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bostonsnowboarder

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Everything posted by bostonsnowboarder

  1. Hi everyone, on the 02-06 ES330's , how often are people finding that you need to replace OEM brake pads? and how often for rotors? does anyone bother to turn the rotors these days or is it just as easy/costly to replace them?
  2. Lexusfreak and Steve, any updated comments now on the optimal all-season tire for the 04-06 ES in a snow-prone climate? were there any good /similar replacements for the Turanza LS-Vs? if not, which is "best" overall - MXV4's vs Triple treads? and someone mentioned comfort treads, but did'nt explain why comforttread vs Triple tread. I need to replace my OEM ES tires this year I think. also will replace tires on our subaru outback, but for that likely will de finitely go with the tripletread. Boston Snowboarder
  3. So Steve, is it best to go in and ask for just new inserts, or replace the whole blade? I assume that it is easy to replace yourself eitherway. My problem is that I have always had a thin film of water that is left briefly when the wipers sweep. I think that this has always been there, but seems to be getting worse. Not sure if replacing the blades is even the best thing to do or not. Boston Snowboarder 05 ES330
  4. Any recommendation on where to go in the BOston area? Want to get a remote starter for my 05 ES330 without an alarm. I dont really want to go to Circuit City or Best Buy and risk having them screw up the electronics and key detection system. thanks, Boston Snowboarder
  5. several service visits in general. If you go to Lexus of Norwood, ask for one of two service advisors, Brandi or Ronni. Both very intelligent and adept women. Both of their service teams are top notch. steviej although I have never been to Watertown for service, I would second the recommendation for Norwood (now officially called Herb Chambers Lexus, and located now in Sharon, technically NOT in Norwood anymore but really close). They are very professional and top notch. And I would agree that Ronni is very helpful as service advisor. However, service is NOT inexpensive here. But, the amenities are great - excellent computer work area, great widescreen TV in lounge, full time espresso bar and pastries, and nice playroom. But you pay for all of this indirectly. FOr me, it is well worth it though. Boston SNowboarder
  6. UPDATE: I have monitored my fuel economy for a while with tires at both 30 PSI when cold and 35 PSI when cold. THere's only a slight difference in overall fuel economy, about 1 MPG better at 35 PSI (about 19 MPG vs 18 MPG). It is possible that if someone drove mostly highway miles the difference would be more, but I dont know as I dont get many highway miles. However, I like the softer ride and better ride over potholes with 30 PSI. SO, I have compromised with keeping them about 32 PSI. -BostonSnowboarder
  7. I have new tires on order (New ES 350 alloys are in my basement) & will be selling my OE alloys & the Bridgestone Turanza EL42's......I will continue to keep the new rubber at the same 34 - 35 PSI (most tires in our stock 215 55 17 size have a max pressure of around 44 - 51 PSI). I have the adjustable suspension (AVS) option on my 05 ES so I can keep a good balance or ride, handling & fuel economy. I wish I had the AVS. Since I dont, I'll just adjust my tire pressure up and down until I get it perfect!
  8. they might have different Max PSI specs, but do they have different minimum PSI specs? Great question. Don't know. I don't recall ever seeing "minimum inflation PSI numbers". There may be some kind of weight front and rear, that is used in conjunction with the manufacturer's weight spec that the car manufacturers come up with for a PSI number for front and rear tires. B) My understanding has been that the numbers on the door jam/owner's manual is their recommended pressure, but some also consider this number to be the MINIMUM pressure for cold inflation. Keep in mind you should always check your tire pressure cold (first thing in the morning or at least 3 hours after driving). When you drive, the pressure goes up at least 3-4 PSI. SO, I have tended to keep my tires inflated (on any of my cars) at or slightly above the door jam PSI, and would not want to go much below it. They say that risk of premature tire failure dramatically increases if you go much below. On the other hand, I would agree that it is not a great idea to go right up to the max listed pressure on the tire side. I dont know if the max listed pressure on the tire represents a cold pressure. dont forget if you do inflate a cold pressure of the maximum number, it goes even higher when you drive! My 05 ES330 has a door jam sticker that specifies the pressure for the 17 inch tire (P215 R17) EOM tire, which is what I have (bridgestone turanza EL42). The 05 ES came with two options, a 16 inch bridgestone or a 17 inch stock bridgestone (which is what I have). The owners manual has a seperate section for the 16 inch vs 17 inch stock tire and the recommended pressures are different. I dont know what happens if you buy another tire later.
  9. they might have different Max PSI specs, but do they have different minimum PSI specs?
  10. with my bad back and all the pot holes we have in Boston in the spring, I like the softer ride at 30PSI better right now. The handling was more crisp at 35PSI but I can sacrifice that. Will report back on gas mileage at 30PSI after a few weeks! (just filled up my tank at $3.50/gallon - OUCH!!)
  11. I have been doing the same. For me, the sticker on the door means jack <you know what>. THe sticker does not know what size tires you have. I'll check again but I think the sticker on the door specified that this pressure was for the 17inch option tire (P215 R17 Bridgestone Turanza). also, I believe the owners manual specifies recommended pressure for 16 and 17 inch but I will check again. I emailed my local dealer about why they set my tires in the winter at 35 but now the tire that the replaced for me was set at 30 (so I had 3 tires at 35 and one at 40 until I discovered it): "The tire pressures were probably set a bit higher because of the temp. fluctuations during the cold months and the cars sit on the lot. During colder months the tires psi decrease and the tire pressure warning system goes off. So, even though the recommended pressure is 30 psi we do set the pressures a bit higher."
  12. How much of a difference in gas mileage would it make going from say 30PSI to 40PSI? At 35PSI i was getting about 18mpg city and 28mpg highway. I will now calculate it out at 30PSI for a while.
  13. I suppose there is quite a bit of personal preference involved here. I have an 05 ES330 with 17 inch rims and my door jam tire pressure is listed at 30. However, I just realized (after 2 months of owning the car) that the dealership had set my tire pressures at 35. I am going to ask them the rationale for that. At 35 PSI, I found that the handling was nice and taught (usually people complain about the lexus ES handling as the biggest complaint) but yet there was more road noise than I expected and going over the Boston potholes this spring was occasionally painful. SO, I have dropped the pressure down to 30 and I like it better. The ride is smoother, quieter, and going over potholes is more comfortable. The handling is a bit worse but that's ok with me. I would never drop my pressure LOWER than the door jam pressure though. They say that doing that can put you at risk of premature failure. But you can go higher a bit if you want (but of course dont exceed maximum listed pressure)
  14. Glad to hear that the 5-10MPH jerk seems to have improved for you. Keep us posted and let us know if you notice any irregularites at shifting at higher speeds/gears, as some others have noticed after getting the flash. *** If anyone can post or post link to some technical material about what REALLY happens with this ECU "learning" stuff and technical details about how it really works, that would be very interesting for us to read. Although, I still think that, other than trying the flash, there (now and forever more) will be nothing we can do to further improve these issues on the 05's and earlier cars. Also, I'm glad to hear you liked the 330 better than 350. I bought my 05 330 a couple months ago. I considered getting a new 350 but after reading about it and some of the problems it has (as well as the reduced blind spot visibility with the new design), I opted against it, did'nt even test drive one, and voted to save $10,000 and get a certified pre-owned 05. I am very happy. everyone who sees it thinks it is a brand new car (despite having 32,000 miles on it). Boston Snowboarder
  15. Doesn't matter, the engine/transaxle ECU will still erase, FORGET, anything unique it "learned" about "your" driving style just as soon as you switch off the ignition. Otherwise the next driver (your better half..??) might get VERY PO'ed. On the other hand it might take many "drive cycles" maybe as much as 500 miles, for the engine/management ECU to learn all the tolerances of the various sensors, servos, etc. The car will probably not "settle" down and drive in a consistent manner until those initial drive cycles are completed wwest: do you have a reference to quote that states that the "learning" that occurs takes place only during a single driving trip and then resets when you turn your ignition off? Not to doubt you by any means, and what you say could well be true, but the theory that you state above (I have read you say this before), goes against most of what has been discussed throughout these posts - which is that "semi-permanent" learning occurs and the only way to reset it is an unplugging of the battery. You may well be correct, but it would be good to get this firmly established before there is any further discussion on the issue. Boston Snowboarder Some years ago, 5 or 6 maybe, I ran across an engineering white paper that explained the then method of driver style/type learning. And wouldn't cars in the rental fleets have to be somehow modified if the ECU didn't erase the "memory"? The fallacy arose thus... When you unplug the battery the ECU forgets many of the parameters it must learn to correctly run the engine and transaxle optimally. So of course drivers will "feel" as if their previously learned "style" has changed, but in reality it is just the engine management parameters being returned to the defaults, those approximate parameetrs "loaded" initially at the factory. Interesting. I saw your post sometime ago about this. I wonder why Lexus does'nt visibly explain the "learning" ECU concept? I have combed various years of lexus brochures and it is never explained in any detail, other than that the ECU "learns" driving style. So perhaps it is really just a marketing gimmick. Your last paragraph is quite provocative. Maybe the "learning" is really just the ECU optimizing parameters that have to be optimized. But how much does it really vary driver to driver? how much variance is there?
  16. If they are "just resetting the ECU so it can learn my driving style", then you should not pay them any money for it, because all this involves is (at most) unplugging your battery connections overnight (or perhaps, if wwest is correct below, just turning off your ignition!). However, if they are doing the Flash upgrade (as discussed earlier in this forum), then beware, because if you dont like how it turns out, it appears (by what numerous others have posted) to be irreversible.
  17. Doesn't matter, the engine/transaxle ECU will still erase, FORGET, anything unique it "learned" about "your" driving style just as soon as you switch off the ignition. Otherwise the next driver (your better half..??) might get VERY PO'ed. On the other hand it might take many "drive cycles" maybe as much as 500 miles, for the engine/management ECU to learn all the tolerances of the various sensors, servos, etc. The car will probably not "settle" down and drive in a consistent manner until those initial drive cycles are completed wwest: do you have a reference to quote that states that the "learning" that occurs takes place only during a single driving trip and then resets when you turn your ignition off? Not to doubt you by any means, and what you say could well be true, but the theory that you state above (I have read you say this before), goes against most of what has been discussed throughout these posts - which is that "semi-permanent" learning occurs and the only way to reset it is an unplugging of the battery. You may well be correct, but it would be good to get this firmly established before there is any further discussion on the issue. Boston Snowboarder
  18. Here is an update on my situation, as I now have about 2 months and 2500 miles on the 2005 ES330 that I bought. I test drove about 10 different 05's in my search, and I found considerable variability between models. I am not sure how much variability in the jerking and/or hesitation that occurs after a slowdown or with exceleration in general is due to differences in the car itself vs the learning that has occurred, but it could be some of both. There are two issues that seem to potentially occur: 1) if you slow down but then quickly try to re-accelerate before coming to a complete stop, there can be a noticable delay and then a jerk once the transmission decides what to do (this one I think is the most problematic) and 2) a general sluggishness on acceleration. As far as #1, the car that I bought had essentially no noticeable problem with this when I bought it. THe dealer changed the battery for me prior to pickup, so when I got it, it had to go through the learning phase. It seemed to me that in the first few days there was some of this hesitation and jerk, but then it went away. I am not sure if my driving allowed it to learn a "smooth" shifting pattern, or if my right foot just learned and adapted to press the accelerator later and softer to avoid the jerk. BUt my theory is that it can "learn" to shift more smoothly. I will add that I am generally NOT an aggressive accelerator. As far as #2, yes, the ES330 in general is a sluggish accelerating car. I think that this is a well known attribute of the car, described in most reviews and not a surprise. I dont think it is a big deal, and if people dont like it, they should'nt be driving the ES330! If you want a fast accelerating sporty car, go for a manual transmission BMW 3 or 5 series!!!! The ES330 accelerates slowly for 3 reasons in my mind: 1) V6 engine that is not that powerful 2) fairly heavy weight; and most important 3) gear shift pattern that is meant to focus on quietness rather than performance. So to me, it is not surprising that I can't do 0 to 60 very fast, and I am fine with that. -I would be interested to hear what others think about the learning factor preventing the #1 issue. If the car "learns" from a smooth and slow accelerating driver, can the slow-down-then-step-on-the-gas hesitiation be minimized? It may be that my car actually is still prone to the downshift hesitation thing but that I have unconsciously learned to drive so as not to trigger it. I know that this theory has been mentioned before in posts and may well be true.
  19. good, Derrick knows his stuff and is a friend of mine. personally, I think 20s on a pre-2002 ES will make it look like a mud-buggy or some kind of 4WD vehicle. Idefinately would not go with more than an 18 on the pre-2002 and 19 on a post-2002. Here is mine on 18s Keep in mind the damage issue. 20 inch rims will leave you little sidewall for the tires that you will be able to fit without flaring the fender. This means potholes and big iron road covers become you worst enemy and nightmare. Don't spend a lot of money for something that will be easily damaged. Go with an 18, drop the car an inch and be careful when driving on them. Lastly, I like the 5 spoke SEVAS the best of what you have showed. steviej If you accidently end up slamming your front wheel hard on a big pothole with 17 or 18's, how do you find out if any damage has been done? take the wheel in for a balance check? as you know, in MA.....it is very easy for this to happen..... Boston Snowboader 05 ES330 Silver with stock 17 inchers (looks like yours but wheels no where near as nice!)
  20. I just bought a 2005 ES330 without Nav/ML, but I have a 30 day exchange policy at my dealership where I can go back and get a 100% trade in against another car if I want..... so now I am second guessing my descision to NOT get Nav/ML.... I dont have any desire in the Nav, but would consider getting it if only for the ML. Actually, in other ways, the Nav is a negative, as then you have to have the 6-disc changer in center console and so you lose the console. BUT, if the sound will be better with the Nav/ML, i will consider it. I see that with the 2005 ES330, there seem to be 7 speakers, whether you get factory sound or the Nav/ML. Are the speakers the same factory speakers either way, or do you get upgraded speakers with the NAV/ML option? that might make a big difference in my opinion. I know that with the 2008 ES350, the stock system gives you 7 speakers, but the ML system gives you 14 speakers, so the ML gives you speaker advantage too. SO, in summary, how much difference would there be in sound quality between these 3 options: 1) 2005 ES330 with stock factory system with 7 speakers 2) 2005 ES330 with the Nav/ML system with 7 speakers 3) 2005 ES 330 without Nav/ML but upgrade the 7 speakers to dynaudio or others.... I have a feeling many would say #3 is the best. is it worth the additional cost for this mod?
  21. Insofar as I know, have been able to learn, only a few of the '08 models have a Trac & VSC sequential "off" button. TC must be turned off first and only then can the same button be used to turn off VSC. But more to the point I suspect that you would NEVER wish to turn off VSC whereas there have been many requests, posts, regarding the need, justifiable need IMMHO, to turn TC off. TC, Traction Control, is the system that prevents wheelspin/slip resulting from too much engine torque being applied to the driven wheels fro current roadbed conditions. There are times when a slight bit of wheelspin can be of help, say in roacking the car back and forth to get unstuck. My car does have the button to turn off TC on the lower right hand side of steering wheel, which I know about. The owners manual mentions only that this button would turn TC off, in the setting that you mention which is to rock car out of hole. It does not say anything about turning VSC off. I have personally NO DESIRE to turn VSC off. I think that car and driver was implying that someone might want to turn it off if they purposely wanted wheel skid, say if they were going to go off road on a dirt track. Or kind of llike we did when I was a kid where we would take our cars into an empty snowy parking lot and try to skid and slide as much as we could! Would make more sense to do this with an IS than an ES. I dont think anyone in their right mind would want to take an ES off road on a dirt track! there are much better cars to do that with. However, in case anyone did have such a desire, this might be the way to turn off VSC....I think I will never try it or have any desire to!.......
  22. I ran across this in a review of the IS250 in Car and Driver: "And for that occasional run through the woods, when you’d rather not have the electronics interfere with your tire-sliding ambitions, here’s how to shut down the stability system. Start the car with the hand brake engaged. Press the brake pedal twice and hold. Engage the hand brake twice and hold. Repeat until the “skid lights” appear on the dash. The ABS does not shut off. When the engine is subsequently turned off and then switched back on, the stability control is reactivated. (Presumably, this trick works on all new Toyota and Lexus models, and it’s easier than it sounds.)" I wonder if it would work on the 05 ES330 or later models? I am not bold enough to challenge my car to try to find out. Has anyone tried this? Boston Snowboarder 05 ES330 Silver/Blk 99 Honda Civic LXBlk 04 Subaru Outback LTD Blue
  23. True - the time that I really need it most is NOW. actually, I need to go ASAP to my car wash place and get them to hand wax it. I am getting tons of salt stuck on it. Called a couple of places locally and they want similar to what the dealer's guy said: $700 for the complete package. But then again, prices in Boston seem to be way higher than anywhere else. I should drive up to New Hampshire or Vemont and get it done there instead.
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