Jayson

All,

We just picked our LX this past weekend and absolutely love it! We bought an '03 Galactic Gray Mica with gray leather, a color combo we had a hard time finding here in TX. Our crossbars are currently set in the farthest rear position on the roof rack and I wanted to know how you have your set up. We were missing a few of the securing ***** on the crossbars, so the local dealership here is going to install them for us. They asked if we wanted the crossbars move to the middle of the roof rack, is this a good idea or should we just leave them be towards the rear.

Also, do you all have the chrome tipped exhaust on your LX? I think it looks sharp and I am having our service writer give me an install price, what do you think it should cost? I know the tip is like $60-$65.

Thanks!

Da Hapa

Hi Jayson.

We recently move the cross bars on our roof racks all the way to the back of the truck. I did this for two reasons. 1) It seemed to lower the wind noise of the racks that intruded into the cabin (that's the problem with having such a quiet vehicle, you can actually hear the difference) and 2) I had heard that it is more aerodynamic in that position. I have no clinical evidence to prove that is the case and I've only been through two tanks of gas since I made that change but I can tell you that the already quiet cabin of our 2006 LX 470 is even quieter now and our last two tanks of gas avergaged 15.3 and 15.5 mpg respectively as compared to 14.8 - 15.0 before hand. It might very well be a coincidence that my milage has improved by our daily route hasn't changed nor have our driving habits.

V8_Fan

I keep my cross bars as far back as possible...less wind drag since the flow is turbulent in the rear. I normally get 18.8 mpg on the freeway going 70-72mph and 19.3mpg on country roads/highways (60-65mph). This is running chevron 91. With 87, it's like 2 mpg less.

1loudLX

good idea. I know on the Porsche Cayennes if you put both cross bars in the back it acts as a spoiler but never thought about that for my truck. I truely want to take the cross bars off but leave the rails. Anyone know how to take them off?

Jayson

Sewell Lexus sent me a parts breakdown of the roofrack system, so that I could properly order the parts I needed. I would imagine that you could use this to take the crossbar assembly out. I didn't realize how many pieces there were to this system. I'll PM you with the attachment.

Jayson

All, thanks for the advice. We decided to have them move the crossbars to the rear, which they did. Can't tell a difference yet, but now I have a habit of looking at felloe LX and GX owners as they drive by to see where theirs are located. It's more common than I thought to have them placed rearward.

aedgington

Did you ever find an exhaust tip?

LXotic

Anyone have pics of the chrome exhaust?

1loudLX

www.lexus-parts.com


dude, please, learn to search!

LXotic

Actually i have already seen the pic of the exhaust on www.lexus-parts.com
smartz and i do search and i ask whati need recomendations and more info on
(--_--)

Jayson

My service writer quoted me $57 for the chrome tip exhaust installed. I will have it done the next time the truck is in for servicing, probably after our road trip to San Diego for the holidays, and hopefully take some good pics to post here for you. Lexus of Austin has an '06 LX on the lot right now with the chrome tip and it just makes a huge difference in appearance from the rear. I think the fad has caught on, because 5 out of the 6 GX's they have on the new car lot have the chrome tip on them. Each have it billed as a dealer-installed option for $60. Not a bad price considering they tend to overcharge a lot of the time on those dealer options.

Jayson

Yeah, Darrell at Lexus-Parts.com is great. He's very quick with my parts inquiries. With the chrome tip, I had to use the part number listed on their web site to give to my local service writer. When my service writer looked it up in the main system it was shown as one piece, attached to the muffler assembly. Initially, he told me I would have to order the whole thing which was going to be way too expensive. Apparently, the part number for the chrome tip is in the accessories manual, which can then be ordered as an individual part and where I got my quote of $57.