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That seems to be a common thread on this site. Age related no doubt but still a bit mystifying to me. Reliability, refinement, longevity, comfort would all come before - whether my Nokia 3310 would connect to the CD player.

Well, I can't disagree with any of what you post there Herbie. I managed to survive my first year of driving a hybrid without incident but then I have an inquiring mind and quickly discovered many of these 'quirks' I think it quite sad that these days many, perhaps even, most buyers are more concerned with the audio system and whether their phone will connect with it.....

So the moral of the story is. Its a lovely car, find an excuse to drive it every week. 🙃

Here's mine. 20mm wheel spacers for front&rear wheels, that really make a big difference!

Just discovered today that my ventilated seats have filters 😵 I suppose it makes sense as most cooling systems do but I never imagined there would be such a thing (and if you have the rear vented seats they have them as well) Initial investigation so far to purchase said filters (as I would imagine mine would need replaced by now) shows an average price of about $23US each so thankfully I will only need 2 I wonder what other unknowns await 😆 (if links not allowed feel free to delete - I tried using the link only option but it unceremoniously kicked me off the page!)

I know you're only trying to be helpful and I thank you for that and I also applaud your public-spiritedness, I do, but I think we all need to think of safety. As you say above, "Covid trumps cat" - but personal safety also trumps cat. One of the 'cat theft' videos I saw on YouTube the other day showed one scrote jacking up the car while his mate was standing in full view, broad daylight, with a two-foot long machete in his hand, looking quite nonchalant and as though they had every right to be doing what they were. I have to say that, faced with a two-foot machete, they would indeed have the right to take mine. In reality there is so very little we can do; nowhere is safe to park and no amount of parking against walls or whatever will deter them.

Hi. Yes, but par for the course, there will always be people who prefer\choose the easy option regarding income. It's the unscrupulous scrap yards that buy them that encourages the theft. Regards.

on a lesser note, many years ago I was quite involved with Longplayer, a company that provided insurance coy replacements for stolen etc videos, records, dvds and the like .... long gone with the advent of say, spotify etc NOW we had a big big issue with office waste bins, and yes, it was a big H&S issue at the time believe it or not The rules frequently moved between having metal bins, wicker bins, cardboard bins and I think finally back to metal bins for fire safety issues ..... and quite ridiculous costs in between all the changes Malc

Out of curiosity I rang Lexus Parts Direct to establish the build date of my 1996 model, which apparently was built in April 1995. It was helpful because these are the options on Amayama's website, and it saves dismantling to investigate. For example, my ECU, which was only used for 8 months, is 50251, substituted by 50252, but not 50351. Hopefully this helps. No PNC# (SUB) OEM part number Required per car Production period Name Applicability Please order in advance 01 89661 89661-50250 01 10.1994 - 01.1995 COMPUTER, ENGINE CONTROL UCF20..EUR 2,163.08 USD (SUBS) 89661-50251 01 2,163.08 USD 02 89661 89661-50270 01 10.1994 - 02.1995 COMPUTER, ENGINE CONTROL UCF20..RHD..EUR SOUTH AFRICA SPEC 2,174.96 USD (SUBS) 89661-50271 01 2,163.08 USD 03 89661 89661-50251 01 01.1995 - 08.1995 COMPUTER, ENGINE CONTROL UCF20..EUR 2,163.08 USD (SUBS) 89661-50252 01 04 89661 89661-50271 01 02.1995 - 08.1996 COMPUTER, ENGINE CONTROL UCF20..RHD..EUR SOUTH AFRICA SPEC 2,163.08 USD (SUBS) 89661-50410 01 05 89661 89661-50310 01 08.1995 - 08.1996 COMPUTER, ENGINE CONTROL UCF20..EUR 1,782.76 USD (SUBS) 89661-50351 01 2,139.31 USD 06 89661 89661-50350 01 08.1996 - 11.1996 COMPUTER, ENGINE CONTROL UCF20..EUR (SUBS) 89661-50351 01 2,139.31 USD 07 89661 89661-50400 01 08.1996 - 11.1996 COMPUTER, ENGINE CONTROL UCF20..RHD..EUR SOUTH AFRICA SPEC (SUBS) 89661-50401 01 08 89661 89661-50351 01 11.1996 - 07.1997 COMPUTER, ENGINE CONTROL UCF20..EUR 2,139.31 USD 09 89661 89661-50401 01 11.1996 - 07.1997 COMPUTER, ENGINE CONTROL UCF20..RHD..EUR SOUTH AFRICA SPEC

Whilst HSE can be a PITA, the number of lives saved/improved by the rules being enforced over the years has been massive. HSE is there to provide a minimum level of protection for those who don't know better. Before HSE workers were unwittingly exposed to all kinds of nasties and very little was done about them because companies would always put profit ahead of safety even when they knew they were killing their employees. ISO is International Standards Organisation, based in Switzerland. It has nothing to do with Health and Safety nor anything to do with the EU other than that most EU states are members of ISO, along with the UK. The EU equivalent of HSE is EU-OSHA https://osha.europa.eu/en and yes they copied many of their rules from HSE when they were setup in 1994. I work with MV Linear Accelerators used for Radio Oncology (pic below) and our safety rules are extensive and complex but then again you aren't be allowed anywhere near it until you have done extensive training and passed several exams. The machines are very heavy and powerful (crush damage), can electrocute you (very high voltages), contain hot coolant, and emit VERY high powered X-Rays. I wear a film badge all the time when working and that is used to measure my total dose over a 3 month period, but when I go into the treatment or plant rooms (behind the blue wall) I also wear a dosimeter that shows my immediate dosage and alerts me when the level exceeds an extremely low threshold. Both of these are a requirement thanks to HSE. As for Calder Hall/Windscale/Sellafield it's all the same. Calder Hall was the name of the Nuclear Reactors built at Windscale in the 1950s to manufacture weapons grade material for the UKs nuclear bombs and later on for power production. Windscale became Sellafield as part of a mostly pointless rebranding exercise in 1981 following public reactions to the Three Mile Island accident.

Nothing uses the traction battery when not in Ready mode, and everything uses it when in Ready mode. Dropping 1 bar on the display after 10 to 15 mins seems normal to me even if just using the radio as all the vehicle electronics are powered up too - if you have the AC on then the compressor is also being powered by the traction battery.

1. Economy will be worse in cold weather, due to the hybrid battery not having as much usable capacity when cold and the ICE having to run more to keep the coolant temperature high which is used for the cabin heater. 2. This is normal, especially if the cabin temperature is set higher than the actual air temperature - the system will make the ICE run to provide heat for the cabin. 3. 12v 'aux' battery is small because it isn't used to start the engine - it is therefore easy to discharge it. Always put the vehicle in Ready mode so the hybrid system is powering the vehicle and charging the aux battery. 6. Engine oil should be changed every 10k miles/12 months. Brake fluid every 20k miles/2 years. Plugs every 60k miles. Not sure about air filter on your model, probably every 40k miles/4 years but certainly check it every 20k miles/2 years. Coolant at 100k miles, and then every 50k miles. 7. Fuel filter at attached to the pump in the tank. It doesn't need to be routinely changed.

Yes, you've reminded me that the most frequent fault logged by the computer support team at a firm where I once worked was " N.P.I. ". (Not Plugged In.)

Yes, had errors on the battery and codes appearing. Only time I've seen the mpg on mine go below 30 and I check it quite often. This is over the whole tank however so you might have bad patches below 30. I can't imagine the car not throwing errors if multiple misfires are detected..... Check engine light would surely be on if this problem was bad enough to cause this. Do you feel the hesitation in sports mode? I drive mine exclusively in sports mode cos it feathers the acceleration to make it feel smooth in normal mode so much it feels like it is hesitating. Turning sports mode on and that goes completely.

Hello Mark and welcome to the LOC,hoping you find the forum educational and informative 👍

I've just tried to look what size jubilee clips I ordered, but my Ebay purchase history from 2 years ago doesn't show what size I bought. Just measure the diameter of the hoses, you don't have to measure them exactly, as jubilee clips have a wide range of adjustment. That's one of their advantages. I agree with The-Acre on this. The corrosion in the unions occurs because owners don't change their Anti-freeze every 5 years and the corrosion inhibiter looses its' effectiveness. This can be made worse if you have a leak on the system and keep topping it up with plain water instead of Anti-freeze, it dilutes the corrosion inhibiter faster. Worse still can be the back street garage that will refill the system with plain water after they have worked on it to save the cost of anti-freeze! Keep the Anti-freeze in the radiator up to strength and you shouldn't have any problems. I only use an external transmission cooler in addition to the cooling coil on the radiator because I tow a big caravan. John N

I think the plugs are Denso FK20HBR11. Even if worn they won't make much difference to the economy unless you were also feeling hesitation during acceleration. Whilst the plugs are changed at 60k miles, they are probably good for at least 100k miles. Worth checking the brake callipers (rear) aren't binding/seized.

Confirmed with Lexus dealership that spark plugs were never changed. They should actually change them right now. Got a 750€ quote for the job. Includes: oil change, oil filter change, air filter (replaced 2 years ago) change, ac filter (replaced 2 years ago) change, break oil (replaced 2 years ago) change, coolant replacement (replaced 2 years ago), spark plugs change and apparently replace 2-3 of some kind of sealant rings in differential. It is 180.000 km service (110.000 miles) although my car has only 91.000 km and 13 years.

Yes, 2013 RX450h, same as mine.

Hi. Thank you for the advice. Regards.

The more I think about this, the more I disagree. You need to know that there is high voltage around and you definitely don't go ferreting about in places where you could be killed unless you have the specialist knowledge and equipment You need to know not to just buy any can of refrigerant off the shelf at Halfords if the aircon needs topped up. Using the wrong oil can cause thousands of pounds-worth of damage You may not need to know but it's perhaps a good idea if you do, that there is no alternator, no starter motor and that things like power steering are electric instead of hydraulic You need to know that you can't drive it for more than a mile or two on battery alone if you run out of petrol (some people seem to think that the battery is a substitute for the petrol engine) You need to know that running out of petrol is really a very bad thing to do You need to know that if you do run out of petrol then you need a minimum of 10 litres in the tank before it will restart You need to know that if you unsuccessfully try to restart it more than three times (if I recall correctly) then the hybrid system can lock you out and you have to call the dealer to reset it You need to know that if the traction battery goes flat, you need to call the dealer or some other specialist to get you going because the AA, RAC etc., certainly can't These are all things that will be completely new and unknown to you if you've only ever driven petrol-engined cars before and is why people need to do some research before buying. Oh, and you need to know that the 12V battery is undersized and can go flat rather quickly 🙂

does everyone on here have such skinny bum padding that they really need heated seats ? Malc

And here's another one, only 12 months old: https://classicsworld.co.uk/classic-car-price-guide/lexus-ls400-buyers-guide/

in the GS the battery is in the near side rear quarter inside the boot, the 12v Battery is the Achilles heel of all vehicles, take too much out of the battery and your vehicle wont start, the issue is how quick you get to that point of having a non starter, but as long as your aware of what can happen then it shouldn't be an issue.

Low mpg at big motorway speed will have nothing to do with traction battery I would have thought, as it will barely be used. I got 28mpg with a roof box on a 500 mile motorway journey at those speeds.

Had the same problem with the rear screen on my RC. Solved by buying a micro fibre cloth pad on a handle from Poundland for £1.00! Makes the job so much easier. Always do mine in the Spring so it's clean until the Autumn, and then the haze that builds up reduces headlight dazzle through the winter. Then do in the Spring again. Do the other glass monthly.

Before doing any alighnment work you should check all the suspension components and eliminate any play between the members. Similarly for the steering wheel, all ball joints and wheel bearings. Also have the shock absorbers checked. Also check that the tyres are a fairly true circle and their steel belt is good. Chris.

It would definitely last longer but would still go flat eventually, so it's a bit of a workaround rather than a cure. I don't know where the 12V battery is located in your car but if you were thinking of doing this then the most important thing is to make sure that the bigger battery will physically fit in whatever space you have, whilst still allowing t to be clamped down securely. As for the battery itself and your slight confusion, I'll try to explain (but it is late and I've had a few beers ). For hybrids, the most important parameter is the capacity of the battery, measured in Amp Hours (Ah). As an example, a battery rated at 50Ah means that it could supply 50A for one hour or 25A for two hours and so on, before it fully discharges. Modern cars will always be pulling power from the battery in order to keep the clock at the right time; keep the radio presets in memory; keep the alarm activated and armed and so on, even when the car is locked up in the garage for the night and you're fast asleep in bed. This is called the quiescent current and official figures should be available from the manufacturers but I've never seen them if they are. As a general rule of thumb, a quiescent current of 50mA (0.05A) is considered to be about normal. So, we now have the capacity of the battery (the one on my RX450h is 51Ah, whereas the ones in my previous 'petrol only' cars have been 75Ah and above) and we know that, with nothing else on and no faults, the car should draw 50mA. If we assume that my battery is brand new and fully charged, the capacity divided by the drain will give us the time to full discharge, so 51Ah/0.05A = 1,020 hours (42.5 days or 6 weeks) from fully charged to fully discharged. However, for the purposes of starting the car, it will fail long before that full discharge at six weeks. Remember as well, that for the purpose of this discussion we assumed a brand new and fully charged battery, ie, 'perfect conditions' - if the battery isn't perfect then that will also reduce the time span. Let's say that a bigger battery will physically fit and that it has a capacity of 80Ah instead of the current one at 51Ah, the calculation now becomes 80Ah/0.05A = 1,600 hours (66.66 days or 9.52 weeks) under perfect conditions, but again, reality will be different. Right, I hope that's helped but I'm now off to bed 😊

1> 22 mpg is shockingly low. Even in this weather I get 30 mpg+ from mine and its got 170k on the clock and is a year older. Only time I saw even near 22 was when the traction battery was screwed. 2> Yeah, completely normal. I think it will always start up the engine just to check it still works before you actually start moving. Even in summer I think it was still starting every time if it hadn't been driven in x hours but would turn itself off after a few seconds until I put my foot down outside of my car-park. 3> In standby mode, everything uses the traction battery as far as I can tell. There is a guide in the manual which you can find online but basically yeah, there does seem to be quite a lot of draw. I noticed this in mine but I think its just because standby mode has a lot more active than in a lot of cars. It'll quite happily run the AC with the engine off for example. 5> Thats odd, the adaptive sensor shouldn't need cleaning as it's radar based which is really only affected by metal. If its cold enough to form ice on the sensor that could cause an issue but normal dirt shouldn't affect it too much. Normally its a parking sensors which use sonar that need cleaning.

A very interesting thread chaps. Had not used my RX300 for ........... a while ............ battery flat. Used a smart charger overnight - now shows fully charged. If the battery will not fully charge then I would suspect it is on its way out and change it. If I leave my cars for more than a week somewhere other than home, I will buy a jump starter as has been suggested.

Warrants the Hybrid Battery not Batteries.

Unfortunately yes, it is. It took me a couple of hours fiddling about and when I finally did get it working I'd done so many things that I couldn't remember which one finally got it going - but it is doable. Alternatively, you could install VMWare or Oracle's Virtual Box and run either Win XP or Win 7 and put Techstream in that.

Which fuse in the end was it? I am having similar Hybrid check/VSC/AWD warnings

I agree.. I don't know either. Just saying - I see what they were trying to do there? Unlikely to succeed, not that sort of car, not that sort of clientele etc.

Here you go Alan, made this earlier, hope it helps: https://youtu.be/7K4HELfg3hw

My favourite was telling people it was an I.D. 10 T problem. I'd usually disappeared by the time they wrote down ID10T 🙂

You have bought a very reliable luxury performance car that will give you many years of trouble free motoring. It only needs scheduled maintenance which you will find in the repair manual. The repair manual advertised now on ebay uk from usa is the same with the original manual from Lexus for GS European specifications and it is about £50. For the traction battery you can replace any cell or you can buy a replacement original reconditioned battery or a new one from uk. Already other learned members have mentioned a member source. You seem to have had enough repair experience already and we all help each other in any way we can. Some members, you will find, are gurus in mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering. Chris.

I know I'm weird but whenever anyone joins the club announcing that they've just bought a 2005 RX300, I always wonder if it's my old one? Reg No. GY05 HVK.

So an update - Car will land in the UK on 10th February 2021. I originally ordered from Lexus Bradford but they have since closed permanently. So its being shifted to Stockport as its part of the same group. Not a problem as Ive dealt with them before and it was a great experience. I have looked at the Model 3 already, as most of you may know. I know it has a huge following but apart from the turn of speed and the technology, its utter garbage. The build quality is honestly better on an early Jaguar XE - Id know - I have one! Additionally, as the car is being kept for atleast 5-7 years, Id rather go with Lexus on this one. Personally I prefer build quality over technology and speed, mind you the UXe isnt exactly slow. Its also not as common as a model 3 - its basically the new 3 series round my end.

Barry, it looks like you may not have a copy of the owners manual, take a look at pages 631-635 of the attached which will give you additional info to Colin's excellent reply above. is300h.pdf

No they aren't unfortunately.

There is a permanent 12v connection in the fuse box, under a cover, and you then use the engine/body for the -ve connection.

Agreed - it is a poor design. Agreed - you should be able to leave a modern car for a good number of weeks. The text in red is the most important. Hybrids are a 'relatively' new technology and they are very complex and they are certainly not the right car for some people and/or situations. Just because I can get a decent sound out of my home hifi doesn't mean I can walk in and operate the mixing desk at a live Rolling Stones gig tomorrow! It never ceases to amaze me that people squirt thousands, even tens of thousands of pounds at a car without doing research first, and expect it to operate and be like just any other car they've ever owned. Google (other search engines are available) makes it easier than ever before to find out a widget's strengths, abilities, downsides, and anything else you could ever wish to know about a given widget before buying it. Hardly a day goes by without someone in this club or the 'other' club on Facebook bleating about leaving their car for a couple of weeks and now the 12V battery is flat. It's just so unnecessary and could easily be avoided if they did a bit of research before buying the car. I passed my driving test in June 1975 and since that day I have never, ever, ever, bought a car 'unprepared'. In fact, my wife gets annoyed with me because when it's time for a change I usually have an idea of which make and model I'd like, so for about three or four months beforehand I get every book, magazine, search the Internet, join the Owners Clubs and basically drive her mad with constant talk of it until I either go ahead and get one or decide it's not for me after all and move on to some other make/model and start the process again. Instead of blaming someone or something else, people need to take responsibility for their own actions. There you go - rant over Oh and Paul, I'm not having a go at you mate, it's just that your post had all the salient points in it

The problem is that there has been no respect for the law or anything/anyone for so long now that it's just a way of life to some people. One of the cat theft videos on YouTube shows the 'lookout' stood in broad daylight, quite openly and brazenly holding a machete while his mate jacks up the car. Two minutes later, they're off and gone. I'm 63 and of an age/upbringing where if a police officer even looks in my direction I feel guilty. You only have to watch a couple of episodes of something like Police Interceptors or Road Wars to see just how little respect remains and how people openly treat the police with contempt. I'm afraid that the only way to be sure of not being a victim of cat theft is to buy an electric car because they don't have cats - otherwise, any car/cat is fair game to the scrotes of this world.

I think it’s a poor design. Ok I’ve never suffered from it and I’m on my 4th Lexus hybrid and the longest I’ve left one is I think the best part of 3 weeks and it started ok. Being able to leave a car unattended for a good number of weeks and have it start ok is I think a reasonable expectation for a modern vehicle. The battery should have been bigger in my opinion. I can now see from comments in the forum that this is a genuine problem. I’m making sure mine gets used at least one hour each week atm. When we finally get back to holidays I may well purchase something to give a dead battery a boost. I’d hate to get back to my car in an airport or cruise terminal carpark after a holiday and find a dead 12v battery. It would actually make me think about whether a Lexus hybrid was the right car for me to be honest. Some good tips on here though. Thanks everyone! 😀

I have personally read the manual, more than once, all 692 pages of it, I like manuals 😀 There are not many references to the 12v battery, one is about the battery saving function using the key fob, one is about how to recharge it and the one really relevant to this thread is: "Auto power off function If the vehicle is left in ACCESSORY mode for more than 20 minutes or ON mode (the hybrid system is not operating) for more than an hour with the shift lever in P, the power switch will automatically turn off. However, this function cannot entirely prevent 12-volt battery discharge. Do not leave the vehicle with the power switch in ACCESSORY or ON mode for long periods of time when the hybrid system is not operating." The brief to the manual writer must have been along the lines of "put a warning in but don't be too precise and make sure that 'power off' doesn't actually mean that. I understand hybrid systems fully from concept to operation, I used to operate and maintain warships which were totally reliant on them. The manual has one chapter missing and it's the one that explains why they fitted a part which made a car less reliable than it's predecessor.

Had this on every car I've had with big wheels and low profile tyres pretty much. I think its less noticable when the tyres are brand new but becomes more noticable way before the tyres come close to needing replacing. Non issue I would say.

No way it will be gone in a few weeks. If thesituation around july/august is more or less under control we will be lucky. and yes, i also think the long term effects will be huge, there will be a world before and after corona and it will not be thesame. The car industry for instance is entering the biggest crisis since the war. This is big, nasty and agressive

Why are you optimistic Mark ? I have seen no information that would make me feel optimistic.

The GS doesn't have AC seats. It will just draw in air from the cabin. If you have the cabin ventilation directed to feet then cool air will get under the seat and be drawn up and out of the perforations in the leather. Some LS models have actual thermoelectric elements (and filters) to produce cooled air.