clexusking

Contact your dealer again. There is a service bulletin regarding headlight removal. Dated July 25th. It is for a HID headlight protector kit.

spwolf

I dont get it - what do you expect Lexus to do?

As to the Alarm, you can get an simple sensor on the hood that would activate when your hood opens. It comes standard with most basic alarms. You can get an radar sensor that will warn thieves away from an distance. Most thieves check cars for alarm before even attempting to steal anything because alarm makes it more obvious to the owner and police.

If you are not willing to take step forward and make your vehicle more secure, I can not see what should Lexus do about it.

In reality, car alarms are at best at warning off the thieves, not from preventing them from stealing you car. As an experienced professional in car alarm business, installing an proper alarm with appropriate sensor would be an no brainer for me to reccomend. I really see nothing that lexus can do to actually prevent someone from stealing your headlight, as long as they need to pop the hood to do it.

russianmd

That's the problem - they don't have to pop the hood to do it. If (according to my internet dredging) the vandals can do it in as little as three minutes, an alarm would be useless.

As far as what Lexus can do - well, they've made the stereo 'theft-resistant,' it's nearly impossible to hotwire the car because you can't break the steering column. I am sure there are other examples of the superb engineering/design (for which Toyota/lexus are known) that have been implemented as a response to vulnerable 'hot items.'

LexRexBlue

Should we all be installing this Lexus headlight protector kit? Now I'm worried about driving my car into Queens for any length of time.

Lexy GS430

How in the world did they find a way to steal your headlight? Man these theives blow my mind with what they can do. If only they could put those skills to use in a good way if that makes any sense. But any how, not long ago i did alittle test with the hood of my RX330, i left the hood slightly open, and look all the doors, and then i tried to open the hood, and the alarm went off like it was being mugged ha ha ha. So i really don't get how they where able to take your headlights with the alarm going off or maybe they found way around it, damn thevies.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

Which Lexus cars came with anti-theft stereos? There is no code to enter in my RX330. Also, it is pretty easy to take out as all you need to do is pop out a couple of trim and remove 4 botls and it slides right out. I've already done it many times before.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

As someone that dabled in the car audio industry and still have many friends in the industry as shop owners or installers, I agree. Well installed alarms can do wonders. You need that back up battery opporated siren though. Too often, (Not you specifically) installers just pop the brain under the dash. As you well know it takes all but a few seconds to disconnect the brain and silence the alarm. Or, just pop the hood and cut the power wire. Either way you are talking about 15-20 seconds especially when there are two people working. I agree with you. There really is little Lexus can do. It is the thieves that are the problem.

Traturn

often when they steal RX330 headlights they just rip the fender up & out with a crowbar, undo 2 of 3 bolts (i think?) and rip the headlight out, breaking the 3rd tab. I say this because often an HID theft order is 2 headlights, 2 fenders & 2 fender liners; no hood or grille even. Sometimes an HID theft order is just 2 headlights; likely the car was left unlocked and the hood was opened, saving the fenders...

the headlight protection kit is going to have another bracket to hold the headlight down, plus a 'data dot' that will ID the bulb, lense & computer/ballast. The bracket in theorey makes it more difficult to remove the headlamp without removing the bumper cover (the new TSB has the tech removing the front cover....) Its going to be very labor intensive and teh Tech's will hate hate hate doing these.

I dont understand how this datadot will work, yet. It appears to be a paste/glue that has some microscopic identification. this identification is registered with datadot with the VIN# of the vehicle. Seems to do little but track the origin of the stolen pieces; little deterrent to theives who are after the projectors for a retrofit.

CarsFreak

I am sorry to hear about your situation. I witnessed once a Maxima's HIDs getting popped out while I was in my Sienna near evening in Newark back in January. I was simply amazed. Just pryed it out in a matter of minutes and was gone before anything could do anything with the headlight. Fortunately, not a lot of people know my Sienna have OEM HIDs so it's not much of a target. I didn't use my headlights until I was out of Newark. Was relying on the DRLs. The police didn't catch me either. Got a bit of weird stares but oh well, don't want to loose money on a headlight.


Let us know what happens with you and Corporate Lexus.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

I agree. On retrofits it would be of little help I think. What they should do is etch the VIN microscopically on the front side of the projector itself, like right below the projector glass, so the police or anyone can use something like a black light or special IR light to read the VIN right through the plastic lese from the front. That way it would be easy to see what car the projector itself came from and if it was reported stolen. Otherwise it would be impractical to open up the headlight housing itself to check any markings on the projector itself. Even if they did that, it could have been purchased legitametly from a wrecking yard or used parts dealer. Then if that was the case they would own the owner a brand new headlight.

russianmd

They finally got back to me. The new brackets are considered 'an upgrade' - and are for RX330 only.

The offerred to pay my insurance deductible, which is better than nothing. Advised me that alarms 'have shown to be almost useless in preventing headlight theft.' Warned me that if I got a grille/brush guard, it would invalidate my warranty...

uthorns197

russianmd...You have a 400h, right?? Why in the heck would a grille/brush guard invalidate your warranty?? The only way I can see that happening is if the grille/brush guard were to interfere with the Hybrid Synergy Drive on the 400h. Under federal law, they cannot invalidate your warranty unless they can prove that the modification you installed caused "damage" to the vehicle.

russianmd

That's exactly right - the grille guard will interfere with the airflow into the Hybrid Synergy Drive. The dealer refused to install it for this reason - and this was confirmed today by phone by the Lexus rep.

So, anyone wants a near-new (2000 miles) flint-mica ext/light grey int RX400h? If you live in NY area, drop me a line. The car is being fixed right now - and will be in perfect condition when one takes possession of it.

Johnny Mo

In Westchester County, NY they have a surveillance video that shows the theft of HID's from an RX...it takes approx 50 seconds. My sister's RX was victimized a few months ago, there were a few hundred cars (many RX's) hit that night all over NY. There is a TSB that will help slow the theft process, and according to my sources at Lexus there is talk of "self destructing" hid's.

As for the 400H not being able to mount a grill guard...I'm sure if you give the folks over at WAAG a call they would be more than happy to furnish you with one to use your vehicle as a test bed, given a) the high demand for the hybrid vehicle, and b) the theft of the lights.

I know at my wife's dealership they are supposed to be going to 400h's as loaners, so that will necessitate them having grille guards - I will see what they are planning to do as far as that goes.

WIfey's RX is in the garage, and I live on a dead end street, so if you are in my driveway, I don't know you and you weren't invited...there's gonna be a situation.

russianmd

I'd appreciate a note on what they do at the dealership. I just spoke to a lovely lady at WAAG who told me this was the first request for a grille guard for RX400h - so they don't have anything in the works yet.