SW03ES

People get offended when posters such as you automatically assume that the vehicle is a piece of junk when it has never been maintained, and shift the blame away from where it belongs (on themselves or the previous owners). I mean, you come in here asking if you have a case against Toyota/Lexus when your car is going on 8 years old with 100,000 miles and a 35,000 mile span in its oil change history with no history of engine sludging with that engine...ever, then you post this statement: And you're surprised that people treated you a little rudely? Sorry you f'ed up and bought a car with a big gaping hole in its service history...its not the car's fault...or the manufacturer's fault...its the fault of the original lessee or owner who didn't give a !Removed! about it and its your fault for buying a poorly maintained car. Why? This is probably the most reliable engine ever built...we have a bunch of members here with them and over 300,000 miles without using one drop of oil. Why simply have it hold more oil than is necessary, meaninglessly increasing the consumption of oil and the cost of oil changes? It can take a long time for these issues to pop up. My mechanic owns his own shop specializing in Lexus, he was a Lexus master tech for 16 years. I asked him if he had ever seen the Lexus V8 sludged or heard about one sludging and he said absolutely not... You got the raw end of the deal here and it sucks...but its not Lexus' fault.

The paint absolutely needs to be waxed though. Clearcoat is just paint...that is clear. Same paint. Its an example of the salesman talking crap...

Really? You're kidding... I have never seen a Lexus ever come with a serviceable battery. In fact...I haven't even seen a serviceable battery in a car in YEARS other than a 99 New Beetle my mother had...which didn't have a maintenance free battery. Thats really surprising. Does the battery say Lexus on it? Thats got to be an aftermarket battery the dealer put in there... With a maintenance free battery anything past 5 years in life is really questionable, you just don't know when its going to loose a charge and leave you stranded somewhere. Batteries are cheap, I replace them every 3-4 years as a maintenance item,

35PSI is fine safetywise...but it makes the car ride like !Removed!. The car has a lot of power and accelerates well, its just a boulevard cruiser. Believe ir or not, the 350 is a good bit sportier than the previous generations of the ES. Unless you lower it, put in stiffer struts and bigger diameter wheels its not going to handle like your Maxima...and if you did all that you could have bought a GS for the cost...

Deal...

Same here. Just don't put anything in there that can interrupt the sliding motion of the door.

There was a TSB on the ES for the intermediate steering shaft. I had a similar clunk in my '03 when it was still under warranty, they replaced the intermediate steering shaft and the clunk never returned.

You need to be very sure its the strut (no shocks...struts). It probably is not, more likely its a ball joint, control arm or a strut mount or something like that. My '03 has 155,000 miles on the original struts. The lower control arms and ball joints were replaced about 15,000 miles ago. The AVS struts are like $500 each from the dealer, might be able to get them online for $400 or so...I doubt thats the issue though.

Did you look at an Acura TL or an Infiniti G37? The ES is just not a sporty car...it doesn't have a sporty bone in its body...kinda like putting slightly larger wheels on a Lincoln Town Car...

www.sewellpartsonline.com Only issue may be that you're in Cananda...

I might have looked at a GS if handling were important to me. I don't think going to a wider tire on the stock 17s is going to improve handling, I think you would need to go up a size to a larger diameter wheel. Of course though you'll sacrifice ride quality... The 225s will fit, but I don't think they'll help.

Already drank it all!

I think its the cylinder management in the Ram coupled with the higher highway ratio.

Oh I've been through a bunch of bottles of Egg Nog already! I'm not a huge fan of the CPO program. I did a lot of looking around at '06 & '07 LS's before I bought my 350. I found a bunch of Certified cars that were really not in the shape one would expect a certified car to be in. The warranty is nice, but if you buy one within the 4 year 50k mile bumper to bumper warranty you can buy a Lexus warranty for MUCH less than the premium the dealers ask for CPO, and that warranty is transferrable if you sell the car which the CPO warranty is not. I think most purchasers come on the lot and buy a CPO car assuming its in good shape, has been thoroughly reconditioned, has excellent service history, and really its just a car thats washed, had its front bumper repainted, and had $4k added to the sticker... Like anything else there are exceptions, but I would worry more about finding the right car with the right history at the right price than whether or not its CPO.

Weird...

In my experience dealers are stupid overpriced on their CPO cars...I can't believe they actually get those prices but who knows...

Its all about records...if its got records thats one thing...if it doesn't thats another.

You never know, if anybody can get them to cover it you can! Happy Holidays to you too!

Some do...some don't. It depends on the dealer. Its a really common issue across all makes and models of cars, especially cars that have been in the showroom.

Its the gearing...how many gears does the Ram have?

I've heard that issue a couple times from people, they updated their IE and it went away...

This happened to the '98 LS my Dad had...the passenger mirror. It was actually a little discolored from new and got worse over time, he finally had it replaced under warranty. Here's the part: http://www.mylexparts.com/partlocator/index.cfm?action=getJointLocator&siteid=214992&chapter=&sectionids=0,2732&groupid=2740&subgroupid=3742&make=20&model=Rx330&year=2004&catalogid=2&displayCatalogid=0 These guys have about the best prices I've found on the net and the glass is still $300. I might try a wrecking yard...

The difference is very subtle too...easy to miss.

My posts look normal to me too...

I have been active on Lexus forums for like 13 years, I've had multiple LS vehicles in my family totaling over 300,000 miles of from-new driving. I have never heard of one instance of the V8 motor sludging...ever... I can say with the utmost confidence that vehicle has NOT had regular oil changes, at least not throughout its entire life. What you are dealing with is a vehicle that has been incredibly poorly cared for, and even with a vehicle as reliable as the Lexus you can't just fail to maintain it and expect it to last. There's a guy I play poker with who was telling us the other night he leases cars and prides himself on never changing the oil. He adds oil, but never changes it. When we all were aghast he said "Its a rental...why would I change the oil?". Unfortunately for you I think your vehicle was at one time owned by a jerk who did the very same thing and what we are seeing is the end result of that, which would make sense looking at the fact that the first oil change record you have was from 35,000 miles...about the end of a typical lease term. Get mad at the dealer...get mad at yourself...but coming on here and saying things like the LS is a glorified Avalon is going to get you nowhere. Thats like blaming your genetics for a heart attack when you eat 3 hamburgers a day for life.