monarch

RFeldes, johnw991 and myself did get certified - we took the same test that a Toyota tech takes. One of the things everyone learns when they study for the test to become certified is that it's NOT illegal to add R12 to an R12 system that has a minor leak. Also, hundreds of people on this forum, including at least one of the moderators admits of tampering / modifying the emission control system in ways that increase emissions. Those are all violations of Federal Law as well. Why is it that no one objects to those violations? A double standard as I see it. Although R12 production in the USA was halted in 1993, it's still being legally sold and used in 3rd world countries. It's readily available in Mexico, for example.

Like sha4000 said, hook the can up to a low side fitting (fitting with a black colored cap) then turn the handle of the can tap valve counterclockwise to release refrigerant into the system. However, not hardly any refrigerant gas will flow into the system until you turn the engine on and turn the AC on. As the refrigerant flows into the system the can of R12 will get cold. That's a good sign the refrigerant gas is flowing. It might take 5 minutes for most of the can's gas to flow into the system. Be carefull to keep the can upright, never on its side or upsidedown because you want to charge refrigerant gas into the system, not liquid refrigerant which could damage the compressor. Now if it seems the the can is not emptying, then immerse it in a small pan or large glass of water (water temp about 100 degrees) Don't use scalding hot water because that might generate enough pressure inside the can to make it leak or explode causing serious injury. It's highly recommended to wear eye protection because you could go blind if liquid refrigerant somehow got into your eyes. The temperature of liquid R12 is about -20 degrees below zero F.

If the fluid level on the dipstick is closer to the Hot mark than the Cool mark then you are OK. No need to add more fluid because the fluid level will likely get all the way up to Hot when the transmission is truly hot (fluid too hot to touch) like during rush hour traffic type conditions. However if the fluid level is about midway between the Cold and Hot marks you should buy another quart of Type T and add a bit more. It's easy to overfill so add only about 1/4 quart at a time.

Reddish pink is the color of the factory original Toyota Long Life Antifreeze. So you might have a heater hose or heater core leak. Since the Toyota Long Life Antifreeze does a superbly good job of preventing cooling system corrosion, chances are high the leak is from a hose. If the heater core itself is leaking, then it would have to be from a crack in the metal rather than from corrosion. The bad news is that it's possible you might be facing a large labor expense for a technician disasssemble the lower dash in order to gain access to the heater hoses and heater core. If the shop claims both the heater hose and heater core need to be replaced, I personally would insist on seeing the old, failed parts because after only 7 years the hoses and core should still pretty much look like new thanks to the quality of the Toyota Long Life Antifreeze. I have no specific experience with your particular model Lexus so I suppose its also possible there might be another part or two inside the dash besides the heater hoses and heater core through which coolant circulates and where leakage could occur.

If this is your first Asian car then you need to get used to the fact the engine is designed to be comfortable spinning at higher RPM's than American cars. Despite the higher RPM, the Asian car motors are twice as durable as American car motors and have been for 30 years. Example: Look at this ad: http://www.craigslist.org/pen/car/82651627.html. The 1974 Toyota Pickup's engine is geared to scream at 3800 RPM @ 70 MPH yet after 482,000 miles it still runs good with it's original crankshaft, pistons and piston rings. A valve job was needed at 376,000 miles, but that's it. If your former Expedition got 18 MPG on the highway then it must have been a two wheel drive model. Four wheel drive eats 3-4 MPG. The only 4WD or All Wheel Drive large SUV's that get 18 MPG highway are V6 models like the Honda Pilot and RX330

My guess is the brake pad support plates, pad wear indicator plate or anti-squeal shims were not installed exactly right and became dislodged out of position and possibly rubbed on the rotor directly. For this reason I always take digital pictures of the brake assembly before proceding with pad replacement. That way I know exactly how the assembly should look when I'm finished installing the new pads. If I were you I would insist the mechanic show you the old pads and rotors to verify they were really ruined. Toyota calipers don't get stuck except sometimes in the snowy, road salt rust belt States

Were the tires rotated at 5000 miles? If so, the shop might have overtightened the wheel lug nuts which can cause the rotors to warp and vibrate while braking. Another cause of vibration while braking is the owner braked hard and abruptly during the first 200 miles when the car was new instead of gently and gradually Vibration without braking is more serious because it's potential a safety issue rather than just an annoyance. Example: one cause of vibration at speed without braking is a tire that's developing internal problems such as a bubble and may blow out suddenly causing loss of vehicle control. Another cause of vibration without braking is insufficiently tightened wheel lug nuts that are working loose. In any case, I'd get the vibration investigated and cured ASAP.

If there's sludge in the valve covers then the current or former owner(s) failed to change the engine oil at least every 6 months or 5000 miles. Even if sludged, the valve covers can be cleaned up in 5 minutes using a can of brake cleaner. Replacing the valve covers because they are sludged is as crazy and replacing the windshield because its full of bugs.

The nut is where you add new coolant

If you typically fill the tank with 15 gallons of gas and your mileage really fell from 400 miles per tank to 300, it's equivalent to a drop from about 26.6 MPG to 20 MPG - a severe drop indeed. I'm surprized your car has the same amount of power and smoothness as it used to have with that severe of a drop. Your tailpipe emissions should be real high now if your car is burning that much gas. Does your exhaust stink now when you get close to it? Or is it still pretty much clean and odorless like it used to be?

The Scheduled Maintenance Guide that came with your truck says to change the oil at least every 6 months or 5,000 miles. If you don't read and follow the Scheduled Maintenance Guide then Lexus may not honor your 7 year, 70,000 mile powertrain warranty.

Does the car still have a factory gas cap or an aftermarket gas cap? Is the cap tightened securely? Have you been filling up the gas tank to the brim; i.e. kept on adding more gas after the gas pump had automatically clicked off? Normally charcoal canister and other components of the EVAP system last for decades, but trouble can develop when aftermarket gas caps are used or if the cap is not tightened securely or if the cap gasket is badly worn or if the owner overfills the gas tank.

HC12 and alot of other R12 substitutes will work....but nobody can tell you for how long. There's alot of info about HC12 here: http://www.autoacforum.com/messageview.cfm...&threadid=13343 http://www.epa.gov/Ozone/snap/refrigerants/hc12alng.html

They're only $51.19 per set at Park Place Lexus http://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/ind...808&catalogID=1 Since you don't have to pay sales tax, this offsets most of the UPS Ground shipping charge.

This website will help you find the correct thermostat and thermostat gasket http://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/ind...808&catalogid=0

No I don't know how you could get R12 by Monday. There are some ebay ads for genuine R12 ending today, but recently ebay has been requiring sellers to state in their ads that the buyer must furnish proof of EPA certification. However, anyone can get certified for $15.00 via the internet, at the following links: http://www.imaca.org/training.htm or http://www.macsw.org/macs.asp?mfurl=certify.html My experience on ebay is that most sellers will take your word for it that you are certified and will simply ship upon receipt of payment like this one http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...&category=33543 No you don't really need gauges because Toyota provides a refrigerant sight glass that enables you to monitor the refrigerant level and prevent under or overcharging. Any Toyota / Lexus factory repair manual will explain how to use the refrigerant sight glass to determine the refrigerant level. And by the way, if you ever convert to R134a the refrigerant sight glass can no longer be used to monitor refrigerant level. I learned how to charge myself by buying a can tap valve and dispensiing hose like this one on ebay http://www.saber.net/~monarch/acrecharge.jpg and then going to the library and checking out some OLD (pre-1990) do it yourself phmplets on auto air conditioning. Or you can just read the directions that come with the can tap valve. Attaching the can tap valve to the can of refrigerant is the only slightly difficult part of the procedure and probably the most hazardous since if you make a serious mistake, liquid refrigerant could shoot out of the can under pressure into your face. But once the can tap valve is securely attached, adding the refrigerant is easy and very similar to adding air to a tire using one of those aerosol can type inflators.

Yeah I'd like to know the same thing. What a shame these steering racks are being replaced not because they are actually wearing out, but merely because some rubber boots / seals need renewing. I know Toyota sells CV boot replacement kits, power steering reseal kits, air conditioning compressor reseal kits, but I don't know if they make a kit for the steering rack.

To my knowledge, no RX AWD owner or mechanic on this forum has identified any parts inside the RX AWD transmission that wear out / fail prematurely when always kept lubricated with clean, unoxidized Type T-IV transmission fluid. Therefore I believe it is reasonable to assume that someday we will hear from an RX AWD owner(s) who drove over 250,000 miles without any transmission problems because they regularly inspected and changed the fluid, maintained the fluid level precisely and never drove in an abusive manner.

The Amsoil and Valvoline Universal Fluids that claim to be suitable replacements for Toyota Type T-IV fluid have only been on the market for a year or so. So it will take many years to find out whether or not they cause problems or are as good as Type T-IV. One thing we know for sure is that neither fluid has been tested and approved by Toyota. Valvoline is honest and ethical enough to publicly admit that shortcoming whereas Amsoil is not. Amsoil and Valvoline both say their fluids have been tested and approved to be suitable replacements for Toyota Type T-IV, yet they don't specify what their transmission durability standards are. So if owners end up with failed transmissions at 125,000 miles and complain to Amsoil and Valvoline they may be told "we consider 125,000 miles to be a normal and satisfactory life for a transmission." The reason I would not use either Amsoil or Valvoline is because none of the transmission failures you constantly read about on this forum are due to owner failure to use synthetic fluid. They're all due to failure to regularly inspect and change the fluid, maintain the fluid level precisely and to never drive in an abusive manner.

I agree with the first Lexus dealer that the system needs to be recharged with R12 so the refrigerant gas will leak again and then the AC technician can go looking for the location.of the gas leakage. If you had a little experience, you could recharge the system yourself with two $20 cans of genuine Freon R12 like this http://www.saber.net/~monarch/acrecharge.jpg But if you don't have the time or inclination to learn this, then I guess you'll have to fork over the $300 to the Lexus dealer or see if a Toyota dealer would do it for $150 - $200. Official Toyota Technician Training Manuals advise against using dyes and instead using an electronic leak detector which can pinpoint a leak in a matter of minutes. So I'd find out if the first Lexus dealer has a electronic leak detector and is experienced in quickly finding leaks using the detector. If not, try some local Toyota dealers or independent Toyota specialty shops. It's totally rediculous to think it would take 2 hours to locate a leak using an electronic leak detector. The good news is your system has only a minor, common problem - gas leakage past a worn seal somewhere. These leaks can be avoided by simply running the AC system for a few minutes once every week or two throughout the year. So if you start doing that after your leak is fixed and system recharged with genuine Freon R12, you may not have anymore AC system problems for many years to come. Cheaply priced conversions to R134a are all scams. But you'll be pressured by every shop you visit to convert because the AC industry makes a $mint$ performing the conversion and fixing all the expensive system problems that crop up after a cheap conversion. And for the past 12 years the AC industry has lied to the public about a looming critical shortage of genuine Freon R12. The truth is that the price of R12 has actually been going down slowly but surely the past 3 years because the supply is actually exceeding the demand on account of the fact that more and more cars that use R12 are being retired from service and because the AC industry has so successfully fooled the public into believing they will be money ahead if they invest immediately in a conversion to R134a. During the winter months, cans of R12 are only $10-12 each on ebay - practically the same price as R134a !!

Actually I live about 35 miles east of Sacramento near Placerville. Up here in the foothills in the little town of Shingle Springs alot of Toyota / Lexus owners take their cars to a Toyota / Lexus specialty shop called "The Toy Shop" The owner has a funny personalized licence plate on his Tacoma pickup that says "Toy Doc" Since I don't live right in Sacramento I'm not familiar with any of the Toyota specialty shops that likely exist down there.

Lexus pads are not metallic. The FAQ on Lexus's website says this: Question: What materials are used in the Lexus brake pad? Lexus's Official Answer: "The brake pad material of Lexus vehicles is chosen for normal driving and is composed of many different materials, including non-asbestos friction materials, filler materials, and high temperature resins. Some of our pads also include very, very small amounts of finely powdered metal. This amount of metal is so small that we do not refer to these pads as metallic. The different materials for the "recipe" for a particular year and model are mixed together, compressed, and formed into the desired shape." Owner's who use aftermarket pads such as NAPA pads risk wearing down their expensive factory original rotors prematurely. The factory original rotors have a tremendous durability potential if the driver has gentle braking habits. Here is an extreme example: http://www.saber.net/~monarch/rotorthick.jpg

No, synthetic oil won't help a low oil pressure problem. LS400 V8's that have any tapping noise need a valve clearance adjustment to cure it. In fact, the owners manual of the LS400 specifies a valve clearance check every 60,000 miles. There are 32 valves that need their clearances checked. Search the archives for more details using "valve clearance" as your search words.

Lexus is roughly as flexible as Toyota although unlike Toyota, Lexus doesn't run newspaper ads showing the amount of discount that is possible. However, you can get an idea of the amount of discount off the MSRP that is possible by using this website http://www.carsdirect.com/home to get email quotes from your local dealers. If getting the maximum possible discount is your top priority no matter how far away the dealer is located, use http://www.carsdirect.com/home to get quotes from big metropolitan areas like Los Angeles. And the two largest dealers in Los Angeles are Longo Lexus of El Monte and Lexus of Westminter of Long Beach. You can also bypass http://www.carsdirect.com/home and communicate directly with most Lexus dealers in the country via email. Many dealers have a salesperson that specializes in internet sales. Contact information for each dealer can be found at lexus.com

Yes, but it has always been true that some engines & transmissions cause the oil to become dirtier or more oxidized sooner than others including different engines & transmissions from the same manufacturer. Since it is impossible, in many cases, for a new car buyer to know ahead of time whether or not their engine or transmission is hard on the oil, frequent lube changes are cheap insurance against possble catastrophic engine or transmission failure caused by inadequately designed component cooling systems. And although an engine or transmission may be hard on the oil due to inadequate cooling system design it is wrong to assume that same design deficiency means the engine or transmission will have a short life potential. Example: I have heard from several Toyota 1MZ-FE owners on various Toyota internet forums who have accumulated over 300,000 troublefree miles. I also believe that one of these days we will hear from an RX300 AWD owner who got 200,000 - 300,000 miles of life from the transmission because they changed the transmission oil every 15,000 miles or so and always used Toyota Type T-IV fluid.