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Pic taken on our recent holiday to the Lot region in France. She does look good in that setting, way nicer than beside my 3 bed red brick semi in Essex 😃

Hello everyone! Well I've lurked on this forum for far too long so today I have registered and here to introduce myself and our car. Should be picking up our 2017 Rx450h f-sport next week. It's f-sport white with rose interior (exactly the combo the wife wanted) , panoramic roof and protection pack. Being supplied by Lexus Edinburgh. Currently we have a 2011 Rx450h in white with black interior, it's an SE. A few cars ago we also had a 2003 (i think) RX300 SE. Looking forward to picking up the new car and the big jump in spec. No questions so far, a quick search on the previous posts has already answered my only query - pano roof /roof bars compatibility (dealer told me there was no way I should fit bars!). So thanks already!

Indeed it is, and this was the cheaper of the two I bought the other one hasn't turned up yet but it'll have to be very good to be better than this. Even the callipers are correct as is the pattern on the discs, the wheels turn and the steering wheel follows. There is suspension that works and the finish is superb. Not sure how many are left but the seller on e-bay does accept offers.

Engine bay

Another shot

Had a surprise this morning the first of the two RCF models I bought on e-bay turned up. This was the rather cheaper model that I had certain reservations about buying, but I shouldn't have worried it is absolutely fantastic the detail and finish is of the very highest standard. OK it's in blue not red but it is a worthy addition to my die cast collection.

Very sorry to hear this Tim. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery.

Sorry to read this.😥 Wishing you a swift and full recovery. Hopefully see you back with a nice GS-F at some point soon. 👍😎

Welcome Dragan. I don't have an answer but like Vlad think somebody will be able to help. Could you just clarify something. Which battery did you replace? The 12V one or the high voltage traction battery? John

Hi Dragan, welcome to LOC 1st of all! I am sorry I can't help you but hopefully someone else will have an answer to your question. Regards

Thanks matey 👍, yeh that is exactly how i felt about it to begin with, it is a stunning kit and like you say not many about but ........ something about the standard look of the is300. If it doesnt sell i will just keep hold of it for a while and see if my mind changes, atleast ive got it there incase.

I went from an RX400h to a NX300h. As the new RX's are larger the NX is actually similar in size to the RX400h. Length and width are very similar. Height is slightly less. The figures I've seen suggest the boot capacity is bigger on the NX. It doesn't look it in real life so I don't believe the figures although the wheel arches intrude less at least. It feels similar size inside while driving although the centre console seems higher and doesn't move so it feels a like it cocoons you a bit more. I've found the ride and seat on the NX slightly harder (and I have a Premium not an F Sport). I do find the adaptive cruise control makes a huge difference to making driving more relaxing though. My RX would do 28-31mpg. This does 37-40mpg. CO2 is lower so tax for my 15 plate is £110 instead of £270 for the RX. Insurance was about the same. However it feels pretty slow in comparison. Figures are 9.5s to 60 instead of 7.6s but it also feels like it's trying hard when you push it. The RX was effortless, the NX is just loud and revy when pushed. Around town up to 40 in sport mode its pretty nippy and there's not much between them but over 40 and you realise the RX is in a different league. I do love the NX. With the Premier I have a shed load of toys, the styling inside and out is great. I like the better fuel economy of the NX and greener credentials but I do miss the engine in the RX. It's a pity that 10 years on Lexus couldn't manage green and fast. Someone rear-ended the NX a week ago and I've had a base spec(?) manual diesel 318 as a loan car. I've missed the quiet, smooth comfort of my NX so much.

I've just read through some details of the Kyosho model compared to the one I've just received and by all accounts it's a non opening model i.e. the bonnet etc. and having seen some of the close up details it looks a lot like the Kyosho falls down on wheel detail. Too soon to draw conclusions as I haven't received the Kyosho yet

Do love the ISF in white, but then I’m biased having owned one in F sport white😉😂

Having driven/been loaned CT's, IS's (Mk2 & Mk3), GS, NX and RX, I would have to say the GS.

Wait and see 😁

Get the same sort of inspection done that you did with this one which will cover the 'standard' parts, but make the sale conditional on the car passing a 'Hybrid Health Check' done at a Lexus dealership. I believe that the hybrid health check can be done for about £60 as a 'stand-alone' item.

I didn't realise it was a model at first. The level of detail is amazing.

I'm assuming that the RX400h has in its menu an economy setting and a POWER setting? For maximum acceleration you need to be in Power mode and that the battery is at least 30% then floor the pedal and it'll shift quite quickly. I'm not sure the power difference between your car and the RX450h but my 450h effs off more than pleasingly and leaves most traffic for dead.

You can get an online manual free from here https://drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrivers/resources/manuals-warranty

My Winter tyres are now sorted - only took a few minutes at Lexus Swindon. I asked about the 'first set' being in range when the 'second set' were programmed but they said that wasn't necessary. Whatever, the TPMS stayed off on the short motorway journey home, so that's good. My first impression of the tyres themselves is how quiet they are, which I wasn't expecting as they have a much more aggressive looking tread pattern. They are significantly quieter than the standard fit Summer Yokohama Bluefficiency, which may say more about those than the new Bridgetones. Anyway, a good start. Once we have some proper Winter weather I hope they grip as well as they reduce noise!

i have used in the past PU house underlay as it has a tog rating so reduces heat transfer and it also reduces noise levels best of all its in expensive and you can buy it from any carpet retailer in the high street. attached is a data sheet for Pu underlay own_label_8_carpet_underlay.pdf

I got the driver's side door panel off and realised that everything is pretty much plug and play. Only thing that took a while was routing the cables from the door through the grommet into the cabin. Swapping the mirror mechanism took around half hour. At the moment only the driver's side is done. Also the button that came with doesn't work for some reason. I am investigate this at the minute. The mirror however closes when you double lock the car and opens when you unlock the car. Any questions let me know.

A couple of days ago, my fob stopped communicating with car. Had to lock it mechanically using the key. searched this forum and found a thread back in 2014 and followed the procedure described by Steve. No joy.... Found this link on the internet http://www.lowratelocksmith.com/automotive/remote-key-fob-programming/lexus-ls430/ tried the procedure for 2003 LS430. It appeared to have had worked except no response whether the code was registered or registration failed. Anyway, on my return from my journey, I was about to lock the car mechaniclyy, but decided to gove the remote function to lock another go. Hey presto success. Checked the two spare keys and they all work. Saved a trip to my Indy, Japex, or worse to Lexus dealer. might be worth keeping the above link in your bookmarks. Cheers

Many thanks to you all. Sorted now.

I would say this sounds like your browser is caching. If you see this again then hit the CTRL and F5 on your keyboard. if this updates then you are caching pages

Not driven them all,so cannot answer the question. I love my GS HOWEVER.

Sorry I am a real technophobe and have no idea what you are advising me to do. Can you elaborate please?

You are quite right.

Well, my tame mechanic finally got to grips with the RX and the job of changing the bushes on the front lower arms. The first thing I would say is the job is not an easy DIY one and not for the faint of heart. My mechanic said things were as close to disaster as he like to go a few times. He was not a happy bunny! His description of the work included lots of Anglo-Saxon words which when interpreted, his conclusion is it was a pig of a job even having workshop facilities. The first point is that on the nearside, there is no way to separate the engine/transmission mount from the end of the gearbox, so even undoing all the nuts and bolts on the mount means the engine and gearbox have to be raised substantially and the subframe has to be lowered to get enough clearance to remove the mount and get access to the bolts for the front bushing for the arm. He said the engine and gearbox were jacked up as far as he dare go and the subframe bolts were on their last millimetre or two of thread and he just and only just was able to remove the mount. It took 2.5 hours to remove the first arm. With the mount out of the way and the arm finally removed from the car, his 10-ton press could not push the old bushes out of the arm. The rear bush required a 40-ton press to push it out of the arm. The front bush needed some hacksawing and drilling of the rubber to separate the butterfly pin from the bush and the arm. Fitting the Superpro bushes was a bit easier and of course putting everything back together was a little better than removing them. So in conclusion, the job isn't easy and really isn't something you can do at the side of the road. If you fit replacement arms and don't try and be clever and fit polyurethane bushes, it'll be half the hassle. But getting to the front bush mounts to remove the arm is a real pain. The mechanic was disputing the parentage of whoever designed the car to have the engine mounts right over the bush mounts. :-) Anyway, after the bushes have been fitted, I can report the car handles so much better. The rear bushes on the arms were so shot you could see daylight through them, so even new rubber bushes would have dramatically changed the handling for the better. The steering is flatter where before it had a tendency for the outer corner to tuck in and dip a bit in corners. Steering is now quicker and I don't get that lag from turning the steering wheel to the car actually doing the turning. As for the bushes themselves I can report even having stiffer bushes there is no extra noise in the cabin or anything detrimental at all.

Awesome work there mate that's going to be an absolute beast! I'd personally be putting that kit on just had a peepers at it fitted it looks immense so can only imagine what it'd be like in person I can't imagine there's many about like that either 😀

Boot it. but beware the torque steer. Bri

Never had a problem with our 400h overtaking. 50 to 70 (and beyond!) acceleration was better than most other cars. The initial sound of the high engine revs before the acceleration takes off does seem strange at first but you soon get used to it. This seems to be the thing that most auto journalists do not like and they always criticize it in the magazines. Just be aware of the torque steer, though. JBP

E-cvt sytem in hybrid cars is made in such a way that if you need power you regulate it pressing right foot, this action does NOT work like usual throttle on engine, so let the thermal engine have high revs because there is not a friction that connects engine to wheels, all is made by hybrid synergy drive and you have to bet not fooled from high revs noise coming from engine (anyway it's impossible to make it work out of specs). So, do you want max acceleration? Pedal totally down.

I thought it was essentially front wheel drive until either full power or reduced traction at the front brought the rear electric motor into play? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Goes well enough for me Mr Slackbladder

My method is progressive squeeze of the accelerator, you hear the V6 growl rise in pitch, it picks up its skirts and away it goes. I've never felt the need for any sort of kickdown or whatever the CVT equivalent might be. Certainly a different sort of power delivery to a turbo though.

The car weigh approximately 2 tonnes it's a sedate luxury Suv with permanent all wheel drive so it's not going to growl past other motorists on A roads you may find a little better performance by using the power button along with turning of the traction control or sell it and by a sc430

I’m not a RX400 owner but I do drive a similar era GS450. I’ve found you need to properly boot it (like kick-down in auto gearbox terms) to unleash the full beans. Simply flooring it isn’t enough, you need to give it a meaningful shove to the the floor to make all the progress it’s capable of. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorted! In the interest of completion for any future searches (a lot of threads I found had no conclusion), the issue turned out to be knackered dizzy caps. This also took out one of the coils so they've been replaced too. Happy man!

Little update, ive had a change of plan with the project......... So this was the original plan i had body kit wise but ideas have changed. Im thinking of keeping the body standard looking. Now i may struggle getting the power down but im thinking it may be possible to get a 265 wide sticky tyre on 9.5 inch wide rim. The more and more i look at pictures of a standard body IS300 lowered the more i feel its the right thing to do. On another note i have sorted the down pipe, i ordered a down pipe off topspeed pro. This pipe is designed for a left hand drive car so it was a risk as i have the manifold 1 side and the steering column the other side to contend with. A quick trial fit shows its not going to fit but......... the down pipe came with a vband flange..... problem is my BW s364 turbo has a marmon style flange. So i ordered a marmon flange off ebay to get welded on, turns out by welding the marmon onto the vband it made it fit absolutly perfect!!!! in the 2nd picture you can see just how close it is to the column, this has pretty much the same gap the other side to the manifold. All i have to do now is get it joined upto to the center section with the 3 to 4 inch flare. This then gave me a new problem, the heater matrix hose was now touching and in the way of the down pipe. I had a couple of bits of spare coolant hose about as i had removed the transmission cooler and replaced another pipe. So had a play with these bits of spare pipe and cooked this up Almost bang on just need to join the 2 together. Then throwed it back on to test it. Perfect 👌 just need some heat protection for it now.