gwgang

I got 19 MPG in the very cold winter, and 22 to 23 MPG in the 70F-80F temperature. I drive mainly local, short trips of 5-6 miles, and the first five minute MPG is 10 to 12MPG. The engine warms up, then the MPG jumps to 28 to 30. I got Nitto Tire 420S. A lot more grip than the OEM Michelin, but 1 to 2 MPG lower. There is a sharp turn off the highway ramp, and I can feel tire slipping with the Michelin when I go 40MPH; not so with the Nitto. It is much better in the snow too.

When I had my 60,000 mile service done, the dealership insist that I change the transmission fluid, quote: "driving in New York City is considered severe condition." I disagree, and asked them to just inspect the fluid per the maintenance schedule. Turns out the fluid is fine. The fluid used is synthetic, and they should last a long time, supposedly "lifetime" . The maintenance schedule doesn't ever call for straight up replacement, at 150,000 miles(the end of listed schedule). Many new cars are coming with sealed transmission system and lifetime transmission fluid now, they don't even have a transmission fluid dip stick anymore. You only replace it at 60,000 mile, then every 30,000 miles, if you primarily drive in desert, dirt roads, or while towing. Just to be safe, I will replace my transmission fluid along with timing belt, differential fluids, and brake fluids at 90,000 mile.

There may be two possible reasons: 1. The cold weather and the snow+salt may be playing a number on your brake pad/rotor. The pad may make noise when cold, or scrapping rust/road salt from the rotor; 2. The brake caliper's pin may have seized. That's what happened to me, and I heard noise like yours.

I got the instruction of pulling the fuse from the Service CD, so if Toyota think that's the way to go, it's good enough for me.

Immobilizer are programed using Dealer scan tool. Go to your dealer. Incidentally, I just saw a news report video on Youtube about some car thieves use stolen dealership scan tool to disable engine immobilizer to steal the car. That answer the question how a thief can steal my friend's new Toyota within a few minutes while he watched incredibly from second floor window. He doesn't have a gun in the house.

Remove Replace Lexus RX330, RX350, RX400h steering wheel and air bag. I just switched steering wheel on my RX400h too, and I want to add something to the instructions. 1. You don't have to disconnect the battery negative terminal. Under the driver side dash, there is a fuse box(looked up the location in the manual). Unplug fuse #72, a 10A fuse). This one control the ignition, SRS air bags system, etc. Wait at lease 90 seconds before working on air bags. This way will save you some time to reinitialize settings. 2. When unplugging the wiring harness from the air bag, make sure to unplug from the end that connects to the air bag. There is a yellow tab looks like an X on top side of the each plug. You should pull this tab up using your finger nails. This will unlock the plug. I made the mistake of: 1.trying to unplug the wire harness from the other end of the harness before realizing I need to look at the repair manual DVD first; 2. use a flat blade screw driver to pry one of the plug off and then find out I can unlock the plug. I got the Repair manual DVD on Ebay. It's a great source of information, but it is geared for Automotive Techs, so it doesn't mention the little tab on the plug. I put in the keywords to help others to find this posting if they are doing a search on internet. Thank you CDULUK. I had learned a lot from your detailed postings.