scythe

Thanks for that follow up. In my last car, the first battery lasted til it was 11 years old or so, so I'm hoping for a good few years from mine. I sensed that when the time comes, I wouldn't be sure that a dealership would necessarily be able to source a correct battery - it's good to be pre-armed with information. : o )

Thanks for pointing this out - I hadn't known about this. It may come in handy one day. (And yes, I've not read all of the handbook!) : o )

First, the tyre size. Two different sizes of tyre were originally fitted to this model of car. The size of tyre is either 235/55R18 or 225/60R17. This is because there have been two different sizes of wheel hub fitted. One type has a diameter of the metal hub of 18 inches, the other 17 inches. You can check the size of the fitted tyres by looking for a set of letters and numbers, with the slash in the middle, in big writing on the side of your tyres. The bit above, is the metal dish that holds the bottom of the spring? Try passing something between it- such as a bit of cardboard. If it's not touching (and it won't be, because, as you say, you'd have worn down that bit of tyre) then everything is ok. Incidentally, if you look at blackcircles.com (who sell tyres online), and put in your car registration, it should tell you the size of tyres that your car needs. The reason you can see so much spring is that the body is higher than a saloon car. This means the wheels have the space to travel up and down if you're driving off road. The only issue that I can see is that if the tyres are 5 years old then they may start to perish very soon - but they will have been checked when you had your last MOT. : o )

Really, if the battery is failing, and it's an approved used car, I'd expect the dealer to just replace it. Don't ask for it at cost price - just ask if they can replace it. It's possible, of course, that the original battery did fail earlier, and was replaced by a non-agm battery because it was cheaper, and that this battery has been rapidly destroyed by being mischarged. Talk to your dealer. : o )

My understanding is that it should be an AGM battery, because it's in the enclosed boot of the car rather than under the well ventilated bonnet. I believe (but may be wrong) that this is to reduce the chance of hydrogen gas being generated in this enclosed space. Out of interest, and because someone else was worried about his 12 V battery, I tried to find out what the proper replacement was, but I haven't managed. The problem searching on Halfords and the like is that they seem to be guessing that because the car is hybrid that a stop start battery is needed - and you're right, it doesn't because the petrol engine is started by the traction battery using M1. Grunt (high current!) isn't needed from the battery, and it doesn't even need to be high capacity - all that matters is that there is no hydrogen build up. But be aware that I can't find this documented anywhere. : o ) Oh, and .... ... both side rise up - the whole car!

Yes, there are others that do that, but not from NextBase. The issue is that the camera does require a bit of power to run, so runs (very very slowly) your 12V battery down. Some cameras even have a heater to warm the windscreen, to stop ice forming. It's fine, but there is that current drain. Your fitters should be able to advise you what's best though, and you can make the decision. : o )

https://nextbase.co.uk/parking-mode-feature#:~:text=Intelligent Parking Mode is an,except the G Force sensor. To quote from this item, "If your car is bumped and the G Force sensor registers movement, your Nextbase Dash Cam will automatically switch on, record for 30 seconds, and then shut down again."

If you're buying a replacement SD card it's important to use an endurance one. I've got the "Samsung PRO Endurance 128GB microSDXC UHS-I U3 100MB/s Video Monitoring Memory Card", currently £26 at Amazon. : o )

The intermittent nature of the problem - is it one of your battery connections that's the problem? I'd be tempted to clean the connectors on the battery, sticky-uppy battery bits and the connectors, then to check the braided connection to the car's earth. Just an idea. And cheaper than a new battery, though you may find you need one of those too. And as Jon said above ... https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-dc-digital-multimeter-600v/793RT?kpid=793RT&cm_mmc=Google-_-Datafeed-_-Tools?kpid=KINASEKPID&cm_mmc=Google-_-TOKEN1-_-TOKEN2&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwncWvBhD_ARIsAEb2HW-qR-dz8L3Z2fRvSxmXw8o-hG6P8Zey52uSWt3apOoyZb-8Qerc8boaAr0AEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds#product_additional_details_container ... this will help to show what's going on, then when you've finished with it sell it for £15 to a mate. : o )

Steve - I see now that you're simply a shiny-pedals person, and won't necessarily be adding go faster stripes or a leather steering wheel cover - though I do wonder what you've got hanging from your mirror. Please do be aware though that I am only teasing. And there's no point in boasting that you're 70, because that's probably the median age of contributors to this forum, myself being no exception. I did go through a phase of making minor modifications to motor cars. Just little things like replacing drum brakes on an anglia with discs from an old ford capri. And popping a cortina engine in instead. A weber carburettor. A four into two into one exhaust manifold. Oh, and then a high lift camshaft. Some wider tyres of course, to look the part. The axle tramp was terrible. And there were more cars after that. Shiny pedals - pah! But it's all fifty years in the past, and we don't talk about it in the family any more. : o )

Hi Steve, yes, indeed, each to his own. However, and I'm sorry about this, but your shiny pedals just make me feel rather sad. I don't understand why, when you're a decent bloke who takes extra-special car of his car, you'd do this to it. However, yes, each to his own. : o )

Hi Steve, My LS500h fuel flap has failed to open properly just the once in the time that I've had the car. I think that the problem is that the spring that pushes the flap open isn't quite strong enough. My intention is that I'm just going to live with it. Even though the car is going for a service next week, I'll not be mentioning it. I've had too many experiences of small things getting much worse when a dealership tries to fix them. I realise that this is a different approach to life! : o )

Yeah... lots of places seem to sell replacement sets - but there are only four sensors in the set. The car should be good, then, for the next 16 years : o )

I'm a bit surprised about this, but according to the pre-launch brochure for the LS600 from 2007, intelligent parking had to be specified - it was optional. LS600 BROCHURE.pdf

Yep, I agree with Steve. Front camera has no screen, and fits tightly on left hand side of central mirror and stuff, and there's a back camera of equal quality. And it's very discrete. : o )