Leaderboard

Well it has now been a thousand miles or so with a few tank fill-ups, mostly premium grade fuel but did bight the biscuit and tried inferior supermarket stuff as well! Since the incident with the fertiliser spraying it has behaved well. The fuel consumption readouts have become more stable, no more wild fluctuations and reading a constant 27-27.8 MPG locally and nearly mpg (29.9mpg) on a steady run. It did go 31+ mpg for a while on a lazy journey but then it was nearly always never over 50mph! It seems to run much smoother and quieter now, apart from a transmission mount vibration when idling in gear. Upshot is that I can now see why others like their RX.

I am going for "goodyear efficient grip performance". They are A rated for rolling resistance and A rate for wet weather braking. I have just about worn out the previous set of "goodyear efficient grip" ( note that I didnt write performance because these are actually a different tyre which is about 2 year older technology but was A and C rated) The wear rate for them was comparable to the OE bridgstones IE about 30,000 miles. I do rotate tyres so that they all get worn out at the same time and I end up with 4 matched tyres. I suppose that Rayanns might have a point about oversteer,however in my limited experience I have only ever experienced annoying factory set understeer on front wheel drive cars. I did used to get my rear wheel drive cars into oversteer on occasions but that was just through having a screw loose somewhere in the grey matter! While I have the wheels off, it gives me a chance to check the discs, pads, steering balljoints, suspension units, wheel bearings and so in my case, rotating the wheels in order to keep the tyre wear ballanced serves more than one function. However. given the choice, I would always choose not to run the tyres down to the point where they would aquaplane. I normally change the tyres at 3mm and routinely increase the gap to the car in front in rainy conditions just in case of hitting a patch of sheet flood ( often found on motorways)- even new tyres will aquaplane when driver through enough water.

I had an error code months ago that led me to the gearbox solenoid and as Normski said it related to the gearbox. It turned out to be a very vague code but I narrowed it down eventually as condensation on or in the solenoid (found reference to it from forums in the US) I cleared the fault and it has not come back - it did lead me to look at changing the gearbox oil but could not get any clear info on whether the oil could actually be changed and from the people that said it could be done they all said it was not a diy job.

the reason that why mpg for ct is so low i think is because that there are toooooooo many hills in the UK. every time I have to push the panel harder.....which takes more petrol, at least this happens in Brighton.

I have been using my wifes Focus estate, I had to go too Peterborough Mon and it nearly crippled me. Come back to me please, I promise to look after you even better than before. Mike.

They've been this price for a long time now, I've had them in my ebay watch list for at least 6 months. I'm going to get mine professionally refurbed - chemically stripped, powder coated, oven baked etc - all four costing £320. I don't see the point in getting new ones as they'll more than likely begin to corrode again after 12 months. And I'll save £76 over buying new.

It was like this when I had my Mazda 3 MPS. Loads of investment and tuning in America and zilch over here. Similar issue. With so few cars why spend the money as a company it makes no sense unless they can sell across in the states like H&S hope to.

Funny this should come up. On a quiet residential street the other evening I was just leaving our friends house and starting my car when another LS400 slowed and stopped beside mine. The young driver gave the 'thumbs up' and drove off. I didn't know him from Adam but he obviously knew what we all know, that there's no other cars like them.

32mpg from wembley to Leicester and then to Birmingham and back to Yorkshire lol. Pretty pleased as I had the car in Sport mode throughout and it was loaded with passengers and luggage. I wasn't going slow either! consistent 80mph when the road was clear, sometimes more when I got frustrated after 50mph zones on the M1 Talking about those 50mph zones, they are so bloody boring that tonight I nearly managed to nod off. Sat nav was pretty good too, took some reasonable roots but it was my fault for missing a few turns in Birmingham. It's a **** place to drive around in, too many complicated junctions and exits etc

For me, Lexus is about standing out from the crowd, being an individual and seeking out the best for yourself. Wanting reliability, technology and customer service. If you have ever read The Relentless Pursuit, you will understand what Lexus is about. (Or was, not sure how much they have kept to their values)

Edited to replace step by step write up with a blog post: Many thanks to Hayne, without whom I would have bunged this into a dealer and probably spent 7-800 pounds on a pump or £3k on a transmission. If you have the P2797 code and suspect the pump bearings it's worth a go. Armed with some car lifting kit, new transmission oil and bearings for both ends of the pump I carried out the pump repair over the weekend. Also used basic tools, spanners, oil drain tray and a pump for squirting the new oil in. Allow a full day but if you're very mechanically minded with a good set of tools you might half it. Photos and steps attached: http://carlthomas66.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/lexus-gs450h-transmission-oil-pump.html Took me twice the time Hayne did but I didn't have a ramp. So allow a day at least depending on access, tools and mechanical skill. Test drive it. Do a lot of gentle battery only driving to make sure the pump gets a good run and look out for dash warnings. Then a final check with the Mini VCI if you have it and hopefully no more P2797. Take it for a long run. I blasted mine up to Stansted and back to pick up the girlfriend! Brave I know! Then celebrate with a beer. After you park up the car! I did! Good Luck!

Looks great ,worth the effort you put into the cleaning . The interior is uplifted in the light colour ( mine is black ) ,but I opted for the lighter exterior . We have had the monsoon season up here as well ! managed to get a trip in today with the hood down . Dave

Hi all, Just to say that I think I solved the issue, managed to buy a 2007 350 SE which original purchaser upgraded to inlude sel level spec without air suspension so a great result, only 55k miles too.

Hi Mark, No, the pump on your link is a different part. From memory, it looks like a RX400h/450h pump. I have attached some photos. The pump can be seen from underneath the car when on a ramp. It is located on the lower off-side of the gearbox, so is pretty easy to get to. I had to remove the gearbox mounted exhaust bracket to get to it properly before removal. As you can see, it is a well engineered, simple part with one moving part; the impeller shaft. The three coils are fixed, therefore there are no brushes to wear out and the shaft has the magnets mounted on it. There really is not much to go wrong with it. It's just a shame that Lexus made a poor choice of bearing specification. The two bearings can be seen in the photos. One is located under the circuit board (this is the shaft position sensor board) and the other is at the bottom of the motor housing (can also be seen mounted on the end of the shaft in he photo. Hope it makes sense. Giles.

I should also mention what to look out for when your pump is due to fail. These are my experiences; About 2 months before my hybrid transmission oil pump failed, I particularly noticed a slow response when the gearbox changed the CVT torque multiplier ratio (i.e. equivalent to an overdrive gear). About the torque multiplier: At about 55mph, the gearbox changes the ratio of the CVT to the high ratio (you will notice a short drop in power of about half a second) before continuing to accelerate. When decelerating below 35mph, the torque multiplier changes to the low ratio (again, you will notice a short drop in power/engine breaking, while this changes). At this point, if the pump bearing is worn, the change is slower. This is most noticeable under hard acceleration, where the change can take a couple of seconds due to the pump motor struggling to turn properly, causing slower pumping of the transmission fluid (it is worth experiencing this now so you know what to look for in the future). I experienced a couple of times, the dash displayed the message 'Hybrid System Overheating' during hard acceleration. This too, was the pump failing to supply enough pressure to change the torque multiplier ratio in time. To try and overcome this just before my pump failed, I began taking my foot off the accelerator at around 55mph, just to give the pump a chance to supply enough to change ratio. About 2 months later, while driving in electric only mode, the pump bearing seized and caused the car to grind to a halt, as there was no pressure. If this does happen to your car, don't panic, just power the car off using the power button, then power on, wait for the READY light to go steady (takes about 10 seconds under the fault condition), then drive away as normal. The car will just be running in petrol engine only mode. The dash will show 'Hybrid System Fault'. The car will not drive at above 75mph. I drove my car with this fault for 5000 miles before I repaired it. So, to summarise; if your car changes the torque multiplier ratio quickly under hard acceleration at about 55mph (could be up to 75mph, depending on acceleration), then the pump is functioning correctly. If you notice slow changes, or the overheating message, its worth replacing the bearing anyway. I hope this will give GS450h owners a little more confidence as to the state of their pumps and what to look out for. PLEASE NOTE; THIS IS JUST A SUMMARY OF MY EXPERIENCES AND MAY NOT APPLY IN THE SAME WAY TO YOUR CAR. Giles.

UPDATE : I went to the dealer this morning for a diagnostic and estimate. The problem was a torn/cut wire at a connector on the pneumatic suspension system loom (located at the rear right side, up the bumper somewhere). The dealer actually re-soldered it and in 30 min it was working again. The repair was considered as final by the mechanic, so I think I'll have to take his word for it. We're out of Lexus warranty but it costed nothing. And I also got a free Nespresso... Cheers, Fabrice