scythe

Thanks for that follow up. In my last car, the first battery lasted til it was 11 years old or so, so I'm hoping for a good few years from mine. I sensed that when the time comes, I wouldn't be sure that a dealership would necessarily be able to source a correct battery - it's good to be pre-armed with information. : o )

Thanks for pointing this out - I hadn't known about this. It may come in handy one day. (And yes, I've not read all of the handbook!) : o )

First, the tyre size. Two different sizes of tyre were originally fitted to this model of car. The size of tyre is either 235/55R18 or 225/60R17. This is because there have been two different sizes of wheel hub fitted. One type has a diameter of the metal hub of 18 inches, the other 17 inches. You can check the size of the fitted tyres by looking for a set of letters and numbers, with the slash in the middle, in big writing on the side of your tyres. The bit above, is the metal dish that holds the bottom of the spring? Try passing something between it- such as a bit of cardboard. If it's not touching (and it won't be, because, as you say, you'd have worn down that bit of tyre) then everything is ok. Incidentally, if you look at blackcircles.com (who sell tyres online), and put in your car registration, it should tell you the size of tyres that your car needs. The reason you can see so much spring is that the body is higher than a saloon car. This means the wheels have the space to travel up and down if you're driving off road. The only issue that I can see is that if the tyres are 5 years old then they may start to perish very soon - but they will have been checked when you had your last MOT. : o )

Really, if the battery is failing, and it's an approved used car, I'd expect the dealer to just replace it. Don't ask for it at cost price - just ask if they can replace it. It's possible, of course, that the original battery did fail earlier, and was replaced by a non-agm battery because it was cheaper, and that this battery has been rapidly destroyed by being mischarged. Talk to your dealer. : o )

My understanding is that it should be an AGM battery, because it's in the enclosed boot of the car rather than under the well ventilated bonnet. I believe (but may be wrong) that this is to reduce the chance of hydrogen gas being generated in this enclosed space. Out of interest, and because someone else was worried about his 12 V battery, I tried to find out what the proper replacement was, but I haven't managed. The problem searching on Halfords and the like is that they seem to be guessing that because the car is hybrid that a stop start battery is needed - and you're right, it doesn't because the petrol engine is started by the traction battery using M1. Grunt (high current!) isn't needed from the battery, and it doesn't even need to be high capacity - all that matters is that there is no hydrogen build up. But be aware that I can't find this documented anywhere. : o ) Oh, and .... ... both side rise up - the whole car!

Yes, there are others that do that, but not from NextBase. The issue is that the camera does require a bit of power to run, so runs (very very slowly) your 12V battery down. Some cameras even have a heater to warm the windscreen, to stop ice forming. It's fine, but there is that current drain. Your fitters should be able to advise you what's best though, and you can make the decision. : o )

https://nextbase.co.uk/parking-mode-feature#:~:text=Intelligent Parking Mode is an,except the G Force sensor. To quote from this item, "If your car is bumped and the G Force sensor registers movement, your Nextbase Dash Cam will automatically switch on, record for 30 seconds, and then shut down again."

If you're buying a replacement SD card it's important to use an endurance one. I've got the "Samsung PRO Endurance 128GB microSDXC UHS-I U3 100MB/s Video Monitoring Memory Card", currently £26 at Amazon. : o )

The intermittent nature of the problem - is it one of your battery connections that's the problem? I'd be tempted to clean the connectors on the battery, sticky-uppy battery bits and the connectors, then to check the braided connection to the car's earth. Just an idea. And cheaper than a new battery, though you may find you need one of those too. And as Jon said above ... https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-dc-digital-multimeter-600v/793RT?kpid=793RT&cm_mmc=Google-_-Datafeed-_-Tools?kpid=KINASEKPID&cm_mmc=Google-_-TOKEN1-_-TOKEN2&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwncWvBhD_ARIsAEb2HW-qR-dz8L3Z2fRvSxmXw8o-hG6P8Zey52uSWt3apOoyZb-8Qerc8boaAr0AEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds#product_additional_details_container ... this will help to show what's going on, then when you've finished with it sell it for £15 to a mate. : o )

Steve - I see now that you're simply a shiny-pedals person, and won't necessarily be adding go faster stripes or a leather steering wheel cover - though I do wonder what you've got hanging from your mirror. Please do be aware though that I am only teasing. And there's no point in boasting that you're 70, because that's probably the median age of contributors to this forum, myself being no exception. I did go through a phase of making minor modifications to motor cars. Just little things like replacing drum brakes on an anglia with discs from an old ford capri. And popping a cortina engine in instead. A weber carburettor. A four into two into one exhaust manifold. Oh, and then a high lift camshaft. Some wider tyres of course, to look the part. The axle tramp was terrible. And there were more cars after that. Shiny pedals - pah! But it's all fifty years in the past, and we don't talk about it in the family any more. : o )

Hi Steve, yes, indeed, each to his own. However, and I'm sorry about this, but your shiny pedals just make me feel rather sad. I don't understand why, when you're a decent bloke who takes extra-special car of his car, you'd do this to it. However, yes, each to his own. : o )

Hi Steve, My LS500h fuel flap has failed to open properly just the once in the time that I've had the car. I think that the problem is that the spring that pushes the flap open isn't quite strong enough. My intention is that I'm just going to live with it. Even though the car is going for a service next week, I'll not be mentioning it. I've had too many experiences of small things getting much worse when a dealership tries to fix them. I realise that this is a different approach to life! : o )

Yeah... lots of places seem to sell replacement sets - but there are only four sensors in the set. The car should be good, then, for the next 16 years : o )

I'm a bit surprised about this, but according to the pre-launch brochure for the LS600 from 2007, intelligent parking had to be specified - it was optional. LS600 BROCHURE.pdf

Yep, I agree with Steve. Front camera has no screen, and fits tightly on left hand side of central mirror and stuff, and there's a back camera of equal quality. And it's very discrete. : o )

https://mag.toyota.co.uk/coronavirus-toyota-hybrid-car-maintenance/comment-page-12/#:~:text=We%20recommend%20you%20put%20the,Coronavirus%20(Covid%2D19). I understand now where the advice came from now! : o )

Certainly, in a LS500h, that would charge the 12V battery for the hour. But why? Why not take the car to Tesco, buy some groceries, and then drive it home? Or any normal sort of journey? And why would someone make a youtube video of this? Can I just say that the LS manual doesn't have this sort of advice - why not check your own Yaris manual to see if you can find this there? If you are going to change the battery then why not lift out (or get a mechanic to lift out) the current battery, just to see what's written on the side, and then insist on getting one that's just the same? Then you could try to forget that the car even has a 12V battery, and just enjoy driving around in it. I recommend a ferry, followed by a nice drive across to the west coast of Ireland and back, with perhaps a week in the middle in a holiday cottage. : o )

Yes, my last car was a 2007 460 SEL. I got it in 2008, intending to keep it for five years, but by 2012 Lexus had nerfed all of their 460s, and I didn't want a 600, so I just kept on with it till last summer (when it was about 16 years old), and did the swap then. I bought my first LS (LS400) in 1998, then had a couple of 430s, so I've only driven LSs for 25 years. Just for their reliability, comfort and safety there's nothing else I'd want to drive. I had seen your video. I suspect, though, that you and I have a different approach to the cleanliness of the outside of our cars. : o )

Yeah, that's pretty much it - the only thing is that no motor/generator is used to directly charge the 12volt battery. The car has an inverter/converter that does a range of things electronically and efficiently, including directly producing 14V dc from the 310V battery to charge the 12V battery. There is no generator that directly charges the 12V battery. (The inverter/converter also increases the voltage to 600 ish volts, and drives the two motor/generators, making AC from the traction battery's DC, and alternately uses AC electricity from the motor/generators,and converts it to charge the traction battery. If you do chose the Hull route, why not make them ring Lexus technical, or look on their service manuals, to make sure that they are fitting the correct battery - find out what the original equipment battery is, and ask them to fit that? I'm not trying to give you any grief over this - but the idea of the car is that it looks after itself, and lets you just get in and drive it, and just gives you pleasure! If you're using the car regularly, I'd expect there not to be a problem with this at all. And if the 12V battery was getting low, I'd expect there to be a message and a bingbong to tell you that you there was a problem, and to start the car to charge it, just like in my old 2007 LS. : o )

Using jumpers will very rapidly bring the emf of the 12V battery up to something reasonable for the electronics of the car to work. When the electronics work the traction battery does the work of starting the car. The traction battery will then also start to charge the 12V battery. The 12V battery doesn't do the work of starting the engine. It just activates the hybrid system - and all the electronics and lights and blowers and radio and everything else, just like a normal car. Incidentally, taking the car for a run won't increase the charging rate of the 12V battery. There is no alternator. 12V electricity is made from the 310V electricity by the magic of electronics. and if the traction battery has spare energy it deals directly with this. : o )

Yes, there appears to be a bit of confusion here. The engine in a LS500h is started using the traction battery. The car has two motor/generators. The front motor/generator is used to start the engine when required. (It also does some regeneration when slowing down or hill-descending). All the energy for this comes from the HV traction battery. The 12V battery is never required to produce the 100s of amperes that other cars, including most hybrids, require for starting. It powers all the usual low voltage requirements in the car, and is constantly recharged from the traction battery when the hybrid system is running. If the 12V battery discharges then the electronics in the car can't do anything, including operating the front motor/generator. However, it doesn't need the very high current boost that those little jump start devices provide - and I'd be scared to use one in case the high voltage they could produce would damage electronics in the car. However, if the traction battery discharges, you're stuffed! Here's what the user manual has to say: Charging the hybrid battery (traction battery) As the gasoline engine charges the hybrid battery (traction battery), the battery does not need to be charged from an outside source. However, if the vehicle is left parked for a long time the hybrid battery (traction battery) will slowly discharge. For this reason, be sure to drive the vehicle at least once every few months for at least 30 minutes or 16 km (10 miles). If the hybrid battery (traction battery) becomes fully discharged and you are unable to start the hybrid system, contact any authorized Lexus retailer or Lexus authorized repairer, or any reliable repairer. Back to me ... For me, I'd rather accept that a six year battery needed replacing, rather than hardwiring in a charger (which might be a problem anyway - the user manual says to disconnect the ground connection before attempting to recharge it). The price that Hull has suggested would be about right for a top quality start/stop battery - the sort that most toyota/lexus hybrids would require, because that battery would be constantly starting the engine. However, it's not a necessary or appropriate choice in this case. (A Yuasa battery for about £100 or so is available, and Halfords would fit one for £20.) They probably haven't seen enough 500hs to have realised! (That's me being kind about a Lexus dealer) : o )

Original equipment on my 2007 LS 460 lasted 12 years. It never let me down. I only changed it because the car started putting up messages about 'low battery' when I'd been sitting outside piano lessons! : o )

Well, what I hadn't realised until I saw these photos was that the camera is attached to the rear screen, just above but not attached to the parcel shelf!

The photos aren't my best work, but in mitigation, it was raining at the time! There's plenty of room behind the screen for it, as you can see, at the bottom, but it does slightly restrict the view at the bottom of the picture having it placed there, compared to the top - but as you said, the curtain would interfere with it there. : o )