SmilingBoognish

I'd trust a dyno plots, not your butt dyno. :P

It's psychosomatic. Higher octane will give no increase in performance for a vehicle designed to run on 87. In a modern car that was designed to run on 91 that has retarded timing after sensing engine knock will give back the performance very incrementally, and there will absolutely not be a "night and day" difference.

Well, I think the brakes on our 2008 suck. I notice in the picture that your other vehicle is an Audi. European brakes are generally better than cars marketed towards the US, such as the RX.

Yep, it's probably your spare and you've got reset instructions in your owner's manual. Our light goes off in snowy conditions because the spare isn't warmed up from driving...I hate these idiot lights. But I'm the type of person who checks his tire pressure on a regular basis. ;)

The way your ECU adjusts for lower octane fuel is by sensing detonation due to the fuel air mixture igniting in your cylinder before it is supposed to do so. Detonation is harmful to your engine, but the question is how quickly does your ECU pull timing to account for the lower octane fuel. I usually run premium (91 here in CA) in our vehicle for peace of mind, but I really think it's silly that Lexus doesn't use the same ECU map as Toyota for the 87 octane stuff.

One sure fire way to tell is to look at the back axle. If it has a differential, you vehicle is equipped with AWD, if it does not, you own a front driver. Out of curiosity, did you not check on this before you purchased the vehicle?

I've been setting ours at 33, and they're usually down to about 32 by the time I do my monthly cold tire pressure check. WRT the tire pressure sensors, they are utterly worthless, imho. Ours always go off when driving in the mountains. I'm guessing the spare gets cold and it sets off the idiot light. There is a very easy procedure to reset the idiot light in the owner's manual. It's far easier to do that than it is to actually check all the tire pressures (spare included) to make certain there isn't really a problem. edit: pauljcl may be on to something. Before I drive to the mountains again, I'll lower all 5 tire pressures to 25 and then reset the sensor. Then I'll put the appropriate amount of air in the tires. I wish everyone would check their tires so we wouldn't have to pay extra for these nanny systems...but I understand that would be asking far too much.

I had a factory installed tape deck in my last vehicle, as well as the RX. I really like it for playing old music, as well as popping in the MP3 player adapter.

I'm pretty sure my owner's manual says to change the oil at 5,000 miles or 6 months, whichever comes first. My first oil change was at 6 months with about 4k miles on the clock. The 1,000 mile "service" was nothing more than tweaking the personal settings and making sure we were happy with the vehicle. I see no reason to change the oil at 1,000 miles in a modern street driven car.

The November '08 issue of Consumers Reports has a rating on SUV/PICKUP Tires. "All-Season tires #1 General Grabber HTS; #2 Continental CrossContact LX; #3 Kumho APT KL51; #4 Cooper CTS; #5 Michelin LTX M/S; #6 Yokohama H/T-S GO51, etc,etc." Kumho and Yoko both much cheaper!! This info and Tirerack.com should put you in good shape to pick some replacement tires Hope this helps. Good luck. Do they make those tires in the stock size for the RX350? Seems like an odd ball size that Lexus went with...

Is that the correct oil? I thought at least synthetic oil was what would be required id the oil change interval is 5000 miles rather than 3000 miles. I see absolutely no need for synthetic oil in a motor like ours - it holds 6.4 quarts and requires changing every 5k miles. It is not an extended drain interval by modern standards and the engine doesn't have to deal with the heat of a turbo charger. When I changed our oil last week, I used Castrol GTX 5-30. I think any quality dino oil would suffice.

Consider getting a box. I've got a Thule Evolution box and it not only holds 4 or more boards, but it's also a good place to stash stinky boots and wet gear after a day on the slopes. Now, if we could just get some snow in the Sierras. :(

Nitrogen in your street cars tires is a waste of money. It's just a way for tire shops to make a little extra dough. Also, consider when you have to top off the pressure - what are you going to use? Air.

Maintenance should be done *at the earlier of* the mileage interval or the time interval.

AWD on a RX in Houston will be pointless. The RX has traction control, so any *marginal* handling benefit you get from going FWD -> AWD is completely gone in the RX set up.

We went with AWD primarily due to local laws which require FWD to chain up. Good tires are far more important than AWD, but the AWD can help with not getting stuck.

thank you, lexus tried to remove with brake cleaner, changed the filter twice and drove 9,000 miles and wont go away what next? dcj 9,000 miles is not normal. Typically cosmoline will burn off in a couple hundred miles, certainly less than 1,000.

Did you buy a brand new 2007? Almost all new cars which have a cosmoline coating. It burns off fairly quickly.

It is nothing like saying the car will go 120 because the speedo goes that high. The tire is stamped with a max cold pressure after being tested by the manufacturer. In most cases it would be silly to run pressures anywhere near max. Having said that, I ran my the stock tires in my WRX at max during autoX because the sidewalls were so soft. They still didn't grip well, but at least when they lost grip it was more predictable and they provided better feedback. Careful, particularly in AZ where the blacktop can get extremely hot. Lower pressures means higher temperatures - this can result in a blowout and is the reason we have these automated nanny tire meters mandated in all of our cars now.

I think almost any reasonable person would be upset if their rims were scratched during service. If nobody cared about the look, we'd all be driving around with ugly steelies on our rides.

FWIW, I've been running the tires on our RX350 at 33 psi all around. The door placard is the mfg recommended pressure. The sidewall of the tire is the max cold pressure for which the tires have been rated. You can run whatever you like, but I'd never run less than what the manufacturer recommended or more than the sidewall stamped max. Running higher pressures will tend to wear the center of your tire out faster, depending on tire, but will also increase fuel economy slightly and cause the sidewall to flex less during cornering. I played around with tire pressures a great deal on my WRX, and I can tell you from experience that it can make a huge difference in how the vehicle responds. Anybody who has done autocross or track time will attest to that. Of course, a RX350 is not an autocross or track toy, but the principles of vehicle dynamics are transferable.

Umm, a Torsen set-up very effective. Most, but not all, Audi's badged "Quattro" have this set up. Also, the VC in my Subaru worked flawlessly this winter in a blizzard with 110K miles on it, with no leaks whatsoever. The trick is to keep the tires rotated if you want a VC to last.

I think he's trying to say that the RDX has a more robust all wheel drive system and the engine exhibits turbo lag, but that's just a guess based on what he's written. :P

We were surprised to see at least half a dozen when we were shopping in February, and dozens of '07 RX350's. They must have used both as loaners in these parts.

Yah, I got a question. How do you figure that chains on the back are SAFER! I mean, sure, you're overheating the VC and causing it to do its best to lock up, but how the heck do you plan on steering?