thunter

I have a 98 GS300 with 117,000 mi. Just noticed today I have the exact same problem? My AC is draining fine, but when I lifted my floormat on the drivers side, I found it was soaking wet. Used a wet vac, then pulled up the carpet and found standing water and the 2" padding was soaked. Dryed the floorboard with a towel and ran a box fan for about an hour. Next, ran the car in the garage with the AC on. After about 15 min, noticed water coming from behind/under the black rubber mat in the corner by the gas pedal. That was great, considering I just got in back today from having the ball joints replaced. I've loved my Lexus, but not impressed by these two failures. I had the same problem on my 2000 GS300. Took it several times to the Lexus dealership and at first they could not find the problem as the car would not leak while in their garage. once they finally found the problem they wanted over 2K for the repair. Apparently the seal will wear out and the only thing they can do is replace the entire unit. I finally took it to another mechanic (who only works on Lexus and other imports) and had them pull it out and re-seal it. It cost me $600 for the entire job. It's now been 3 years since they fixed it and it is still working perfectly. Good luck!

I have a 2001 LX470 and I'm glad I found this forum. I was getting the bouncy ride and the height control would raise or lower by itself when running and parked. The Lexus dealer told me my front accumulators were bad and it would be about $1800 for replace them. I paid them the $64 for the repair evaluation, then order 2 new ones from Keith Bowers (above) for $718 total. I ordered them from his site at http://yhst-76231485467161.stores.yahoo.net/buylx470ac.html. I bought me a couple of floor jacks, jack stands and wrenches in the installing instructions on his site. I ordered on Friday night and got them on Wednesday, so fast service and I called Keith a couple of times with questions, which he glady answered. I bought 2 Husky floor jacks (3 ton) at Home Depot $39 each and a pair of Husky 3 ton double locking jack stands for $20. Keith said he thought I could do the front without jacking up the back and that worked OK. Both the jack and stands extend higher than the ones I saw at Lowes, good for SUVs. Lucky for me the local specialty tools store and a 1 1/2" "Service Wrench" by Wright, so I did not have to do any grinding. I found a one foot piece of pipe to put over the short handle for leverage. A great tip from Keith was to rap the accumulator with a 2lb hammer as you are applying torque to loosen it. I think that made a big difference in getting them off. In addition to Keith's installation instructions, I had a couple of old drip pans which were handy when more fluid leaked as I took off the accumulator. The first one I took off too fast and had a squirt/splash of fluid. The second one I turned until I started to get some leaking, then waited a couple of minutes and was fine when it came off. Don't forget to wear eye protection just in case. All is now well. Gary W. (thunter a alias)