the sensor? BTW, that's why the washer is brass... so the magnetism will not affect it. And, I did something you really should not do but has seemed to work. The oddly-shaped gasket that goes between the ISC valve and the throttle body expanded and would not fit back in its groove, so I carefully cut small pieces out of the longer ends (three cuts, IIRC) and managed to get a tight fit when everything was bolted back together. I'm not too happy with this, but so far, so good. Notice that the new gasket is less than $5, so I may get one just in case. So, any further thoughts on the elevated idle speed??

Now thats the information I come here for!! Thank you!