cduluk

In this picture you may notice drops of the red dye on my shoes... yes this was a messy project!

Hey guys :) I've recently traded in my Rx300 for a pre-owned 2008 Rx400h, and felt it was time to make it "mine". One of the things i greatly missed about the Rx300 was the custom wood work i had added, along with dyeing of the wood trim to a more "red mahogany" color which i thought looked better than the stock brown. The Rx400h interior trim uses the same wood and stain used in the 01-03 Rx300's. Although the shape of the steering wheel, shifter knob etc. are of different shapes, the wood type (walnut) and color are the same. Before i started the re-dyeing process, i looked at the stock wood of the Rx400h, and noticed that the wood seemed somewhat mis-matched. All of the wood pieces on the console, door panels etc. are accented in a walnut "burl" veneer (identified by a series of rings and unique patterns, called knots) while the wood that makes up the steering wheel and shifter knob is of a straighter grain (grain is very straight without the irregularities and knots present in burl). This was going to bother me... Although this mis-matched combination was also present on the Rx300, i wanted the wood in the Rx400h to match. I began looking for steering wheels and shifter knobs that had more of a burl pattern to match the surrounding pieces. I found a steering wheel on ebay from a 2007 Gs350, that would also fit the Rx330/350/400h. The airbags+switches of the GS are different than the Rx's, but the frames are identical. The only difference is the wood pattern. The wood pattern of the GS wheels is of a cherry burl, which is a better match to the rest of the Rx's trim. I also found a shift knob from an Rx350 pebble beach edition which has the walnut burl wood. So now i was ready to begin! I didn't take pictures to show the steps it took to re-dye all of the pieces on the Rx400h, but there's a tutorial in my signature i put together to show how i completed the project on an Rx300 steering wheel. The hardest part of this retro was the removal of all the 400h interior pieces. I had to remove the interior door panels to gain access to the screws on the back. And the center console had to be taken apart, inside-out to gain access to the screws holding the wood pieces in place. It took me about a whole day to remove all of the wood trim pieces, and another to get them back on. The process for dyeing all of the trim pieces (minus the steering wheel and shifter knob) is the same. I recently found a new way to stain, that allows me to keep the factory clear coating on the wood. I lightly sand the acrylic coating with 800 grit sandpaper, and apply a thin coat of krylon's red "stained glass paint". I then apply several coats of two-part epoxy clearcoat and let bake at 140 degrees for a half hour or so. Then i wetsand with 2000 grit sandpaper and polish with 3M's scratch remover to remove any imperfections and get that factory shine. The process for the steering wheel and shifter knob is different because the factory acrylic coating must be stripped and wood sanded before the dye be used. This is to remove any "ring marks" that may be present in the wood. So here's the results on the Rx400h. I took these pictures a few weeks ago and am just putting them up now. The wood in some of the images appears to be very "bright" but that's only due to the camera. All of the interior wood trim pieces are now the same color as the wood used in the 02-04 ES models. I really like the dark maroon color compared to the factory light brown. Enjoy and please comment! :)

I don't think carfax will find out about this, at least i hope not. I've had 2 claims put through on my previous Rx300 and neither of them showed up on carfax of that car. The first claim was an accident claim (i backed into another car). The second claim was when i scraped the side of the car against a fire hydrant. Both of which went through the same insurance company, same body shop, and the repairs were both quite high. Accident reports were only filled out for the first claim when i hit someone else's car. I checked the carfax report for the Rx300 before we traded it in last month, and nothing was listed about accidents. Actually, nothing was listed since the time we bought it in 2005. The last thing listed was that it was sold and purchased in 2005, and inspections i think. Maybe my insurance company doesn't let carfax know about incidents? Maybe that in combo with my auto body shop? No idea, just glad :) Even if carfax found out about this, it's not a bad thing... If there was serious frame damage, that i might be afraid of... If i was looking to buying a car and found out it had an OEM windshield replaced and the side repainted, i wouldn't be afraid so much, would i? :( Plus, i plan on having this car for a long, long time... so i don't think a re-paint job will have any effect on its resale value 10yrs down the road <_<

hmmm, i'm not sure if the windshield is heated, can anyone confirm it? I'm sure they'll replace it with whichever one it requires, these guys are pretty good. I won't mind having a new windshield with no pits etc :)

Thanks for the warm words of encouragement guys :) I hope i'll be able to forget about this and move on, that would be good! <_< I brought it to my body shop today (i've been going there for a few years, they do good work) and they said i had two options. Yesterday i had filled the scratches in with touch up paint and let it dry in the sun. They said they could try to wetsand and polish and see if that would work, but also said the scratches would still be slightly visible. They tried it on a little part on the rear quarter panel, but the scratch was still visible... smooth, but still visible. The scratch now looked "darker" (i guess the touch-up didn't match perfectly...). So i told them i'd rather go with the second option of having all the areas re-painted... They suggested i fill out an insurance claim since the cost would be well above my deductible of $500, so that's what i did. I asked if my rates would go up, and they seemed to think even if they did, it wouldn't be much, especially since this wasn't my fault. The insurance co told me (when i called them from the body shop) that i didn't need a police report, which is good for carfax reasons. My last accidents didn't show up on my Rx300's carfax, so i guess i luck out? I also showed them the "interesting" windshield marks, and they seem to think the vandal tried to break it with maybe a rock or something (but were unsuccessful at breaking it right through). They said i should add that to the claim because the marks could eventually spread etc... even though they just look like a cluster of rather large rock chips and scratches. So they're going to sand and repaint the hood, front left fender, drivers door, door behind that, the left rear quarter panel and inside door jams too, everything... and give me an OEM windshield :D Which will be a nice plus... So i guess i'll be getting a new windshield and sparking left side out of all this. :D I'm trying to stay positive :) I'll post pictures when i get the car back. They said it should take no more than 2 weeks- they're pretty busy i guess. So for now i'll just need to borrow my parents cars, which i won't have a problem with at all B)

Tomorrow i'm taking it to my autobody shop to have them look at it and give me some suggestions. i'm probably going to have to go through insurance, i mean painting the hood alone would be 400 easy, and my deductible is $500. I also noticed a chip and a few deep scratches in the windshield that weren't there before, my guess is they gouged their keys across my windshield??

Last night i had to go to my girlfriend's mother's surprise birthday party which was held at this "trailer park-like" (only with tiny houses on bricks vs trailers) area on a beach in Matunuck RI. I had to park in this rinky dink dirt parking lot where the nicest car around me was maybe a toyota camry... Anyways, the car was parked there from maybe 6:00pm till 11pm when we left. My girlfriend and i were in a hurry and didn't notice anything on the car since it was dark and began to rain. And i didn't notice it when i got home either, mostly because i was tired and miserable. This afternoon when i approached my car in the garage, i noticed this: I immediately began treating the scratches on the hood and on the FL fender with touch-up, hoping i might be able to fill wetsand and polish the scratches... but i'm pretty sure the remains will always haunt me unless i have everything re-painted. So what the heck do i do now? I can't fill out a police report in the city where i live because this happened (unless someone came in my garage and keyed it there) in Matunuck about an hour from where i live. And i'm really not looking forward to having to be without my car for 3 weeks having it re-painted :cries: I know for sure the damage was done at this place. There were about 1 million drunk people roaming around, they probably noticed there was a Lexus there with a vanity plate, got jealous, and that combined with alcohol, well... that's just my guess. If this happened around here i'd suspect i might have *BLEEP*ed someone off, but i was in the middle of nowhere! It also looks like someone tried to ram their key in my gas cover thing, maybe in attempts of getting it open and siphoning out my 93 octane gas. If you ever saw the crowd that was in this area... i was afraid. UGH i am so mad right now. If i saw the person doing this, i swear, i swear i would be in jail right now.

It's probably not best to go with one of the HID "kits" shown above, since the bulbs are different and will cause excessive glare above the cutoff line (which will blind people) and put less light on the road ahead of you where you need it. HID bulbs and Halogen bulbs have different focal points. The Rx fog light projectors are designed for halogen H11 bulbs. The contour of the bowls are designed around the focal point of light of a halogen bulb. Put an HID bulb in a halogen projector and you'll get glare and less usable light. I'd go with any H11 halogen bulb. I'm currently using PIAA ion yellow halogen bulbs. They're yellow and add more usable light than an HID bulb would, at about half the price. Any H11 halogen bulb, even HIR bulbs would be better than HID's, unless you swap out the projectors for an HID projector.

I would just apply a coat of automotive clear touch up (comes in a pen form or small bottle) maybe one coat daily, until the hole is covered completely and slightly raised above the surrounding area. Then wetsand with 1000 grit using a small sanding block, then move to 1500grit and polish with 3m scratch remover... It will hide it really well, just make sure the paint has had a few days to cure before sanding :)

I really like the mr clean magic eraser for other areas though, it's just proven to be a little too... aggressive on at least the upper dash areas. I've used it on the Rx300 dash and it's been just fine, it's just that the 04-09 Rx dashes are covered in vinyl... jeesh. Just thought i'd give everyone a heads up :)

thanks lenore :) Nightmoon, i'm not really sure which specific part is defecting here, it's hard to tell. The Lexus part diagrams are ALWAYS difficult to understand, and they vary by publisher. The one from the paper manual i have and from Lexus parts is the same diagram with the same parts... It seems the one you've found gets a little more specific though. By looking at the part you ordered, it looks like it's a part with the wire attached, so it's most likely the core issue. I can't even tell if the part in the lexus diagram maybe includes the part you got? It might be, you'll have to see when it arrives. When your mechanic takes it apart, he'll be able to determine what exactly is broken. If anything, my guess is that the "switch" (the part you ordered) is the only part that's damaged since it's the only plastic part in the latch mechanism, which is softer than the metal surrounding parts. I doubt you could have damaged any of the larger parts just by attaching a bungee cord to it. The switch (part you got) should be able to replaced when the mechanic takes it apart. Worse comes to worse, your mechanic will find out what else the problem is... He'll be able to determine everything once the latch is opened up. The important thing is that the paper clip is completing the switch's circuit for now so the computer thinks the liftgate is closed so the battery does not go dead. The switch really isn't... an "important" safety etc related thing, it's just cosmetic. The car will function just fine the way you have it now, you just won't have the luxury of knowing the hatch is open... Having the switch is just a convenient thing to have to notify you via the gauge cluster by that little red light, that the liftgate is open. Let us know how everything turns out! :)

I know it's not a lexus, but one of my friends has an early 90's toyota camry with over 300,000 miles, no lie. Thing is on it's last leg, but still moves though! lol

Haha, lemon it WORKED!! :D Thanks for that! I guess it REALLY is particular about timing. Just start holding down the button when the colon on the clock is off, and keep holding it until the 5th colon "on" is finished and boom, you hear the locks cycle and it works. I just had to hold down the 'lock' position on the lock/unlock rocker switch while keeping the car in park. Now the locks don't automatically lock when i take the car out of Park. I thought that was such an annoying feature... Just keep them coming! :D

Yupp, you can leave the paper clip connecting the two wires for as long as you want (forever if you want). It's only simulating the door being closed so the computer shuts up for a while. When the door is normally closed those two wires are connected via the switch which is obv broken for some reason. Here's the manual that shows the part numbers, dealer cost and labor time :)

dp

I've put about 2,000 miles on my Rx400h since purchased May 30th, so it's been a little over a month. It's a little excessive but i love driving it since it's new to me! :) In a few weeks when the love wears off, i won't feel the need to take so many random unnecessary trips :)

Glad those were the wires, that's good news! I'm not really sure how one would install the new part, but i'd leave it with the mechanic to do it... I suppose you could get the part yourself and bring it to him to install, i don't think he'd have a problem with that since it would just save him the time to have to find the part number, call in the order etc etc. It seems like a complicates setup, with a lot of pulleys, cords etc, i've never done it before so it's hard to say the level of difficulty. In the Rx300 parts manual (i still have it) it lists the labor time it would take to install each part, and it lists the times around .2 - .5 hours which makes me think it might be easier than i think? I'd still let the mechanic do it, even if he charges you a half hour's labor, if anything goes wrong in the future, you can just bring it to him and say, "Hey buddy, it's broken again!!" and it's out of your hands :)

Oh thanks :) Yeah, i'll try to find a set closer to me i guess. Thanks for the offer though! :)

Well today i got a chance to wash the Rx400h inside and out. I noticed a little "scuff" on the black upper dash in front of the passenger seat above the glove compartment. I thought, MR CLEAN MAGIC ERASER!! I got a new eraser, dabbed it in a little water, and rubbed the scuff a little, thinking it would act as an abrasive and blend the scuff in. Well... it took the black dye right off of the dash! Upon close inspection, the dash is covered in a thin layer of vinyl coated with a thin layer of dye, and i guess i used too much of the magic eraser as it removed a lot of the dye. So at this point, a had a rather large area that was more "light blue" instead of black. Thankfully i had previously ordered a bottle of magic mender's leather/vinly dye, and i was able to airbrush the dash back to health. Looks 100% brand new, but still, it gave me a scare! Just thought i'd give you guys a heads up... The eraser worked for me on the rx300's dash (which is solid) but it's too harsh for the 04-09 Rx dash... So stick to soap and water on a cotton towel if anything :)

I'm telling you, these mats from staples are the way to go!!!!! No liquids. I picked up another mat last week, cut it up into 4 parts and put sections under each seat. The thing smells EVEN MORE brand new now! I SWEAR it's the new car smell, EXACTLY! lol

Haha, i'm just too picky. When i got the car i made all my custom settings, then when i unplugged the battery for a little while to remove the steering wheel, all of the settings were switched back! And while doing my steering wheel wood conversion i knew i'd be taking the battery in and out often, so i made a note of all the settings (at least the important ones to me) that are set back to default by the computer. I'm currently trying to figure out how to stop the car from locking all the doors when you take the car out of park, but following the directions in the manual has given me NO success... As soon as i figure that one out i'll post it here too. I should also add that the clock always gets messed up if the battery's removed for lengthy period of time... And it's a bit tricky to get it out of 'automatic' clock reset to 'manual' reset. If anyone else has something else to add, please add it!! :)

Oh boy. Yeah, the problem is definitely with the switch that determines whether the rear hatch is closed or not. If indeed that wire you pict'd is the only pair of wires going to the latch, it's most likely it (unless it's somewhere else?). Try unplugging that wire, and connecting the two wires for a second (with a paper clip maybe), and see if the "open door" light goes out. There's gotta be a switch that's compressed when the hatch is closed, completing the circuit of those two wires. when the computer reads the circuit is closed, it knows the hatch is closed. If the 'door open' light goes off when you connect those two wires, you know that's indeed the switch that's damaged.

ebay, definitely ebay.

All Rx300 HID headlights in the US use the same headlight. All of the coach edition models came with HID vs halogen. The problem is most likely the ballast if he's tried changing the bulb without success. The ballasts cannot be easily removed from the Rx300 headlights without messing around with the reflector leveling system etc, you're better off getting a used one from ebay and just doing a swap. You should be able to find a compete headlight with the ballast for around $200 or so. Just make sure it's the HID version not the standard halogen version. The reflectors are different, you'll be able to tell from the pictures which is which. You won't find an HID Rx300 headlight without the ballast as it's incredibly hard to remove out of the housing... If you find one without a bulb, no problem just put your present one in. I completed a few headlight retrofits on my old Rx300 that had HID, the headlights are complex... you may be able to find a few "deals" for HID headlights with broken tabs. If you find one with broken tabs, it's ok as they're not really "needed" as the majority of the headlight is held on by the two bolts on the sides. Here's one: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/LEXUS-RX300...sQ5fAccessories and another: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1999-2001-l...sQ5fAccessories Just not sure which side you need.

My lumber support stoped working in my RX...and it was fixed under the CPO warranty. ;) And i'm sure if it wasn't under warranty that would have been a $500 repair :o It's the little things that add up. I've already had the light up door sill replaced on the Rx400h because it was burned out... Before i hit 50k we're going to upgrade with Lexus :)