dragr13

oh my god i would never have been able to tell! she looks fantastic! and them brand new factory wheels make me jealous! i just went through the nightmare of balancing my factory wheels after 8 years on the road... bad. very, very bad.

really? nobody? nothing?

mine does the same thing. i'm thinking upper strut mounts, because i've seen that before in BMW's. unfortunately, i'm not going to take the strut out to replace the mount without replacing the strut. soooo, it's going to be hard to tell just which replaced part was making the noise. not that i care, so long as it doesn't make any more noise.

i don't know about the 04 specifically, but i see a lot of people with the 01's replacing HID headlight 'igniters' or 'ballasts'. this is the control unit for the HID headlight and is RIDICULOUSLY expensive from lexus (think $1500), but you can find the box used on ebay for around $100. so if one of your headlights starts dimming.. also, i've heard that lexi' tend to 'sag' and that its a good idea to rotate tires regularly and to stay on top of the alignment; i just rotated my new tires after 25k and the inside edge is pretty badly worn on the front tires.

well congratulations! its always nice (and sorta rare) to hear about someone actually LIKING their repair/paint work!

ok, so the car may have some alignment issues, but it was the frozen brake caliper that was making her shimmy. frozen brake caliper! hard to believe, but at least i know i'm not crazy. i KNEW it wasn't the alignment! so everyone remember that one: crazy unexplained (non-suspension) steering shimmy = frozen brake caliper

no no, one thing i've learned is to listen to the words coming out of this guy's mouth. he's a goofy iranian born in germany and raised in his dad's european performance workshop. he's pretty good. but i think you're right, i was going to wait for new struts to get the alignment, but i guess i'm going to have my buddy do a 4 wheel for me now, and then another when the struts come.

Well? what happened? how's she look?

Ok, my car is wearing the inside of the front wheels very badly. I'm planning to put the car up on a lift tonight and balance and rotate the tires, but is there anything i can do (after an alignment, of course) to make sure that the car stops doing this? I was thinking of replacing ball joints and tie-rod ends, but a good, trustworthy mechanic friend of mine said that there's no point in replacing the suspension points b/c 'lexus's just sag'. What?

jesus christ i finally laid down on the ground and looked underneath and the tires are worn on the inside terribly. i was waiting to put it on a lift to check it out but now i just feel dumb. she's supposed to get lifted tonight n i'll rotate n balance the tires and check the suspension out and let you know.

Well, yeah, i know that i have to go get the suspension checked; i've been planning to get some tokico adjustables pretty soon here and i'll do some ball joints and tie rod ends at the same time, but i'm pretty freaking sure that the alignment itself is still relatively ok, and not the immediate issue. Car did the same thing this morning; i let her warm up for a good 10 or 15 before i left, everything was totally fine for literally 5 minutes (i was watching the clock), then when i accelerate up through 40 i start to feel the wheel shake, at 45 its definite, and by 50 its ridiculous. so i played with it a bit, took her up and down through the speed. above 50 the shimmy dies down significantly; it's still there, but not nearly as pronounced, almost like it is initially at 40. as i come back down it bucks real bad at 50 again and then gets better until it drops below 40, and then its gone. after 20 minutes (i *BLEEP* you not, it was exactly 20 minutes. i was watching the clock and the speedo more than the road) the car smooths out and DOES NOT shimmy anymore. i drove for at least another 20 minutes up and down through the speed range and on the same type of back in the valley roads and never felt it again. So, i understand why you go to the tire balance (and if i can get into my buddy's shop i very well might balance them tonight, to be safe), but the car drives so normally both before and after that 20 minute period that i don't understand how it could be the balance or alignment. it's very strange. Power steering fluid is perfect.

My car has an interesting new problem; the steering wheel has started to occasionally shimmy back and forth (significantly) for short periods. It seems to be about 5 minutes after the car is turned on (hot or cold, after performing totally correctly for that first 5 minutes), when i throttle up to about 45 mph i can start to feel the wheel shimmy, then by 50 it is bucking back and forth (up to at least an inch of total travel), which continues until i slow down to about 40. the car itself is not shaking, it is still turning and handling just fine and not tracking back and forth, and pressing the brake actually seems to decrease the shimmy. then, after about ten minutes of the wheel jumping back and forth and me freaking out, i'll accelerate again and the car is totally fine. no shake. no shimmy. lexus operation. I started to feel the shimmy in the wheel months ago, but it was always just a little tiny shimmy for a few moments a couple of minutes into driving and then it would go away, but today is the first day that the wheel really started bucking back and forth like that. Obviously, i'm not ok with this. I don't even know where to begin. Does anyone have any thoughts, ideas, or advice?

I have a black 2001 Is300 (automatic) with 125k. It is almost completely stock, save for a few things which we'll get to later on. I love this car. I really like the drivability of it, and don't want to sacrifice any of its reliability or luxury. However, i wouldn't mind the car having just a bit more OOMPH, so to speak.. I'd like to get a thread going where we can discuss minor modifications to the engine/driveline/ecu systems that can increase performance. By minor i mean relatively easy mods that a fairly experienced tuner could complete themselves. There is a lot of great information on this site about forced induction, and more than enough on body mods, but it would be great if we could get some real-world feedback about current bolt on performance parts from people who are running them! As a few starters, i've been wondering about the benefits to this particular car of: 'Cold Air' Intake Header Underdriven pulley systems Automatic transmission upgrades 'Chips' Ignition controllers What are the most efficient, inexpensive mods that yield the greatest results?

did you get a reply to this at all yet? i can only assume that the problem has been solved, it's been a long time. it's a pretty common problem, most likely a headlight ballast. best bet is to find it used on ebay, they are very expensive from the dealer. probably a good idea to get two bulbs at the same time.

sorry to disappear for so long! the grom does not display track info, but for the difference in price i was willing to sacrifice. i just ran the wire up through the center box and left it long enough that i can keep the pod in my lap and control from the pod or the head unit. works well enough. to get behind the radio: both the plastic housing around the heated seat switches (below the head unit) and the tray housing above the head unit just pull straight out. it's a bit of a hassle; i usually just put some pressure on the bottom of the seat heat switch housing with my hand and slowly increase pulling force toward the shifter until the housing pops loose. on the top i kinda work my fingers into a holding spot on the vent outlets and pull toward the shifter, it's a little more difficult, but careful steadily increasing pressure does it every time. once those are off you take 4 10mm screws out (can't miss them) and pull the radio toward you. easy.