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Hi, have just bought a 2006 RX350 as my third of Lexus ownership, following on from a 2004 SC430 and most recently a 2009 GS450h. Am aiming to buy the new UX full ev when it finally arrives but in the meantime am discovering what a great car the 350 is! Bought from Lexus Croydon with a 12 month Lexus warranty (and Lexus Recovery for a year) so what’s not to like? Today I hope to install the Vaistech MML 1 taken from the GS to give me usb and iPod inputs, and as soon as possible the Alpine EZi-DAB to get back digital radio. Anyone know of a permanent and switched live feed in the centre console area? Am hoping to fit most of the DAB wires and boxes in there to keep the dash clutter free lol Car is black interior with light blue body..... cheers C

Just had mine detailed and ceramic coated by a great guy in Nuneaton.

Lights now functioning normally after I prodded randomly at the brake light switch, working it on and off for a while. I guess it is on the way out so will get it changed when it is serviced in 2 weeks. I can’t really face changing it myself in this weather Rich

Hey guys, I am loving the UX! (Still happy with my IS300h though) Lexus Glasgow allowed myself to make a short video on their UX250h if anyone wants to check it out? 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d39X-VPgCQk&t=1s

I am not sure about the position of the 2 USB ports, personally I listen music from USB so it is always in and hidden, on ES these USBs will be always sticking out! Another thing - rear view camera, I never thought about it but recently I saw it on my friends E-class - camera is hidden and only retracts when you use revers gear this way the camera always clean, why Lexus didn't do it? I am sure these a small little irritations and may be just for me but hey I am just sharing them with you. The car looks very nice though! @ThomasD94 thank you for your video! @VinnyB looks like you really enjoy your car, this is nice! Congrats on your new purchase! 48.5mpg is very impressive for such a big car! Keep these updates coming!

You might have seen them but for those of you who have not, I notice that in the last week or so there have been a host of new UX videos posted on YouTube. All are on Swedish temporary plates, and there is no voice-over so I assume they are stock footage for launch, or previews for dealers or journalists. Footage is of grey and white varieties (all F-Sport?) plus a rather lovely red one. Gives you a good idea how the styling will will look once 'in the wild'... Here is just one example:

fahad you should be going back to lexus and demanding your money back, infact lexus leicester should be ashamed and offering you your money back without you having to ask since they have wrongly diagnosed the fault and made you pay for a part that isn't required, this takes me back years to when some of the high street service centres used to pay bonuses to the mechanics for selling parts this in turn made some mechanics fit parts that weren't required. a failed battery could of been confirmed by hooking up a good battery and seeing the car start. i'm just happy that lexus liverpool know what they are doing.

Interesting course of events. I do recall sombody on one of these forums being skeptical of my carrying my own booster battery. Your case proves my point. I am the driver of the car, I am the reader of the handbook and so it follows that I know how to jump start it. Calling out someone to a stricken car always involves an unwelcome wait and even when they arrive, how can you be sure they know what they are doing? Its no use rubbing them up the wrong way by overtly asking them whether they know what they're doing so how's that make you stand? You have to observe as a potential amateur aimlessly tinkers with your car with the potential to make things worse. I did hear that carrying out a jump start with the donor vehicles engine running can foul everything up even if the correct polarity is observed.. There's always the reverse polarity trap to fall into too! To compound the issue it does look like Leicester Lexus are acting like a bunch of fitters. There are very few properly trained vehicle technicians or engineers these days and this is largely because of market forces coupled with owners who cant be bothered to read their instruction manuals. The latter encourages many more vehicles to go to the "menders" with easily solved issues. ..... leading to the "menders" employing lower paid people. Someone has already said that the first sign of dealer danger was trying to fit a new battery to sort out the problem when all a jumper battery has to do is to start the computer. I was actually wondering whether there is a problem with the traction battery because if the traction battery is flat, nothing will happen and that is exactly the symptom you describe. Traction batteries will always fail for a reason and those reasons can vary from mechanical damage to charging interface failure. If so, just replacing a traction battery wont fix anything, they will have to find out why the traction battery has failed and fix whatever made it fail.Normally, traction batteries don't just fail on their own.

Hi thanks for the reply. Those look very nice indeed! The one thing I noticed about the facelifts is the stock xenons aren't ice blue like those of the non facelifts, but you have the best look now imo. Was it difficult to swap the bulbs? Am not practically minded when it comes to that area lol Alex

yup. I changed mine to 8000k.

Any news on the brake lights?

IMany thanks for your advice. I’ve discovered you don’t seem to be able to disable the key fobs themselves but you can disable smart entry and smart start on the vehicle by using the steering wheel controls to access the customisation menu. Slightly less convenient because you need to use the fob buttons to unlock the car and hold the fob up against the start button to start, but I think I’ll leave it disabled whilst there seems to be a gang of scumbags in the area and I decide what to do about a steering wheel lock. Really helpful link thanks.

The car is under the Lexus Extended Warranty. I wanted to inform you that I am paying for a new battery as they did their diagnostics and the first thing they mentioned is that to put a new battery in. 3 weeks down the line the car isn’t starting. Let’s see what happens on Tuesday. The price of the battery is £125, which I have to pay. The rest is currently paid by the extended warranty. Let’s see on Tuesday how much the final bill is for a £16k car.

Thanks for the video. Looks straightforward. Do your happen to know the bulb size? Thanks

Yeah the USB ports I agree with, however I do like the dual hinged arm rest and the abundance of tech Lexus throw at the ES! It is almost like an LS but cut price in that regard 🙂No worries, happy to share a video with a like minded Lexus fan! I just can't wait til march to drive my long awaited IS300h

IT is very easy to remove this panel, almost don't need any tools, check out the first couple of operations in this vid and go in and check that the lamp/connections are all OK. paul m.

Amazing! This is what I needed. I'll have Lexus do this when the car is in for an oil service next. Thanks!!

Lexus Personal Settings is what you want, Dealer option or with use of TechStream Software connected to car OBD port, see below for some options. Paul m.

I know what you mean about the USB location. On the Takumi spec the USB and cup holder is covered by a piece of polished wood. I’d want the wood on show (😃) so I’d have to run my iPhone cable to a rear port. I’d make an exception if Apple CarPlay ever comes to Lexus UK. It’s a pity there’s no USB port in the central cubby.

i'm thinking the AA might of screwed up and maybe the booster cables where put on the wrong way which could of blown a main fuses. i know lexus cars come with AA breakdown & recovery but are they actually trained to work on a hybrid

I'm surprised they didn't ask you to first get the tyres changed to fix the no-start. Seriously, though, the whole thing reads very odd. Like said earlier, 5 mins will tell you if it'll jump start. No point chasing a new battery if you can't get the car started. The TCU (transmission ecu) and then the ignition system... unless someone has blown up bits doing silly things with a jumper, I don't know what they are chasing. The fact they thought a new battery would fix it reduces my level of confidence in them. As long as it doesn't cost you.. But I'd want my battery payment back.

It will be a non-interference engine so cam belt breaking won't destroy the engine from what I've read but may let you down at just the wrong moment. You may have a few expenses to come but it will be worth it to drive a V8 and not your run of the mill Car. All those things listed I've had to deal with and not surprising as a 25 year young beast. What colour is the Car out of interest and did you check the MOT History status online before buying?

Man after my own heart, car mechanics ain't brain surgery! If I think I can tackle a job then I will do hours of 'homework' trying to find out everything possible on said subject and then decide if The benefit out weighs the effort. There are very few jobs I won't tackle, I have built double storey extension on my house, done a loft conversion, detatched garage and just knocked through diner/kitchen wall and fitted new kitchen! Maintain all (5) cars at my home and over the years have amassed tools for every trade to achieve the above. It is real sense of satisfaction when you can stand back and look at your achievements. I like working on cars and as all the hard work as all ready been done by the research and development department when they designed the car and it can be really straightforward sometimes ( depending of manufacture of course- Fiat and Lexus on my fleet, so both extremes of quality and build there!) so best of luck putting your hard earned knowledge and effort into making this new project something to be proud of, even non-petrol heads will take a second look when she's all up together and shiny! cheers Paul m. ps just noticed that you say it has been stood for 5+ years! So bearing that in mind I think the cam belt needs to be on your list of things to do. Service life of most is between 60-80,000 or 10 years,

I reckon these 'techs' are a bunch of monkeys, it appears whenever an owner has a problem the solution it to throw parts at the car, thats not a tech in my book thats a fitter.

Nice one Daveboy.. Lol Well I couldn't help but put this sticker on. I feel it really belongs.

I believe the MK3 onwards (late 1994) has an interference engine.

Order placed. As usual, not driving it until I get it; it’s like Christmas 🙊 ES with Premium Pack. I find the videos like CarsofGlasgow informative, and looking forward to the handover.

what on earth did the AA do for a few hours it should be 5 minutes to get the car started once a battery is connected it seems your battery has just gone flat over the 2 week period ,where did they connect to to jump start. i have had a battery go flat and 5 minutes later we where going again as you just need to power up the computers so the hybrid side can start the car .

Wonder if the person didn't jump start properly.

best wishes with it all ... whatever the outcome you might find that the engine and gearbox have a great life ( and maybe quite some value ££££ ) outside of it's present shell. But if the cambelt snaps on you ....... and the early one's don't cause catastrophic engine damage but the later one's do however ... I don't know what category your's is in tbh others on here might know ??? Malc

I think you need to supercharge it with the blower sticking out of the bonnet. Just cut a rough hole with your angle grinder and it'll be reet. While you're at it, cut two slots either side of the blower hole and turn your exhaust manifolds upside down. The next logical step, of course, would be to weld the diff up. Be sure to put decent oil in to make sure it can cope with extra power and torque from your 'charger. That'll do you for a bit, but you may get a bit bored of the auto shifting so a good move to consider would be a manual Supra gearbox. Don't forget to remove your interior (battery disconnected first so the airbags don't go off). You're only going to want the driver's seat in, realistically. That's a lot of weight saved. Swapping the glass to perspex will also offer a good weight saving. There'll be no point having a stereo as the upturned manifolds will give you enough enjoyment for the lobes. Any questions, just ask.

Hi Herbie - That was in fact the first thing I tried and due to the USB being over the 32GB mark I could only format NTFS or exFAT, both of which this upgrade site does not support. I therefore had to search for a solution and found the "fat32fomat" - Even with DOS under Win10 using standard format commands it came up with errors. perhaps you were using an earlier version I just don';t know. Bottom line is it al worked out well in the end and wothout your help I'd still be in the dark. Now I only have to install my Nextbase 380GW DashCam, should be fun!!

Re simplicity. Good tools go a LONG way imo. My dewalt impact wrench, ball joint breakers, crows feet, breaker bar, ratchet spanners, trolley Jack's, hydraulic press etc etc that I've picked up over the years turn a potential disaster into the very achievable. Being brave and of course these forums and their contributors are the beating heart of DIY. Hooray for the Internet.

I don't think we really quite appreciate just how brilliant the 'ride' is in our Ls400s Last evening being driven in the backseat of a well looked after, 28k miles Mobility Scheme provided Nissan 2 year old Qashqai ......... bnloody hell, a real bag of bones by comparison Lexus Ls quality is quite supreme ( as is my Honda Legend too might I add ) Malc

buying a older Ls400 ( or any car at auction ) is a bit of a hit and miss affair I'd have thought without having your ' tame ' engineer giving it the once over and a test drive prior to buying sorry for your loss however ................ many or most Ls400's at this age have been scrapped i would think ........ the MOT is just that snapshot in time when the car has been presented to the Tester ..... who knows what a selling owner might do with the car immediately post MOT And the 'biggy ' had to be to ask when the cambelt and waterpump were last changed ..... and seeing the valid receipt for the work Best of luck with it all Malc

Thanks for the suggestion. I went back out in the cold and ‘poked around’ with it a bit. No brake lights on now so at least I won’t have a flat battery to deal with. Will see what tomorrow brings, assuming it’s still there. Removing the starter system fuses might slow up keyless thieves though.

Thanks for the link, even more expensive than I imagined, but hey it got Lexus embossed on it therefore ££££££'s Again thanks for the link and that's more like it, rubber/water resistant, decent fit & good up-stand without having to sell a kidney! cheers guys, Paul m.

I popped into the Glasgow Lexus a couple of weeks back and made a video on the ES300h Takumi. It is a gorgeous car!

May have posted these before but they are two of my favourite shots of my car. Slightly compressed thanks to Google Drive.

Update getting 48.5mpg around town and motorway better than NX which was 35mpg the lane departure is brill gets some getting used to as it actuals drags the car back into lane love how it picks up car in front on mway and follows it in lane auto heat seats great idea as switching on and off for you same with steering wheel the ride is like on air you get out of car feeling relaxed and chilled You sit slightly higher up than a normal saloon so good position dont feel cramped especially in back with bags of room and my back seats recline which is fab Everyone that as been in it says it is a luxury limo way better than the germans and jags and these are people who own these type of cars will update further vince

take care with where you travel and the specific local LEGAL need for winter tyres or chains in parts of Italy until maybe April sometime if I remember from my trip a few years ago ! Malc

Hi sorry you have had hassle with your IS . I have been an engineer all my life and I can assure you any thing mechanical requires regular maintenance if it is to give trouble free service . The problem nowdays is because of the high labour costs and extended service intervals ,most people who are not enthusiasts treat a car like a washing machine or a vac cleaner ,nothing is done until it gives a problem .My advice is when buying check for regular servicing with detailed bills and history ,it will cost a bit more but will be worth it in the long run .If you cannot do any work yourself you do not need to use a main dealer . These cars are easy to maintain and a good independent can save you a fortune .I do all my own work and I have run my Sportcross for the last 6 years doing routine services only Dave