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cduluk

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Everything posted by cduluk

  1. WOW! I wish i lived near you, i'd have you detail my car. It's clear you detail with LOVE. My car needs a lot of love, it's only been washed ONCE all winter and it needs detailing BADLY.
  2. Yes. The 1991 Es250 came with a 2.5L engine. The 2008 GS comes with several engine variants, 3.5L, 4.6L, and the hybrid.
  3. Do you have experience having damage like this repaired successfully with PDR? Maybe I'm wrong, but I really don't think that would work. I had some hail damage and a few door dings repaired that way on my 1998 LS400 a couple of weeks ago. The tech who did the work told me he was glad there were no dings in the "dog leg" area where this damage is located- he told me it is particularly difficult to access with regular tools and sometimes not even possible. I suppose they could cover up the rest of the damage with body filler- but I don't know how long that would last. They drill a small hole behind the area in the wheel well, then push the dent out with what looks like a coat hanger... works pretty well, i've seen it done. They then install a small rubber plug to prevent water from getting inside the hole. <_<
  4. Woah, those look AWESOME! Definitely much brighter than the ones i retrofitted into mine. I think i might have to get me a pair of these! <_<
  5. They wouldn't need to replace the rear 1/4 panel. They'll have their PDR guy push the dent out from behind, then they'll sand all of the rust off and bondo the surface smooth, then prime, and paint.
  6. It must have been re-painted at some point under poor conditions. You can notice the paint "pooling" around the windshield washer nozzle. The only solution is to have it re-painted. As soon as the clear has started etching, pitting, blistering or peeling, it needs to be sanded down to the primer or base metal, be re-primed, colored and cleared. Since it's a gold metallic, they'll most likely need to color blend into the fenders as well, and re-clear the hood and fenders. You're looking at about AT LEAST $600-$1000 for all that. If they did the hood alone (which i wouldn't recommend as they'll have a tough time matching the aged paint to the fenders), $600 sounds about right considering the labor they'd need to put into it, to get rid of the damaged paint. :(
  7. Are they going to repair the scratches on the rear door as well? Or just touch them up? If they're going to repair the door as well, they'd need to color-blend the rear 1/4 panel into the rear door and clear coat the entire rear 1/4 panel (all the way up to the trunk and all the way across the top down to where it meets the front fender) and clear coat the rear door. If they're not going to repair the scratches on the rear door, they'd do a small color blend from the damaged area onto the rest of the 1/4 panel. Since it's low, they wouldn't need to worry about it matching with the rear door as long as they mix the paint correctly. Then they'd need to clear the entire rear 1/4 panel... $250 sounds right if they're just going to repair the 1/4 panel. BUT, maybe a little too cheap if they're going to clear the entire 1/4 panel all the way across the top to the front fender. That's a LOT of clear coat. My guess is that they're planning on doing a clear-blend rather than clearing the entire 1/4 panel. Uses a lot less clear which costs a lot less. They'd feather the edge right about level with the fuel door... so not clearing the entire panel. They might be able to wet-sand and polish the feathered edge out, but with age it'll reappear. Best solution is to clear the entire panel after doing a color-blend. But realistically, that's about $500+
  8. I have to agree that Toyota and Lexus seem to be lowering the overall quality of materials in their recent models. Get in any new Corolla, Rav4 or Highlander, and you'll notice all the interior parts are of hard plastic. The older generations used "softer" vinyl covered parts, which in my opinion make the cars interiors feel more luxurious. This is also true for the 06-11 IS's and RX's... I think they're slacking.
  9. Is the sensor dirty? Has the vehicle been in an accident of any kind? Also, does it go off at higher speeds, or only at crawl speeds in traffic? And has this just started happening? Or has this been an issue since you've owned it?
  10. year? model? You posted this thread in the 07-11 LS460 section, and your signature lists your models as GS350 and ES300. Solution all depends on the model/year of the car.
  11. NOOO!!!! RX330 you say?? Is it AWD or FWD? This is a known issue with the previous generation Rx's, from 99-03, but we all thought the re-designed transmission for the 04-present Rx was fixed. I hope this is only an isolated incident... I've never heard of a premature transmission failure on the 04-09 Rx330/350/400h until now.
  12. Wait... you bought it, and the very same night when you turned the headlights ON, they didn't work? So whoever sold you the car sold it with the headlights NOT working? I'm pretty sure this is illegal... If it was working after you bought it, then stopped working several days later, i'd say you might be out of luck- but if someone sold you a car without working headlights, then i'd go back to that dealer and demand they look into it.
  13. Just because the speedometer may be reading a speed higher than actual, doesn't mean the odometer is incorrect. With these cars using analog speedometers and digital odometers, the two aren't actually "proportional". There isn't a single gear moving the needle and the odometer at the same time (like on old fashioned gauges)... With today's gauges, the needles are given different "pulses" of electricity to make them read certain values. It takes more electricity to get them moving from a stop than it does to move from 20 to a different reading, and it takes a different polarity of energy to make them move in the opposite direction. There's just a computer that reads signals from the sensor that detects wheel spin (actually located in the transmission), which then creates the appropriate "pulses" of electricity required to move the speedometer needle to the desired spot. And there's an entirely different computer that controls which digits are displayed on the odometer, again using information from the sensor detecting wheel spin. So, if you were to knock out the computer that controls the needle position, your ODO would still be working. The only way BOTH the needle and ODO could be reading incorrectly is if the sensor was reading incorrectly, which i doubt is the case. Car manufactures purposefully adjust the needle motor computer so that it reads a bit higher. They know how much to tune the needle motor, and they do this by controlling the "pulses" going to the motor- NOT by designing their wheel rotation sensors to read incorrectly. Has anyone tried to measure the "odometer" for accuracy?
  14. Glad it worked out! But you must also post pictures of the lights!
  15. What are you asking? The Rx300 fuel tank holds around 19 gallons. The gas mileage for 2WD (miles per gallon) if I remember correctly is around 19 city and 24 highway.
  16. This feature isn't available for Rx's sold in the US... Some European and South American Rx's come from the factory with the ability to display these lines, but ours cannot. :(
  17. I said a luxury line that competes with and beats MB and BMW. I don't think Lincoln-Mercury are even close! Do you? Not even a LITTLE! :P I think that was Ford's goal though, but it never happened... Ford did well with the Aston Martin, but it's not really in competition with, well, anything. They tried with Range Rover, maybe Volvo, but i guess their best success was Jaguar.
  18. Ford does have a luxury line, two actually- Lincoln and Mercury...
  19. I agree it's "possible" to allow cars to travel at higher speeds, but considering the fact that just about "anyone" can get behind the wheel, it's not safe. If the selection process for deciding who can drive and who cannot was a little more strict, i'd see no harm in it. If only professional drivers were allowed to drive, things would be better controlled. Of course, cars would have to be redesigned to handle such speeds and prevent hydroplaning etc. This theory has already been proven with air travel. Some planes have been built to travel 3 times the speed of sound very safely, if piloted by professionals. Now, put your average Joe in the cockpit of a 747 and it's a different story...
  20. I actually remember a specific Kia commercial, where they revealed certain angles of the car while the narrator said things like, "it's not a Jaguar, it's not a Mercedes, it's a Kia..." Kia Amanti. Price new: $26,000-$29,000 Jaguar S-Type. Price new: $49,000-$62,000 Mercedes E-class. Price new: $47,000-$60,000 I mean, COME ON!
  21. SW, I thought about suggesting replacment of the entire overhead console with one from the 07-09 ES, but he'd lose the Lexus connect functions new for 2010. I'm sure one could mix and match parts of the consoles but it might be a lot of work. Lexus did eliminate the 07-09 LED overhead consoles because the smaller 3 3mm LED's proved not bright enough... Why Lexus didn't just "upgrade" the LED's to larger ones amazes me, but my guess is that money had something to do with that decision to go back to halogen. The overhead dome light bulbs are probably in size 175, which is a very unusual size Lexus likes to use. The closest replacment LED bulb available is in size T10 which fits sizes 194, 168 and 2825. The only issue is that some of these LED replacment bulbs may be too large to fit in the overhead reflectors. And some may not be 360 degree types which would limit their performance. You really need to open up the console and see how the bulbs are aligned. If they're facing directly down, you may have better luck finding a nice replacement LED.
  22. What do you mean by white HDMI? The headlight low beams use Philips 4300k D4S HID bulbs, while the high beam/DRL uses probably 9005/9006 halogen. Does your ES have factory HID low beams? These can be changed to HID's but the high beams cannot be changed to HID. The fog lights can be changed to HID but you will need a kit with ballasts and new HID bulbs. You need to check which size dome light bulb your ES has, as there are several. They do make dome light LED bulbs and they come in different sizes depending on how much room you have in the reflector. You need to open the housing up and see how much room you have available. And what step lights are you talking about, the ones on the interior door panels that illuminate when the doors are open? And the same is for the mirror lights. You need to open them up and see how much room you have to decide on which LED bulb will fit. Some LED bulbs have a single LED while some have 4 or so. Depending on how much room is in the reflector, you may be able to fit some and not others. You really need to open these parts up and see how much room you have. <_< There's no straight answer as to which LED bulbs you can replace them with, as there are many to choose from.
  23. My pleasure <_<
  24. I don't believe Lexus offers one for the 04-09 rx350/400h... There are several aftermarket nudge bars available for the Rx400h, but i can't seem to find the location of the one i have. The website i got it from is no longer there. See here: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=58110 I bought a total of 2 nudge bars, the same type. I got the first in '09 and at the end of last year i saw a duplicate on ebay for a really good price, so i bought it. It was from the same company, he just said he was getting rid of old stock so he threw it on ebay. Here's a scan of the receipt, maybe some of the info will help? you could try sending them an email, www.seko-s.de
  25. Hyundai has proved they can make a pretty damn good car for an even better price. If they only changed the name... If the Lexus lineup had a Toyota badge, my guess is that they would be having the same problem. It might be difficult for an LS owner to say they drive a car from the same manufacturer who makes the Tercel. I mean, they really "do", but it's the name that makes the difference when they tell their friends. It must also be hard for the driver of the Equus or Genesis to say they drive a car from the same manufacturer who makes the Sonata... There's really no shame in buying one (i mean heck, you're getting a lot of bang for the buck), it's just that they don't get the same prestige that comes with a name like Lexus, BMW, Mercedes and such... It's sad, but it's just the way it is.
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