cduluk

Oh i feel your pain, my Rx was severely keyed this past summer, hood, fender, entire drivers side... It all had to be repainted, took over a month to do but it came out great. Are you sure the scratch is only in the clear and not through to the color coat? If the scratch is indeed only in the clear, the whole area can be re-clear coated. They'd just lightly wetsand the entire area, and spray. After several coats the imperfection in the clear will be filled. But there's no way to re-fill the scratch with clear without clearing the entire area... But if the scratch is through the clear and into the color, re-clearing the area won't work, as you'll always see the primer below. You'd need to color and clear and blend the entire area. Speaking of which, where is the damage? Is it only on the bumper? If so, i'd just have the entire thing re-painted. I just had my local body shop paint a bumper and they charged me $200, but i've been customers of theirs for a while... Can you post pictures? Definitely do whatever it takes to get it repaired right, because if not you'll forever be annoyed by it... :(

I emailed the service manager today telling him about the scratches and emailed some pictures. He said he would look for a better one and get back to me. So that's good! =)

The magic eraser won't help me here, the paint is too thin :( I'll have to call the service manager tomorrow (i was too busy today...) about getting another one.

Hey NC, I'm sure everything will turn out OK <_< Main thing is that he's surrounded with people that love and care for him, that's all he needs to get better!

Is your Rx AWD or 2WD? The AWD version is the one that you should be worried about. Watching the transmission fluid is about all you can do, just as long as it stays pink and doesn't smell burned you should be OK. There have been owners on here that had transmission failures below 100k miles, while other owners are still trouble free at the 200k mark. If the fluid begins to appear dark, do a drain and fill every once and a while and you should be OK. There is a timing belt, which should be changed anywhere between 90k miles and 120k miles. At the same time it's recommended that you replace the water pump since it's in the same general area. Take a look at it for wear and tear... The Rx300 does not require high octane gas, but it might help prevent build up, causing premature sensor failures. When i had my Rx300 i would always put the mid-grade gas in. Never had any problems... And you can choose whichever oil you like, just make sure to change it more often with non-synthetic. I've never heard Lexus doing ANYTHING for free though... I had the transmission fluid on my Rx300 flushed at a toyota dealer for a lot cheaper than what the Lexus dealer was asking. There were a lot of changes to the 01-03 Rx300. It's believed on here that the transmission was somehow "fixed" for the 2001/2002 model year, but personally i think it's a load of bull. Pretty much only cosmetic changes for 2001-2003 such as headlights, taillights, spoiler, colors, interior chrome, wood, optional nav etc... And not sure what issue about the keys you're speaking of... Do you mean programming? As long as you have one master key, you can program up to 3 additional master keys. Just don't lose all of them or you're in trouble. Welcome to the site and good luck with the RX :) It's a beautiful car, and as long as you keep up with the maintenance it should last you a good while.

I agree, i can't accept it the way it is... I went over the radio with a damp cloth and applied 2 coats of some imperial glaze i use on the exterior paint. It made the scratches a "little" less noticeable, but it also made the silver shiny. So there's nothing i can do :( I'll be making a phone call monday lol...

Like i said in an earlier post, Thursday afternoon (around 2pm) the service manager called me to say he still hadn't found a donor car, and suggested i pick the car up Friday and return it whenever he could find one with decent parts. Friday morning (yesterday) at 10am my service advisor left me a voicemail (i was sleeping) stating, "whatever you discussed with 'the service manager's name' is all set and the car's finished, so you can pick the car up whenever you can." I just assumed that yet again she was out of the loop, considering the previous evening i was told a donor car wasn't located yet. But when i picked the car up, the car was actually finished! My service advisor told me he was able to locate an 08 Rx350 on the CPO lot with decent enough parts so he did the swap. They replaced (well, switched) the nav unit, nav screen, shifter plate, and ENTIRE vinyl covered piece that goes around the shifter. However.... the parts aren't entirely in "new" condition. The radio has a few light scratches around the volume dial and seek buttons (probably caused by fingernails while rotating the dial, and keys rubbing on the buttons) and there's some dust behind the radio LCD. The "climate" button on the nav part is really shiny compared to the rest (since it's used most often) and the parts smell like cigarette smoke (most likely from a smoker's car). I asked if these were the best parts he could find, and my service advisor told me that they were... So i just said fine and drove away. When i got home, i noticed the nav screen was a little misaligned. I noticed the same thing on my original unit, but this one was REALLY bad. It was missing a good 1/8" of the screen on the left and i couldn't see the bottom of the lower icons. So i removed the parts from the car and tried to re-align the nav screen myself. With a little dremeling and sanding, i was able to adjust the brackets that hold the screen in place. Now the screen's centered like it should be and it looks PERFECT! Actually better than it did before :) I also worked on that shiny "climate" button. I masked off the entire nav unit except for the buttons, and sand blasted them all with this little glass etcher thing i picked up at Michael's a long time ago. It removed the shine and brought the buttons back to their original matte finish. As far as the radio goes though, i can't remove the scratches on the silver... The piece is made from black plastic with a VERY, VERY thin coat of silver paint. The scratches are light, but still too deep to buff out. And to remove the dust behind the LCD it would require me to take the entire radio apart (did it before, a total pain in the butt) and i'm not really up for doing it again... So at this point i'm trying to decide how i feel about the radio, whether i can live with the imperfections or not. My original radio didn't have a SINGLE scratch of any kind... So if by Monday i'm still annoyed by the scratches, i'm calling the service manager up and asking for a better one yet again... But for the weekend i'm just glad to have my car back! What would you guys do about the radio?

The new aftermarket windshield that was installed on my Rx300 handled poor weather a LOT differently than the previous 5 year old OEM one... It was a Pilkington replacement.

Oh nice! That's really good to hear. <_<

Oh trust me, i'd love to have a loaner, but since i'm only 21 they won't give me one. And yes my parents could get the loaner, but i still couldn't drive it... I don't mind the "used parts" idea just as long as they're in prestine condition. But honestly, what are the odds of finding one in perfect condition? He could find these parts from any 07-09 Rx350/400h w/o mark lev. I don't believe he's gonna find parts from an 07 without ANY damage, whether it be scratches or just dust in the LCD or whatever... But i'll see what he comes up with and take things from there. So i guess what he's gonna do is just swap the damaged parts with parts from another RX before it goes to sale, hoping the buyers don't notice it. IMO the average person wouldn't care as much as i do, so it might work. I did share with him my concern about having older parts installed, asking what would happen if they suddenly died a month down the road- and he assured me if that happens that he'd "good will" it and give me a NEW one. He also said since my parts are damaged he couldn't do that though... not sure what this really means though. I just don't like the idea of having OLDER parts installed. It just doesn't seem right to me. THEY were the ones who defected the original ones, therefore they should replace them with parts of at least the same age or newer. Am i just expecting too much??

Well the problems continue... Last week when I met with the service manager to show him the damage, he was very sympathetic and told me "he would look for the parts" and make everything right. I made an appointment with my service advisor to drop the car of Monday (3 days ago) so they could replace the parts. My service advisor told me it would take about a day and that she'd call me when it was done. Well, its now Thursay and I haven't received a call. So I called my service manager to see what's up. She told me that the parts had not arrived, and that she didn't know when they would be in. She told me that it might not be done till NEXT WEEK! I asked if I could pick the car up tonight and come back when the parts were in, but she told me the parts were already removed... But none of this sounded right to me... I'm pretty sure parts didn't take more than a day to arrive after being ordered, so I called the parts department. I asked them how long it would take for these such parts to arrive after being ordered, and he told me he had the radio in the back, and to order the nav screen and unit, if I ordered before 1:30 today they'd be here tomorrow! (As I suspected). So I told him my situation, gave my info and he looked it up for me. He told me there was NO record of the service department ordering any parts, and he assured me they would HAVE to go through them to get new parts. So I called my service advisor back to explain to her my findings, and she seemed very confused. She told me she'd speak to the service manager and tell him to call me. 10 minutes later he called me back. He told me that he wasn't getting NEW parts, but that he's looking for another car to SWAP the parts! I told him this was unacceptable and he said it was the best he could do. He also told me that next time I shouldn't call my service advisor but him directly. Apparently he doesn't want anyone to know what going on. I told him my fear or getting used parts, but he assured me he'd only get them from a "2008 or 2009 Rx400h". I responded informing him that there is NO SUCH THING as a 2009 Rx400h (2008 was the last production year) but he insisted I was wrong... ok watever. He told me he found an 06 Rx400h but "for some reason" the radio and nav screen weren't right"... DUH! The nav screen was changed for the 07 model year, and so was the radio with the WMA format.... He said he's still "looking" for a doner car through the used car department... and that he'll call me back when he finds them. I asked why the parts were already removed from my car (which seemed stupid) and he told he they didn't even touch it... NICE OF THEM TO TELL ME! So I'm picking it up tomorrow, and he's supposed to call me nex week when he finds parts... This sucks!

I had the windshield replaced on my Rx400h last summmer. It was damaged, so I just filed a claim with insurance. Rates did not go up... The car was having paint work at a local body shop at the time, so I had them take care of everything. They bring in a windshield replacement company to do the glass work. I made them install an OEM windshield, price was about $1500. I've had aftermarket windshields installed before (on my previous rx300) and they quality is terrible, you can see waviness and it doesn't repel water like the OEM one does. Aftermarket windshield for the Rx300 was $150 installed, very cheap.... literally

Hey guys! Does anyone know anything about the CVT transmission that are used in the Rx400h? As a previous Rx300 owner (which is well known for transmission issues) I can't help but worry about the CVT. I researched "CVT transmissions" on google and found some "general" information as to how CVT's work, but I couldn't find anything specific to the Rx400h. I'm just wondering how reliable this transmission is compared to the standard automatic. It seems to me that this is very new technology which makes me worry a bit. I haven't found any reports concerning Rx400h transmission failures, but considering the Rx400h is only 4 years old, it doesn't mean much... I notice while driving the Rx400h, the engine seems to rev MUCH higher and for long period of times even though the car doesn't move much (especially during acceleration). This implies that parts in the transmission are also moving very rapidly for long stretches of time. It just "sounds" like the transmission and engine are working a LOT harder than the standard Rx350 transmission and engine would be. But on another note, the Rx400h transmission "feels" a lot smoother than the standard transmission. The CVT eliminates that "lag" between gears that one typically feels in a normal automatic transmission. Acceleration in the Rx400h is completely linear with no lags or what not. And this makes me think that the transmission is under very little stress when accelerating. So what do you guys think? Should I worry about the reliability of the Rx400h transmission?

As far as I understand, each Rx400h out there (dependant on where it was made) has a different list of understood commands by design. For instance my 400h doesn't understand any AC commands. The Rx400h's in Canada seem to have a different system than those in the US. All my 400h voice activation system can understand is radio and nav commands... pretty pathetic.

Lexus and most car dealers have leather repair people come in and re-finish CPO cars and what not. They use a urethane dye that works for leather, vinyl and ALSO plastic. I'm sure if you were to contact these guys they'd be able to repair the areas to some degree.

I think you should go for the LS460. You know you want it! If you were to get an 06 430, it wouldn't be long before you would just NEED the 460 <_<

So what did you think about the 06 LS? :D You gonna get one?

Pebble beach was only optional on the 2009 RX350 and the emblems were still chrome...

If the 2010's weren't so BUTT ugly it would be my pick... IMO The 2010 Rx350 and Rx450h are also slower than the 07-09 Rx350 and Rx400h, there's no increase in performance.

...seriously? Discontinuing sales of an SUV because it could roll over? What's next??

I called my service advisor this morning and asked if she could tell the "head service manager" to call me back like he said he would. A few hours later my service advisor called me back and said "whatever it is you discussed with him last week is OK" and that I would need to drop my car off for a few days. I asked why it would take a few days and she said it takes time to order parts and what not... I wanted to argue and say they should order the parts NOW and put them in on one day, but I opted not to make a big deal... Bottom line, I'm dropping it off Monday and it should be done in a couple of days". So that's good! Hopefully they don't screw anything else up installing the new parts... Ill definitly take some detailed pictures before I drop it off this time though ;)

Well it's Monday and i haven't received a call back yet. I'll call tomorrow to see what the hold up is...

Well i have some good news :) I met with the head of the service department today. My service advisor brought me to his "office" and we were introduced. I explained everything that had happened and i showed him the damage in the car. At first he tried to say that "he didn't do this" but i used a lot of reason. I brought up how these parts were removed during the process, and that there was no other way these injuries could have occurred. I was very calm, but still persistent. He just kept feeling all the damaged areas with his fingers not saying very much. I told him how i take a lot of pride in the car and how i just can't live with the damage. I mentioned how i have family who has their services here, and how i have always thought Lexus was about "quality" and that this damage went against that. I kept saying that i understood how accidents happen, but that when they happen the problems need to be fixed. He asked me what i wanted, and i asked him what he thought was reasonable. I told him that my main concern was with the nav screen and radio and nav surrounds, and that these small injuries could lead to larger ones down the road (especially about the scratch in the touch-screen). I said that i felt bad about the situation, but that i just didn't find it acceptable. I mentioned that they could try to "repair" the vinyl on the side (which i know isn't possible), basically i tried to act sincere and not just like an @ss. He told me that he understood how i felt and that he would "see if he could find the parts" and what not, and that he'd get back to me. Not really sure what this means though... I know this isn't a definite "yes" but it's certainly a step in the right direction... He was very kind and i really appreciated that, it was nice to finally hear someone at the dealership be sympathetic with me about this. So i guess i will wait for another phone call!

Yeah, i can try threatening going to a local News station with this guy tomorrow... I would go speak with the president of the dealership, but i bet it's even harder to meet with him. It seems there are so many "men behind the curtain" people running this place that never come to work!

Hey guys, Just wanted to share my opinions about Leatherique's leather conditioner and cleaner, because it's AWESOME. When i had my Rx300 back in 2005, i started using Lexol's leather conditioner on the leather a few times a year to keep the leather in good condition. I can't "prove it" but i swear the stuff made things worse. The leather's finish started to get "sticky" (not just after application, but the dye itself seemed to 'melt') causing fibers from clothing to stick and what not. I also started noticing little tiny cracks on about every surface of the leather, even in areas that didn't get any wear. It was clear that the conditioner was actually aging the leather... But like i said, i can't prove it was the Lexol conditioner, but i can't think of anything else that would cause pre-mature damage. I ended up replacing the seats because they started to become unsightly. So when i got the replacement seats in my old Rx300 (about a year ago) i ditched the Lexol and started using Leatherique's cleaner/conditioner. I did a little research, and everything lead me to believe this stuff was the best out there. So i tried it, and it proved to be well worth the extra money. The replacement seats i bought were from a 2002 Rx300, so about 7 years old at the time. They were a little dirty, but most of all ROCK HARD. I dosed the seats with Leatherique's "rejuvenator oil" (conditioner) and let it sit in the sun for a good day or so. The following day, i did the same thing. I could see the leather soaking up the conditioner, it was pretty nice to see. After about 3 days of this process i applied Leatherique's "Prestine Clean" which is their cleaner (which is to follow the conditioner) to remove the remaining dirt/residue lifted by the conditioner. The finish was AMAZING, and i mean AMAZING! The finish was smooth and completely matte, looked almost brand new. And what i especially liked, was the new texture of the leather. It was SO soft!! I would say the cleaner and conditioner improved the quality and finish of the leather by... 5 years! It didn't remove the little "character lines" or areas where the dye had been removed from 7 years of use, but it did remove all dirt and soften up the leather to exceed my expectations. The Lexol NEVER helped with softness, and didn't help the finish much either. So when i got my Rx400h last May, i immediately completed the same process using the Leatherique cleaner/conditioner. The conditioner/cleaner worked just as well on the rx400h leather as it did on the old Rx300 seats, and really softened the texture. I did a second application before winter, and just did my spring application tonight. It's been almost a year of use, and i can confirm there is a POSITIVE improvement and ZERO negatives about this stuff. The leather's incredibly soft and there isn't ANY unusual damage. I just love this stuff and wanted to share my positive experiences! I can't really explain it, but it just brings the leather "back to life". The finish has NO shine, just as brand new leather does- which is really unusual for a leather conditioner. The "rejuvenator oil" is pretty "icky", but does the job. But as soon as you wipe the seats down with the "prestine clean" the oil is gone and the seats immediately come to life. It's pretty cool... I also applied the prestine clean to all of the other plastic, vinyl and leather surfaces inside the cabin- like on the dash, doors, moldings etc. The instant matte finish is what i'm after there... Anyone else try this stuff? If your leather is getting a little dirty and hard, i suggest you give this stuff a try! <_<