RoboRam12

I use 5W-30 Mobile Clean 5000 and I picked up 6 OEM filters a while back for a good price. That's pretty much what I stick with, and I change my oil every 3500-4000 miles even though it is supposed to be 5000 mile oil. It costs $2.99/qt which is why I don't mind changing it more often.

My dad wasn't too fond of the stock Goodyears, so now he has settled on the Falken Ziex ZE-912. It's a good tire, they can usually be found for under $100 a tire if you shop around. Our car has 16 inch Lexus rims, but not the stock ones that came with the car. The stock 17 inch wheels were bent and there were no wheels of the same kind available anymore when they were replaced. But these 16 inch rims use the tire size 225/55R16.

THANKS FOR THE RESPONSE...tail light sounds like a piece of cake. For the head light, the Caution in the owners manual sounds like I might get a shock if I try to do it myself. Do I wear a complete rubber suit? Haha nah, just unplug the battery before you do it and you won't have any problems.

I've already replaced a few tail light bulbs, it's pretty easy. On the outside facing part of the light, if you look to the inside, around the seal for the trunk, you will notice two covers. Pop them both off on each tail light assembly and remove the bolts. Then you just need a 10mm wrench to get the nuts off, there is one included in the cars tool kit. Once you get them started, you can turn them by hand to get them off, using the wrench the whole way would be silly. Once you have those two nuts and the other two bolts removed, pull the whole light back and off, but be careful, the electrical wires don't have a lot of slack to them. I would recommend just taking the tools with you and going to Napa or whatever and just changing them in the parking lot, shouldn't take more than 5 minutes or so. Now I can't remember exactly what the bulb numbers are, so you should take out the ones you need replaced and take them in with you so you can get the right ones. I can post pictures later when I get home if you need them, but it really is quite simple. I do not know how to change the low beam headlight though, hopefully someone else can explain that.

Nah, it's not quite a whistle, it's weird to explain. It really only seems to happen after the car has sat overnight and the low has been under 25F. Doesn't really worry me though, I've heard a lot worse come from a transmission, and it disappears once things start to warm up. The transmission in my moms Odyssey sounds like it has straight cut gears sometimes, like something out of a race car.

I get it as well, it's a weird noise, almost like something you hear in one of those hearing tests at the doctors office. I thought it was my speakers acting up at first, but I'm pretty sure it's coming from the transmission or something in the drivetrain. Plus that makes the most sense considering it goes away after driving a while and things get up to operating temps.

I don't have the 2001 manual, but I have the 2000 version. Oil viscosity is recommended as 5W-30, which is pretty much standard for every year during the second generation of the GS 300. And instead of typing out the instructions for the garage door opener, I took some pictures from the manual. If they aren't easy to read, coming from the '98 Complete Owner's Manual, you can look at the instructions here (.PDF). As for original documents, I would either look for members who have extras or contact your local Lexus dealership.

Check for loose vacuum hoses as well. I had a whistling noise that would show up when I got off the gas after accelerating which was due to a vacuum hose.

I'll second the hood release cable, had that problem last summer, very annoying to deal with. Everything else seems like regular maintenance, but what is this about the water pump? My car is about to tick off 140k miles, and when I get the inspection renewed this month I've got a long list of things I want looked at.

Yeah, just go under the car and see if you can move anything by hand. We have had 3 or 4 other brackets on the exhaust system rust and break causing the same rattle, all have been replaced. This most recent one is a bit more tricky though.

Hmmm, ok. It's really taken a hit from the elements, the end where the rattle is coming from is rusted and is missing a few sizable chunks. I was hoping it would be easily fixed with a hose clamp or something, but there might not be much left to clamp on to.

Alright, so it was a combination of things. The oil filter was loose causing a slow leak, fixed that. However, the plastic cover under the engine was filled with dried up oil and other gunk, which made the leftover oil that spilled there spread over everything making it look worse than it really was. So the only leak was the oil filter, that was tightened up and the oil was topped off. However, when I was under the car I found the piece that was causing a really bad exhaust rattle at idle. The best way I can describe it is that it is a heat shield that covers the exhaust as it goes from 2 pipes to 1, where one of the O2 sensors is. So that needs to get taken off/replaced, any idea where I can order that part from?

I did put oil around the gasket, but I can go and try to hand tighten the filter a little more. I was a little wary about it because I knew not to over tighten it. The car just hit 134k miles.

I just did an oil change yesterday. Normally we would just take it to Firestone and they put a Kendell synthetic blend in. But I wanted to do it myself and I switched to Pennzoil full synthetic. Before I changed it I noticed the oil level was about halfway between the low dot and the full dot, and yesterday I noticed some oil spots being left under the car. At the time I just assumed it was residual oil from when I replaced the oil filter, but when I checked the level this morning it was halfway between low and full again. So my question is, where should I be looking for a leak, and can this be solved by going to a petroleum oil?

The autopsy reported that he had heart disease and died of a heart attack in his sleep. The blow to the head did not cause his death, it was just an extreme coincidence. You just can't replace his personality though, he showed his true colors on Pitchmen.