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Hi all,

Just wanted to post a quick review regarding Hybrid Battery conditioning. I think it was off this site I learned of Hybrid Battery Solutions based in Northampton who I contacted after getting a diagnostic from Lexus.

The car lost it's initial surge of power from the Battery and would always move off using petrol engine only. Battery indicator would drop to purple very quickly. MPG dropped from about 29/30 to 23-25mpg. I had a CHECK HYBRID SYSTEM message, but it was solid - not flashing check VSC etc as others have described. Lexus ran two separate diagnostics and said it was a smart Battery ECU which needed replacing at a cost of £1250 + vat. They gave me a print out of the error code and when researching online it was more common that it was 'Battery pack seriously deteriorated'. I couldn't find much literature regarding the smart Battery ECU other than a workbook note suggesting that this is replaced first then if this doesn't work, the Battery pack should be replaced. Not knocking Lexus at all but I wasn't overly convinced or filled with confidence. My car is probably only worth £3000-4000 (ambitious?!) and has 150k miles so didn't want to pay for this smart Battery unit and then a Battery if it didn't work!

Using my logic I thought it was more likely than not to be the Battery - after all, all batteries do degrade and this seemed to be much much more common when looking online. I contacted Richard at Hybrid Battery Solutions in Northampton who gave some advice and we had a chat about hybrids generally - in fact, we didn't even discuss him 'selling' me his service until I asked (always a good sign I think!).

Anyway, cutting to the chase I drove from Teesside to Northampton and averaged 26.2mpg. Left it with Richard for the week and I was astonished when I got it back. It felt like it had been remapped - it was better than before (probably cause I never had from brand new myself).

On the same journey back (about 190 miles) I averaged 38mpg. Even after almost a week of short journeys, spirited driving (and traffic light drag racing again :whistling: ) I am still on 33.4.

I am almost gutted that I didn't go for the grid charger (which I think uses some kind of witchcraft to keep the Battery cells in their best possible condition) but I might well need a bigger boot to fit a pushchair later on in the year so the car might go although with hindsight, this would have been a good selling point when selling the car. He can do this separate from conditioning I believe or both at same time.

It has given me confidence to go and buy another higher mileage hybrid. There is a solution which is significantly cheaper than Lexus and urge others who were in my situation to have a look at this.

Hopefully this isn't breaking any forum rules - it's just my experience of this company and that others find it informative. 

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My Lexus was £800 - other models I think vary by price, but there are indicators of costs on the website. I forgot to mention that it comes with a 10,000 mile / 1 year warranty as piece of mind. I won't post the link but if you type Hybrid Battery Solutions Northampton in to a search engine it should come up! 

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Thank you for posting this. I already had a bookmark for this company but your first hand comments are most welcome. I'm only on 107k so I hope they will not be need for a while.

Your description does suggest that as the Battery gets older its ability to grab and hold the harvested energy gets poorer.

What was disturbing was the Lexus diagnosis.

John

 

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The Lexus diagnosis was disappointing - I actually went to my Lexus indy first but they don't work on the hybrid system. They told me that they could read the codes but wouldn't do the work and recommended that I went to Lexus for this. They did however remark that the problems with the actual hybrid components are rare from when he worked at Lexus and to be careful as the technicians aren't always as experienced as they would be with all things mechanical on the car. I think when chatting to the chap from HBS he said a similar thing. He is an electrician.

Again, another thing I should have made clear earlier was that when I put the code that Lexus gave me (P0A7F) in to google, virtually none of the results mentioned smart Battery ecu. I have it in writing too as they printed a quote for me....

I just wish I didn't live so far away from Northampton!

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knock, knock
I believe I knocked right doors to confess and share my experience about one person
who's powerful enough to resurrect my Lexus GS fallen batteries. First of all I believe he's more popular then Lexus executive director and most of main garages running by this giant I know.
He's decent chap named Richard,
Long story short my car batteries give up and believe me dear Hybrid cars owners
there is only one reasonable and affordable way to sleep well again after receiving dashboard message "Check Hybrid System" which is called - ,,Hybrid Battery Solution'' all the way from Northampton,
Professional serviced received from A to Z including :
- easy and pleasant communication
- outstanding service
- no hidden surprises
- newest custom made technology
- after completion of service, best MPG ever!!!!
etc.
I'm recommending service above all the way to any Hybrid owner,
your cars will fall in love with You again and again thanks to
mr. RICHARD outstanding performance in this high voltage topic,

All the best

P.S. Dont wait till Your batteries let You down, 
give them new live and call HBS now.

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