We bought a 2004 Lexus ES330 new . We looked at Avalon and Camry before we bought. The ES330 is basically the same running gear and engine as the Avalon and the Camry. FWD 3.3 liter 6cyl. It was updated in '04 to 3.3 liters from the previous 3.0 liters (the ES330) The car is a great car, we have the Navigation also and it works reasonably well. Now the bad: while in Las Vegas this last weekend (1-28, 1-29-06) I was driving the car and stopped at a light. The brake pedal then slowly sunk to the floor! Whoa! says I, this ain't right! I pumped the pedal and the brake returned to a normal brake height. At the next light, guess what?... it sunk to the floor again! No brakes! I pumped it again a couple of times and the brake pedal returns to normal height. I does this 2- 3 times again on the way back to our lodging in Las Vegas. When I parked it in the parking space at our apt, I was able to make it go to the floor again with very little pressure on the brake pedal. We called Lexus of Las Vegas on Monday 1-30-06 and had them flatbed the car to the dealer for repairs. They at first told me it was a "bubble in the brake line and they "bled it out"...BS..there was no bubble, there was no loss of fluid, there was no repair. They said because they "couldn't duplicate the problem" they weren't authorized to change the master cyl. That we should just come pick it up and drive it until it looses it brakes again! I said .."NO WAY!!!!" Fix it , it's under warranty and it only has 17,000 miles on it. Well it turns out that Lexus won't let there service mgrs. make a decision on their own, but must be able to "duplicate the problem" in order to authorize a repair. My position was that the brakes had failed not once on Sunday, but several times and that anything over once was one time to many. I asked if the service manager would put his wife in a car that had the brake pedal go to the floor and tell her that he can't do anything unless he actually sees the brake pedal on the floor. ( He'll be sleeping on the couch for a while!) I told him I wasn't willing to see the brake pedal on the floor and my significant other on a stretcher being taken to a hospital because he couldn't "duplicate the failure" in his shop. I asked him if he had heard the term "intermittent failure" . He said yes, but his mantra was : I can't replace the part unless I can "dup......Blah , Blah , Blah" . We live in Los Angeles, the car's in Las Vegas, & so is my S.O. And nothing is fixed, NO loan car for 3 days. I then called the Lexus dealer in Van Nuys where we bought the car new (Keyes Lexus in Van Nuys Ca) and asked if they could intervene. I got the same answer: We can't do anything unless they can "Duplicate the failure" Then I tried to call the Lexus customer service line (1800 25-LEXUS) and there's no answer at 4:15 pm PST. I tried it 4 times , It just rings and rings and finally hangs up on you. ( I guess their cars only break before 4:15 PM ) Bottom line: You may think you're getting the best, but sometimes you don't get what you pay for. Today is Wednesday, 2-1-06 and the car has been at Las Vegas Lexus for 3 days, no repair, NO loan car. Refusal to tow it to our home so we can have it fixed in Los Angeles and ....A very Pi---- off customer. A customer who when we signed the purchase contract also was given a warranty.. and they are not living up to their obligations on the agreement we both entered into. So folks, like the housing market, so is the Vehicle market turning. Customer satisfaction is slowly going out the window. I hope the quality stays above water until Somebody out there cares enough to take care of the customer after the sale. If not, Toyota Motors USA will be joining GM and Ford, et al, in the slippery slide. By the way, I was in the automotive field in the 70's and 80's and saw the dismal products that were made in those two decades, so I left the business. I ran an automotive service center. I still am an automotive enthusiast and work on my own antique and classic vehicles. I am not afraid of the new technology and have a broad understanding of it including the Computerization of the automobile. BUT... I have a warranty.

Take it to a trusted garage and have them run a set of diagnostics on it. There may be more wrong that a malfunctioning EGR (exhaust gas recirculator). Additional Information: An exhaust gas recirculator is a device that admits a controlled amount of exhaust gas back into the intake manifold. Sounds crazy, huh. This thingy was added to reduce the formation of nitrous oxide becasue the engineers couldn't think of any other way to do this at the time while remaining under the then current design retraints. It was recognized that it was going to be a problematic device since it is a valve that must handle hot exhaust gas right out of the cylinders. Issues are high heat and fouling by exhaust particles. Nitrous oxide is formed in the combustion process by temperature and pressure: The higher the pressure and temperature, the more nitrous oxide is formed. Admitting aome exhasut gas into the mixture casues it to burn at a lower temperature and lesses the pressure as well, but you know, this also lessens engine efficiency and power, so is it a good thing - maybe. That's the rub: as the fuel mix is adjusted toward best efficiency, nitrous oxide also rises. The EGR is supposed to meter exhaust gas into the intake under specific conditions. There is none at idle and varing amounts at other times. By adding the EGR, it was found that the spark timing could be advanced toward the same settings that were in use befoe the advent of polution controls. On some engines, a knock will occur if there is no EGR function under this set of conditions: Engine fully warmed up; part throttle while at a moderate speed, say 35mph; then encounter a small rise in the road surface that requires slightly more throttle opening to maintain speed. There is another source that makes a sharp, almost clicking sound, and that is a blown exahust gasket. When the leak is small, it may be quiet at idle and low power output, but will let itself be heard as soon as more power is called for. This sound is distinctive and sounds quite different to a knock or valve click. What's fuel knock anyway? An internal combuation engine runs the best when the fuel burns evenly and casues the pressure to rise in a smooth manner. Knock occurs when nearly all of the fuel explodes at once producing a sharp, explosive pressure shock instead of a smooth 'push'. Many hours and much money has gone into knock research, and still does today. Its a difficult thing to quantify since the process takes place inside the closed chamber above the piston. How does one get a look inside the combustion chamber? And how does one get a good picture through the flame? One of these tools is a special sparkplug that is fitted with a pressure sensor that is built to withstand the rigors of the combustion chamber.

"Wow OAA9898 you called me a lier and a retard in one post LOL.Sure its just one case and I said they make them better today then they did back then.But it is a true story.I guess you just do not believe everything you read.Just every thing Consumer Distorts and JD powers writes?Still its a fact you do not see 20 year old Rice burners on the road.Thats a fact.Maybe up on blocks.Even this retard can see that." Actually they did make them good, even back then. Why do you think the imports were so popular? American cars in the '70s were gas hogs of substandard quality. All cars built back then were of abysmal quality in comparison to todays cars. I'm not suggesting imports were perfect at all; however, every car in the 70s had rust problems. The problem with imports back then was that very few mechanics would touch them, so dealer maintenance was necessary and expensive (and therefore often left undone). Guess what happens if you don't change the timing belt on an interference engine? It snaps and the pistons hit the valves, and well, you can guess the rest. If your car has over a 100,000 miles on it, and the engine is ruined due to a snapped timing belt (due to poor maintenance) you could put a couple thousand dollars into an eight or nine year old car, or cut your losses. What choice do you think a lot of consumers made? BTW, in 1985, Honda and Toyota sales were growing but were far from being at the volume of domestic cars sold at the time. Of course you see more domestics; thats simply due to the fact that more domestics were sold. Japanese car companies concentrated their sales in markets were demand was the highest, like on the West coast. You live in Illinois, the demand for gasoline was and is much higher in California, and probably always will be; therefore, there was a greater demand for fuel-efficient vehicles. Hence, more Hondas and Toyotas were sold there as opposed to where you and I live, the Midwest. Despite what you may believe, everything is not the same everywhere, johndeere. And thanks to competition cars today are far better then they would be without Japanese Imports. Thanks, Japan. Don't knock Consumer Reports. Unlike J.D. Power & Associates, they are one of the only non-for-profit consumer advocacy groups left in the country. They accept no advertisements, corporate donations, and don't allow their name to be advertised by manufacturers. Say what you will, that they're biased towards foreign cars, or other garbage like that - but it will be completely unfounded.

That's exactly it, assuming it's the same and I don't know why it wouldn't be. Below are the instructions from my manual. The reference to a certain page won't be the same for your vehicle's manual. You need to reset the light after the engine oil replacement. Reset the light by following the procedure below: 1. Turn the key to the "ACC" or "LOCK" position with the odometer reading shown. (For details, see "Odometer and two trip meters" on page 138 in this Section). 2. Turn the ignition key to the "ON" position while holding the trip meter reset button. Hold down the button until the light goes off. Before the light goes off, it illuminates for 3 seconds, flashes for 2 seconds and illuminates for 1 second. If the system fails to reset, the light will remain flashing.