Brotherkain

I have a question about my new tires. Ever since I got them, they've been out of balance (evidenced by their characteristic vibration at certain speeds). I have had these tires for probably about 15 - 20 thousand miles now. I have also had them balanced 3 times! Each time they are balanced, the vibration changes but never goes away. The tires I bought are Kelly, something another. I bought them from a place called quick tire, which has free rotating and balancing for the life of the car. Anyway, all 3 times I've had them balanced, I had them balanced there. I've heard that there is no such thing as a set of tires that cannot be balanced. So is this just that poor of a balancing job or are these tires no good, or what... thoughts? I've concidered going to a different tire place and getting them balanced, and I've also concidered going to this tire place over and over again until they either run me off, get them balanced, or tell me how I can go about getting them balanced. The vibration is considerable, and its drove me crazy long enough. Thanks

Well, problem solved. My dad noticed that my brake lights were no longer working. That quickly narrowed the problem down to the fact that the CPU must not know when the brake is on. So the problem was narrowed to the switch. And then, a quick thought would lead you to believe the power to the switch is lost. Therefore we decided that the wiring must have been damaged, or just disconnected when they powered the XM. So everything is better now (at least as far as the shifter goes). Meeting with the best buy management on saturday, so they'll know then, and things are good to go. Thanks for the help.

I bought the XM commander first off. The controller is installed in the little tray underneath the e-brake handle, velcro is taped onto the wood trim. The wire then runs off to the right of the tray and inbetween the carpet and the vinyl trim. They told me the receiver part is behind the Radio / Casette Head unit, up high somewhere out of the way. They did not tell me where the FM switch that the FM antenna connects is located. It is possible that it is installed somewhere underneath the shifter, but they never said. This one I am sure is not the case though. After I couldn't get it to shift out of park, They came out and showed me how, and I moved it back into the installation bay area. In there they took the trim around the shifter back out. I suggested to them that the spring may not be back in, or the button is not seated on the inclined mechanism that pushes the shifter down. So they took the shifter apart and checked it, and that was not the case. Thats when they looked for a while in there and told me they found a damaged plastic peice that was "damaged by wear". Hmm Update: Its only saturday, so I haven't been back, but I did see more problems. They broke the vent above climate control. The black peice that borders it is snapped in half in the bottom left side of it. They had it sort of pinched back together, so I couldn't see it until the two parts seperated and overlapped. So at the moment I am extremely unhappy with them, and they make me wanna say . I'm going to try to get them to agree to pay for it before I get it fixed. I will at least learn what my options are.

SK, Well looking at it you wouldn't think they needed to remove the trim by the shifter, because no wires run into that, and nothing is mounted there. They told me that they had removed that trim peice for some reason, but they said they hadn't messed with the shifter, only the trim around it. So..... I dont' know why they that trim peice off (unless they were trying to fix the shifter they broke, hmm).

Just today I decided to get an XM radio installed, which I've been wanting to do a long time. First off, the XM radio is great. It sounds good, looks good in the car, good variety, etc etc... I had it installed in that little tray below the shifter handle where the wood trim is at. I decided to get it from best buy (that just opened today in this location!!), and I had them install it for me. When I came back to pick my car up, I couldn't get it to change from park. So I asked the guys there about it. They said they had the same problem. They told me they first noticed it when they were trying to shift to get the shifter out of the way to take a peice of trim off or something. (I have a 95 for the record). Anyway, here's the problem. The button on the shifter that releases the lock to allow the shifter to move out of park is extremely difficult to press and release the lock - it takes two hands. I had them take the trim around the shifter back off and have a look to see if the mechanism was simply messed up, the spring was out of place or the button was not correctly sitting in place. Eventually here is what happened. they said they found the problem, and they came and showed me where a peice of plastic had a bit of a chip or beat / worn type spot in it. They said it was hangin on that making it difficult, and it was simply from being worn. Has anyone else had this problem? Is this actually a worn place, or what? The best buy techs told me that they never had the shifter apart or could have done anything to cause it. Are they feeding me a line of bull to stay out of trouble, or just by pure dumb idiot bad luck did that peice of plastic actually suddenly start becoming such a major nuisance by just barely being too much worn??? I would take it apart and have a better look myself, but I'm going to wait and go back monday to talk to the supervisor there and see what my options are before I resort to that. Just thought I'd try to find some feedback (and I wanted to rant a bit, sorry bout the rediculously long post). Thanks

I didn't take the climate control apart, I suppose it must be different by what you are saying. I just did the stereo, and there is certainly no way of doing it w/o soldering. I had to take the unit out after taking the vent and the trim peice off. I seperated the climate control unit from the stereo unit by removing the stereo from the bracket. Then I took the screws out of the side and took the face plate partially off. When I got it off I found a ribbon cable that was attached from the circuit board behind the face pate to the circuit board controlling the stereo functions. So I popped a metal plate off the top of the player exposing where the ribbon cable connected to the circuit board (the main board, not the one behind the face plate). I then pulled up on the plastic peice releasing the cable, and allowing me to seperate the face plate from the rest of the player. Once I got that apart, I had to take 9 screw out of the circuit board to get to the back of it. Once I got that out, I had to pull on the volume control and remove that large button. Then I think there were about 17 lights and then 3 or 4 more at the bottom for the fade / treble stuff. I had to solder the two legs from each of the lights and remove them. Then I took the blue covers off of each of the lights and put it over the new lights, and then soldered the new lights back in there and then cut the excess of the leads off of the lights. Then I put it all back together and that was that. I didn't take the display apart exposing the LEDS and backlights because mine weren't out. I'm not sure I would've messed with that though.

I would've loved to buy some of those, but I had no idea where to get any. I don't really know any lexus parts people around here, and the lexus dealer wasn't going to sell me any, so I just did with what I had. I don't see how you'd get the lights off without a soldering iron though, as the lights were soldered directly through the circuit board and required soldering to remove them... Brother Kain

Well, I got all those 60 mA bulbs from radio shack put into the buttons on the stereo. It turns out 60 mA is a bit dimmer than what is stock. They are still easily readable, but it is easy to tell the old lights from the new (I left the Climate control unit lights and changed the stereo lights). This still isn't a bad fix though. I found some 65 mA bulbs from a site in the UK that are specifically for car audio purposes, and they come with those little blue sleeves already on them. I had to take the blue sleeves off of the old lights and put them on the new, which wasn't difficult. I would say 65 mA or maybe a little brighter would be about right, but I'm not going to change it again for it. Anyways, if anyone wants I'll write a little blurb about how to change it all out start to finish, but if nobody says anything then I won't worry with it. I'd say it wasn't too bad a job, but its just kinda risky messing with the electronics of the thing if you're not comfortable dealing with circuit boards and what-not. Brother Kain

Well, I found some lights at the radio shack that look identical, have the same voltage and the same resistance, so theoretically they should have the same current rating, and should work. They are 12V, 60mA microlamps. I still need to buy like 7 more sets of them, I'm 99% sure they are going to work after I soldered the first on. This is the radioshack online page for them: Radio Shack Micro Lamps I don't know for sure if they'll work yet, as I don't wanna put all of the CD player and what-not back together without first replacing all of the lights. If it works I'll post a short write-up of it. If it works then it'd be about a $15 fix to replace every single light ($.75 each). I didn't mess with taking apart the LED and replacing any of the backlights as none of mine were dead, so I don't know if they're bad. If you're not familiar with electronics, including soldering, I would not mess with this, it would be too easy to break something, especially those ribbon cables, they'll pull lose easiler (I know, I had to solder one of them back on, close call). I'll post sometime tomorrow saying if they work or not though... but they should. Brother Kain

If you're referring to the 95 style, then I can tell you how I did it. I've done it twice now, and unless I absolutely have to, I'm not doing it again. The vents are in there very securely to say the least. there are two metal clips on the bottom - but knowing of their existence is really basically useless. I pryed a lot, mostly from the bottom, but its important that you keep moving around the thing. Its really frustrating trying to pry without messing up the interior or the vents and without prying so hard as to break the plastic. I found that I just pryed quite hard (but still with caution, know your own strength) on the bottom right corner until I felt it move a bit. Then I put something in there to hold it out, and I moved left from there and did the same thing. Once I felt that both of the bottom sides had been pulled maybe a 1/2 centimeter or so, I pryed all over the place until it started coming out. It will come out at a fairly steep angle upwards, so have that in mind when you're prying. I thought I broke the thing the second time I got it out, so Good luck... Brother Kain

Well, I'll reply to myself in an attempt to get some help. I took the CD player back out and got one of the lights out... and its not an LED, just a lamp (but I did have to solder it to get it out). Anyways, I have 10 dead bulbs, and I was wondering if anyone knows where in the world I could get some. When you say a local lexus parts dealer, could you explain a little better than that? Do you mean a lexus dealer? How bout a Toyota dealer, or better yet, autozone? :) Maybe someone knows what type lamps they are and I could get one whereever. Thanks for the help. Brother Kain

I have a 1995 ES300 and the bulbs in my CD player are almost all out (except the FM button, the panel, and the bass / treble / etc adjustments). I took the vent and trim out, then I got the CD player and AC unit out. I dissambled the thing and all that good stuff and I got the circuit board controlling the lights and buttons out that had the lights on it. And I found that the lights are standard LEDs, but they are soldered on. Of course I am at school in South Carolina and my soldering kit is in TN so... no lights just yet. I was wondering if there is a difference in the 1994 / 1995 premium sound system on the ES300 (pioneer)? and if anyone knows the voltage / current ratings on the LEDs in the stereo and if they are standard enough to be found at like radio shack. Thanks, Brother Kain