RX400h

I have to admit that I've never seen milky white battery water. My gut feeling is that the battery is bad. And hey, a $60 Costco battery is not much of a solution risk.

The Yokohama Parada-X are excellent all-season tires that are quiet and handle great. One look at their tread pattern will convince you that they should do well on snow covered streets. Being that I live in San Diego, I don't have any snow-driving experience with these tires yet. However, at times during the winter months, I can find plenty of snow, just 45 minutes from here on Mt Laguna.

Without looking at the setup, my guess would be that the wire mesh acts as a "gross particle" filter which prevents large objects from damaging the "fine" particle filter. This is important to have if there is a direct path for outside air to flow towards the filter element. Objects like stones could easily damage a filter without a wire mesh to act as a first line of defense. I would suggest t hat you buy another and install it, ASAP. Dave

I believe neither of the two different OEM tire sets were unidirectional. This may explain the error - many rotations of non-unidirectional tires. It's like the exercise in which you ask someone to repeat the word "yoik" 6 times, after which you immediately ask that person what the white part of an egg is called. Most people will instintively say "yolk". The tech instinctively rotated as he always does.

For those of us who live in temperate climates and who own a 4600 lb luxury SUV, there is little compromise between a high performance all-season tire and a high performance summer tire, as our vehicles cannot take full advantage of a "stickier" tire. In fact the all-season tires will most like my provide longer wear. Dave

...not our 2006 RX400h manual. It states that regular is acceptable. I use midgrade most of the time but have run with regular during cooler months.

I have to chuckle as this reminds me of all the people who flock to tablet computers so that they can push virtual buttons. The standard computer keyboard has been perfected over many, many years and yet the "cool" factor of touching a screen has lured so many folks to plunk down big money for something that will never beat a simple $300 laptop for banging out emails. Even Blackberry physical keyboards are still faster than an virtual keypad on an iphone or Droid. Is it really worth all the trouble you'd have to go through to have a pushbutton start feature? I CAN convert my ignition switch to a touchless fiber optic switch (wave your finger over the beam) but c'mon!

Based upon the forum name, I'd quess the OP has 235/55/18 tires.

Do you still have the original battery? Sometimes weird things happen when a car battery is getting weaker. However, a quick call to the service manager to request that he/she ask the mechanic may clear things up. Since the sound does stop after a while, I doubt that it is something that would necessitate bringing your car in right away but by all means have them check it out the next time you do bring it in.

Virtually everything is a compromise in one way or another. The wider tires produce more rolling resistance and thus reduces fuel mileage. It all depends on what is most important to you. Often, there are more choices of tires in certain sizes and diameters.

This quote describes a Prius but our vehicles operate the same way. For more info and a quick videos of how the engine starts (middle of page), see http://www.howstuffworks.com/hybrid-car.htm/printable

I am a bit surprised that you didn't go for the very popular Parada-X. A few of us have them and are very happy with their performance. Fortunately, you have tires from the same manufacturer, so in all likelyhood, you will like them. By the way, my Corvette has what I consider to be one of the best tires I've ever owned - the GSD3 super high performance tires. As is your case, Goodyear no longer makes them. Since my tires still have plenty of thread left, it may be a while before I need replacements. I'll see what's available when that happens.

Jack, there are more than a few forum members here who are getting quite a bit higher. It certainly is possible but you must make an effort to do so.

Lenore, I hope you took precautions to ensure your RX doesn't get flooded when it rains. If you've been following Rey's posts, you know what happened to his RX and you have made sure it won't happen to you.

Mmmm, I think most folks would say your "something not right" comment in reference to the first quote somehow implied that the recall is related to your leaking inverter. I think not!

In the world of automotive mechanics (with the exception of radiators), if it leaks, it's a failed gasket.

C'mon, Lemon, bad soldering cannot cause gaskets to leak! Seriously, at least Toyota is doing something about it. My Corvette's HVAC PCAs bad soldering would cause the outside temperature display to gradually fade away to nothing. I had to resolder a bunch of resistors, myself because most likely, it wasn't considered a safety issue. I also had to install a column lock bypass because the steering wheel locking pin would become stuck in the locking position, rendering the car immovable. was there ever a recall? ....only for auto tranny Corvettes!

Some members have managed to pull out a CD to fix the problem (using tweezers). Ours fixed itself after a couple of months

Some IS owners have had this issue. One person replied, You might want to persue this route, first.

What year is your vehicle? My guess is that it is either a "maintenence required" notice (time to change the oil and oil filter) or if your vehicle is 5 years old and still has its original 12 volt battery, it's time to replace it with a new one. The tattle-tale sign that the battery is getting weak is a message that tells you to place the shifter in Park, even though it already is in Park.

....not simply more maximum power,but more power throughout the rev range. This is why more and more vehicle designers are incorporating CAIs (cold air intakes) into their engine/engine bay designs: Colder air = more horsepower. Of course the extra horsepower is likely to be "felt" at wide open throttle conditions.

Initially, I would switch from regular during the colder months and mid-grade during the warmer months, but lately, I have been running mid-grade almost exclusively. I find that it provides a very good balance of power and economy. (saves me enough to buy a couple of coffees, too) Keep in mind, though that due to the higher density of intake air during cold Ambient conditions, running regular gas is similar to running premium gas during warmer ambient conditions. Those who live in cold winter climates may be wasting money by buying premium fuel during that time of year.

The only time I experience this is on certain roads that have surface ripples. At first I thought it was the RX but realized it happens only on the same roads. If this is not the case, you might want to ask the dealership to run a check, the next time you bring it in.

Well, now that I received my latest Consumer Reports magazine, I see that Ford vehicles really do NOT have an advantage when it comes to fuel mileage. The Fusion and Camry hybrids acheived the same average mileage (I think it is 36 MPG), so although Ford may have tweaked something to get the EPA numbers up substantially higher (41 city, 36 highway vs Camry's 31 city and 35 highway), the real world (at least via CR's testing) results show that there is no fuel economy advantage to buying a Fusion hybrid vs a Camry hybrid. Looking at the EPA numbers you would think that the Fusion is a much more economical vehicle. Chevrolet pumped up the EPA numbers by designing in a CAGS (Computer-aided gear shifting) feature (Corvettes ad Camaros) that forces the transmission to shift from first to fourth gear after the engine is hot enough. Obviously, Ford isn't the only company to make the EPA numbers look better than what is achievable on the street.

Believe me, our batteries will last much, much longer than our warranties. I do suspect that Ford, who licenses Toyota's hybrid setup, is allowing its batteries to be discharged further in an effort to one-up Toyota hybrids of similar size. A good example is the Fusion hybrid vs the Camry hybrid. The Fusion will go further on battery power alone and will get better fuel mileage. The new Lincoln hybrid is similar in that it gets surprisingly good gas mileage for its weight. Most likely, its battery life, while greater than the car's warranty by quite a bit, is not going to be nearly as stellar as those in Toyota vehicles using the same NiMH batteries.