JimsGX

The answer is...its better than not washing it. However, touchless high pressure washes use harsh chemicals that themselves can stain the paint and dry out black trim, etc. Automatic washes use similar chemicals and those cloth strips are abrasive themselves and rarely cleaned. My advice, if you want to take the best care of the vehicle but don't want to wash it yourself, I would have a mobile detailer wash it for you regularly. Won't cost a whole lot more than the automatic wash... I hand wash my cars in the summer, but in the winter, I need to take them through the car wash at least once a week to take advantage of the undercarriage wash. There's salt and sand on the roads here in MA... I'd never take my car through a brush car wash when its below freezing or right after the wash opens in the morning because I've always thought their could be ice forming on the wet brushes that have been sitting overnight and/or the brushes wouldn't be as flexible first thing in the morning when its cold. A common brand name of touchless car wash around here is a brand name of Vector. The results from one touchless wash to another using the same equipment is different. The closest one to me barely keeps their water above freezing, while one about 10 miles away heats theirs considerably more. When its 10 to 20 degrees out, the results from one to the other is very significant.

I thought if she were to hear that the problem was common in her area, directly from her insurance company, it would help to convince her that it was truly the problem. I didn't mean to imply she should file a claim. I've clayed my cars before and I agree its very easy and yields great results. Especially on my old LS400 that was neglected before I got my hands on it...

This thread interested me because I had never heard or "rail dust" before... I did a quick google search on rail dust and found a message thread about another person from NY who had this same problem on a Saturn (which has all plastic body panels)... One of the responses to her problem was from "CarNut, from Northern Michigan" he wrote: Re: Rail Dust = Rusty Paint " That happens to every vehicle around here, metal or polymer. Maybe the color of the car makes it more noticeable than previous vehicles you've owned. I've seen it to varying degrees on every car I've owned including those I brought back from California. I think its more related to the gravel and road salt used. Remember, the northeast was home to many iron-ore mines at one time. Oddly enough, I think the "magic" soap in automatic carwashes does a better job gettng it off than hand-washing. But I'm not willing to pay the price in streaked/etched glass. I use a clay bar every spring to clean all the crap off the body. I also clay bar and wax as late a practical i the call to protect it for winter. Here's a link to the discussion thread: Rail Dust - Rusty Paint on Saturn Ion LindDarLex, If you do a google search for "Rail Dust", you'll get over 2 million hits... My initial post/response to your problem was that it must have been a problem in transit when the vehicle was new. After researching some of the hits from google and seeing the pictures you had originally posted, I'm pretty convinced that this is your problem... I never considered iron ore that could be in the salt and sand that they use on the roads, but it makes perfect sense to me now... I'd suggest you call your insurance company and discuss it with them. If it's a common occurence in your area, they must have claims on file for similar problems with other vehicles. Jim

I'd recommend taking it to a good body shop as well to get their opinion, then I'd also take it to your insurance company's adjuster and get his opinion as well. With a trained eye, they'll be able to tell if the finish on the car is factory or if it was repaired at some point. I've had chips before, but in most cases it goes through the base coat (vehicle color) but not through the primer. This looks quite extreme. Unless things have changed, all RX400h's are made in Japan and come over on a ship. I don't know which port they arrive in when they get to the US or how they get from that port to Michigan... To me, the car looks like it was damaged and repaired before or after it got to the dealer... I know that car carriers can sometimes do minor damage to vehicles when they're loading or unloading them, and the local dealers fix these minor problems. However if a car has received extensive damage in transit, such as getting stuck in a hail storm while on a car carrier, in most states this damage has to be disclosed to the buyer and the price adjusted accordingly.

Parts.com has the OEM sensor for $41.57... http://www.parts.com/oemcatalog/index.cfm?...or&siteid=2 I've found them to be the least expensive in most cases for OEM parts.

I agree with LSRxLex... I've had similar experiences with aftermarket parts for both my front end and exhaust system. In the end, it has cost me just as much if not more, plus the aggravation, to have the job done right a second time with OEM replacement parts. Both my upper and lower control arm bushings and the exhaust Y pipe had to be done twice because of inferior aftermarket parts. Tomorrow I'm having a new driveshaft installed in my 91 (with 82k miles) at the Lexus dealer. Based on my last two experiences above, I ran through some scenarios in my head as to the possible outcome if I; 1.) went with a rebuilt driveshaft and had my local mechanic install it; 2.) Went with a new driveshaft and had my local mechanic install it; 3.) went with a new driveshaft purchased through my local Lexus dealer and had the dealer install it... Option 1, had the highest probability for problems based on the quality of the rebuild by an aftermarket supplier and the skill of my local mechanic. Option 2, which is a brand new OEM shaft installed by my local mechanic, had a better chance of success, but I also know that my local mechanic, as good as he is, doesn't have the Lexus alignment tool to check for proper alignment of the shaft, or a supply of the differently weighted bolts that Lexus has available to fine tune the install. I envisioned in my head, him trying and trying to get the shaft to run true, then telling me he can't get it just right and that I should bring it to Lexus. Option 3, a new shaft installed by my local dealer, has the best chance of success and is also the most expensive option. My Lexus dealer is estimating 3-4 hours labor to install the shaft @ $120 per hour as opposed to my local mechanic at $80 per hour. I got my local dealer to match the price of the shaft to that of another Lexus dealer that has a large presence online at a reduced price. Initially they were $300 more than the online Lexus dealer's price for the shaft. I would have had to pay the shipping costs of the online dealer as well, so I actually saved a little more with the local dealer purchase. So assuming everything goes as planned, it will end up costing about $120 to $200 more for my Lexus dealer to install the new OEM shaft, but if there's a problem with the install I think they'll be able to get it straightened out. So in general, my new philosophy is to use original OEM parts as long as the price isn't rediculously expensive, and depending on the level of difficulty, use either my local mechanic or the dealer for the install. I know there are a lot of us on this board that are DIYers and most can probably do as good a job as their local mechanic for many of their repairs. If I had a lift in my garage with adequate ceiling height I'd probably be all over it, but since I dont, I stick primarily to doing the cosmetic type fixes on this car (pulling the climate control this weekend and soldering in a new LED display) and leave most of the mechanical stuff to the (semi) professionals.

Here's some of the detail on the TSB... BR001-06 INCONSISTENT OR UNUSUAL BRAKE FEELING 3/17/2006 - 2003 – 2005 model year Lexus GX470 vehicles produced BEFORE the Production Change Effective VIN within this TSIB. Some customers may experience a slightly lower brake pedal feel intermittently. A new brake pad anti-squeal shim service part has been developed to address this concern. File is associated with other vehicles. 2003 Lexus GX470 2004 Lexus GX470 2005 Lexus GX470 03-17-2006 00106 10019657 20060317 030000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC LEXUS GX470 2004 20060413 INCONSISTENT OR UNUSUAL BRAKE FEELING

Where is the actual TSB, I coluld not find it. I am also hearing the same clunk on my 2007 GX470 since i have it and now it has 7k miles. I will ask the Dealer at the next oil change to look at it but need something to backup my claim... My dealer replaced both the propeller shaft as well as the control arms on my 08 GX470 @ around 3000 miles. I had this problem on my 04 GX so I knew exactly what the problem was on the 08 when it started happening. I was surprised that it started happening so early on the 08... The 04 had at least 30k miles (maybe 40k) on it before the clunk started happening. On both vehicles the TSB fixed the problem with no recurrence.

There was a TSB for the GX back in 2004 for a condition that sounds similar to this. The fix was to install special front pad shims if the customer complained about the brake pedal intermittently feeling like it was going too far to the floor or if they noticed pulsating (not like when the ABS kick's in). I would have thought this would have been fixed over the two year production run period between 04/06 but maybe not... I had the fix done to my 04 at the time and the problem went away.

My wife uses a Razr with her 08 ES350 and it doesn't work well at all... It drops a lot of calls and more often than not it takes multiple connection tries before you can hear each other. I use a Blackberry 8830 with my 08 GX470 and in the ES350 without any problems.

Maybe a sensor in one of the rear air shocks. Others have posted problems with the sensors. If this is the problem, simply replacing the sensor fixes the problem.

Do you have another device you can try and plug it into like a Bose wave radio AUX port to see if it works with that device...?

I don't think my 08 GX has one either!

I think that unless your wife is riding the brakes, that needing replacement at 24k miles is abnormal. I had an 04 GX that I sold to a buddy of mine that had 53k miles on it. He now has about 65k miles on it and he's still on the original pads. When I sold it to him @ 53k miles, the pads weren't even 50% worn. I do about 50/50 city/highway... Jim

hmm..strange. I picked up an '08 in April and have not experienced any vibrations. Do you have the Dunlop AT20's? I'm not sure what kind of tires I have (it's late here so I will check in the morning). I'm going to take the car back to the dealer again tomorrow. Bellamore, Did they figure out what was causing the vibration?

My 91' LS was done for the first time last year at 16 years old and 74k miles...

The odometer on my 07 400h was accurate but the speedometer was off by approximately 3 mph. It read higher than actual... I checked it against a Garmin GPSMap 76C...

Its difficult to explain what I would consider a normal ride. Having owned two brand new GX's, I would know if something wasn't right. Since you don't have a point of reference to go by to know what's normal, I'd suggest you go to the dealer and ask them to let you drive another used GX so you can compare the two...

Are you burning oil? How much are you burning per 1000 miles?

Might also want to make sure that the dealer didn't install one or both of the crossbars in reverse...

A lack of consistency in delivery of service to its customers. The bigger you get, the more difficult it is to control. I think many would agree that the same disparities exist within other independently owned "chain stores" outside of the automotive industry. I would bet this is nothing more than a commodity to many of the poorest run dealerships, and to their employees, just a paycheck. The better / well run dealerships that provide the levels of customer service that many of us have come to expect, are committed to their customers and have developed a sustainable corporate culture thats driven from the top down. Jim

You may want to check the inside window seal at the base of the window on the passenger side. I had a problem with these interior seals on an 07' RX 400h that I traded in for my second GX. The seals on the RX and GX are similar in design. You could try temporarily putting some masking tape over the area where the inside seal meets the window and going for a drive to see if this helps... Jim

Part of the fun of owning the 400h is being able to see via the NAV screen what the battery status is and what the driveline is doing visually. You lose this by not having the NAV display plus the other visual's that I wouldn't want to give up like the speed dial for the phone, etc... I don't know if the ML is worth it in this vehicle, but if I had to do it again, I'd take the time to find one with it and listen to it. One of the shortcoming's in the 400h is the base radio isn't very good IMHO...

I get the same noise on my 08' as well. I had an 04' GX before and it didn't do this...

Have you considered the clear bra protection. Its offered by most dealers and available in the aftermarket for $400 to $700... XPel Clear Bra