welcome to the club.

I bought the timing belt kit from Sewell Lexus for the water bump, timing belt, idler replacement during the 90K service at my friend's garage.

 

Awesome post - 10/10 in terms of being helpful. I will def change the fluids, water pump and seals when undertaking this job. If the windshield wiper cowl is as easy to remove as it is on my E36's, it should be a piece of cake....

As far as the ipod integration goes, I think I am going to go with the Grom unit with USB. I know people early on had some issues, but it seems that they have worked the bugs out. I like that you can use a cheap external hard drive as opposed to keeping your ipod connected.

Thanks from across the world....and Ohio! I am wondering, would you have still sent the warm welcome if you knew of my affinity for the maize and blue?


Noted. Not feeling bad about choosing the 06 model year....

I verified today the the vehicle is coming with the Cargo Mat. I unfortunately couldn't verify the # of keys or type...so that will have to be a surprise, good or bad... And thanks for defining the non-warrantable operation code.

Agreed 100%. I am not a fan of woodgrain as a general rule anyway....and it def looks out of place.

Good to know that Lexus has dealers that discount their parts, BMW had a few that catered to the enthusiast base as well. I'll keep Sewell in mind when it comes to ordering parts. Are they exclusive in this regard or are their other dealers that employ a similar pricing strategy?

Lastly, I verified that the RX will be shipping on Monday from Houston with an estimated 5 days in-transit. So hopefully a week from today I can begin enjoying and learning about the vehicle. I'll be sure to post feedback. In the meantime, thanks for all the warm and helpful comments.

The friendliness and maturity scale here seems to exceed bimmerforums. There I would have received at least a few post from some haters, especially as a noob...thanks for that.

 

PshychoCNDY -
GO BLUE!!!!! If you ever need anything from an advice standpoint, hit me up friend. Anything for a fellow Wolverine. Huge Michigan Fan even though I now live in Texas.

 

Thanks man! Good win over ILL today. Can't wait for March madness and football in the fall....looks like we have a great recruiting class... I grew up only 15 minutes or so from the Big House in Ann Arbor.

Thanks also for the offer for advice, I may take you up on it down the road.

 

Lexus ownership experience is off to a really bad start....I was told that the vehicle was serviced at Sterling McCall Lexus in Houston and that all issues were addressed and the vehicle was ready to go with no noted issues. I was able to verify on Lexus.com that the vehicle was indeed serviced there on 2/13, replacing a MAF sensor, etc.

So the vehicle arrives and is dirty as crap from the highway transport from TX, and the first thing I notice was a CEL indicator on the dash. Bad start. Secondly, the dealer failed to include the temp tag, nice to know the $ you pay for those bs doc fees translates into real value for the consumer....Anyhow, got the car home it was late and went to bed.

Sat AM - gave the car a good wash in 34 degree weather, after the rinse, noted that the body looked clean with only minor scratches, rock chips, etc.

Finally got my temp tag from the dealer Sat and decided to take a trip to Roanoke to pick up some things for an upcoming vacation. Put air in the tires, was surprised that the pressure readings were all over the place after just being serviced at the dealership.

Got the vehicle on the highway, feathered the accelerator and didn't exceed 75 mph, but only got 15mpg on the first 35 mi commute. CEL still on....irritating me as I drive, knowing that that is a likely contributor to the poor economy.

The next 35 miles or so were on 2-lane divided hwy, 55mph speed limit, got the mpg up from 15 to 19 by the time we arrived at a restaurant to meet some friends. With this driving style, I could have achieved 33-35 mpg in my BMW sedan, rated for 28 on the highway. I expected far less due to the weight difference, but given my gingerly driving style on this trip, it was disappointing to realize this was probably as good as it was going to get, save a few mpg increase when temperatures rise and the summer gas blends hit the stations. I was thinking perhaps after the root cause of the CEL was fixed, that could help as well. But little did I realize at this time that economy was the least of my worries.

Finished lunch and drove the the restaurant (inside the mall parking area) to Macy's. Still feathering the accelerator, I noticed some vibration and shaking at very low rpms (both after acceleration and deceleration). As our trip continued, this problem increased, feeling and sounding like the transmission was grinding directly under my feet. Then the dash lights up like an x-mas tree with all kinds of warnings, "check hybrid system", "check VSC system" , "check AWD system"....I am pissed at this point wondering if we can even make it back home (90 miles or so).

The car stalled out as my wife was pleasantly reading me the interpretation of all the warning indicators from the factory manual. I learned some valuable information, like it was not recommended to transport a fish tank full of water as it could leak and affect the battery. Oh, and I should get the vehicle to a Lexus dealer ASAP.

But luckily we were able to make it back home. Unfortunately, now the work begins in trying to get this problem remedied either by getting an agreement from the dealer to ship it back or possibly being stuck with the repairs....

I was hoping a 50k mile Lexus would provide some improved reliability over the 100k mile BMW's I am used to driving, but in this case, no such luck.... Perhaps I should have just ponied up for an X5.

 

Psychocndy is this a CPO or just a used RX400h ? How come the dealer won't clean it up for you when you are picking it up ? Almost all dealer regardless would at least clean it up before you take it home. With that much problem, I would take it back gets your money and go find another one instead.

 

Let me get this straight, you purchased this vehicle sight unseen and without test driving it or having a presale inspection?

Used vehicles, even from a dealership, are usually sold "as is." Caveat emptor.

Because it sounds like he had it shipped from Houston to his location in WV, without a local inspection prior to the sale, and was not a local dealer pickup in his area. More than likely had to go to the shipping yard to get it.

 

The pictures of this vehicle in post one show a watermark from Ultimate Automobiles in Texas. They are used car dealership, so there is no CPO warranty. You really roll the dice buying a car sight unseen. I can't imagine doing that!

 

Sorry this is happening to you. Do a search in the 400 forum on those lights, I seem to remember an extra long warranty on some of the drive parts. Best of luck and let us know what happens.

 

Did you get the Black Shift **** yet?

 

LOL, don't really care if the shift **** was made of recycled dog turds at this point....I'd live with it....

RX is still at the stealership (Love Lexus in St. Albans, WV), they still can't find the problem. After attempting to interpret the lean/rich codes, they confidently expressed the opinion that the MAF sensor was the issue. It was replaced, but did not remedy the issue. So now they say the fuel pressure is low (12 PSI vs. 44 PSI std). And the next step in this guessing game is to replace the fuel pump and regulator.

I don't have much confidence in the Lexus techs. This is the 2nd stealership that has serviced the vehicle for the same issues in less than a month and they can't seem to root cause the issue.

I reported my issue to Lexus (Nat'l level) and got a call back from a useless case worker that told me my case was reviewed and no goodwill assistance will be offered. It was an exercise in futility to communicate to some college age kid about the technical aspects of the situation. They basically said I am SOL because I didn't purchase the vehicle from an authorized Lexus dealer and I don't have a robust service history with the vehicle. That second part is difficult since I have owned the car less than a week. Perhaps they should revise their metric to % of time at the dealership/time of ownership. In that case I would be golden.

One of the factors that I leveraged on in having the confidence to purchase this vehicle sight unseen because the dealer sent documentation showing a full service at Sterling McCall Lexus. This was in addition to the well-documented service history, clean carfax, good reputation of the seller, etc. I have documentation showing that the seller requested Sterling McCall to fix everything that was wrong with the vehicle. On the service invoice, Sterling McCall documents remedying all problems relating to the RX and verifying the effectiveness of the service after a 10 mile test drive.

I speculate that, after resetting the obd II codes, they did not test drive the vehicle the 10 miles as stated, or at least long enough for the sensors to record enough faults to trip the CEL or other diagnostic indicators.

Anyhow, not happy with the way Lexus has handled this situation. I am not saying they are solely culpable, liable or responsible. I understand the ramifications of my decision. But I am disappointed that they will not have any mature and reasonable dialogue about the situation, and at the very least, consider applying some type of goodwill gesture given the fact that their dealer did not perform the service requested and satisfactorily remedy the problems per the codes.This is what ultimately led to the transfer of risk.

 

showroom condition! looks beautiful!

 

I have empathy for you. I bought an 09 RX 350 about 1 year ago (sight unseen) and shared my experience here (positive and negative):

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...-included.html

The reasons why I was brave enough to buy the vehicle sight unseen were:

1. I saved $2k - $5k by doing so. Used Lexus around my area is expensive.
2. The vehicle was still under basic and powertrain warranty, even if something goes wrong I'd be covered for about 9 months.
3. If something goes wrong, I'd use some of the money I saved to fix the problem, e.g. brakes, tires, etc. And something did go wrong. The spare tire was cracked (TPMS light came on) and rest of 4 tires had medium to low treads when I received the vehicle. I lived with it for 6 months and replaced all 4 tires (used best of the 4 as my spare now) before winter. Cost me $600 ish but it still turned out to be a good deal.

Again, I have empathy for you. But I really can't blame the dealership either. It was out of warranty and you took the risk. Similar to my case, you saved $4K by buying a vehicle sight unseen. I'd probably leave really negative feedback on the dealer all over the internet if they decline to offer you any support, which they have no obligation. You might have a case if you left the car alone after seeing that the CEL for the first time when it appears. But you chose to drive it. Now the dealer could argue that the CEL came on after you've driven it.

Hindsight is 20/20. Stop doubting yourself and I wish you best of luck.

Also, be glad that you have a good wife that she pleasantly read you the owner's manual. In the past, my wife would have complained why I decided to buy a junk car sight unseen. Her temper has much improved since.