JBPRX400h

Hi John It's absolutely sod's law with punctures. It reminds me of when we had a Reliant Scimitar GTE (great car, but that's another story). We had had it for several years with no punctures but then drove down to Les Arcs for a skiing holiday. Halfway down through France the driver of a car behind began flashing his lights and gesticulating pointing to the back of our car. I pulled over to find that one of our rear tyres was half flat and was rapidly deflating. Changed the wheel for the spare tyre. (A great feature of the Scimitar was that the spare was kept under the bonnet in front of the engine so no need to unload all the luggage just to change the wheel!) Carried on to Les Arcs with no further problems and parked in a multi storey carpark. A couple of days later I found a garage in the village that said they could repair the puncture so went to fetch the car only to find the other rear wheel had picked up a nail and was as flat as a pancake! Luckily I had a foot pump so inflated the tyre and drove round to the garage where they repaired both punctures. At the end of the week on the drive home the car's handling started to feel a bit strange. Would you believe a THIRD puncture!!! Not one for years then three in one week!!!!! I do miss that car, though. JBP

Here are some musings I did when we had an RX400h. Just take care as I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the figures and each car is different! JBP

Not only AA cover but cover for travelling abroad as well. JBP

Is that why they are called RX450?

Just got back from a short holiday in and around the Cotswolds with a calculated brim to brim consumption of 34.5 MPG over a distance of 406 miles. As we were nearing home the low fuel light came on with the cruising range showing 26 miles left til empty. Wasn't worried as it was only a few miles to where I was going to fill up. At the filling station the cruising range showed 16 miles to go. It took 53 litres to fill the tank to the brim so there would have been 7 litres left in the tank which would equate to about another 50 miles meaning that when the low fuel light came on there was probably about 60 miles left in the tank. However, as I always say, don't rely on those figures for your own car! JBP

Hi J These were the chains I bought for the 400h. As I said I tried them on the 450h on our driveway at home just to see if they would fit (which they did) but I didn't drive anywhere with them on as there was no snow back in the summer! So please don't take my word as gospel that they will function properly on a 450h. When you get your chains I strongly advise you to practice fitting them at home on a dry, sunny, warm day as I can assure you that on a freezing cold snowy night in pitch black darkness with your fingers numb with cold is not the best time to try to fit them for the first time! Good luck and let us know how you get on. JBP

Hi When we had an RX400h a few years ago we bought a pair of snow chains from Cooks Motor Spares in Chesham. They were very good and served us well on a couple of skiing trips. The chains should be fitted to the front wheels. I have tried Googling Cooks Motor Spares and it appears that the shop is now closed but they seem to be trading through Amazon. You could try this link... https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=me%3DA1IK8RDYSZD34I&field-keywords=snow+chains The RX copes very well in the snow generally without chains but don't forget that Newton's laws of motion still apply when driving 2.5 tons of car downhill on a slippery surface!!! See my old post at Good luck! JBP PS We now have an RX450h and the old chains seem to fit this OK (despite the 450h's wheels being 19" diameter but different width/tyre wall height) but I only quickly tried them on on the driveway as a matter of interest to see if they were worth keeping.

Glad it worked for you. Happy New Year! JBP

Although, with a hybrid, low mileage about town probably wouldn't be a problem as the engine management would make sure the engine warms up quickly, even on short journeys. Also, the engine wouldn't necessarily be running all the time anyway and rarely over revved racing away from traffic lights like "ordinary" cars! JBP

Wind direction can make a considerable difference as well. We have noticed driving down through France on a regular 400 mile journey different fuel consumption when outside temperature, speed etc have all been similar but with a north or south wind. JBP

Glad to see you weren't breaking the speed limit, but how did you manage to take the photo? JBP

Hi Chris It might be worth trying the ISC (idle speed control) learning procedure. It certainly worked when we had an RX400h. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/topic/58930-isc-learning-procedure-without-lexus-diagnostic-tester/#comment-379201 Good luck JBP

We have had both black and white cars as well. They are both just as hard to keep clean but the white one looks cleaner for longer!!! JBP

Hi Adrian If I remember correctly from when we had an RX400h cruise control does not work if the gear leaver is in the "B" position. Could that be your intermittent problem? It used to catch us out on the odd occasion! JBP

Hi Mike We had a similar problem earlier this year. (See my previous post started 15th March - RX450h didn't start). The first two times it happened Lexus MK checked the car and could find nothing untoward. After the third time it happened they agreed it was probably the 12V battery not holding its charge and replaced it under warranty. Since then, touchwood, it has been OK. Good luck JBP

If anyone has lost an RX300 registration number YH55HMJ it is buried under a muddy field somewhere in Scotland!!! Just in case you are worried it was in an episode of "One of Us", the BBC drama currently on Tuesday nights. JBP

Whenever I got something like shopping out of the back of our RX450h I always found it a bit of a nuisance having to either get the key out of my pocket to lock the car or to walk round to either of the front doors to lock using the indent on the door handle. Some might call me lazy! However, yesterday I discovered that there is a very small button under the rear hatch handle on the right hand side which if you press it upwards once will lock the car and if you press it twice will double lock the car. Still discovering little things after 2 years of ownership! JBP

Hi Lyle My daughter had something similar with her 2004 200is Sport a few years ago. It seemed intermittent at first as she had no trouble with it when she left work and when she was out shopping later in the evening. Just when it was parked outside the house. The problem turned out to be caused by the a button getting stuck on the house alarm remote control which obviously caused interference with her car's remote locking when her car was parked on the driveway outside the house. It could be worth checking to see if it is this or something similar causing interference. Hope this helps JBP (from the RX Forum!)

Hi Ian Lexus MK tested our car when we came back from holiday and could find nothing wrong. They did however comment that the voltage of the 12V battery might have been a bit low at the time as I had been opening/closing/leaving doors and rear hatch open throughout the afternoon whilst loading the car. We have had absolutely no problems since that one incident. I did however get a cup of coffee and the car washed Let us know how you get on. JBP

Hi Just a thought. My daughter's IS200 played up once with the remote locking not working with any of the keys. Fault was finally found to be the house alarm remote button was stuck in in the "pressed" position. Presumably this caused some sort of radio blocking interference. Hope this could be the answer JBP

A week last Friday we were off to France for a week's skiing holiday. Car was all loaded up during the day and we were due to leave at 19:00 in order to catch a Eurotunnel booking later in the evening. We locked up the house, climbed in the car, seatbelts on, pressed the power button and ...... car wouldn't start!!! All the normal dashboard warning lights lit up as usual but "ready" light didn't. Tried several times, each time same result. Back into house to ring Lexus Recovery who said they would try to get to us within an hour. Meanwhile my daughter had been looking at the driver's manual to see if there was anything else we could do and found some advice on how to do an emergency start of the hybrid system. Without foot on brake pedal press the power button to activate accessory mode, press foot on brake pedal and while keeping pedal depressed press and hold in the power button for about 15 seconds and, hey presto, ready light comes on and car is ready to go. Tried turning car off and restarting normally a couple of times with no problem. Rang Lexus Recovery to cancel and off we went with fingers crossed managing to just catch our shuttle. Car performed brilliantly for the rest of the week although we were in fear and trembling every time we went to start, especially when getting off the train! Car is booked in for Lexus to have a look on Saturday to see if there is an underlying problem. Will report back in due course. JBP

Hi Damon See my posts from a few years ago regarding RX400h and snow. We now have an RX450h and will shortly be driving down through France for a skiing holiday. Will be interesting to see how it performs in snow! Hope that's of interest. JBP

And a much more sensitive camera!!! JBP

Just had a short break away in Cheshire from Milton Keynes. Decided not to use motorways. Didn't rush around but drove up to and at speed limits where possible. Spent a day driving around in the Peak District so plenty of steep hills. Total round trip mileage of 350 miles. 41 MPG overall. Well pleased! JBP

Hi Phil The rear seats do fold down but not completely flat. They go almost flat but you get a slight upward slope of a few inches towards the front seats. The seats, as Colin says, move backwards and forwards and they also recline. The seats fold down as 60/40 split but the middle armrest section can be folded down independently giving you 40/20/40 which can be handy for long thinner items if you still need two seats in the rear. However, the rear wheel arches do intrude into the load space a bit so you might need to take that into account for loading wide objects. Hope that helps. JBP