cduluk

Hey everyone, i think there's something wrong with my Rx400h but wanted to see what you all thought. The temperatures are starting to get warm here in RI and for a few weeks or so i've been using the A/C. However today (~65 degrees F and rainy) i noticed a strange "humming" sound coming from the engine compartment above 5MPH only when i have the "A/C" button set to ON. Once i go below 5mph it turns off, and it also turns off when the A/C is off. But once i go above 5MPH with the A/C ON, the hum returns. I also noticed that the gas pedal was "vibrating" while the car was humming. And since the hum disappears when the car is stopped, i can't find out where it's coming from... just somewhere in the engine compartment. I have never in the past 3 years of ownership heard or FELT this humming before. And it's not the engine cooling fans as they are operating normally and it's not the new hum i'm hearing. This happened consistently for a 30min trip, half highway and half city. When i got home, i noticed another noise which is "familiar" to the Rx400h ( which i usually hear only once and a while when the A/C is ON)- it sounds like a mini chainsaw, or "buzz" sound. It now happens whenever the A/C is ON, whether i'm moving or not. In the past i've heard this noise every once a while, but it's never stayed on for such long periods of time. The gauge cluster engine temp gauge read normal, also. When i inspected under the hood, i noticed my engine coolant was a bit low, so i topped it off. It only took 2 glass-fulls to top it off, so i don't think i was "that" low. I then noticed a strange pipe with ICE on it. A LOT of ice. Once the car was turned off, in about 10 mins the ice started to melt. I've never noticed this thing covered with ice before, so i don't know if it's normal or not. The outside temp is about 65 F and i had the interior temp set to 73 with LOW fan speed... Honestly i didn't think the A/C should be stressing much! Here are some pics of the iced part: What do you guys think is going on? What could this humming sound be? And why the ice? Thanks for any input!

Sorry to hear that lemon :( Enjoy the new MDX and as the others said, be sure to check in with us! I'll be sure to keep the inverter and transmission issue under close watch- hopefully we don't get into the same mess you unfortunately had to! And let's see some pics of the Acura!!

Well i still haven't gotten tires yet... (I've been incredibly lazy lately). Have any new tires been introduced since the last time i posted? LOL. Rx400h and lemon, is this un-even tire wear on the Paradas something i should avoid? How bad we talking? I'm planning to make a few phone calls to tire places around here tomorrow to see what they've got in stock or to see if they need to be ordered. I'm hoping they can find a good price.

Well, the water pump and timing belt are expensive maintenance items, so it's good they've already been replaced! ^_^ And as for the inverter, mine is leaking at 4yrs old and 70k miles, and many other Rx400h owners on here have had the same issue. So, similarly it's good that it's been replaced! So i take it yours has about 67k miles on it (with the warranty ending at 100k miles)? Putting 12k a year, the warranty should end in close to 3 years, when the car's 9 years old- not bad! Just as long as you have a warranty, you shouldn't have to worry about anything. Congrats on the purchase and good luck with it! I love mine- and i haven't heard of anyone who doesn't like theirs! It's a beautiful car and gives such a comfortable ride... not much to complain about. Too bad it doesn't have nav though- the back-up camera is such a treat! I know it's "possible" to add the OEM nav into a non-nav RX, but it's very costly... And as for other mods, you can see the links in my signature below or go onto eBay and search "Rx400h"- lots of aftermarket stuff should pop up for it! Be sure to post pictures when it arrives and welcome to the club!

Well, that would be me (driving a little harder)! Looks like the Parada's will be the choice! We like the Paradas. You mentioned you wanted a summer tire, but most of the ones on your list are all season tires, including the Paradas. They're good in the slop, unless you live in extreme snow country, you won't need winter tires. I actually couldn't find any summer-only tires in this size... do you know of any?

I second this!! The ultimate compound is AMAZING- when first applied it's aggressive but after a few seconds the compound must "break down" a bit, giving a nice shine you'd expect from a very gentle polish. Usually, you'd cut the car with an aggressive compound (leaving the paint very dull) then cut the car with a more gentle polish to bring out the shine. But the ultimate compound does both at the same time. As for waxes, the best i've found is Collinite's insulator wax. It's incredibly durable...

Well, that would be me (driving a little harder)! Looks like the Parada's will be the choice!

Lenore and Rx400h, do your Parada's seem to be wearing well? In my research it appears the wear rate is quite high- but, considering i only use these tires for 6 months/year it probably won't be a problem... Mikli, do you have any experience with the tires you mention? It doesn't appear that cost is much different between any of these tires; i'd rather spend an extra $100 for a set if they'll give me a quieter and better ride. I figure since i'll never be in the snow, i should be able to find one that's a bit quieter (it seems to be that tires good in snow=loud and vice versa).

Hey guys, I have both a winter set and summer set of tires/rims, and my summer set is due to be replaced. Can anyone help me decide which tires to get? I searched the forum and it seems that everyone seems to like the "Yokohama Parada Spec-X", but i'm not sure if there's something better out now. I went on Tirerack.com and made a chart comparing the top picks by "Survey" responses. I am mainly looking for minimal road noise and stability/dry traction. I will never take these in the snow... I had a set of Dueler Alenza's on my old RX300 (which were the best at the time in that tire size) however the Alenza's in the RX400h's tire size (235/55/18) are rated poorly in road noise (which is important to me). And what's with these Firestone Destination tires?? Never thought Firestone would be rated highly in any category... Please chime in with any suggestions! Thanks in advance!

Are you serious?? Because you didn't beep the horn? I never learned that we needed to do that in drivers ed LOL. I'm glad they gave you the 10% after though, better late than never! Yes, so according to the folks at Allstate, if you're sitting at a light and the person in front of you decides to put the car in reverse and slam ito you, you have to beep your horn before they do or you are partly at fault. When Allstate says in their commercial that they will "fight for you", they mean to say that they will twist the law in any possible way to make sure payout is never 100% to the owner of the car you plowed into. In your case, the proximity of the other car and the fact that you normally would not have to worry about backing out of your driveway made the blamed party designation a bit of a tough call. Of course, if your insurance company were Allstate, they would've stated that the owner of car into which you drove should've installed an infrared warning device with 110dB siren. At least then, Allstate could've saved 10% for a year or so......... :) Thankfully, your car's bumber looks new again. Damn.. just my luck LOL. I'm just glad my car's fixed- you can't tell from the pictures but the shop did a superb job. I'm thinking of ordering one of those back-up sensor kits someone posted about a few weeks ago.

Hey guys, I was scrolling through eBay tonight and something caught my eye... The picture of the RX300 with the grill guard for one of the items on eBay looked awfully familiar... so i clicked it! Here is the link: http://www.ebay.com/...d1a2928&vxp=mtr Half way down the page they have more pictures of their item. And from their website: http://www.suvdressup.com/2006_09_LEXUS_RX400H_HYBRID_GRILLE_GUARD_p/lx-0609-rx400h-gg-ss-fslash-b.htm They stole my gosh darn pictures! I took these pics of my RX300 a few years ago, and posted them in several places on the web, including on here and on my RX300's cardomain site. Here are my originals. And here's my cardomain site, which i put together back in 2008... http://www.cardomain...4/2003-lexus-rx I guess i should be flattered?! What do you guys think? LOL

I got the car last Thursday- the work came out perfect! The car's a bit dirty but you get the idea. ^_^ katzjamr, unfortunately didn't save the black bumper cover. :(

Thankfully we have the Lexus extended warranty which expires in July 2013, I believe. I noticed that the TSB above is listed for the 06-07 RX400h- do you think this would apply to the 08? I could picture having to argue with my dealer about the year as they seem to be so clueless about these things LOL...

Dp

SW, was there a deductible? I had such bad luck when replacing the windshield on my RX300 a few years ago, as we tried the $200 "aftermarket" route. They replaced it at least 3 times but every piece of glass had some type of defect in it; the first was wavy on one side, the second was wavy on the other, etc. Good thing you're going OEM! I think it's also a good idea that you're having it done through Lexus just in case you keep the ES and want them to warranty it; I know sometimes that replacement windshields can crack due to being put in incorrectly... you know the average shop would never warranty a replacement like Lexus!

I don't think the brake light switch would have any control over when power is sent to the electric motors. I'm thinking it could be the stroke sensor, speed sensor, throttle position sensor, transmission range sensor etc. - likely some combination of all of that and more. In this particular case, since stepping harder on the brake pedal makes the power stop, maybe it's related to the stroke sensor in the brake pedal? It's funny you should mention that because I'm still having an issue with that "farting" noise when I depress the brake pedal all the way. It seems to happen more when the outside temperatures are low, but I'm not sure what's causing it. I wonder if these issues are related? Do you guys think this is worth showing the dealer? If it's happening to some of you too then it might be "normal", but still, it's odd.

Hey guys, I took this picture (at rest) the other day because i wanted to show my mom this ES350 (since she's in the market for a car) and i noticed that the "electric motor" indicator was ON in both the gauge cluster LCD and on the center console "Energy Monitor" of my Rx400h. This diagram usually appears when the electric motors are sending electricity to the wheels. I was in "drive" but completely stopped at rest, with my foot firmly on the brake pedal. I thought this was odd so i tried to make a note to look at the energy monitor when at rest at different dates, and it seems that 60% of the time, even at rest with my foot firmly on the brake pedal, the monitor indicates that the electric motor is sending power to the wheels. Sometimes, if i press the brake pedal even further, it will stop- but sometimes not. I've checked and there's no correlation between these events and the rear brake lights; meaning i could be on the brake pedal with the rear brake lights ON, and yet the energy monitor is sending e- to the wheels. Has anyone else noticed this on the Rx400h? Seems strange to me... Thanks for any input!

Are you serious?? Because you didn't beep the horn? I never learned that we needed to do that in drivers ed LOL. I'm glad they gave you the 10% after though, better late than never! Unfortunately in my situation i'm at fault (according to the police). They claim i could have seen the car and that i backed out of my own driveway too close to the edge... I didn't feel like arguing; i'll let the insurance companies argue it out. We dropped the Rx400h off at my favorite body shop, and we got a call the other day from our insurance company. They quoted $2,500 to fix it LOL. Since our shop's covering the deductible, they gave the shop $2,000. It doesn't look more than $800 to me, but what do i care... This body shop does AMAZING work, absolutely amazing. Hopefully i should get it back next week! I agree completely! But unfortunately for me, on the police report it seems to indicate it was my fault. When i was talking to the cop about who's fault it was, he said "Let the insurance companies figure it out." And i think my shop's gonna use the bumper protector, but if they use a new one i'll definitely ask for the old one back. For $2,000 they'd better! :whistles:

I agree, it just becomes a habit. My neighbor was holding a party and there were cars parked on both sides of the street. Of course, one of them had its nose at the edge of my driveway enterance, and boom, i hit it. It was totally dark out- there was no way i was avoiding this unless it was during the day. The back-up camera probably wouldn't have helped much, since it was on the side (at the end of my driveway i just looked out the back window, which was clear). The worst part was walking over and finding out who's car it was... The police report reads "Car A reverses into car B (stationary) at 90 degree angle", which of course i am car A. The other car (camry) had a little more damage than mine; smashed side marker, fender and bumper. Mine just needs a new bumper and rear side marker. The car's at the auto-body shop as we speak- should be done early next week. Thankfully as you guys already mentioned, at least it was a car and not a person... At least a person would know not to cross my driveway when they see me backing up though!

Just a reminder to everyone, to watch out for strangers cars parked behind you at night. That is all...

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but has any of the Lexus's paint been removed either to the primer or black plastic? If so, like SW said above the bumper will need to be removed, sanded, primed, colored and cleared. However if all of the Lexus' color paint is still there, the white transfer may be wetsanded away, and the Lexus' clearcoat (clear layer of paint over the color coat) may be compounded and polished if there's enough left. But if there are scratches in the clearcoat (too deep to be compounded yet not deep enough that they go into the color coat) you may do a clear blend after wetsanding the white away just on the area affected. Clearcoated Lexus bumpers can be clear blended VERY well (I've done it myself with 100% perfection on my RX). This would however require $100 in spot panel clear+activator+blender or/reducer, an airbrush, air compressor, and a lot of masking tape and newspaper (to cover the rest of the car from overspray). If you have all of these materials and the patience to do a clear blend, it's worth a shot. But this only works if all your color coat is there. You cannot color blend a small repair as easily as doing a small clear blend. Is the car painted black or that dark blue? If it's black it might not even be clearcoated (you'd have to check). If it's not clearcoated that's awesome as you can do a single stage color blend and use the method above (just with the black color instead of clear). To have the bumper removed and completely repainted will cost between $300-$600.

Could you use your spare? You could then use a reman/used one for your spare.

Year/make/model? Most likely you'll have to remove console and try to fix any broken parts by taking it apart...

Ahh yes, I forgot to mention the "hump" near the pedal. And another thing I forgot to mention about the IS250: The A/C "fan speed": it seemed that even when set to "HI", the fan speed seemed very low. With my Rx400h, if you set the fan speed to HI, it comes out with a lot of umph! But no matter the temperature you set it to, the fan speed on the IS was simply too low. Has anyone else with an IS noticed this?

It looks great! Does it seem to work well?