PK_3

Jeezus If the poster before me didn't call me a "deuch Bag"with "no knowledge of repair and maintanacne" "and "an emporer with no clothes" , I wouldn't have said a word. But if I was overzealous in the face of the my pals(in his own words)"running of at the mouth". call me "arrogant", make yourself at home. BTW:I suck at baseball, foot ball...have dyslexia, can't spell, almost flunked out high school. total scatter brain, 20 yrs. religiously surfing everyday and never got past "competent" ...etc. Make way for my BIG ego.

2 things. The track is probably out of align left to rt or worn-out. It's wedging up from side to side inch by inch. If you stop it, it looses it's momentum and maybe settles in a bit. I'ts then caddy-wampas and when you try to raise it, its so wedged in it does what it does if your head were there. It hits, keeps pushing up to 5 or 10 lbs of pressure, turns around and goes down So I'd say you need to look at those tracks (or whatever they call them). Just my opinion. Sorry no clue on antenna. Regards,

Settle, settle…Now, you really know me eh? (hey see pics below!!) A few facts might be in order. I am not coming off half cocked with "limited knowledge”. I rebuilt my first engines at 14 (''60s Corvairs, flat 6's) and maintained those heaps and 5 others for another 3 years. I financed my education at SDSU &CSULB in part at by buying distressed cars, dialed them in and sold them. By the time I was 25 I had had about 25 cars. About half of those had catastrophic engine & trans. failures. All off the engine failures were in the more exotic cars, (Only way I could afford them and I sure wanted to drive them then make a buck. My rebuilts & build ups incluse 4 or 5 Porsche motors, and about 5 BMW's. I'm probably most proud of the rebuild I did (complete engine build and trans repair) of Porsche's then flagship, the 4.5L V8 powered. 928-S. Quite exotic for the time. Supposedly gave Ferraris and the like a run for there money CURRENT: SEE PICs BELOW Pretty much gave up fiddling with cars unless something really interesting comes along.. I did supercharge my current Porsche last year ( what a pain but worth every busted knuckle). Now I’m currently hot-rodding my ‘35 Chrysler flathead. that belongs to my 1935 Chris Craft ‘35 BTW. I am not a professional gear head (no offense to any). I'm actually a designer. Ironically my first gig while still in school was designing for Toyota the "cookie cutter" for showrooms for a secret new car coming out called a... Lexus. We built scores of full size mockups in a huge building next Toyota USA up in Torrance. Oddly my dealer dosn't really look like that cookie cutter.

Jim, I can't open the pdf's, and lenores numbers sound good is close emough plus some. If you need to justify the difference in your head. Overall your front brakes take far more stress and strain than the back. Thats why they have bigger calipers, rotors etc. Regards, PK

Ditto Above, also; 1 point thought is in some circles, with some cars cool, air intake are more than a little controvrtial. In my othere car they seem to give a 50/50 chance of creating more problems. ..CEL's and everything but hp. Regards,PK

The last time I went to Autozone was to pick up an oil drain pan. The scholar at the checkout said "what’s this thing?" … Yup, MAP. MAF they do pretty much the same. When I've cleaned them. it's a pretty delicate job to treat (sensor) like a jewel and treat it with CRC spray. It's, 50/50. Ya done better? lets here all here about it ...oohh...oops ok. Is the car "semi exotic"? as I stated, it's a "Toyota in Japan and AU" I also said it's a Camery motor. Not an exotic? Read about the’90 Ferrari Variocam, then the Porsche GT’s ‘90’s Variocam, then, the Lexus/Camery…Variocam. The sophistication of a modern motors is…semi exotic. Want to argue, get you facts from the new Autozone Book, build your car and lets race! Regards. PK

5z6 dude,azureloki, Yes in hind sight I am being harsh on azureloki, my apologies, bad mood. But having completely maintained most everything on my own cars (which always have include exotic & semi exotics), I cringed at the total lack of diagnosis and the reliance on the erroneous advice of an Autozone employee (most of whom have ever held a wrench) to come up with a solution. Before I read the outcome I said to myself "what a disaster" So, heres some straight talk, hopefully positive. azureloki probably mucked up his MAP sensor with the swill. Remedying that problem should expose the original problem through CEL and corresponding OBCII codes. Now you are on the road to a proper diagnosis and solution. It's likely to involve some delicate sensor at fault, or it could be as simple as a plug wire. I guarantee though the solution won't involve sloshing swill down the cars gullet. So Apologies azureloki, now what do you do? Semi-exotic automotive repair is probably not your calling. You need someone whose calling it is. preferably versed in your car to make make proper repairs. For me, the dealer is not the place to go as they are about twice the price of indie (independent) shops and if you know your car well, you realize they don't really, just dish out lots of B.S. As for an Indie shops, there around, so are Toyota shops (which your car is in japan & AU....even has a Camary engine). Take an auto-knowledgeable friend to sus out the right shop. There, hope that's helpful. A little tough love but no other way to put it. Regards, PK P.S. I'm dyslexic, probably a million mistakes here, I don't pretend to be a writer, you should not play mechanic...I bet your a writer...LOL

Don't know what you hood says but modern juices are generally ok up to 100k. I personally see know reason to push it though. I've seen enough 100k juices fail. They seem to solve short run problems they know of but ignore "late in life" ones they never had. I'd find the TSB's for the car as it's 5 years old and see if any thing is changed. Lexus has not been above class action lawsuits (they lost, so did I by 6 months) due in part to these very sorts of claims Regards, PK

I'd put my money on something primitive like the ignition, maybe even plug wires. PK

Is this a joke? Stay away from you engine compartment an find yourself a decent mechanic. This isn't your granddads tractor, or papas 72 riviera. As with most contemporary cars your performance is dictated by dozens of highly accurate sensors and that feedback through a computer to manage your engine with precision. You don't just dump kerosene, STP, or the zit cream the autozones 19 yr. old "expert " recommends, into the throttle body. What made you think your throttle body was dirty? If it was, you have bigger problems like an air filter and blow-by My guess is you screwed up you MAP. You should of have a check engine lite with a stream of fault codes, which will tell you what your mechanic what the problem really is. p

Hard to know what else to suggest. Strong logic. So here anther tact. I'll tell you what I do first on my Porsche, Take out related relays (maybe ECU to) trlated to component and smack them on the ground. This can do two things, knock a stuck relay loose or dislodges some noncunductice crud from the contact surfaces. When you find the culprit, use you problem solving skills to take it apart and clean the contacts. While your at it, every wire socket puled off should be pulled on and of several times to make sure a good connection made between the 2. Hope it works, practically never fails on my car. PK

Why do you think it's the water pump? Maybe this car is different from every other car I've maintained but, a water pump will be leaking and making a racked loooong before it stops pumping water and when it does it will be a completely stop pumping water and you won't be running warm you'll be completely roasting. I would look into more common causes like the thermostat, get a radiator flush, have them sniff the overflow tank for CO2. You can also go to the SC 400 section and post ""why is my car over heating" might be something sc 400 specific. PK

Its probably inside the door on the latch mechanism. PK

Sounds like it could be a bad or corroded battery connection. All the bells and whistles in your car don't draw much current and will work fine. The starter however needs tons and any fouled connections will restrict the current. cccclick. Regards, PK

You can call Toyota central and get your name in there register. The issue you raised is mine and I didn't get a warm feeling about my chances. I've other denied for the same. No receipts. Further, I think the window for a claim was about 2 years ago. Somwhere online is a copy of the actual settlement. Regards, PK

Your right, nothing to loose,just have to find my manual. Electronic these days are a hoot. if you think about it, they don't really buy you much that your moms station wagon did. But moms station wagon could be fixed with$3.50 and a trip to radio shack Regards, PK

Hate to but in but...dude We have back window that really goes nuts so that we have to keep the windows on child lock. all the other windows seem to be fine (when unlocked). Do you think an un-neutralized system could effect just one window? Regards, PK

i'm watchin because I have a vested interest. It would seem the trick is to replicate what hapeens in the washing machine however you can , bucket of hot water and detergent? However it would make perfect sense if the mats were a totally different weave/material made to be easily cleaned. Regards, PK

Just driver the livn' 'ell out of it. take your five bucks out in tire rubber. PK

Then my ebay key ought to work to...except my dealers a #$@%, Thanks all, PK

Thanks, $40, not to bad. The jacket... this I have to see. PK

THanks, My wife will love you. PK

That interesting. I was a bit dubious about a $15 OEM key. $85 for a new key is pretty goo. I haven't done anything with our old one really. I will say the current key is duct taped together and though wobbly, works fine. On closer inspection, the old key looks like a phenolic resin. Won't bore you why, but you can't really glue it. This eBay job appears to be a commodity plastic which will glue with the right solvent glue (melts the plastic)...ABS pipe cement is crude but is usually fairly universal. If I'm right, I should be able to brake the shaft out of the fake and bond the old one in withe its chip and circuitry. Regards, PK

I bought a brand new shell with an uncut shaft and buttons on ebay for about $25 awhile ago. As I recall, someone was unloading lots of them...maybe still are. Regards, PK

I'd look for ice caked up on one ore more of your wheels. Regards, PK