People roll into my shop almost every day with a super looking, shiny Chinese made scooter that most often is just weeks old if that. When I ask about warranty or possibly some support from the seller I hear pretty much the same story...he's no help, doesn't seem interested or they only sell them and some far away mystery outfit is supposed to take care of the problem. I completely stopped taking this stuff in even though the engines at a glance look like standard fair. What I have found is the starter recoil units are so poorly made they could never work for long. Valve train parts are complete joke though some do interchange with the engine they stole the design from. Dive into a carb and the main jet will twist off with the slightest turn of a screwdriver. At that point I have broken the mans part and look toward MAKING a jet to get me out of this mess. I could go on and on but there is little need. Don't try to get your 250.00 worth out of this machine. Your chances are so slim its unbelievable. Do I have any ideas for you to get 800.00 worth of good for 250.00....of course not. mike merritt

I'd take it to a professional garage that has the proper diagnostic tools and someone who knows how to use these. It may be the IACS control, but could be something else as well. You wouldn't want to fix the wrong thing. That's costly. You can find the price of the IACS unit by inquiring at your favorite automotive parts house. These are not hard to swap out. For GM cars, after installing an IACS, you should adjust the control to its nominal position for the first engine start. (Consult a repair manual for this procedure.) The system will automatically adjust it there after. It is interesting how and when this automatic adjsutment is made. Knowing how its done helps to understand the system. (Consult the manual for details.) On my GM cars, I've seen the IACS wear out by 70,000 miles, while lasting much longer on other models. It's life is very variable. I've taken these apart to look at the design details and found the weak spot is the feed screw that is molded of plastic. Either it or both the screw and nut wears out around its nominal position. The nut either slips or jams at wearout. The working parts of GM's IACS is a lead screw directly driven by a stepper motor. The motor steps equally well in either direction. A nut on the lead screw moves the air control valve. There is no feedback control, therefore, during the calibration phase when the engine controller resets the IACS to a nominal position, it does not "know" if this was done properly, but assumes the IACS is at its nominal position after sending a series of pulses to the stepper motor. At idle, the engine contoller uses the tachometer signal to sense engine speed and makes minor adjustments to the IACS. In this way, it can keep a nearly constant engine speed under varying loads at idle (provided the IACS operates well).

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.

Here's the deal. Over a period of time, some six months, you have experienced a driveability symptom of a rough idle. The first one was accompanied by a check engine light, which means a trouble code was set for a circuit that was not operating correctly. The O2 sensor was replaced, the lamp went out and has been out. "IF" the replacement of the O2 sensor had not repaired the circuit fault, the check engine light would have come back on, reguardless of what the engine idle quality was. Those details right there are sufficient to say that they were right about that part of this situation, and you approached this unfairly trying to claim you were ripped off with the sensor replacement. Your April 7th report of "problem returns" should read the rough idle returned. Cars don't actually have only one possible cause for any symptom. There are many things that can cause a poor/rough/unsteady idle, and they are only related by the sensation the driver feels coming from the car. They did not diagnose a problem, they also didn't just throw a couple of handfulls of parts at it did they? Tell me exactly how that falls under the meaning of the word "Unscrupulous"? From here, it looks like the worst they could be blamed for is having an inexperienced technician, who reported honestly exactly what he/she found. On July 7th you took it back in, and with whatever transpired the EGR was replaced. Did the idle quality improve when they did that compared to before you took it in to when you picked it up or was there no difference at all? An EGR valve sticking slightly open can certaintly cause the symptom you reported, but once again it's not the only thing that can do it. Good shops stop when they see no reason to go forward with repairs, even if some things are suspect. It's the "unscrupulous" ones that will hang every part they can in order to make sure that nothing is missed and the symptom stays gone. Like it or not, the "honest" ones have to allow the car to show them if more work needs done, and that is only determined by the owners reporting of any remaining, or additional symptoms. Oh, it helps immensely BTW if the reporting of the sympoms is acurate to the facts of what the car is doing, not what someone "thinks" it's doing. Now at the time of your post, your saying the symptoms you are noticing are "The idle is louder than normal and I feel vibration in my drivers seat and the steering wheel." You easily could be describing, a problem with the engine's coolant fan, an AC issue, a bad engine mount, and others. You could NOT be describing a failed O2 sensor, nor an EGR valve problem. Gary has done well in getting you to take a step back and start to understand the real possibility that not only has the dealer done good, and correct work, this easily may be something beyond anyones control. Cars are complicated, and inspite of what so many will want to claim, not just anybody can fix cars, because in order to fix them, one has to first truly understand them and that takes years of study, and decades of hands on experience. To help you with the dealer, and with your car I can give you this. Report the symptom exactly as it occurs. See if outside ambient temperature, use of the air conditioner or not, the amount of time stopped to idle, or whether it's in park, reverse, or drive or some combination of these have any impact on the symptoms you are feeling. From there leave it in their hands, because it does not sound like they have really done anything wrong. Oh, and the cost? Totally irrelevant, you cannot judge a shop fairly by what something cost you. Unless it can truly be proven that something you did not need was done, and you have not done that here.