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Afew pictures of my RX picked up from Lexus Carlisle last week, as always a very pleasant experience.

It’s the simple jobs that give the biggest satisfaction sometimes. Over the last few months the bonnet catch has been a bit iffy, it won’t close without really slamming the bonnet on it and when opening it doesn’t “pop” when the handle is pulled. I put it down in part to the 145,000 miles the Lexus has now covered. Tonight I decided to remove and inspect it, not a difficult job. First remove the black plastic trim that sits along the front panel, there are about 10 self expanding clips that need popping out. Remove the plastic panel and this revealed the bonnet catch mechanism. The catch is held on by 3x10 mm bolts and the plastic dirt shield is held in place with 2 self expanding clips. In adoption there is also the bonnet warning switch wiring loon that is held on the dirt shield as well. With the catch off the car it was clear to see why it was so gummed up....white grease and general road crud had caused the pivots to almost seize. After about half an hour in the parts washer and a good going over with a stiff brush most of the debris was cleared off the latch, the micro switch that signals the warning light was taken off and cleaned up, all the pivots were oiled and freed up and the return springs were cleaned, oiled and reseated. Reassembled back on the car, all cleaned and tested, it all works like it did when I first bought the car now, that’s a win [emoji106] Last weekend I replaced the EGR cooler and egr, I’ll do a write up that shortly when I can finally look at the pictures without A) breaking out in a sweat B) having nightmares about the job It was a total pain in the backside, but a job that needed doing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just had my car ceramic coated and de badged by Design By Detail. I'm soooooooo happy i thought i'd share a few picts and a vid. 300737cc-80fb-407c-8f97-885725a0b3a4.mp4

Hey Guys, I bought one of those headlight restoration kits and it worked wonders on my IS today. Only took about 10 minutes and I think it is worth it 🙂

Can't beat that I'm afraid. Usually excellent service from Lexus Sheffield but they charged (iirc) £90 plus VAT for a diagnosis of the GS when I'd got it back from Inverness and if I'd listened to them I'd have just set it on fire, left it in their car park and walked home. What I actually did was take it to a competent specialist who read, diagnosed and cleared the codes for 20 quid. And being ex-Lexus he also pointed out that the dealership certainly did know better. As you say, those glass palaces do need paying for.

Indeed - but will that be the correct part that cures the fault without the benefit of diagnostics? Just get a laptop, a miniVCI cable from eBay that will include a copy of Techstream (the very same diagnostic program used in those glass palace workshops) and at least give yourself a head start in doing your own diagnostics.

Thanks for the explanation Olliesgrandad! It's been a little while since i've been on here but we've been gradually and more recently, increasingly, losing coolant. Back along it would only require topping up once a week at most and the moor you put your foot down, the more is lost. Originally I though this due to the 'open' coolant system having evaporated and the coolant was just low, however it is now using too much to believe this. In my researchI stumbled across several posts of people that also have suffered coolant loss, due to a split. cracked or otherwise compromised radiator. So more research commenced and it looked a right fiddly job... As we don;t need the car for a couple of days (the other one is just back from the garage) I removed the radiator today for inspection. It was as fiddly as expected 😒 3 hours in, radiator removed and good news! The radiator is leaking, that hopefully rules out the ever fear-inducing HGF. So i've ordered the most reasonably priced radiator with a warranty (2 years) online for £65, quite pleasantly surprised at the value of this. I was less pleasantly surprised at the expense of the coolant however, £31.50 for 5 litres 😨 and as this system take almost 10L the coolant was only £2 cheaper than the radiator itself, good lord! I'd rather not do this again in a hurry, so I opted for the 'super long life' pink stuff rather than red. You can hopefully see that the leaks aren't terrible yet, but I hope this has been caught before anything serious happens. New radiator arrives in the next 2 days, so I'll probably fit it over the weekend, Sunday looks more likely The below is an excellent how to I found, for those that want to have a go themselves, the worst aprt so far was removing the pair of vertical bolts that hold the radiator into the 'cradle' that runs under this and the other large radiator (can't remember now if it's the A/C or hybrid). WHY, Lexus, WHY! There are holes in the bottom crossmember, but they don't line up with these bolts???

Yesterday I finally got fed up of the FM transmitter doo-daa that I normally use to stream Spotify. They're OK and I've used them in various motors but since changing the speakers their failings are a little more obvious. I remembered that I'd still got my GROM aux unit from when I ran the IS and wondered if the supplied cable (TOY1) was the same for both cars. As the GS has the factory nav I expected all sorts of connection oddness and even if it did fit I assumed I'd lose the glovebox autochanger. So out with the pry tool and 10mm socket and within 5 minutes the whole head unit is out. Ashtray first, air vents next, 4x 10mm bolts and a little plastic clip. Easy peasy. Love working on these cars! Anyhoo, TOY1 cable fitted so I plugged in the aux unit and everything works. Pressed the DISC button again and I've still got my autochanger. Result! So, looks a little messy and I've still got to route the 3.5mm cable properly but job done. When funds allow I might treat myself to the BT unit but for now this is perfect.

Your original post didn't mention that this was happening. It sounds like you have a parasitic drain somewhere so you need to do some logical and methodical fault finding with the correct tools. At the very least you'll need a multimeter and a clamp ammeter would be a big help too. You need to establish (maybe from workshop manual or a spec sheet) what quiescent current draw is normal for your car. A general 'rule of thumb' is that around 36mA is considered to be normal, with some cars drawing up to 50mA still classed as acceptable, but much more than that would usually be indicative of a fault. There are a few videos on Youtube about finding a parasitic drain and this is a fairly good one:

I had this problem with my RX350. It was caused by a kink in the tube inside the trim panel at the side of the boot. I fixed it by replacing the last 10cm or so with a piece of copper tubing and have had no more problems since. I think I posted some pictures of this previously which you can probably find in my earlier posts.

Mods ...... please delete if not allowed BUT as you will see I'm giving away four new tires. Sold my F-sport LS460 14 plate today. I have a full set of four nearly new Summer tires stacked in the garage. They are 245/45R19 ER33 XZ 102Y tires. Only a few hundred miles on them. So I'm paying forward Karma. If someone can prove they fit on their car then they can have them for free. Pick up only in HD7 4NB (Huddersfield)

My preference would not be diesel especially for lots of town stuff and potential DPF issues. I generally average around 55mpg when weather is warm and 45 when weather is cold but that is with a healthy mix of a road and motorway c75%. If I spend more time on town stuff particularly in colder weather I would say it's roughly 33 mpg for that kind of driving. Good luck with whatever decision you go with.

Sorry John mixing names up.

Money, yes. In the case of the Cullinan though, no taste. 😄

It makes me wonder what is the longest diagnosis that's been done and charged per hour!

Sounds like the alternator to me

As I understand it, you can buy a Lexus warranty (what they call 12/24 - 24 months cover but paid over first 12 months) any time up to the car being 10 years old from first reg and less than 140000 miles - so you could theoretically get covered up to the day before the car was 12 years old. Regardless of previous history or warranty purchase. One of the terms is " To maintain the validity of the policy, the vehicle must be serviced at an official Lexus Centre in line with the manufacturers service schedule" You can buy the Hybrid Health check separately any time up to 15 years old. (again, regardless of having had it before) Why would you buy Lexus Roadside Assistance alone? It's " equivalent to the AA’s top level of cover for which they currently charge £135 per year" AutoAid only costs £59.99 (that was a big jump from last year - hope they don't bump it up again by a large amount!)

If the car is over 5 years old though you can move it to the Essentials servicing and this is OK for the Extended Warranty still, and Essentials servicing is quite a bit cheaper than the <5 year full Lexus services. I have just gone through this change when I renewed my service plan as Essentials servicing for the coming two years (which gives me 3 services in that time as I do 15K miles per annum) and also renewed the Extended Warranty at the same time for a further two years. This two year "package" (service plan paid monthly for two years and extended warranty paid monthly for one year but lasts for two years) also includes the Hybrid Health Check and guarantee every 10k miles, two MoTs, breakdown cover and a small discount on any other costs that fall outside the service plan or extended warranty. For my needs and how I use the car this "package" gives me what I feel is sensible value for money and peace of mind. Of course everyone's circumstances are different and so what is right for me may not be right for others.

Pretty sure it was you that promised it John and shhh! he still checks in and reads this nonsense!

that made lol, love it!

I think without doubt I am going to have to seriously look at a BEV in the future. It really is very difficult to judge what the market is going to be like. There's not that much solid data available yet on long term reliability or longevity of BEVs yet, but another two years should make the information more reliable. I had an NX before my RX and it is a well built car, but the current setup of the NX frustrated me too much, a good engine married to the wrong transmission which I found irritating at times. Plus in comparison the NX suffers badly from road and tire noise and is nowhere near as relaxing as the RX. Trust you're till enjoying your RX.

Hey Martin, My GS has done this for a few years now and I oddly a recent regas of the AC helped and boosted the passenger output from stone cold (even when max heat selected on that side) to luke warm. If you research online you'll see that the heater servos can play up - mine appear to all be working okay and I'm loathed to rip into them again as some are a right pain to refit into the heater guides. Issues are also reported with the heater matrix's which have a design that can easily clog on one side of the vehicle, the passenger side for right hand drives. The design has both the feed and return pipes on the same side (drivers) so coolant flow across the matrix isn't even and the far side (passenger) can clog up. I've flushed, soaked and back flushed my matrix numerous times and still find small black particles coming out, from where I can only speculate. After all this, the passenger heat output has improved a little but the drivers side is really good now! It's been a while since I did a flush, so I'll try and get another done when the weather improves. Cabin temp sensors might be worth looking into if you use the Auto function but we don't and still have the issue. Maybe I should test Auto again and see if there's any improvement? To really investigate/fix either area any further I'm looking at taking the dash out but only when the ambient temps increase. A new heater core/matrix can be sourced for just £46 from Rockauto + p&p, so whilst the dash is out I'm tempted to get one and replace mine anyway Dave at Lex-Tek has seen a few older cars with clogged heater cores, he replaced one in an RX not long ago that felt much heavier than the replacement. I will also be keen to hear if other folks have fixed this issue. Good luck.

I’ve got one (detachable) on mine. Never used it, was installed (official Lexus) by previous owner.

Ouch. As someone who has had their fair share of tooth related problems, I sympathise with your situation. I hope you feel better soon.

Having to do anything like a cat clean indicates some issue. Why did the cats need to be cleaned? Were they covered in oil deposits from oil being burned in the combustion chamber? The matrix of metals in the cat can only work when they are fully exposed to and touching the exhaust gas stream, so coating them reduces the cat efficiency. In some cases the soot from burning oil can start to clog the cat. If the cat efficiency was restored by cleaning the matrix, then I'd talk to the mechanic about it. High hydrocarbons in the emissions results would point towards oil being burned in the combustion chamber and confirm the reason for needing to clean the cats. The reasons can vary, but it could be down to something as simple as a blocked crankcase breather valve (a £15 part). Oil in the exhaust will coat everything downstream of the engine, so all the oxygen sensors and all the cats can be affected.

Just in the proccess of renewing mine just had the car coming up to a year now nothing as gone wrong but i am renewing warranty

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TOYOTA-GENUINE-45206-50020-YOKE-SUB-ASSY-STEERING-SLIDING-W-SHAFT-OEM-/352948369862

Thanks for all the comments. I think I might go for it. Peace of mind is a great thing!

It looks like it comes in 2 parts, “Shaft Assy Steering “ and “Yoke Sub Assy” Based on a 2003 Toyota Celsior, the part numbers are 45260-50070 and 45206-50010 respectively, available on Amayama. Just put the part numbers into their search and you will find them.

Let's not get too carried away here. Any engine with worn bores/pistons/rings will pressurize the crankcase and blow oil out of the most well sealed cam cover. But a reasonably well maintained (frequent enough oil changes) Lexus will not do that, at least until starship-type mileages have passed. Oil on the plug threads is just from oil sitting in the spark plug recesses and arrives on the threads as you withdraw the plugs - there is no way that oil can come from the combustion chambers. Most modern engines use a neoprene cam cover gasket which fits in to a groove in the cam cover. Although nice and soft when new these gaskets harden and become brittle with heat and age - it's quite instructive to compare a new gasket with one that has done 50K miles or so. Eventually oil will seep out and end up in the plug recesses, in the vee and down the sides of the block. James - you need a new cam cover gaskets, plug tube gaskets and various other seals - see attached pic (just right hand side shown) - oh, and you need to tighten your spark plugs to 25Nm/18ftlbs.- see the pic.

Yep, waste of money. These are going to turn out as SatNav has, a future selling point. Whatever brand of car you have, when you come to sell, SatNav is always a must have in the eyes of the next owner. Yet most inbuilt units are a faff to use and we don't bother to use it. We just stick our phone to the dash! The car will take a hit on the price without, so you must have it.

complete waste of money

Many thanks Thomas.Very good. I think I first saw these 50 years ago in the first series of Startrek.Capt Kirk used them when on the Bridge of the USS Enterprise.

We collected our new 450 from the guys at Woodford in January and took the service plan, it worked out cheaper (on paper, at least), so seemed a no-brainer. It’s a lovely motor by the way, the 2020 spec is great with Apple Car Play and Android Auto, we are very pleased with it so far.

Hey all, Apologies for the radio silence on this. A few family related issues have taken priority of late. All sorted now though so this is back on track. Looks like a few of us may be doing the April Gaydon meet so I'll not try and run anything before then. Probably looking at June now for this, should be much better weather by then too. The venue are saying that to reserve space for us and guarantee food when we want it they'd need a deposit so I'm scoping this out. That have said that they will also do a small concession on overnight rate for those of us who want to stay. I'll post a poll soon so I can guage interest. We'd need at least 15 attendees (don't all have to stay overnight, just to guarantee dedicated parking and food) to make it worth their while. Dan.

"Not paying attention" - 15 down to plus 10 now you say Linas! So yes, as I previously said, " 15 ISFs! Not in the last 12 years on the autotrader there hasn't" Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay and although these cars hang around for a few months and the odd red one at a certain nationwide finance dealer maybe over a year, they ultimately do move, so they are priced relative. I don't believe for a second that any owner here believes that they are unicorn cars (you of course entitiled to your opinion), but instead, my understanding and experience been that owners are in a position where they are not desperate to sell. Reasonable priced servicing, cracking extendable warranties, different to shifting on an rs3 or rs4 that is out of warranty and due its 3 year service and first mot. That is from my experience and expertise both from a buyer and seller, private and trade, not my opinion.

After 100k miles the schedule is just repeated - there is nothing that is periodically changed, just as and when needed such as suspension mounts, ball joints etc that all should be inspected every major service (20k miles). Standard schedule is: Spark plugs every 60k miles Brake fluid every 2 years Engine coolant at 100k miles (and then every 60k miles?) Inverter coolant 100k miles Timing belt every 100k miles Air filter every 40k miles/4 years The main thing to do is verify if the timing belt was changed at 100k. They can last longer but 180k is pushing it and it will damage the engine if it fails. A Lexus dealer will normally put a sticker on the engine timing belt cover when it is changed.

Any time I see the word flush my brain prepends it with the word "wallet". Hopefully the transmission was serviced properly rather than just flushed, if the filter assembly wasn't replaced then I'd definitely get a proper service asap. Power steering fluid is often overlooked and definitely worth changing if the car doesn't have electric steering. It sounds like it's been well cared for in general though if all that stuff has been done recently.

Depends on your mile. I've tried it in the past with Ford and because of my high mileage and changing car regularly I didn't get the full benefit. Now I don't bother and my dealer in Cheltenham gives me 15% club discount which is great(saved £111)on my last (Big) service on my 2015 model. Bet you will be poring over YouTube and the Lexus website until it arrives 👍👍

I haven't had the luxury of having ever driven a new one but it drives no different from when I bought it at 81k miles .

Further to my previous, my brother in law went to QF for an MOT. He dropped the car off at 09.00 and walked into town. Ten minutes later QF ring him and tell him that his Cat is knackered. So he rings me and tells me that they must be right because the guy is holding it while he's on the phone and rattling it to prove the point. I advised him that there's no way they could take a red hot catalyst off the car and hold it to shake it about after ten minutes.

They're all shysters. End of.

Another Kwikfit anecdote. A few years ago took my 2004 VW Bora TDI into said establishment for an oil and filter change. I usually do it myself but was feeling a bit lazy at the time. Now I have quite a lot of experience in working on cars both as a private individual and in a working capacity. On booking the car in, I did tell them that being a Pumpe Duse engine it needed a specific oil and of course the guy behind the counter said "we stock all kinds of oil". I had owned this car for many years up to this point and it is still in the family now so I knew it was fine mechanically. Car gets put on a ramp and I can see through the viewing window, the oil being drained. About ten minutes later, the manager comes to me and proceeds to tell me that the starter motor is faulty and the exhaust needs replacing. How much to fix those said I, playing along with his game. He then does a bit behind his counter and comes back with a price of many hundreds of pounds. I'll think about it says I and wait for the job to be finished, paid and left. On the way home, doubts began to enter my mind as to which oil they had actually put in my engine. I just could not rest with the thought that they probably just put in something from a big drum, not PD specific. Changed it myself a day later for the proper spec. Needless to say, the car which is now coming up to 16 years old, still starts every time with the original starter motor and the exhaust is still the original exhaust. I have never been to the crooks again since.

Thanks very much dude. It is horrific trying to drive with it being turned off. It comes and goes but it can be at any moment which is the worst part, can happen when you least expect it. I'll get my battery checked out in the morning , thank you !

Totally agree with you John especially on the no strings,what tends to wind me up even more is the silly and sometimes irrelevant notes like "corrosion underneath,corrosion on coil,brake disc pitted etc etc,when there's no need for it except to show seeds in the owners mind that x,y,z need doing when they actually don't ☹🤔

A sad and cautionary tale. MoT places have to be quite careful now as VOSA do a lot of mystery shopping and come down like a ton of bricks if they find this sort of thing. But a lot of MoT testing is down to the opinion of the tester and I suppose they could argue that they had followed the letter of the testers' manual. The headlamp alignment thing is outrageous - they obviously ignored the request to adjust the lights then found they were out during the test and then they have no option but to fail - most of the items like that involving special equipment are on line now - not sure if headlamp aligners are actually on line yet but they soon will be. Anyway this place was obviously looking for excuses to fail the car. You don't get 45 minutes of a mechanic's time for £25 with no strings. Even £54 is actually a bit of a bargain. I pay £35 at a trusted local garage.

My Isf turned 150,000 this week .

My GSF isn't close to the 100k mark, but I hope to get it there, had since 14k and now close to 40k, many more happy motoring miles ahead! 😄

Will check the video out, thanks olliesgrandad. I've been trying to be light footed in both acceleration and deceleration to maximise the electric motor usage and regen, but every now and then I do need to hear that lovely mellow V6 growl, and the very shortly following shove into the back of the seat 😁 Filled up this evening, second tank in the car done (well, just over three quarters), 309.9 miles and 48.21L. Calculated 29mpg and indicated 30.3, getting better! I'm off on the 150 mile round trip to Bristol again tomorrow so will see how parsimonious I can be on that trip. It was great on the M5 rush hour traffic last week, the batttery did go down to a red-tinged 2 bars though - the lowest i'd seen it! Apart from occasionally charging the battery, the engine was hardly running at all for a good 30 mins. Any thougths on whether the cruise control is more or less economical than a human? I used it on and off last week and thought it a little keen on the throttle to maintain speed at times. Of course, I think I can do better. So far the car seems to have more or less completely won over the OH, who was very skeptical about changing the trusty Kia 1.4 diesel for a long time. It took a test drive to persuade the change, but I think I have scored a win with this RX 🙂 WIll be even better when the niggles are sorted.

highly unlikely to be oil coming up from the cylinders otherwise you would have poor engine compression as air would find its way out easier than oil. Either water/oil/engine cleaner has made its way passed the coil packs or you have poor seals on the inside of the cam covers allowing oil to drop down the plug tubes to sit on top of the plugs.