SW03ES

Don't confuse her with logic, the car is a peice of !Removed!, thats all she wants to hear. Honestly though, theres no need to file an insurance claim. If she would clay the vehicle, give it a good two step polish and wax it, or have a detailer do that, it would remove the contamination from the rail dust and it would cost her $200 if a professional did it. I bet that even would remove the surface rust from the rock chips and she could then touch them up and it would solve her issue. But, like I said, she doesn't want solutions, she wants to complain.

Of course it wasn't, nobody is saying it was a good thing. He didn't say it on purpose though.

These cars are really hard to get a good balance. What kind of tires? If it just won't balance, one of the tires might be out of round. Some brands of tires are harder to balance also.

Your RX came with a maintenance schedule in the owner's manual portfolio. Take that into the dealer and tell them you want that stuff done, and nothing more. Dealers commonly will create their own maintenance packages that have things you don't need, what you want to have done is what the manufacturer says to have done.

Agreed, lots of different variables. Its rare to find one with regular 5k oil changes that has sludge, although in Lenore's case obviously it isn't impossible. If the shop will do it for $5k (sounds much more reasonable) I would ask Lexus to pay for the whole thing. Best case scenario is Lexus does the work and covers the cost, because with them you know if you have problems down the line with the new or remanufactured engine you'll be able to hold them accountable. What kind of warranty does the other shop offer?

Only half so, I just realized I have it backwards, on the left the left mirror will dip, on the right both will dip, in the center none will. I have to go back to Kindergarden and re-learn my left and rights ;)

You should be able to have AUTO and recirculation on at the same time...

I'd just buy OEM Lexus pads, can't go wrong there. I actually looked at my records last night because my mechanic told me mine may need brakes in the next 5-10k miles. I last replaced them 35,000 miles ago (seems like yesterday, I drive so much), and the set before that had 45k on them. First rear pads were at 52k and again at 97k. I don't believe there are wear indicators, or if there are mine were replaced before it hit them. Wheel shake when braking is almost always warped rotors. They will need to be machined or replaced when you do your brake job.

Funny, when you came here asking for guidance with your rust issues we actually thought you wanted guidance. We didnt realize you just wanted to whine and not accept any feedback that is contrary to your opinion. You are the one who is refusing to let anyone else voice an opinion. You haven't said anything that negates the information I gave you, because there isn't anything for you to say because you're wrong. Instead of just accepting that what I (and YOUR body shop!) are telling you is the case might just be plausible you throw up a link that Lexus has slipped to third place in 3 year dependability. Really...third place...and thats bad? Thats still far ahead of every other make of vehicle you've indicated you've owned. Everything I said to you was 100% true and logical. Your story is constantly changing, first your Lexus was nice and warm in a garage when you thought that bolstered your argument, now the door is broken and its freezing in there when it doesn't bolster your argument. First the sales manager cops an attitude because you don't wash your car, now he doesn't wash his? And why does he not washing his have anything to do with what proper maintenance is? His is probably a dealer demo he doesn't even own, and the dealership would wash it for free. Dealership managers don't make enough money to afford $80,000 cars. Your tirades just don't make any sense. We've all been very helpful actually, I've taken a lot of my personal time to try and diagnose your issue for you and the feedback I have given you is in line with what your own "trusted" bodyshop has told you. Yet you still try and insult me? Broken garage door, rusty Lexus. Try maintaining and caring for your property and it'll take better care of you. You're not looking for help, you just want to whine and complain and thats it. Well take a hike, we're all about helping people who want to be helped here but thats not what you're after. Contrary to what you may or may not believe just because you have your mind made up doesn't mean you're right.

I think the guideline as per Lexus is that you need to be able to show one oil change per year every year the vehicle has been in service. If they were done at Lexus they will have a record of them. You'd have to do a little digging, for the price. The wholesale cost of the engine, brand new, is $9,520.10. So that leaves $4,000 for labor, installation, oil, fluids etc. So lets say we have $0 in extraneous parts and fluids, that leaves $3,500 which at $100 per hour is 35 hours labor...thats a lot. On a 10 year old car my feeling would be a remanufactured engine would be a more economical cost. At $14,000 I would tell you to sell if for scrap and buy something else. If you ever want to know wholesale part cost check out www.lexuspartsonline.com, they have a good drill down.

Had he thought about it he of course would not have made the statement, and of course it was innapropriate. Had he not thought it was innapropriate he wouldn't have immediately called the President of the Special Olympics to apologize before it ever even aired. It was obviously of those things you just say automatically and then wish you could take back. Happens to everybody, especially when they are a little nervous. I'm in sales and trust me, happens a lot. He may be the President and Commander in Chief, but he's only human and people make mistakes and say things they didn't mean to say. Get over it, everyone else has. And can you show me some example how any of these "common folk" things he is doing interferes with being President? As you may or may not know, the white house goes with the President wherever he goes... Bush spent 40% of his time in office on vacation.

First of all, you have to listen to what I am telling you. You're doing a lot of ranting and very little listening, if you honestly want to figure out what is going on here and not just go off on a tirade then you need to do the opposite. Read what I am about to say completely before responding please. I know you haven't really read my other posts because I've explained this in them and you continue to describe exactly what I am telling you the issue is without attributing the problem to that issue. I have a lot of experience with this very subject, I owned a successful detailing business that I sold and I have had first hand experience with TONS of different vehicles and different paint finishes. Issues like yours are common with neglected vehicles (and yes, I would classify your vehicle as moderately neglected) of all makes. I know what I'm talking about and every time you give me more info it makes more sense. Let me see if I can help you further... This makes tons of sense. Like I told you, salt is inert (non corrosive) when its below freezing. Letting your Tacoma sit out in the weather actually kept it from rusting! I know it sounds counter intuitive, but if you aren't going to wash your cars in the winter you're better off to let them sit outside. When you put them in a warm (or warm-er) garage it actually accelerates rusting because the ambient temperature rises above freezing, and the salt becomes corrosive. The exposed metal and the ferrous dust that is imbedded in the finish will corrode quickly. Again...his car sits outside. Outside=below freezing=corrosion cannot occur. Your car sits inside=above freezing=corrosion city. Your situation is much worse than his from a rust/corrosion standpoint. I think your issue here is the garage, its not the vehicle at all. You drive around on the nasty winter roads and then put the car in the garage and it sits there for a few days above freezing and all that salt just corrodes and corrodes and corrodes. My advice is moving forward if you aren't willing to wash your vehicle regularly (once a week or once every 2 weeks is a very reasonable frequency to wash the vehicle and is what many manufacturers reccomend, not just Lexus. If you don't want to do it you can have a professional wash it for you for all of about $25, or even take it to a carwash...thats better than not washing it at all) then don't park it in the garage in the winter. I would bet you money you would stop having corrosion problems if you did that. Thats not just the Lexus, thats any car. Or, you can continue to pretend its somehow the vehicle's fault, your choice. Your issue has nothing to do with paint, its purely an environment and maintenance issue.

It may be simpler than that. Check the selector for the mirrors, if its in the center then the mirrors will not dip, if its on the left mirror only that mirror will dip, if its on the right both will dip. I bet thats the issue...

There is a shop called JP Importz in Dallas: http://planolexusservice.com/PageView.aspx?PageID=1 I've obviously never met the guy but I have never heard a bad thing and he's very active on Lexus forums. I know some members have travelled hundreds of miles to have him service their Lexus vehicles... If you want first hand referrals PM Blake916 and ArmyofOne. If I lived in Dallas/Ft Worth thats who I would use.

I would lean on them harder and let them know that you are aware that they have covered the costs of replacement in the past for folks out of warranty, do you have oil change reciepts? $14,500 is crazy to replace the engine, it shouldn't cost that much...The truck is probably worth half that, if even.

Yeah, you want to leave "A/C" on.

I have heard if you upgrade the nav data disc to v/8.1 it does away with the "I Agree" screen.

True enough!

Sorry, but 7-8 washes in a year is just not sufficient vehicle maintenance in a place like Michigan. In Arizona maybe, but nowhere with any precipitation. If thats babying it...I don't know what to tell you. Lexus paint doesn't suck, its the same paint as on your Tacoma and on your other Toyotas, its probably the same paint as on your other cars too...only a few manufacturers make paint...and Lexus isn't one of them. It simply has to be maintained. I've had several of these cars for long periods of time, my ES300 is 6 years old, has 125,000 miles on it and with weekly washes and proper maintenance it looks great. Has rock chips like any other car but no rust, not even in exposed chips because it gets regularly washed. I used to detail cars professionally and have detailed many Lexus, Audi, Acura and Toyota vehicles and Lexus paint is just as good as any of them, and they all require similar maintenance. Your issues are very commonplace with vehicles that have fair to poor maintenance schedules like yours. Everything they said about rail dust makes perfect sense, and I didn't even think about the snowplows but that also makes perfect sense and that explains why the dust would be where it is on the car, and may also explain the heavier corrosion on the hood. You need to get on a regimen of more frequent washes and better care if you don't want these problems to continue. With more than a month between washes and the salt covered car sitting in a garage you are just ASKING for corrosion. Thats like putting your hand on a grill and wondering why it got burned... Who knows why its worse with this car, maybe they've changed what they use on the roads, maybe its the new lower VOC paints. But Lexus paint is just like Toyota paint...its the same paint. Same colors even a lot of them. I also read your report about the experience at the dealer. That is unfortunate but like I said, dealer quality varies widely. However your approach has some issues. The sales manager and the salesman will be no help, they have literally nothing to do with service or warranty. You need to talk to the service manager, or the dealership's general manager. The sales divisions and service divisions are completely seperate. The person you have been trying to make an appointment with also does not work at the dealer, they are regional and that explains the late appointment... Doesn't excuse their nastiness, but understanding how dealerships work helps you get things done. The dealer will be no help here, its not their responsibility. Some dealers will help you out to keep you happy, some won't. As for the clay bar, I would just buy a claybar and do it yourself. Plenty of tutorials in the detailing forum here, its easy. Your vehicles require specific maintenance where you live, and you'll want to clay the vehicle at least twice a year. If I were you I would find a good detailer if you don't want to do it yourself.

I'd call WJZ news in Baltimore. I bet they'd love to do a little story on Midas and how this happened to you one day after having that very component inspected. These kinds of things don't just happen...

My problem is that this recession impacts my business the same way it impacts theirs...my ES is still a great car and its all paid for. Plus, its high mileage (125k) so I don't know how well I'd do on trade... Its tempting though ;) If I were in another business I would absolutely do it now, but I'm loathe to part with cash (what cash I have left after the market rammed me up the pooper) and loathe to take on any payments...

I'm just picking on ya RX ;) I think part of the reason why we don't have a lot of techs on here is that they have been run off of CL and are afraid to join and post. The guy that I use in Rockville (Lexus master tech) told me a story about how he had joined CL and was answering questions and got banned because he had put the name of his shop in his signature. Nobody even took the time to realize the guy was answering people's questions from all over the country and not hawking his services in Maryland, they just saw an "advertisement" and shut it off. We wouldn't have banned him here, but the experience there kind of turned him off from spending his time to post... Part of it is probably a "passion" thing too, people are Jaguar-heads, there aren't a whole lot of "Lexus-heads".

I've always liked the ones I've had as loaners, and they've always done well in magazine comparisons...

I have to order some more too. Maybe I'll wait and buy yours from you if you don't like it ;)

Thats what I thought, a good clay and machine polish should remove them. Personally I wouldn't let the dealer do it, I've had bad experiences with dealer "detailers". I'd get a referral for a good detailer from your body shop and let them take care of it. I would buy this. For some reason I do recall having more rock chipping around the grille on Lexus vehicles I've had. The problem is made worse by new low VOC paints that don't resist chipping as well. Clear bras are a must on modern cars I think, and a lot of manufacturers, including Lexus, are including them on northern cars from the factory. I think Lexus puts them on many models in Canada. I assume the 30 days is so the paint can cure before the clearbra is installed? Don't let an experience with one dealer sour you on the brand. The dealers are all independently owned, they aren't owned by Lexus and service qualities vary. Even so though, what did you expect the dealer to do? They can't warranty a car against wear, and rock chipping and rail dust contamination really isn't something they can deal with, thats something you as the car owner need to deal with as a part of normal vehicle maintenance. The rail dust would have been clayed off when the car was prepped for delivery when you bought it, but cars can pick up ferrous dust like that all over the place from a lot of different things, splashing contaminated water, etc. You still didn't answer my question about how frequently you wash the car. In your climate it should be washed once a week, waxed every 3 months or sealed with a polymer sealant twice a year...even in the winter to be kept in good condition, thats just any car. I'd clay it after every winter too.