DaveMG

My RX300 is due its 100k service in 6 months. At the previous service I asked Lexus Leeds about the 100k one. I was told that in addition to the standard 'major' service, the cam belt has to be changed at a cost of approximately £400. The cost of the standard service can be reduced to £279 by using Lexus Essential Care that is available for cars over 5 years old. Follow this link: http://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/lexuscare/service-your-lexus/essential-care-service-plans.aspx So the total cost of the 100k service would be around £700 which considering the cam belt change isn't bad. I was planning to get rid of the car thinking that the service would be well north of £1k but now I might keep it longer as it's been extremely reliable over the 10 years I've had it. The service manager also implied that the second-hand value of cars which haven't had the cam belt replaced is reduced.

Thanks, guys. Better start saving my pennies!

Thinking of changing my RX300 for RX450h but looking at one as it overtook me yesterday I couldn't see a rear wiper. Is it hidden or not fitted? Would seem like a step backwards if Lexus don't fit one.

Dave Not sure who the queston is too,but will have ago at answer (mine is the tread above)Yes bank 2 sensor1 is by the Rad fairly easy to get at,if you warm car up a bit the sensor will undo easy enough,(a little easy oil will help) also if the plug is hard to release use a small termal srewe driver to lift catch,while pressing down lever to release .Did mine one morning when it had been a cold frosty night and plastic plug was stiff and brittle Use only the anti-sieve paste that comes with the new sensor,they dont like copper slip or silicon base products Hope this helps Stuart Stuart, Many thanks. Will give it a go. Dave Dave just for interest what year is your rx300 and how many miles has it done Stuart Stuart, I got the car new in Jan 2002 and it's done 61,000 miles. Apart from the A/F sensors failing last year and this, it has been utterly reliable. The only other expense apart from routine servicing is new tyres at about 32,000 miles and wipers at 45,000. I'm still on the original battery, exhaust, etc. The aircon has never needed topping up and I've never even had to replace a bulb! I wonder if more recent Lexus cars are as reliable. I doubt if I'll ever have such a reliable car again which is why I'm loathe to part with it. Dave my thoughts too,I try to do jobs service ect myself ,I know how well they are done then,had a sensor fitted by Lexus and hydrolic pipes changed (when i had knee opps and was not up to it) very expensive and had to take back twice leaking oil.But great car 1004 thou 2001 year with Lexus forums and google can learn how to do most things Timing belt next,Let us know how you go on Stuart Stuart, Try as I might, I couldn't get the old sensor off so in the end I took it to a small independent garage in the village where I live. He charged £42 for fitting the sensor and re-setting the warning lights. So with the sensor costing me £80, the total repair bill was £122 compared to the £300 that the Lexus dealer quoted. Quite a saving! My timing belt is due next Jan and the Lexus dealer says it'll be about £350 on top of £400 for the 10 year service. I'll also need new disc all round then too so I'm starting to think that I might change the car before then. Much as I'd like a new RX, the price of them now is just too much for a pensioner like me. Thanks for your help. Dave.

Dave Not sure who the queston is too,but will have ago at answer (mine is the tread above)Yes bank 2 sensor1 is by the Rad fairly easy to get at,if you warm car up a bit the sensor will undo easy enough,(a little easy oil will help) also if the plug is hard to release use a small termal srewe driver to lift catch,while pressing down lever to release .Did mine one morning when it had been a cold frosty night and plastic plug was stiff and brittle Use only the anti-sieve paste that comes with the new sensor,they dont like copper slip or silicon base products Hope this helps Stuart Stuart, Many thanks. Will give it a go. Dave Dave just for interest what year is your rx300 and how many miles has it done Stuart Stuart, I got the car new in Jan 2002 and it's done 61,000 miles. Apart from the A/F sensors failing last year and this, it has been utterly reliable. The only other expense apart from routine servicing is new tyres at about 32,000 miles and wipers at 45,000. I'm still on the original battery, exhaust, etc. The aircon has never needed topping up and I've never even had to replace a bulb! I wonder if more recent Lexus cars are as reliable. I doubt if I'll ever have such a reliable car again which is why I'm loathe to part with it. Dave

Dave Not sure who the queston is too,but will have ago at answer (mine is the tread above)Yes bank 2 sensor1 is by the Rad fairly easy to get at,if you warm car up a bit the sensor will undo easy enough,(a little easy oil will help) also if the plug is hard to release use a small termal srewe driver to lift catch,while pressing down lever to release .Did mine one morning when it had been a cold frosty night and plastic plug was stiff and brittle Use only the anti-sieve paste that comes with the new sensor,they dont like copper slip or silicon base products Hope this helps Stuart Stuart, Many thanks. Will give it a go. Dave

Hi, My RX300 has VSC and check engine lights on. The Lexus dealer tells me the fault is with Bank 2 Sensor 1 and that a replacement will cost ~£300 fitted. I paid this last year when the other oxygen sensor failed. From reading this thread, it seems that it would be fairly easy for me to replace the unit myself as I believe that Bank 2 Sensor 1 is the one on the manifold near the radiator. Can someone confirm this please? Also, if I replaced it, would the warning lights go off without me doing anything else or would they have to be reset somehow? Thanks, Dave.

This happened on my RX300/'02 a few months ago. Lexus dealer fitted a new oxygen sensor; cost around £320 including fitting. With the faulty sensor the car ran perfectly apart from a very slight increase in fuel consumption. It even passed its MOT with the faulty sensor. Makes you wonder how necessary it actually is.

Well I finally got the sensor replaced (only reason for delay was that I was on holiday for 3 weeks) and the problem seems to be resolved. Have been running the car for a week now and the fuel consumption has fallen to its original figure. Incidentally, I've never reset the average fuel consumption since I got the car and I've averaged 27.6 mpg over 55,000 miles. This is actually above the published figure for the combined driving cycle.

Lucky you! I've had to replace a sensor 4 times on my RX300 Mk 1 [2002]. Not the same one - there are 4 to go wrong! Each time it's c£300. Maybe it is driving style - I can't bring myself to thrash it (or pay for the extra petrol consumed). Wow, if I'd had 4 failures it would severely dent my faith in Lexus reliability!

Don't know if this like a lamda sensor (part of the emissions kit) or not, but if it is it could be that it's just fouled up with exhaust particles. For a lamda sensor a good full throtle blast through the gears often clears it out, it seems that these don't like lots of low speed cooler running, as everything seems to running OK I'd be suspicious of a large bill when it could be that simple. Maybe it needs removing & cleaning in something like solvent or petrol? It could even be that the sensor is OK & it's wiring falut, somthing like a dry solder joint that's finally given up. Makes you wonder what vital function that senor does if everything works OK though, doesn't it ? Thanks for that. I'll try blasting through the gears, not something I normally do! I agree about questioning how useful a £300 sensor actually is when nothing seems to happen when it fails. The car was MOT'd while it was in the garage and it passed with no problems so clearly the car isn't emitting high levels of anything in the exhaust. One thing though: the fuel consumption has risen by 1 or 2 mpg but I think that's more likely to be due to the cold weather and (unusually) I've been running the engine to de-ice the screen.

Hi, See my other post today. It seems the VSC light can mean a number of things not related to VSC. I've been driving my car for over 2 weeks now with the warning lights on and haven't experienced any problems. However, I will get it fixed when I return from holiday in a couple weeks. It's normal for the car not to hold on a hill if it's simply idling in D. Apparently all automatics (not just Lexuses or Lexi - what is the plural?) can waste a lot of fuel doing that. It's also why most recent automatics won't even creep in reverse gear on the flat.

Hi, The engine+VSC warning lights illuminated on my RX300 couple weeks ago. The car continues to drive just fine. Lexus in Leeds say the problem is with a sensor on the exhaust manifold - a Bank 1 Sensor 1 fault. It'll cost £300+ to fix. It seems odd that an exhaust sensor problem would illuminate the VSC light but they say the VSC light is used to warn of several problems and not just VSC issues. Has anyone else experienced this? btw, this is the first fault on my RX in 8 years! Thanks.

You can get the discs cheaper by following my previous link: http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind...showtopic=39085

I had to have the front disc brake clips replaced at 25,000 miles. These small steel clips had rusted. They probably cost about 5p to manufacture. The bill was £106. The dealer said it's a common fault that they need replacing so I thought 'why make them out of mild steel that rusts so easily?'. He also said that on the RX they would expect to replace the front pads at about 20,000 - 25,000 miles. At 28,000 miles the front pads and discs had to be replaced on mine. This cost an astounding £391. The pads were £45, the discs £148 and the rest labour. So after 28,000 miles I'd spent a total of £500 on the front brakes! I normally brake very gently so I was disappointed at the discs and pads both having to be replaced. I've taken my car to the Alps twice and inevitably had to drive with my foot on the brake for extended periods on the steep Alpine passes (selecting a low gear on the auto box isn't sufficient). I wonder whether this caused much of the wear on the front brakes. So far (32,000 miles) the rear brakes seem to have plenty of life left in them. I certainly hope so!

I ordered my disc on Monday and it arrived Wednesday morning by DHL. Impressive service. The mapping info on the disc is much better than my old disc (admittedly it was 5 years old!) and it now correctly calculates a couple of routes which previously caused problems. It even has my own address on it at last which no other satnav system I've tried has had. (There are only 2 houses on my 'road' and our postcode is unique to the 2 houses). Anyway, to address your point: my dealer gave me the wrong information about which disc I needed. It was in the form of a printout and was supposedly based upon him inputting my registration number. My original disc had the numbers 08664-50860 and 86271-70V290. The printout said the latest disc was PZ445-L03EU-06 (Version 1 2006-2007 for TNS310 and TNS300 systems) at a cost £147.49 inc VAT. It also said that the previous version was 08927-50883 Lexus DVD Europe 03 & 05, costing £261.45 inc VAT. The map updates site said I needed 08664-50860, PZ485-L00EU-06 at 159.00€ inc p&p. This is the one I ordered and it works perfectly so I'm sure the dealer was wrong. Also, the map updates site says that if you have any problems with the disc you order you can take it to your local dealer to resolve the problem. So I reckoned that if the map site did specify the wrong disc then so long as I'd input the correct info, my local dealer would sort it. Happily, this wasn't necessary. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the feedback. I've ordered a disc so hopefully I'll receive it by the end of the week.

According to What Car online: Dealer £12,545 Private £11,145 Part exchange £10,595 Trade £10,045 These figures do not include anything extra for the satnav.

This website: http://www.lexus-mapupdates.eu appears to be a genuine Lexus site based in Belgium offering map updates cheaper than UK Lexus dealers. I input details of my old RX300 disc (08664-50860) and it came back with part number PZ485-L00EU-06 as the latest update at a cost of €159.00 inc p&p, roughly £106. My local Lexus dealer quoted part number PZ445-LO3EU-06 (Version 1 2006-2007 for TNS310 and TNS300 systems) as being the latest at a cost £147.49. (Incidentally, last year the dealer quoted £261.45 for the update.) I don't understand the numbering system on the discs so I'm not sure if the UK dealer's one is a later version or whether one of the part numbers is wrong or what. Can anyone explain the numbering system? Has anyone purchased a disc through the European site? I'm suspicious as to why Lexus Europe would bypass the national dealer networks and sell discs cheaper. Also, the website says that if you have a problem with the disc you receive you should contact your local dealer. I can just imagine their joy at having to solve a problem on a disc that they did not supply!