gwgang

I will post the processes I went through for future reference. tools needed: long pry bar, torque ratchet 50 to 250ft/lb, 14mm, 17mm, 19mm,22mm sockets, socket extensions. Impact wrench is highly recommended as suspension fasteners are usually rust on tight. Heat and penetration oil is your friend. Take your time, don’t snap the bolts. Just because you have a 24 inch breaker bar bar doesn’t means you should put all you body weight on it. Impact tighten, spray with oil, and impact loosen. Do it a few times and it will loosen. If it won’t, apply heat. 1. Remove engine under cover, wheels, wheel well side cover so all engine mount bolt nuts are exposed. Some bolt hole maybe covered with plastic inserts to protect from water, remove and save them. 2. Open hood, remove all bolt nut to remove the passenger side engine dog bone engine isolator(engine moving control rod). There are nuts under the engine, on the subframe, that are parts of this isolator. You can completely remove them. 3. Loosen all nuts on the front, driver side, passenger side engine mount,, top and bottom, but don’t take them off. Leave them on with a few threads engaged. 4.take off lower ball joint’s nuts and bolt that connect them to the lower control arm, and use a long pry bar to pry the control arm lower to release lower control arm from ball joint. 5. Take off all accessible bolt and nut of the lower control arm. 6. Take a look at the exhaust pipe coming out of the engine and note the clearance of the pipe and the hold down of the pipe. You will need to loosen the hold down so the pipe won’t get cave in by the hold down when you jack up the engine. 7. Place wooden block on jack head, and place it under the transmission/cvt, and slowly jack up the engine. Take time to crawl under car to check clearance of the pipe and its surroundings every few pump. Be sure to support the cv axles with bungee cords tight to strut. The inner cv boot may separate if it’s not supported. 8. When you reach the limit of the engine mount lower nuts, take off the nuts you need to take off to raise the engine further. Don’t go too high. Just enough for you to wiggle the engine mount out. Do it one side of the car at a time, as the position on different side may be different, and you don’t want to lift the engine higher than absolutely necessary. 9. After taking out the engine mount, remove the lower control arm bolts and nuts, and pry/wiggle the control arm out and put in the new part. Take care to put the bracket that was under the engine mount back, then insert the bolts and loosely thread the nuts on, but tighten the bolt that will be under the engine mount to spec. 148ft/lb because once you mount the engine mount, you won’t be able to access it. The bushing at the rearward has the bolt inserted from bottom, and the nut is on the top. 10. Do the other side, lower or raise engine as necessary, taking care not to let the front engine mount under stud get too far from the bolt hole. 11. After putting in the lower control arm and left and right engine mounts, thread in the nuts, slowly lower the engine, install the passenger side dog bone engine isolator (engine movement control rod) and associated parts(47ft/lb for the nuts). and tighten the front, side engine mount nuts, top and bottom, to spec.64ft/lb 12. Pry down on lower control arm and connect the lower ball joint. Loosely thread the nuts and bolt of lower ball joint. 13. tighten the control arm nuts and bolt. The bolt near engine mount torque to 148ft/lb, the nut at the rearward of the control arm, at the top, torque to 152 ft/lb 14. Torque the bolt and 2 nuts of the lower ball joint to 94ft/lb each. 15. Inspect your work.

Thank you very much, Dave.

My Scangauge 2 always turns its display off after a few minutes pluged into the RX400h. So it's possible for me to change the display-off setting in Scangauge to correct this? I will try this out. My previously mentioned Interstate battery actually had a bad cell. My Interstate dealer checked it and replaced it under its 2 year warranty. I did bought a compact Lithium battery jumper starter, but the model turns out not suitable for me. It's a Gooloo brand. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BXM2PTC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 This model is too smart for its own good. When it detected that car battery is too low or damaged, there is a "boost" button to push so it will supply the power for 30 seconds to jump start the engine. In my case, the boost button did NOTHING! No lights light up, no beeps. Nothing happened. I had to call my boss to give me a jump so that I can drive to the Interstate battery dealer. The Gooloo was used two times previously to start my RX400h, when the car battery is not completely dead. Now that I had a new car battery, I am returning this Gooloo junk to Amazon. I will buy another model that is not so smart. I had seen demonstrations of other models that can start an engine with car battery cables detached from battery.

I thank this thread and Lexus Owner's Club for saving my bacon last night. I purchased a bluetooth OBDII plug to monitor engine fuel trim due to previous intake hose leak. Being lazy, I didn't take off the plug after turning engine off. Baking under the sun and the slow drain on the battery lower the voltage enough that the error message "Shift Into Park to start" and red Brake and VSC light come on. The first time it happens, I was able to start the car after a few tries, so I chalk it up to random computer glitch or a touchy shift position sensor. Two nights later, same error. This time I can't start the car no matter how often I tried. Thank to this thread, I know to call my cousin to give me a jump instead of calling the tow truck. This is not where the story ends. After the jump from my cousin, I was able to turn the car into Ready mode, and the engine is running. I thought that's it, so I thanked my cousin and drove away. After 1/2 mile, warning lights go off, CEL, Hybrid system error. I looked at the nav screen and noted that engine is not charging the hybrid battery, and I am running on electric only. I pulled over onto the side of the highway just as the hybrid battery drain to the last bar. While my wife is panicking and begging for me to buy a new Highlander right next day, I called my cousin back to give me another jump. This time, we let the jump cable stay connected for a good 5 minutes before disconnect. I clear the CEL with that darn Bluetooth OBDII plug, and drove away without further problems. There hasn't been any problems since. My battery is a new Interstate battery installed just 4 months ago, so I know the battery is good. My old Costco brand battery showed corrosion around the positive terminal after 4 years of use. I think the RX400h computer is sensitive to the battery voltage drop. The first jump didn't hold up because it didn't charge the battery to sufficient voltage, so the computer decided not to fire up the ICE to drive or even to replenish the hybrid battery. The engine noise I heard during the first jump may just be engine tried to turn over + Air conditioner compressor running. I may just buy a compact lithium battery jump starter to keep in my car from now on. I didn't keep my old jump cable in the trunk before. Again, my thanks go out to all the people who shared on the internet so others can gain from their knowledge and experiences.

I live in queens borough, NYC. I am surrounded by used car dealerships, body shops and 3 tire shops (one big, two small). The only place I saw torque wrench in use was in Costco and BJ's Club tire shop. They are 10 minute's drive out of my regular commute. I injured my lower back lifting weight back in Junior high school years. The P.E. teacher was terrible. She didn't give any instructions on correct body posture to lift. Just pointed to the bar weight and told us to lift 10 times over head to pass the exam. No training before, ever. My lower back became very stiff if I had to hunch over to do anything for more than 3 minutes. I had been very careful lifting heavy stuff ever since, and I move boxes of wine and liquor every workday without problems. It's all in the correct posture. What's your thoughts on all these big grills on the new models? They are part of the bumper now. I figure minor repair is going to be very expensive compare to the old style on our RX.

My left hip had a bruise that day because I was laying on the cardboard and kept changing my prone position from side to side. I thought my lower back is bad, I didn't realize my arms were getting weak too. I drained 6 quarts, and filled 6 quarts back. My right hand was cut in two places due to that hose clamp. I usually did my own oil changes and tire rotations. I am seriously contemplating buying a cordless impact wrench to take off lug nuts, just to save my back. Local tire store employees can't be trust to rotate my tires because: 1. They support the car with 3 floor jacks, no jack stand; 2. They use the impact wrench like they hated my car. No torque wrench anywhere in the store. I suspect my local mechanic didn't use torque wrench too. They stripped the oil drain hole thread last year, and oil leaked on my driveway. That's the last time I will let them do the oil change, no more "change my oil since I am already here for the state inspection". I am only at the ripe old age of 43.

Do you have a update on this problem? My steering also had noise. It's like two plastic parts are contacting each other. It only noticeable when car is stopped, and you move the steering wheel 1 inch to left. My mechanic told me that the left CV drive shaft need to be replaced due to rust. So it's a little loose play. Not yet a safety issue. If I hear a clunking noise, then I will have it replaced.

License plate bumper cover is a must with the new style grill. It's made of flexible, probably strong polymer. It won't stand a chance when someone back up their car into you.

My original battery on RX400h lasted 6 to 7 years. Then I got a Costco battery($65), which last 3 years with corroded positive terminal clamp. I read up Consumer Report, and bought an Interstate battery($120). Gel battery are not necessary for RX hybrid because Gel/Glass Absorption Mat batteries are good for deep discharge/recharge. Hybrid car just use the accessory battery to start the car computer and provide power to accessories. It doesn't crank the engine. Always turn the key to On position if you will be idling for more than 3 minutes. The accessory battery will run down very quick. Let the car decided how to use the battery power.

This is an old thread, but I will answer for people asking the question in the future. You need to buy a wiper blade/Arm puller to get the blade off its post. I don't replace the blade. I only buy the blade insert and replace it. Less waste, and less cost. You don't necessarily need to buy the specific length insert. Get a longer insert if it's cheaper, and trim the end off.

I was shocked when I found that the 5000 mile service at the dealership cost $280. I was in for a check engine light, and the computer screen on service advisor's desk is promoting 10% off on $280 oil change/inspection. I remembered that 6 years ago, it was more like $120, which is already double the price of local mechanics.

I discovered Denso brand cabin filter at Rockauto.com The filter material looks exact like the OEM one, except the foam strip around the filter is a different color. It's a more "breathable" filter compare to other cheaper filters I had tried. It's electrostatic filter material.

I just done the oil change for the CVT and rear differential. Suffice to say, I am getting too old for this. I had done it years ago at around 90,000 mile, and I should have remembered what a pain in the neck it was. Problem 1: My oil pan is not big enough/or I wasn't smart enough to position it perfectly to anticipate the trajectory of the oil . 1/2 quart was spilled on the cardboard. Good thing I had plenty of old cloth right there to soak it up. Problem 2: CVT oil gushing out of the fill hole. Funny, I didn't know how I could have overfilled by 1/2 quart. My jacking technique was the same: Front tires on the Rhino ramp. Maybe last time I did it when the oil is cold? Problem 3: It's 90 degree outside, I am wearing a flight suit overall. Swear all over. Hand too oily to grab a water bottle. Problem 4: The hand pump. OOOOHHHHH the hand pump. Plews brand hand pump, 4 cc at a time. Why am I doing this again, why? The pump doesn't fit the Toyota oil bottle, the hose clamp poke at your fingers. I throw away the same pump last time, why was I expecting it to be any better? I almost had a heat stroke today. Never will I go through this again. I am getting too old for this.

Did the water leak into the trunk? If not, no worry. There are molding between the light and the trunk opening. Water from up on the lift gate spoiler will drain around the trunk rubber seals, then under that plastic molding. Sometime when you manually open the lift gate too fast, some water will drip into the trunk too. Nothing you can do except to open it slowly when it's very wet outside.

So I did a A/C refrigerant recharge today, and want to share some lessons learned. My A/C is blowing cool air, but it can't keep up when it's 90 degree outside. I want to add some refrigerant to see if there are any improvements. Before I go any further, I must warn you: if you didn't change oil yourself, or if you are very environmentally conscious, don't do this yourself. Take it to a mechanic and tell him about special caution for hybrid A/C system. 1. Hybrid vehicle need pure r134a refrigerant, or a refrigerant designated for hybrid vehicle use because the lubricant oil used is special hi-dielectric oil. Don't ever use oil for conventional vehicle. I bought A/C Pro HYB-134A R134a refrigerant refill, 10 oz size, containing 0.5 oz oil. If your vehicle still blow cool air, then 1 can is more than enough. 2. You need a A/C charging hose with gauge. Make sure the hose is long enough. RX400H need a 24 inch long hose. 3. Wear a latex or thin glove, ideally with long sleeve to protect your forearm from hot engine support brackets. An old long sleeve shirt works for me. 4. Turn car on, turn A/C on using the climate control, not the Auto setting button. Set temperature to Max Cool. Auto setting may or may not cut off compressor when cooling, so don't chance it. Turn the windows down. 5. Connect the hose to the low pressure port, following the instruction provided by the hose packaging. Make sure the valve for the refrigerant can side is closed. 6. Check the low pressure side pressure according to the temperature/pressure chart provided on the hose packaging. 7. If you need to add refrigerant, shake the can well, and retract the valve's piercing pin back, so that you can screw on the can to the valve tight. Turn valve clock wise all the way to pierce the seal. 8. Keep the can upright. Open the valve by turning the handle counter-clockwise. The refrigerant will turn into gas and be sucked into the A/C system. Shake the can, and every 2-3 second, turn the can to 3 o'clock position to drain some of the oil into the system. 9. Very Important: turn the valve off every 10 second to check the system pressure. Wait a few second to see the system pressure. When it's almost done, the pressure at the end will shot up very quickly, and lead to overfill. Take it slow and spend your time checking the pressure with the valve closed. 10. When the desired system pressure is achieved, turn the valve off completely. Don't try to get to the high end of the recommended pressure range. Remove the connector from low pressure port. Replace the dust cover onto the port. 11. If you overfill the system, STOP. The compressor will cycle on, then shut off due to cutoff switch in the system. You should do the right thing, turn off A/C, and drive to a mechanic to drain a little refrigerant out. There are advice on the internet on how to do this by inserting a long philips head screw driver into the port, depress the valve stem to release refrigerant. This is illegal because R134A is a greenhouse gas, even though not as bad as R12. The valve on the low pressure port is just like your tire valve stem. You depress the center to let the air out. Note: The gauge for the recharge hose is not as good as the ones used by mechanics. It also don't have a good trigger valve, so this doesn't work as easily as the all-in-one system designed for conventional vehicle that you can buy in the auto parts store. Don't ever use those kits because it will contaminate the hybrid A/C system with oils that will conduct electricity. The refrigerant I used claim to seal leaks too, and it works by conditioning the rubber seals, not by plugging up the seals with goo. People who had used it claim it worked on slow leaks over time. It's 90 degree outside today, and my car's A/C provides a cooler breeze than before. It's not super cold from the vent, but I heard that the system on RX400h always blends some warm air with the cold.

It's the rear struts. Struts fail gradually, and there are different sized valves inside the strut. The small ones control small up and downs, and they fail first. Your tires are slapping the ground too hard, thus the thumping noise.

My water pump was corroded at 90,000 mile timing belt change, so yours maybe overdue for a replacement. I was adding maybe 1 oz of coolant every two months for 1 year prior to water pump change.

I hope this post is still helpful to the OP. I just had the rear struts replaced, including strut mounts and boots. It cost $270 in parts, and my local mechanic charge $500 to install them and rear alignment. I am in NYC, so you know the labor charge is high. You don't have to buy from the Dealership for the struts. KYB is the OEM for the RX400h. I bought my parts from partsgeek.com because their shipping is lower to my location. You can also check out rockauto.com if their shipping is cheaper to your location. The OP's problem is most likely struts.

What's BI-LEVEL? Do you mean different setting for driver and passenger?

Updated the original post after strut replacement. I bought the KYB Excel-G struts, mounts and boots from partsgeek.com because their shipping charge is lower than Rockauto.com.

My RX400h had 120,000 miles on her. I don't drive it fast, but every 2 to 3 weeks, I had to load some heavy stuff on it for 40 to 60 miles. I didn't know RX400h's load capacity (about 900 lbs) before, but now I realized I over loaded it by 300 lbs. Also, my daily commute include some NYC's broken pavement local streets. I will be replacing the rear struts in two weeks because the struts are not doing their job handling the small up and downs of broken pavement. I just drove over some freshly paved highway last week, and there are no interruptions between the ploping sound as I mentioned earlier. So I was wrong about that. I will report back when I get the struts replaced and see if there is any improvement.

Update 2:06/19/2016 I had spoke too soon. The noise is much muted, and it happens at a steeper steering angle(left turn to 9:30 position). Thankfully such turns are rare on the interstate. Next step: lubricate the bushings with silicon grease. Original post: I had a curious problem couldn't be solved by my indy mechanic and my Lexus dealer. When turning left at highway speed(above 40 mph), I will hear noise, like going over uneven surface. Sounds like, plop, plop, plop. The sound only occur when the steering wheel is between 12 to 10:30 position. Any steeper to the left, it disappears. Also, the plop sound is not really continuous. On a sweeping turn on interstate, it may go on 3 to six plops, skip a beat, then continues. It sounds like coming from the rear left. It happens either coasting or accelerating. I had a similar noise two years ago, but it happened when I turned right. My Indy mechanic traced it to my rear left lower control arm, which is cracked due to rust from impact with road debris. He replaced it, and it went away. This time, my Indy mechanic fail to trace the problem. He initially id the leaking front struts as the problem, but replacing front struts and control arm bushings didn't solve the problem. He later rechecked, and told me that the loose bushings at the rear knuckles may be the problem. Since replacement cause more then $1200, and he told me it's not a safety concern, I let it rest. Two months later, I went to Lexus dealer for a check engine light and VSC Anti-lock brake warning light. I told then to also diagnose the noise since I was there. They checked, and told me I need steering angle sensor calibration. $400, and they didn't fixed it. I went back two days later, and did a test drive with a Lexus mechanic. He said he heard whining noise from CVT bearing, notice steering vibration at 20 mph turning either way, and feels the ploping noise may be due to faulty front differential. Back at the shop, they diagnosed the suv again, and told me a bearing is failing in CVT, front and side engine mounts are bad, left front drive shaft, front lower control arm, and left front strut are bad. I am not convinced they made the right diagnosis. Noise comes from rear left, and only really noticeable when turning left. Sure I heard the ploping sound at lower speed on local streets going either way, but that's more due to uneven pavement. About that check engine light, dealership also did a half baked job. It was code p0141, p0147. Fuel trim engine lean. They replaced exhaust manifold gasket, exhaust pipe gaskets, cost $1000. 7 days later, CEL returned, same code. Since I lost confident in dealership's competency, I went to my indy mechanic for spark plug change and had him look into it. He found one of the intake hose near air cleaner is leaking, and wrap tape around it to fix it. At this point, I bought a bluetooth OBD2 reader and OBD car doctor pro. The readout confirmed that my long term fuel trim returned to normal at 3%. It was 25% before. After spark plug change and the fix, my mpg went from 21 to 24.5, but hot weather and traffic congestion kick it down to 22.5mpg again. Anyone looked at the long term fuel trim lately? Update 1: 06/12/2016 Noise is gone! Just got my rear struts, strut mount and boots replaced 3 days ago. The noise is gone. I drove through a stretch of highway that always generate the noise before, and the continuous bumping noise is gone. Only single tire bumping noise now, and I could blame it on occasional uneven pavement. So my old struts were not doing their job; spring is bouncing up and down and slapping my tire to the ground. With the new struts, my ride is still a little too firm for my taste, and cabin noise is only slightly muted than before. btw, my local mechanic didn't change my front strut mounts and boot when he changed my front struts a few months before. He was trying to save me some money because he knows my wife doesn't want me to spend too much money on repair. In this instance, he should have called me because I definitely want them changed. Side note: That whining noise Lexus mechanic hear? I heard it when I was recharging the A/C refrigerant R134A. I think it's the A/C Compressor because it whines when the A/C cycles on. Lessons learned: 1. Don't rush to Dealership for repair when you are in panic mode. Had your trusted local mechanic check it out first. 2. Mechanics make mistakes too, they are only human. 3. When Check Engine light went on, a Toyota car may decided to turn on VSC and Anti-Lock light too, according to my mechanic. 4. Your strut is a wear component, it degrades gradually; Oil leak from strut or bumper bouncing up and down are not the first signs of degraded struts. Struts don't last 100,000 mile on a heavy car or SUV.

Just for future reference. I had feathering, not outright cupping at my rea tires. Turns out my driver side rear lower control arm had rusted due to road debri. The bushing had seized. I was rotating tires left to right during that 5k miles interval.

My 2006 rx400h had the water pump replaced at 90k miles along with timing belt. My mechanic told me that the pump is corroded and leaking. I did in fact started having to top off coolant since 70k miles. So I think water pump should be replace along with timing belt,but only when the schedule for timing belt comes up.

Just to add my experiences. I did my timing belt change at 90k miles, with coolant flush and water pump change. My mechanic told me that the water pump is heavily corroded. So I finally know why I need to add coolant the last 20k miles. Then 10k miles later, I replaced the radiator due to a stone chip cracked it. Leaked a few drops at first, then a major puddle two day later. Good thing my mechanic is literally two minutes away from my home.