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Some interesting details on the RC-F front end here as a chap removes front end damage. I find this style of time lapse videos quite entertaining over an early morning brew. I know most of you are likely to be shocked by these images of a Lexus in pieces but some of us enjoy a little spanner time...

Pretty sure I've told this one before but I remember this subject being discussed years ago on a BMW forum. After much too-ing and fro-ing about fuel consumption, fan speeds, wear on components blah blah it was generally agreed that the correct operation for climate control is... Buy car Set climate control Some years later, sell car

As NemesisUK has said, the compressor doesn't run when it's unnecessary - only when it's necessary, to keep the cabin comfortable and the windows clear. Having said that my experience of fridge compressors is that they run forever. One fridge I know has been running without problem for 34 years. However, the air conditioning in cars has extra problems compared with a static fridge. In particular the seals drying out and loss of gas. Running the air conditioning at least once a week helps to prevent that. I had a car once whose air conditioning needed no gas topup for 11 years and that was with the air conditioning always on. Its compressor never had any problems. On conventional cars the clutch on the belt-driven compressor can seize. I imagine not using the air conditioning could cause this to happen prematurely. But the IS300h compressor has a 230v electric motor instead of being belt driven and electric motors tend to go on forever. So I keep my air conditioning on all the time.

Update after a few weeks. Everything lovely and dry. Not a drop that I can see (or feel).

Exactly this ^^^^ What is "unnecessary wear"? I my opinion it is "necessary" to operate the a/c all the time to keep the cabin dehumidified, the windows mist free and most importantly, me comfortable!

Auto on permanently also AC as this avoids the seals drying out.

Very interesting, but as you say, toooo American!

That'll be good PR for the car. Hope to see some footage you can see the black RCF in the trailer.

Good to hear the feedback and thoughts from everyone. Time to switch it back on then and dismiss what I've been previously told!

I have mine on all the time but then I only done 2600 miles last year!!! So how much Time was that actually? paul m.

I have mine on regularly, but not all the time ...

Isn't it nice to be European.

I found that very entertaining and there was a lot of factual content. Thanks Lee. [emoji846] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

in my 430 I have set the AC to on and air direction to feet and front screen and I rarely have to touch any settings apart from temperature occasionally and the screen defrosts as and when needed

Going back to the original question! Just wondering if the Auto button was the last button you pressed. If you manually adjust the fan speed after pressing Auto, the fan will no longer be controlled automatically, even if the Auto light stays on. But if the Auto button is the last one to be pressed the fan will speed up and slow down automatically. Having said that, I think I do get some cold air from the vents when first starting in the cold weather. I wouldn't describe it as a "blast" but for a short time it might be colder than I'd like. But within about a minute, it's no longer very cold. Obviously this cold air is coming from outside, or maybe even from the coldness of the system internally at first. Might be better if the software decreed that there was no air at all until the system had warmed. But the tubes will still be cold until you force some warm air through them. So it's probably a balancing act of having no air at all for a few minutes or start warming up the tubes as quickly as possible. It must be a dilemma for the software designer. Maybe someone else knows more about the intricacies of how the software controls the Auto climate system on startup.

Awesome thanks Neil. I've found a few good nick second hand units selling between £300 and £450. There is a Lexus specialist near me who will do fitting- not sure on price yet, but they will happily fit the part.

Thanks Alan, Kevin, Steve, If there is some sort of wireless interference problem I don’t think I’ll ever track it down so the luggage security lock is, I think, the work around. And I’ll check for a fault on the boot release button circuit - thanks for that suggestion. As to the battery - definitely shot; being replaced as we speak! David

I used to have AC on permanently until a mechanic advised that it causes unnecessary wear on the AC compressor. Premature failure possible. Unsure if that's true but to be safe, I no longer leave it on all of the time.

I have mine on Auto permanently, with the a/c enabled. On very cold mornings it might take a short while before the fan ramps up and heat comes through but it never blasts cold air, except as said above, when using the demist function.

Notice your car is 2012. If it still has the original battery, it's probably due for a change now.

Most cars nowadays all transmit on the same frequency and send a digital rolling code to prevent someone sniffing the remote control and copying the code (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_code). It could be a faulty boot release button intermittently going short circuit or a wiring issue. Have you tried disabling the boot opener by pressing the button in your glove box? Kev

Possibly another device transmitting on the same frequency ? I think the technology has changed quite a bit over the years, but in previous years a lot of cars were affected by transmissions from radio links and amateur radio. I know that if I were transmitting on the 70cms band while driving, I would often set of car alarms. With everything being digital nowadays, I doubt this happens any more.

It was a genuine Lexus part (does that mean Toyota?) and i was charged £165 + vat for the sensor and £40 + vat to fit. No more light on the dashboard!

I keep meaning to make a note of the ridiculous misinterpretations - one I remember was Great Ayton was recognised (misrecognised) as Peterborough. The phone voice recognition has never worked one single bleeding time

Yeah, that's what I would do if you can hear the leak and everything else is in order. Try Dewsbury Auto Salvage or a similar breaker. If you can find a secondhand strut it's not too difficult to swap them or we know someone not too far away who could do it for you.

Called Antimacassars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimacassar

The engine isnt the same as a 350z its a bit of a myth. They're nice to drive. A bit juicy though. And some come with extras todays car dont even have

The Bimmerforum is full of fanboys who won't have anything bad said about the brand. I've heard things like "they are specialist motors they need specialist care" when referring to a 320d. The BMW5 forum though is a lot more tranquil with a number of users as frustrated with their cars as anyone.

Not on Toyota/Lexus UK vehicles, all service manuals I've seen state that at 60 mph, if the speedo reads 60 mph then it is faulty and should be replaced.

No. It works fairly well at low speed, but as soon as you get to motorway speed, it becomes confused by the background noise. The main thing for me is that they're too many steps to perform the simplest tasks. It's much quicker to manually work though the menus and less prone to errors. Besides, you can't dictate text messages etc. Sent from my LG-H930 using Tapatalk

playing music is a bit hit and miss with voice command

Works fine for me on my 2014 CT Advance for phone dialling. What disappoints me though is I can't use voice commands on the satnav which is a backward step as this was available on my 2006 IS250. I guess you need the higher spec satnav for voice recognition to work with it? The infotainment system could indeed be better but that's more or less my only 'issue' with the car. It does the job but could be easier/better.