carguy07

Here on the eastside of Seattle it is a rather RARE occassion that I have to deal with snow or ice on the roadbed, so winter tires of any ilk would be a waste. And I suspect you have to spend a winter or two in MT, even in the Bitterroot valley ( the banana belt of MT) to understand the tire chain issue. Strange...Hasn't Lexus been using 17", or even larger, wheels for quite a few years now...?? "Squimy in the snow..." Let's see, wider wheels, more, wider tread on the road, less sidewall to flex... "physics and everyone else..." I can't speak for "everyone else" by as for physics, NOT in any of the classes I attended...!! And finally..... "..drive into a blizzard and punch it and report back..." No need for a blizzard, my snow covered parking lot experience should suffice... When I "punch it" the brakes "rattle", the engine get dethrottled, and the RX moves slowly forward at the speed, acceleration rate, that can be supported by the available surface traction. But "punching it" otherwise is against my base nature and lifetime driving experience. Here is a good place to start: http://www.tirerack.com/a.jsp?a=AK1&ur...&techid=126 I know, I know, they are a retailer. They must be trying to sell you the cheaper -1 tires because there is more mark up. You show me one thing that even hints that fat low profile tires are better in the snow than narrow high profile tires and you can win Gore's Nobel prize.

"Just wait til the snow flies, if it hasn't already, and you discover that tire chains cannot be fitted to the rear wheels..... And if you bought AWD just wait til you discover it isn't. And there are a few things you need to know about the climate control system before... I sometimes travel to MT in the winter, (Lewistown) but if I lived there still I would not own ANY FWD or F/AWD vehicle. The FWD or F/AWD RX330 series is an absolutely EXCELLENT vehicle...if you live in Tucson." Tire chains?? Are you serious? Do us all a favor, lose the over sized wheels with the wheel spacers that widen your stance. Lose the +1 size tires that physics and everyone else says will make the car squirmy in the snow. Get some real snow tires (Turanza's are NOT snow tires) that are the correct size or even -1, drive into a blizzard and punch it and report back. Signed, a guy in NE Ohio that swears these cars are awesome in the snow.

It sounds like most of your issues are fixable, but you can't get to a dealer to have them corrected. My Chevy's, Ford's and Chrysler's are not usually fixable for any cost? What car is so much better or are they all crap to you??

Also, make sure that the piston boot is folding in on itself properly. Mine kept bunching up, they can get pinched between the back of the pad and the piston.

Are you adding any or reusing the stock shims?

If you are using a lug nut to hold the rotor on, take it off. They tend to !Removed! the rotor a little and will not give you enough play to get the caliper/pads back on.

I just got a set of Kumho Solus KH16's. They are awesome!

These guys should be able to help you. May need to make a universal one work though, I did not see a direct fit listed. http://www.o2simulator.com/

The servo is just an annoyance, get to it when you get to it. I'm not surprised that they would not want to clean it. Only way to fix for sure is to replace it and they don't want to have do it twice. I have never ever heard of a timing belt giving a warning whine when it is near the end of it's life. Sounds like BS to me. At 67K I would doubt that the belt needs a second thought. Water pump? Maybe when you do the timing belt at 90K. The sounds you are hearing are very likely from the accessory belts. Just have the Toyota dealer (or anyone else for that matter) replace those and your good to go.

Also i forgot to mention that the price for the spiral cable replacement would be $685. As per suggestion in one of the replies i would ask my dealer for more information. Anyone thinks that it should be covered by the extended warranty?? I'm pretty sure I got that replaced for free under the bumper to bumper. But I do remember when buying the car the F&I guy telling me specifically that "wiring" is not covered under the CPO or extended warranties. I'm positive that mine has an exclusion for that.

There are a dozen of them on ebay right now.

"More rubber on the ground = improved traction and braking" Not in the snow it doesn't. I have a 2001 and with all season tires it does very well in the snow. For added security I bought a set of snow tires and wheels from Tire Rack. With those on it is unbelievable! As good as anything I have ever been in. I am in NE Ohio and we get plenty of snow. The only thing it is missing is ground clearance when it gets really deep. Very rarely an issue. I have plenty of rear bias, with old tires I can get the back to fishtail in the snow.

I have the same problem has any one resonded to your question? Mine seems to have lost the spring in the release that you pull on to unlatch it. I have to push the lever back after I open it or it will not work the next time. May have nothing to do with your problem, but worth a try.