GDixon

You really should go to the world of a stand-alone GPS like a Garmin 7200 or similar. There are so many positives that have been posted elsewhere that it makes the in-car GPS system appear to be primitive. The price of a car-NAV is way out of proportion to the cost of a stand-alone and the functionality is limited at best. Then there is the outrageous cost of upgrades.

I can't seem to find to find that bolt for the rims in my car??? do you have to buy it somewhere like the dealer. What you are looking for is a special adapter that has a 3-D mirror of the pattern that is on one of the wheel's lugs. It is usually packed somewhere in the spare tire well. It looks like a socket but actually fits inside of a wheel lug socket. Then it is fit to the face of the wheel lug and enables it to be turned. If you can't find it you are in for a trip to a Lexus dealer since there are several different patterns on the head of those "lock" lug nuts.

The brake dust is rusting, not the underlying metal or plastic or whatever. The metal brake dust is embedded in the paint from an exterior source so rusts from the exterior inward into the paint. The key is to remove the brake dust or rail dust from the surface. The clay bar treatment does it quite well if done correctly.

You may want to post this problem in the detailing forum. The people that monitor posts in that forum might have some suggestions. If it were indeed "rail dust" then a clay bar treatment should correct it. Does the paint surface feel rough at all or like there are invisible specks on the paint's surface? The clay bar will make it "baby butt" smooth. It is a place to start.

This post has a lot of information and has a PDF file of the installation instructions. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...mp;#entry254728 The fuse idea from mikey00 sounds like a good place to start. Maybe the original fuse, if installed, blew. The trailer hitch wiring harness may have grounded somehow during installation. The electrical should just be a plug-in under the luggage compartment by the driver's side rear wheel well but considerable disassembly is needed to gain access to it. A converter box is only used if the RX was not towing prepped by the factory. Older models may have a visible converter box but the 2005 doesn't as far as I know. Check the electrical response at the plug-in under the luggage compartment. The car has to be running. Checking a turn signal should be enough to tell you if there is power to the plug. Then the search can be continued from there either back to the trailer or forward to the wiring harness. Don't simply splice into the wires as used to be done on American cars. The LED lights have different voltage issues.

The spare tire also has a sensor. Check the pressure in the spare.

The key is the "install" costs. They are completely absurd at the dealership. There are several posts on this topic. Do a site search for "trailer hitch". The hitch with wiring cost me $280 from a Lexus dealer. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...mp;#entry254728

Get the service manager to take a test drive with you in the car to be a witness. Have him take his hands off of the wheel and see what happens. (Make sure his knee is not holding the steering wheel. ;) ) My RX almost drives itself straight down the highway. What tires did the car come with? The Michelin tires seem to work well but some have complained about the Bridgestones.

You must have changed your mind about the wiring harness since the original post said it wasn't needed. Now you're in for an adventure and a lot of research. If your RX is not equipped with a "towing package" you will need a converter box and a wiring kit. If you have the towing package then only the wiring kit is needed. They are about $90 from Lexus based on other posts on this forum. Toyota might have the same part for the Highlander for less. I haven't seen the kits advertised anywhere and the off-brand hitches don't seem to offer them for their hitches for an RX. Lexus must have a patent on them. Saving a few bucks on the stand-alone hitch may end up costing close to a fully equipped stock hitch from Lexus after the wiring is added.

It is just you.

First, the original proposal post is too long and is redundant. Secondly, there are not 300 million people that can or will read and understand such an effort. Thirdly, the greed of the American public is underestimated. If any gas retailer lowers the price by a few cents the customers would pour in. Fourthly, the independence of the American consumer is not taken into account. Reinvestigate the "Buy American" campaign that our economy desperately needs. Then realize that we own a Lexus and half of the items in the home were made in China or the Philippines. Carpooling, using mass transit, "drive 55", and other attempts have been woefully unsuccessful as well. Just observe how many single-passenger cars are in the commute. Doubling the amount of people in those cars would reduce the gas consumption by half for that major portion of the market. Sure, flame this post as being negative, but if reality is negative then so be it. There are some that would see such a "chain letter" effort as an exercise in socialism, unionism, or even communism and each one of those philosophies is in decline. That is just not how Americans are composed. Refusal to be led by the snout is what this country is based on. The price of gas is unfortunate but it is largely brought on by attitudes and habits that are not likely to change. Maybe when the price of gas reaches $10 per gallon some attitudes will change from whining to productive action. There are viable solutions available and others in the works but a sufficient level of desperation has not been reached to implement them. As has been stated many times in the old canard, "The price of freedom is not free."

Let us know how it goes. It would be nice to hear some good news about plug changing in the RX.

The RX spark plug job is so onus that there are many posts and threads on the technique and requirements. Try a search of this site for the information you want. After that information is perused you can decide what you want to do and whether it is worth a trip to a Toyota dealer or independent shop. A Lexus dealer simply wants too much for the job.

Oh and i contacted a few junkyards in my area to no avail. I'm tempted to stop every Rx driver i see with one and ask if they don't use it The "similarly-looking" hitch does not look like the OEM hitch at all. There is a special curve that goes around the exhaust pipe. Check this post for a PDF file that shows the hitch installation and additionally, there are pictures of the installed hitch. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...mp;#entry254728 Look again at the hitches on eBay and you will see that some of them are the OEM shape and may even be the actual Toyota part. The post also has the Toyota part number for reference.

Try an eBay search for "lexus trailer hitch". This was also suggested on your other post. Another place to try is a junkyard that has Lexus RX parts. Apparently a Highlander hitch will fit as well.

Try an eBay search for "lexus trailer hitch". This was also suggested on your other post.

eBay just listed two hitches for the RX. With shipping each one would be around $150 if you are the winning bidder. That is about half price of the dealer's offering. Since you don't need electrical, that is an advantage. You might save an eBay search and then be notified by email when a new listing is made for the item you want. http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?f...&category0=

Hi - can you tell me where you found the hood defector. I'd like to see what it looks like. Thanks Colgan has those also. On the link above, look at the middle picture of the style choices.

whoops, sorry gdixon, overlooked your jack points question. Yes, the manual calls out where the jacking points are. The scissors jack is kind of chincy, so use caution. Some have complained that it's easily put in danger of caving in, especially on unlevel ground. This topic too, has been beat to death :P So here's a link with pictures (the search tool is a wonderful thing), in case you find it hard to locate the little indents where the jack goes: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...ost&id=8290 Since I use my large 2-ton hydrualic floor jack to raise my cars, I used the lift point near the center of the front of the RX. In fact, there is a sticker on the support member under which the jack saddle should be placed. I then placed jack stands under the cross beam. For jacking the rear, I used the convenient trailer hitch flat area, making sure that it did not defect any, since the rear bumper would've been pushed upward, had the hitch assembly moved in that direction. Once the front and rear are raised, rotating the tires is fairly easy. BTW, I was at Westec in Los Angeles, today and Milwaukee had a monster lithium ion impact wrench, capable of more than 200 lbs-ft of torque. However, at $400+ (wrench, 2 batteries and a charger), it's not inexpensive. Thanks for the information and the picture. The jack points are in the usual places. I would have done a search for "jack points" but since you had just rotated the tires and it was done on an RX the question was asked of someone with first-hand experience. From your post it sounds like you use a 3-point jacking system - two in the front and one in the rear (for those of us who have a trailer hitch). That is also my preferred method. I have a shop with a concrete floor and four hydraulic floor jacks (two are 3 1/2 ton) so should be able to work up a solution to tire rotation. Now I need to search for the pattern. Front to rear and cross the rears to the front has been what has been done in the past. Some people just go front to rear and vice versa with radials. As far a lug nut torque, this thread (!) has pretty much exhausted the subject. I have used 90 ft-lb for alloys and 110 ft-lb for steel rims. Obviously, there is much more to the subject than that. Check out this 28V Milwakee impact wrench with 325 ft-lbs of torque. It retails at $865 but can be had at Grainger for "only" $489. Maybe it is the one you saw at Westec. http://www.milwaukeeconnect.com/webapp/wcs...roductId=729964

My advice is to look at an 08 RX dashboard and go from there. The odds are that the 09 is an exact match. When I was buying a bra for my 08 last year it was not listed anywhere. Then it was discovered that the front ends of the last several years were identical. The dashboard is likely the same story. The current stock dash does not seem reflect light on the window and I've not seen any cracking of the dash on any RX no matter how old. There would be a lot of posts on this forum if that were the case. So the question might be: why get one? They are expensive but after all - you own a new Lexus so expense is secondary. If it does not fit then some of the cost could be recovered by selling it on eBay. I have usually purchased a dash cover for every vehicle that I've owned and have even made my own. The RX doesn't appear to need one at all.

What is this clear bra I keep hearing about? A clear bra is a plastic cover applied with a sticky backing. It is sort of like that shelf paper with the sticky backing - forgot the name of it. Anyway, it is (semi)permanent and durable. Do a search of this site for posts on the good and bad qualities of a clear bra. From what I've read it is expensive and having a good installer is critical to it being applied correctly.

I always hand torque lug nuts to the recommended torque values. The extra psi in a 150 psi compressor is nice for the possible "boost" that was mentioned for tough removals. It could always be regulated to 90 psi with a regulator but the 120 psi compressors just don't seem to have the blast of power required. I have a dual stage 175 psi compressor as well but regulate it for use on autos. The extra psi is on used on farm equipment and disks. If a cheap impact wrench is used then the additional psi is necessary to get it up to speed.

The foul odor issue has been discussed extensively on this site. Do a search as see if someone has a solution that works for you. Checking the cabin filter that is behind the glove box is a starting place.

This must be your 400h but the "regenerative" brakes or the connections don't seem to be apparent in the pics. Are the jack points for a tire rotation clearly indicated under the car? If so, where are they? I'm going to rotate tires in the next few days but don't want to crumple any body panels. Don't bother with cordless impact wrenches. Their specifics are mostly listed in inch-pounds rather than foot-pounds because they are so weak. Sears and Bosch have one that develops only 60 f-p. That wouldn't even start to budge a wheel lug. If you buy a compressor, make sure it makes 150 psi to give you an added boost. (Costco has one for $160.) And buy a quality impact wrench. $300 - $400 is not to much to spend. That's about 25 tire rotations at $20 per or 125K miles. Only you can decide if it is worth it and whether you would have another use for the wrench and/or compressor.

Colgan has them. This link should work or at least get you close. I have one for my RX and they are nice and heavy weight. http://www.colgancustom.com/shop_vparts.php#1