SW03ES

But the Zymol cleaner wax isn't doing any serious cleaning. Since you have a baby on the way you might want to think about finding a good quality detailing shop and let them do an overhaul on the paint. You can even find one that does PDR and have them take care of that ding at the same time. The grittyness can be taken care of easily with clay and the dullness is oxidation and micro surface marring that will dissapear when the car is buffed out and waxed. These cars have great paint (the paint on the 98-00 LS400s is a lot better than the paint on the new ones which has some orange peel) and they look great detailed. My guess is you'd be at $250-$275 including the ding removal. May be worth it for you. The Porter Cable runs about $160 or so with the backing plate and pads that you'll need, throw in $50 more for polishes and waxes. Even if you are COMPLETELY careful in washing and caring for the car it will need to be re-buffed every 6 months or so, I'm very anal about mine and it gets marring on it sufficient that it needs to be buffed every spring and fall.

Like I told Philly in the other thread there is no way to remove the green mirror tint without replacing the glass, its built into the glass and isn't a film like aftermarket tint.

The stock tint can only be removed by replacing the windows completely, its not a film like aftermarket tint its tinted inside the glass. You can add tint behind it but it'll make the mirror effect more visible. I know some people put matching tint on the front and like that.

I've never actually tried to use the new photo upload deal, I'll check it out. If you want to send me your pictures I'll host them and post them for you, email them to swithrow03@yahoo.com

SO...since she wanted it make her drive it. Sheesh, one trip to work doesn't tell you anything, make her take some time to get used to it. I've been involved with women who want to be coddled like that and trust me, you can't make a habit of it or it will continue into areas you won't even believe. Don't mean to preach because its not my place and none of my business, just personal experience.

I agree, why should you give up your car that you enjoy at her whim? If you don't care either way thats one thing but it seems like you do.

No, not really why?

Yeah 2003...2 years is a little old ;) I'm just kidding Lex lol

Yep, I always tell people to figure out what their hourly rate is, if selling the car is going to cost you more in your time than you'd make over what the dealer will give you then its not worth it. It is possible, but highly unlikely that one of the people who comes to see your car will be Joe the guy who cuts people up for fun. Its possible that you'll get hit by a bus on your way to trade it in too, but also highly unlikely.

Its getting so that the lines are really blurred though. You can certainly put a car tire on the RX, in fact they come with car tires. The Goodyear Integritys are the same tires that come on the Toyota Prius and Corolla for instance and they came standard on the RX. The problem is it can be difficult to find car tires that come in the RX' size. If you want better traction moving to a sedate SUV tire live the LTX, Pilot LTX, CrossTerrain will be easier to find in that size and shouldn't have any real degredation in the ride. Trust me, I know where you're all coming from. Buying tires for these things is very traumatic, they ride so nice and unlike other good riding cars (Lincolns, Cadillacs) a lot of the ride is dependent on the tires. You can put Sears brand tires on a Lincoln and it'll ride the same, but the same tires make a Lexus ride like a brick.

If you register on the owners section of www.lexus.com they'll give you a free owners manual.

So you bought the car damaged, are repairing it, and then are going to sell it and you're trying to cheap out on replacing the restraint systems? Thats awful dirty.

A member on another Lexus board put the ContiPremierContacts on his LS400 and immediately had them replaced because of the effect on the ride, I wouldn't go that route.

I agree that mostly women drive them, in fact mostly women in general drive luxury cars here, don't know why but men are more likely to drive big high line SUVs. LS430s, S classes, 7 series all mostly driven by women. Doesn't bother me though, I drive what I like and so should you. If it makes you feel better 90% of TLs are driven by women here too.

Save the photos to the gallery and go to "properties" under the sub menu for the photo (accessed by right clicking the picture). Hold down "alt + g) when typing a post and paste the URL into the window that pops up.

Yeah that doesn't surprise me. I aint gonna try it though LOL

Well niether the I35 or the C class are anything to write home about.

Cool, in a few days hit it with high pressure water and see if there are any leaks.

Why use a cleaner wax when its not going to be your last step product? A lot of people do that and it doesn't make sense. A cleaner wax is a combination of two products, a paint cleaner and a wax. It is niether a very good cleaner nor a very good wax as the addition of each product reduces the effectiveness of the other. Using a cleaner wax is a time saver for people who don't want to have to do both steps, if you're going to glaze and wax OVER the cleaner wax, theres no reason to use a cleaner wax instead of an ACTUAL paint cleaner. Cleaner wax is like combination shampoo and conditioner, it niether shampoos nor conditions your hair very well. If you're working by hand you're not going to be able to accomplish much swirl removal so its probably best to stick to something that can chemically clean the paint, like Klasse AIO or Poorboys Pro Polish or PwC. Then you can go from there. If you have swirls (which I'm sure you do) I'd reccomend a good quality glaze (Meguiars #7 Show Car Glaze should be availiable locally, its not the best but it'll do). Followed by something that has been proven to hide swirls and imperfections. Meguiars NXT will work here but if I were you I'd choose a product called Mothers SynWax. Its much like NXT but its supposed to be much better at hiding swirls and last much longer. Like silvermate I also suggest you pick up a PC, if you decide to do that we can set you up with a regimen that can actually remove swirls.

I think that might be more of a dealership "let me talk down what I don't sell and talk up what I do sell" type of deal. Lexus dealers have unbelievable markups on tires. Almost breathtaking. They also have an annoying habit of having no idea what they're talking about. My dealer told me that the only tires that can be put on my car are Michelin MXV4s and any other tire would be dangerous, which is preposterous. For one thing the ES even comes with Bridgestone, Toyo, and Dunlop tires from the factory. It didnt take long to realize why they said that when I found out they charged $270 a tire for the Michelins, a $120 markup from most tire chains. The LTX M/S, Pilot LTX and Cross Terrain are about as sedate as SUV tires go, certainly not any more rugged than the Continental SUV tires. I'd stay away from them because they had a recall on them a few years ago with tread seperation similar to what happened with Firestone, just not as publicised because it didn't effect as many people. As a result of that Mercedes Benz and Lincoln (who used them on the ML and Navigator SUVs) stopped selling them and switched to Michelins. I know Lincoln uses the Pilot LTX and I think Mercedes uses the Cross Terrains.

Plenty of guys do, just gotta give them time to respond.

Yep, there have even been rumors about creating a new model above the LS.

Congratulations! If you want aftermarket HIDs that can be done pretty painlessly. I guess since it doesn't have the HIDs it doesn't have the wood/leather wheel either right? You'll have to try and adapt the Autozone struts, the struts from Lexus are still $100 each on this year. The front ones? This is very common on that series LS400. I agree with the advice you've already gotten. Can you post a picture of this? Is the paint flaking on the two black trim peices on each side of the windshield? That is very common and can easily be fixed. My dad had this problem on his 98 when it was only a few years old and we bought new trim and replaced it ourselves.

Yeah they're very different cars. Don't know what to tell you about the lag, I've driven several 5 series and I can feel it. Must be slight differences in the two company's technologies.

Thats actually not true. The transmission is designed to be driven in "D" at all times regardless of the speed unless towing or the need for engine braking exists. You can elect to drive in "3" or "4" if you like to keep the transmission from shifting into overdrive but its not neccisary and will lower your fuel economy as the engine runs harder on average. Ming- Nope thats why those gears are there so you can gear down depending on the situation. For instance I have family in WV and driving there and back there are several steep 7% highway grades that go on for miles, when going down them I often switch down to 4 or even 3 to let the engine revs slow the car down to keep from warping the brake rotors by slowing the car with the brakes. All that means is the transmission won't shift past the gear number selected. I wouldn't go shifting into 2 or L at 70MPH no, in fact I don't know if the car will even do that, my guess is it wont.