SW03ES

Any bulb you buy is going to be fake. HID is a very unique bulb with no filament paired to an electronic ballast that creates an arc inside the bulb, which is what gives off light. These are just normal light bulbs painted blue. They'll look dumb, have little light output and will probably eventually explode and ruin the lamp housings. Bad news. Any HID kit that you put on a car that does not come with it from the factory will be illegal in any state because they are not DOT (Dept of Transportation) approved. It is federally mandated. It is also now illegal to sell aftermarket HID kits in the United States. You used to be able by saying they were for offroad use only, but not any longer. The only legal way (and it would still be a question) would be to totally swap out the lamp housings with those from a 2000 with the HID light option (rare) because those ARE DOT approved. Its going to be hard to find though, especially with this new law that has even spurred large amounts of HID theft.

Its entirely possible that this is some sort of heater core leak causing antifreeze residue to deposit on the windshield. Is it worse on the windshield than anywhere else? I would use some sort of degreaser (Simple Green, Meguiars APC+) to strip the film off the glass, then follow up with glass cleaner to polish it perfect. Windows can also simply be very difficult to clean properly, years of plastic fumes, cigarette smoke, dead skin cells and food residues coat them and its just really hard to get off. As for the old smell, thats more likely caused by wet carpeting, clogged cabin filter, dirty A/C intake etc.

I've seen several totalled out LS400s, they're EXTREMELY safe cars.

Maybe a slight lag, but 3 seconds to me sound excessive. Toyota starters like you say are very uniform. If we're walking through a parking garage and a car starts I can immediately tell you if its a Toyota/Lexus. Its not 3 seconds though...

My 03 immediately starts.

Hey if you wanna pay the airfare, you got it! :D

You dont have to go to the dealership, they just want to charge you $300 for a key. Lexus-Parts.com sends them already cut, that information is availiable to any dealership simply by them typing in the car's VIN. Lexus dealers markup parts as much as 3-500%. You buy a quart of Mobil 1 Synthetic oil from Pep Boys its $5.40 a quart. Lexus sells the same oil for $19 a quart. Turn signal bumbs for the ES? Same as the Camry. $3 from Toyota, $12 from Lexus. Lexus-parts.com is a Lexus dealer in TX that sells parts online with a reasonable markup, thats why everything is so much cheaper from them. CD magazine for my ES? $25 from Lexus-Parts.com, $85 from my dealer. Don't even bother getting a price check on anything from your neighborhood Lexus dealer My Lexus service rep even tells me to bring my own parts whenever possible. I buy my own oil, filters, air filters, everything myself online because its 1/5th to 1/3 what Lexus charges. It may be the case that on the 96, the key doesn't have a transponder chip, but I'm fairly certain it does. Maybe someone else can chime in?

Check em out guys, posted in the Detailing forum. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...t=ST&f=9&t=4575

Here are the latest pics of my car detailed with DACP ( Meguiars #82 Dual Action Cleaner Polish, a medium cut abrasive cleaner) and a yellow pad (cutting pad) (to remove some marring on the trunk lid and rear bumper caused by someone brushing up against the car over Thanksgiving) GEPC (P21S Gloss Enhancing Paintwork Cleanser, a final polish with some very mild abrasives) with a white pad, EX (Poorboys EX Sealant with Carnuaba) applied by PC with a grey pad (finishing pad), and one coat of Collinite 476s wax applied by PC with a grey pad. I plan to at least do one more coat of the 476 (I would have today but I was out of towels!) then may top with P21S wax. The pictures aren't as sharp as some, my one megapixel digicam is showing its age. I plan to give my fiance a 5 MP one for christmas (shhh), I'll enjoy that too ;) This is just an overall shot I always take of the car after a detail: This is a right rear quarter shot. I was trying to capture the way the sun creates a burst of red on this color. The Collinite had the interesting effect of bringing out the gold flake in the paint, so under parking lot discharge lighting it has a real bronze tint that the EX didnt give it. Very cool. This is a reflection shot of me from the hood. Never done one, just thought I should ;) This is the same shot, just this time with a flash. The flash was an accident but I like how it shows the way this color explodes when light hits it. Please, post comments!

I'm not sure if they do LCD panels for the gen II LS though... Its an Expensive part from Lexus...

Yeah you definately don;t want him around those fumes. Might even be a good idea to swap cars with her for a couple days.

This is so common, and this is why I dont let anyone touch the paint on my car except me. I've even ruled out having one of those clear bras installed because I dont want them to touch it. I have a huge sign I hang from my rearview when its at Lexus for service "DO NOT WASH THIS CAR". First of all, are the scratched underneath the clear bra? If so it will obviously have to be removed and replaced after the repair is done. What color is the car? How deep are the scratches, can they just be seen or do they catch your fingernail when you run it over them? More than likely they can be repaired to the point where nobody but you is going to see them, and you'll only be able to see them from a very upclose perspective. Can you take and post some pictures? As long as you find a great bodyshop that you have personal references from and that will spend time with you and show you around the shop (look for clean surroundings, high line cars, dont be afraid to wait and pay for estimates) the problem really isn't the longevity of the paint, the problem is moreso matching the color. Depending on what color your RX is it can be very difficult to match, not impossible but it may take several attempts to get it right in all light conditions. I assume you dont have any advanced detailing skills or equipment? Also where are you located I can direct you to good shops and detailers if you're around here or in specific other areas.

Yep, it'll be better and stronger than ever. Definately wont be happening again.

Thats correct. The Lexus XM system cannot be retrofitted to a pre 04, the wiring is totally different.

Yeah $30 is very reasonable for a diag. charge from Lexus... Hang onto that dealer!

I'd say be leery of anywhere the insurance company reccomends, but I use a glass shop my insurance reccomends and they do great work... Be prepared for the car to smell like hell because of the glue they use. It actually makes me light headed. Pick up a box of baking soda and leave it in the car for the first few days to make the smell go away quicker. It'll be gone in about a week on its own.

You may be able to on the owners portion of www.lexus.com Is that the new Palm PDA/phone combo? If it has Bluetooth then it should be compatible with the system. Bluetooth is completely compatible. I'm not sure if that phone has it though... Very few phones do right now. And at least here they're all either AT&T or T Mobile. I believe thats a Verizon phone (correct me if I'm wrong)

You'd be surprised, there are a lot of families around here where the woman is the primary bread winner and the men don't work.... Hey wwest, welcome to LOC! Good to see you here.

Naa he's not going to mess up the key that you've got. The question is the electronic chip. Whatever key he makes will not start the car if it doesnt have an electronic chip imbedded in it programmed to the ECU of the car. A lot of places sell spare keys with no chip. It'll unlock the car, but it wont start it. Check out www.lexus-parts.com they'll send you a precut key matched to your VIN and instructions for programming the chip.

Unfortunately random warning lights not illuminating may be a symptom of the circuit board for the gauge cluster malfunctioning. This is big $$s to fix and will eventually degrade to the point that the gauges will no longer function. I have a feeling this is definately what the dealer is going to tell you. I think people around here get quoted in the quadruple digits for this repair. I just had it done on my Explorer with the same symptoms, luckily its a $500 job from Ford. Not gonna be that way on the Lexus... If you can get back there and swap out the light and it works thats great, but if it doesnt make any difference its the circuit board.

I was shocked. I get months out of EX here in DC, but two nights of rain in NJ and it was solid gone... It was more gone than it was after 4 months here! Just the acidity of the rain I guess, couldn't hold up to it. Have you had the EX on with steady rain? If it hasn't stripped on you then you may still be okay with the EX. I just used Klasse on my white Explorer and it turned out well. We sell it here, www.lexuscarcare.com Read around Autopia at some of the techniques. I can't make this stuff work easily and the bare appearance of the paint (no swirl hiding) bothers me, but it shouldnt be an issue with you on the white. I just used the Collinite and I'm happy with how it went on (makes swirls invisible!) might wanna think about it too. You could put it right on top of the EX you've already got on there and seal the whole deal in.

For a quick cheap solution try a 5:1 dillution of Woolite and water and see where that gets you. If that doesn't work you can try some of the 1Z vinyl cleaners we sell at www.lexuscarcare.com. Unfortunately there may not be much you can do, Windex is nasty stuff. You can probably even out the area with a deep cleaning and a product like 303 Aerospace protectant, we also sell that. Helps even out the dash tone without being too glossy.

What area are you in? My dad had the XM installed before he picked the car up. No idea what they charged. He also bought a Sony phone to use with the Bluetooth. He wasn't pleased with that as he had to start paying his own bill (his company has a deal with Sprint) but he figured it was worthwhile to fully exploit the technology of the car.

I always wait at least 30 seconds, even in the summer. What I'm saying is there's no point in letting the car idle for 5-10 minutes before driving off. Its better for the engine if you just start moving to fully warm the car up.

But the choice of wording is interesting enough... ;)