lfoggy

Hi,

I've had a few replies so I think the mats are now gone.

Cheers

These rubber floor mats came with my 2018 RX450h that got stolen. No use to me now. Unopened in packaging.

Free to anyone who wants them. Collect from Birmingham. PM me.

Lukas

I've had  a Thule system fitted to my 2018Rx with pan roof. I carry bicycles on it so never more than 30kg. Fits fine. Have done many thousands of miles with no issues. I remember not to open the roof as I think the glass would bump into the bars. Lexus say that the pan roof weakens the roof so I would not carry heavy loads though.

What about disabling the car mechanically without involving the CANbus system at all. A simple valve in the fuel line would do it.  This could be located anywhere between the tank and the engine and could be operated mechanically or electrically via a remote switch. No CANbus error codes and no amount of CANbus diagnostics or electronic trickery would detect it. Car would start but would 'run out of petrol' within a minute. Hard to see how that would not work.

Back in the day, before CAN Bus and ECUs, a common way to protect a car from theft from ‘hotwiring’ was to fit a unique anti-theft device. A common example was to interrupt the low-tension circuit to the coils with a simple two-pole switch hidden somewhere in the cabin. Car would simply not start, and even a mechanically literate thief would have to spend hours working out why. The effectiveness of this was due to the unique nature of the deterrent (and probably by the fact that cars were rubbish back then and didn't start half the time anyway).

Surely there must be opportunities for this in a modern car? For example, the accelerator pedal must input a single via a rheostat to the ECU. Can you not interrupt this by a simple switch hidden in the cabin? Thief may start car, but accelerator pedal would not work so unable to drive off. Obviously, this would only work if it was unique. The moment someone sells a system that does this, all the thieves know….

Probably many reasons why this won't work but any thoughts?

Some very interesting discussion here, thanks.

This is my plan for my new RX:

Keys will be stored in a proper Fraday cage

Car will have Ghost immobiliser and tracker fitted

Drive will have one of these:

I am also seriously considering the venomous snake and rabid dog options.....

41 minutes ago, steve2006 said:

People used to cross the road when I took mine for a walk.

Doesn't look very scarey to me. Might lick you to death I guess.....

I think you are right there Herbs but I donlt think I have the discipline to put on the lock every time. Another option I am thinking is an electrically operated bollard at the entrance to the drive. House down the road has one and it goes down as you drive up to it and rises once parked. Quite cool really.

Many thanks for all the helpfu comments.

I think I will have a 'Ghost Immobiliser' fitted to my next car. Should make keeping the keys in boxes redundant and hopfully prevent a repeat of what happened.

30 minutes ago, Barry14UK said:

Commiserations to Lukas, who I hope gets his car back soon and undamaged. 

Thanks Barry but I am not optimistic. New car then. Not ready for full electric yet as I do some long rural journeys. Quite liking the Jaguar or Range Rover plug-in hybrids but they are not great value for money compared to an RX. Probably a new 2021 RX when the insurance pays up. It was insured with Lexus insurance and they are saying it will take a week so not too bad.

3 minutes ago, m4rkw said:

Buy older cars that don't have the newer-style keys that are prone to this kind of attack 🙂

I have an arduino-based tracker in mine that I wrote the software for. As others have said it is generally better to not let it get stolen in the first place.

Buying an older car to avoid it being nicked seems like defeat to me but old cars do have some interesting antit-theft options. When I had a Triumph Spitfire I used to remove the rotor from the distributor when I left it unattended.....

11 minutes ago, Herbie said:

Somehow I doubt that very much, as it surely would defeat the whole idea of keyless entry/start?

How would the key (or even the car) differentiate between "stationary" as in I'm in Asda doing my shopping and will need the keyless entry when my hands are full of bags; or "stationary" as in I'm going to bed now so you can turn the key off for 8 hours?

I think the key has a motion sensor so it is only active when jiggling around in your pocket or bag. Once you put it down somewhere it goes to sleep after a few minutes.

1 minute ago, royoftherovers said:

Tell him to put that in writing and DO tell us if he does !

Is it not true?

Dealer tells me the latest keys are inert when stationary to prevent key cloning.

My 2 year old RX450h Takumi was stolen from my drive last night. Alarm didn't go off, keys are in my possession and kept in a metal box when not in use. How on earth did they steal it? Quite upsetting really. What can I do to prevent a repeat when I replace it? Additional immobilizer perhaps.

3 hours ago, Barry Jones said:

looking to get some roof bars for my rx450h 2018 model other than thule what bars are compatible? Thanks

 

The roofrails are a fairly standard design that is used on many cars and most roof bar manufactureres will make a fitment I should think.

1 hour ago, Brian26 said:

Hi Lukas, Please let us know how you get on as I have been told on several occasions that under no circumstances should any sort of roof bars be fitted to an RX with a pan roof. Obviously should the roof be opened it will damage the opening part of the roof. I have been told that there is a possibility that the stress of putting anything on the roof bars could shatter the pan roof. I assume this refers to the fixed bit behind the opening section. 

As a matter of interest what do you intend to carry on the roof? All I was going to put up there were two lightweight aluminium bikes.

Bri

I have the Thule roof bars fitted with four Thule cycle racks and have driven thousands of miles with four bicycles on the roof with no problem whatsoever. This has included driving down to the French and Italian Alps on the motorway several times. I put some red tape over the pan roof opening button to prevent accidental opening. Bikes weigh around 7Kg each so weight is 28Kg plus weight of the rack which I am guessing is around 25Kg. I often remove the Thule rack completely (which is very easy to do) and then can use the pan roof. Works for me.

Incidentally, I was thinking of trading in for a Tesla Model X but those crazy doors completely prevent a roor rack being fitted so not really possible to carry four bikes. Deal breaker.

4 hours ago, scudney said:

Lol,remember no drinking and driving,the car will be able to smell your breath and refuse to start 😜😁

I really don't see the point of driverless cars in that case....

24 minutes ago, Barry14UK said:

Well the way things are going I can see a time when you will not be allowed to touch the controls except in an emergency.  Basically, with perhaps a few other instructions you will just need to say a destination and what music you want at the outset and all will be done for you.  In effect we will have moved from the 'Horseless carriage' to the near 'Driverless car'!

And maybe order a cocktail of your choice to enoy on the journey..

Sceptisism noted but I find the system genuinly useful when driving on dark country roads. The way the system automatically adjusts the beam to oncoming cars seems to work well. I do a regular 30 mile drive on an unlit rural road and not having to worry about dazzling oncoming drivers does make it a bit easier.

I've got a Lexus RX450h 2018 which has LED haedlamps and the 'auto high beam' feature. When switched on the system will only activate the high beam when I am travellinhg around 40mph which is too high on small windy UK country lanes. The manual seems to say it awitches on at 40 kph (25mph) but mine definately only come on at nearer 40 mph. Can this be adjusted? Or maybe my system is triggering at 40mph instead of kph? Anyone else had this problem?

On 10/19/2019 at 3:43 PM, C Mclean said:

It could be the “connected services” stuff for receiving sat nav and other stuff. I keep getting a similar message every few minutes even though I have tried deleting and re entering my log in and password. As I’ve mentioned in another post, it could be that the car is trying to log into Lexus.eu which has now been closed. Think it should be the Lexus.uk site.

I think that is correct. I switched off connected services and it has stopped giving me the error message.

I'm no expert on these things but the traffic updates are good and work well. Its things like the street view, the live petrol prices and the weather reports that just won't co-operate.All a bit pointless anyway. in my opinion.

Good choice, you will love it. I bought a Premier in Mesa red with ivory interior last year and it is a beautiful car to drive and own. The ventilated seats were lovely yesterday when it was 36C outside. Make sure you use the 'sport mode' on twisty roads which transforms the ride and throttle response. 'Economy mode' for the motorway when using adaptive cruise. Sound system is awesome.

My only minor complaint is that the Lexus online connectivity doesn't really work reliably. I've given up on it and disabled most of the features that require this. No big deal though as these features are much more easily accessed on a mobile phone anyway.

Hope you enjoy your car.

I've got a 2018 RX450h which is now 11 months old. Over the last 6 months or so I have been geting a message that appears about every 5 minutes on the main screen saying "Dowload could not be done". No idea what it is trying to download or why. I have connected the system to the internet via my home wifi and via my phone but it still keeps giving me the message. I know that the connection is working as I can display fuel prices and weather.

This is really starting to annoy me now !

Its being serviced next month so will ask the dealer to look into it but I suspect there is a simple solution that someone out there is aware of. Any ideas?