lemon

By George, I think you've got it! Try it. The great thing is, if you don't like it, no harm done, no time wasted to speak of. Let us know what you think. As I said, I was really trying to be honest about how easy this was and it does look good. It does make everything blue though but I like it. The amp gauge, or whatever that is that replaced the RPM gauge, has a blue area and a much larger white area...now it has a blue and a light blue. No biggie. So if I go with red acetate, I'll end up with a power meter gauge that is red and......magenta!!!! Yep. The nice thing is that you can try whatever you want without messing anything up and if you don;t want to keep it, you haven't invested any time, very little money and you can easily try different colors. At the hobby store where I came across the acetate they only had a few colors but some of the slots where empty so I don;t know what other colors they normally have and I didn't ask since I only wanted the blue. Art supply stores often have packets of colored acetate as well and would work great I imagine. Let us know if you try this. Just checked online at a Curry's art store. They have red, blue, green and yellow. https://www.currys.com/catalogpc.htm?Catego...p;Source=Search

By George, I think you've got it! Try it. The great thing is, if you don't like it, no harm done, no time wasted to speak of. Let us know what you think. As I said, I was really trying to be honest about how easy this was and it does look good. It does make everything blue though but I like it. The amp gauge, or whatever that is that replaced the RPM gauge, has a blue area and a much larger white area...now it has a blue and a light blue. No biggie. So if I go with red acetate, I'll end up with a power meter gauge that is red and......magenta!!!!

Looks like everything is blue, which makes sense if I understand exactly what was done. That's the difference between your project and this one - everything will be blue as the entire plastic circle face has blue acetate in front of it. *edit* Looking at your post above cduluk, and I thought he had done something like this as well, but what I 'think' he's done is simple. As he said, go to your vehicle ( I know it's hard for you, but don't take anything apart - ;) ), take a business card, place it in the smaller 'ring' (like the power meter ring) against the clear plastic face, and push it sideways. You should see the business card now appear in the speedometer ring, still in front of the clear plastic face. Now picture doing the same thing with blue acetate. Apparently, as RXREY has found out, there are not three separate round clear plastic faces, but one large piece of clear plastic that appear round because of the faceplate. Pieces of acetate will just slide in there like the business card. The pieces can be oversized because it's one big piece of clear plastic behind the cover plate. The oversize area (and the tape holding up the acetate I think) will be covered by the faceplace.

I'm sort of getting it. So there's a big piece of blue acetate behind the clear plastic on each of your gauges? So the acetate is basically right behind the round clear plastic circles in each gauge pod? *edit* I mean...there's a piece of blue acetate IN FRONT of each of the round plastic circles? Using this method, I suppose I could get a piece of red acetate and make my gauges red. So I could pretend I was driving a BMW, Audi or.....a Pontiac... Guess what I'm doing tomorrow.....I think I might get red and blue acetate...see which one I like better, or maybe the power meter red, the speedometer blue and the fuel/temp red to give me some symmetry. Or maybe, leave the fuel/temp alone...the possibilities are endless...haha. Or maybe I could put clear acetate down and have everything white..... :P

Lemon is always correct. Muhahahahaha.... Actually, I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken. I have no idea what this baffle plate is supposed to do but the TSB about bending it says "The baffle is designed to deflect oil" (maybe if you forget to put the cap back on it prevents oil from spraying all over?), but a lot (if not all) Toyotas have it. The TSB also has a diagram showing a bent baffle, and it looks like the baffle covers the entire underside of the valve cover. Every other vehicle I've owned did not, or if they did have a baffle, it didn't block the fill hole. I personally don't like it, as I'd like to see into the valve train area to check cleanliness (though seeing one tiny spot does not reflect on the entire valve train). Nice clean engine bay RX400h. Amazing how much nicer things are when there isn't salt and slush spraying in there five months of the year. I keep mine pretty clean - here are some engine bay pics in a PCV valve DIY I did http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=58872 - but fighting the rust in the snow belt areas is an ongoing battle.

Since I'm laying in bed, and the car is in the garage, how do you get the gauge rings out?

Don't keep us in the dark. What is blue acetate, and how did you do this? Thanks.

If the service campaign for the steering has not been done, you'll find it listed in the 'club lexus' owner's section of the website after you register. However, seeing as you have to call Lexus Canada to register, you may as well as them then if there are any outstanding recalls. Seeing as you have a 2006, you may also want to check here http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...st&id=12947 if you find your mileage is lower than expected. This procedure (which seems to only apply to '06 models, I think) needs to be done if the battery is disconnected or run below a certain voltage. You can do this procedure yourself without the special Lexus computer if you want - check here http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=58930 My mileage went from about 10 l/100km to just over 8 l/100km when I did this procedure myself back in the summer. Just remember that if your mileage has recently gone downhill, it's probably from the winter gas and colder weather. Mine is currently up around 10 again, but only since it got cold.

Don't panic. It IS NOT sludge. It's a baffle plate Toyota puts there. I have no idea why they don't make it shiny and smooth, instead of making it look crusty and black like sludge. See here for a TSB about not bending it when filling with oil to confirm that it's just the baffle plate. Mine looks the same and so will any other users who have a peek down the oil fill hole. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...st&id=12975 Now, what you're seeing in your oil filler hole is indeed the baffle plate. Whether the vehicle itself has sludge or not you can't tell unless you pull the valve cover (easy enough to do, but involves removing a few parts (airbox, some wires, a few clamps). If you want peace of mind you could run an HDEO (heavy duty engine oil - usually diesel oil, but acceptable for passenger car engines) or an oil that claims cleaning power like Pennzoil Platinum. Alternatively you could run something like Auto-Rx (do a search at www.bobistheoilguy.com and check www.auto-rx.com). You'll find lots of info at bobistheoilguy, but be warned the auto-rx site kind of reads like a late night infomercial (kind of like an Amsoil website..hahaha). You'll find posts saying that Auto-rx did wonders, and others stating that it did nothing, but I don't believe anyone has had a negative experience. I've run it through several of my vehicles, including my 400h with no problems. What year and how many kilometres on the vehicle? You should register at www.lexus.ca (you have to call Lexus Canada first to give your info and VIN). There is an owner's section there where you can check for recalls and also see the service history of the vehicle (as long as it was serviced at a Lexus dealer). If you find info there and it shows regular oil changes I would not worry about sludge. It was the previous 3 litre engine that had serious sludge problems. The 3.3 was redesigned. You should confirm as well whether the steering rack has been replaced under an internal Lexus 'service campaign' (not sure what years it applies to - I had it done when I bought my 2006 (used) this past summer. There was also an official 'recall' (i.e. government mandated) regarding some clips holding the carpet up near the accelerator pedal.

What did you do to mess it up? Do a search here (and maybe clublexus.com). There were a few people trying to override the 'I Agree' screen, and update to new maps etc., that messed up the NAV unit. There was a repair, involving removing the system from the cargo area and draining some battery in the unit or something.

Oh, yeah. Headlamp washer. I do have that, just that my washer pump is kaput, so I don't use it. A new pump is ridiculously expensive. Cheapest I could find is about $150 US. Those are some cool mods. The HUD is nice.

Totally unrelated, but in the above pic, I see your heated seat switches (looks like they're both on as they're lit up), but what are those other vertical orange lights to the right of the heated seat switches? I don't have those in my '06. Actually, what is everything in that spot. All I have are the heated seat switches. Looks like you have fog light switch? And something else to the right of the vertical orange lights too?

What a doofus. Should have just said 'your' Lexus was in for service, but you'd be happy to tell the service manager to stop the work so you could take it to another dealership.

I think I like this more than your steering wheel project. It must be nice having so much time on your hands, though. :P

Have a look at this, it may shed some light, or at least you can impress the dealer with your knowledge of the TPMS system. PG001_07.pdf Do you have the 'main/second' switch in your glovebox?

Good thing it wasn't the driver eject button you were fooling with...

Bahahahaha......been there, done that, but usually it's me fooling around, not my kids.

Without knowing how the system works precisely, I would guess that the tire pressure is sent wirelessley (is that a word?) from the wheels to the vehicle somewhere. Maybe the 'receiver' is in the gauge cluster or somehow related to it and the warning light and you now have the old gauge somehow connected to the sensors? I would think each vehicle/sensor combo would have it's own 'signature' so you aren't picking up the tire pressure of the guy parked beside you?? Maybe when you put the original gauges back in, it's not picking up the sensors because they are now sync'd to the replacement gauge. Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud. Did you try putting the original gauge cluster back in and THEN pressing the TPMS reset switch like you did with the replacement gauge before it all went wrong? Maybe this will sync the sensors back to your original gauge?

Don't know if winter tires would have helped here, but these are some whacked out winter driving videos..

I've been running my Michelin MXV4 at 34 psi with good results. Same for my winters - Michelin Pilot Alpin. Also remember that for every 10 degree farenheit drop in temp, you lose about 1 psi. I know lots of people that set their pressures just once - in the summer when it's warm and not as much of a pain to do (compared to checking in freezing temps in the snow when most people don't want to exit the nice climate controlled vehicle). As such, they end up running under pressure for the duration of the winter.

You've got me confused. Just checked a map. Rhode Island appears as though it would only experience cold temps from say...November to March. That's five months you'll be running a 'winter' tire. The rest of the year you run whatever you have on your wheels now, that you've discovered suck in the cold and snow. I think maybe you need to do a little research (google 'winter tire test') and you'll discover that the advances in winter tire technology have been huge, even in the past five years, and certainly leap and bounds above the old 'snow' tire from even a decade ago. You can get a winter tire that's markedly better than ANY all season and still quiet. The Michelin Alpin series - Primacy Alpin (high performance V rated) and Pilot Alpin (H rated) are geared toward perfomance more than an ordinary winter tire, but still have decent performance in the snow/ice. However I think the Latitude Alpin and Alpin HP is designed for SUV/CUV with the proper load rating. It comes in H and V rated I think. Most winter tires are Q rated by the way. Other manufacturers have similar offerings. Alternatively, you could buy one of the new 'all weather' tires which give you better winter capabilities than an all season, but can be left on all year without worrying about excessive wear and handling as you would get if you left a dedicated winter tire on in the hot weather. Research Nokian WGR2, Goodyear ForteraTriple Tred, Yokohama W drive and Continental ExtremeContact DWS. All these tires receive the mountain/snowflake symbol but can be used all year. But whatever, it's your vehicle and your money. As I said, before you jump into the Alenzas (which I have heard good things about), you may want to dig a little deeper or even drop by a good tire shop and ask the staff about winter tires.

Seeing as the Alenza is an all season tire, and you've now apparently committed yourself to buying new tires, and you plan to use your old tires in the summer only, why wouldn't you by a dedicated WINTER tire instead?

Welcome. Excellent first post by the way.

There's no off switch in my 2006, however, I believe the system is weight sensitive (I'll go have a peek in my owner's manual when I get out of bed - modern technology, laptop and wireless) and the airbag will not be active if the passenger is below a certain weight - (I think - or maybe I'm remembering my Odyssey which did it for sure). Anyhow, that being said, you do know that the 'experts' and 'studies' have shown that the safest place for kids below 12 is in the back seat, no?

Oooops. Answered the wrong post. Well, since I'm here I might as well second what was said above. cduluk, you already have a second set of wheels (I remember you found some on ebay). Why not spend the money on some winter tires? You've spent a lot of money on cosmetic mods on your vehicle - a set of winter tires might actually be useful and could save your butt in snow and ice.