johnatg

Well there's a thing. So I looked in my workshop manual. Would you believe - somewhere in the Workshop manual, I found the diagram as posted by Declan above (can't just find it again) showing the torque as 18Nm, 13ft lbs. But everywhere else in the manual, eg under Engine Reassembly and Ignition System on-vehicle Inspection, it says 25Nm, 18ftlbs. Can't help thinking that someone, somewhere has done a bit of double take. See screenshot of one bit here: : 13ft lbs just isn't tight enough - I doubt it would even crush the sealing washer enough.- hell, you can easily get to 15ftlbs just by gripping a socket drive extension and turning it by hand, not with a ratchet or breaker bar. Even 18ftlbs doesn't feel very tight. The correct figure is 18ft lbs - it's pretty universal figure for 16mm spark plugs in ally cylinder heads.

I don't think there's anything to worry about in the medium term. The oil will be coming from the rocker cover gasket - fix it when you can but not really urgent. The oil on the plugs comes from there - as you unscrew the plugs they effectively pass through an oil bath and it will seep down the block and into the Vee. I can tell you that if you remove the oil cap, oil will come out if the engine is running - I once accidentally left the cap off on another car - it was years ago. After a short drive there was a hell of a mess in the engine room! A little bit of oil goes a long way. Don't overtighten spark plugs - 18ft lbs is perfectly adequate.

Hmm....Andrew's list - I guess might have come close to the warranty cost. Phil's wheel bearings - they're not ruinously expensive - £120 or so each (+ fitting) Paul's list - doubt it would have come to more than what he paid for the warranties. My view is that you're very unlucky if you need to spend more than £1095 on warranty-covered repairs in any two year period for a sub-10 year old Lexus driven a normal number of miles - might be different if you're doing 30K+ per year, but even then... I guess it partly depends on your diy capabilities - if you are prepared/competent to work on the car yourself, you can probably buy any necessary parts for considerably less than the warranty cost. Different if you're going to need to add Lexus dealer labour charges. Of course, there's always the chance of a really big hit. I have a warranty at the moment because it came with the car but I doubt that I'll be renewing it. But I'll keep the hybrid system warranty with an annual hybrid inspection at least.

If you are leaving the car untouched for more than 10 days or so, particularly in the winter, it's probably a good idea to hitch the battery up to an intelligent charger such as the Cetek. You can leave it connected indefinitely as the charger will monitor the battery state and cycle the charge a little to keep the battery in good nick. You don't need to disconnect the battery from the car. I keep my MX-5 (now approaching its 29th birthday) in my garage all winter - it doesn't see the light of day for 6 months, more or less. I keep the battery (installed in the car) connected to my CSI Airflow Battery Conditioner - I also have a Cetek one and there's not much to choose between them - the Cetek is much newer and more advanced tech - I've had the Airflow for 20 years or so. But note - it must be an intelligent charger - you can't / mustn't leave a standard battery charger (even a trickle charger) connected for long periods.

The car must be thinking that you have disconnected/reconnected the battery - that will have unset a few things. Switch the car on then press the mirror 'auto' switch (top right quadrant around the mirror control switch) so that it shows green. You probably also need to reset the windows - if they don't go up and down with the window switches on the drivers door, drive each window up and down with its 'own' switch - the switch in each door. Hold the switch for a few moments when window fully down. The battery should last 4 weeks or longer, but if it's weak through age it may not, or if something is draining it. You could get it tested - many accessory shops and garages will do that free of charge

Yep - Cetek chargers are good - just the job.

BTW - have you got a suitable battery charger? Your battery is probably original and if so is an AGM type. Don't just use any old charger, even a trickle charger. It requires an intelligent charger, with battery charge sensing and charge rate control. If you haven't, better to jump start the car (with care) then take it for an hour's drive. And drive it quite a lot for the next few days

To do that, slide the mechanical key out of the fob. The boot key slot is located on the downward facing part of the boot lid, just above the number plate, on the left hand side. Have you got a dash cam 'always-on'? Or maybe your battery is just getting tired after 7 years.

I wonder if it could be caused by some sort of spurious radio signal received from the wider world - I guess it just has to be the correct frequency for a very short period - speculating that the long press on the key fob - which we know does it - actually causes a switch to a short burst of the correct frequency for opening the windows after a period of a few seconds? It does seem to be that often the behaviour is completely unexplained - when my IS250 did it I never thought that I had done anything to accidentally press the fob button. (Although I do know with other cars that crouching down to work on the wheels, for example, if I have the fob in my pocket the central locking will often lock and unlock almost randomly!) Disabling the facility via Techstream of course switches the function off in the car, not in the key fob - so it is a permanent solution.

If you do conclude that the ecu is faulty, you could explore the route of getting it rebuilt - various people on-line offer this - search Lexus Ecu rebuild. If you can get it rebuilt it would be way cheaper than a new one, which is likely to cost the best part of £1000. You may be able to get a second hand one from a scrapper.

If that doesn't work it could be a problem with a wheel sensor as you've got ABS and traction control lights on. Possibly a damaged or clogged up reluctor wheel (that's the toothed wheel behind the hub) or the sensor which 'reads' the teeth on the wheel. If you can read the fault code (probably need Techstream) it should tell you which wheel it may be - or you may need to check them all.

If you read any "trade" magazine you'll find articles on "upselling" - how to extract more cash from your customer. The likes of Kwik-Fit, Halfrauds and, clearly Formula One have it down to a fine art. They'll have regular meetings, courses, etc on how best to do it. Beware, friends! Sent from my PSP7551DUO using Tapatalk

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.

Agree on the connection sequence. To tell if it's goosed - hard to tell with home equipment, but most decent car accessory shops will do a battery test for free and hopefully give you an honest answer! I wonder who made that battery? Sure as hell it's not Toyota - in the Czech Republic? Someone making and badging them under contract. Only trust British, German and Japanese batteries as a general rule. It's likely this one is at the end of its life!

Can't be sure about the Gen 3 GS but my 2006 IS250 was subject to phantom window opening until I found out what was causing it. In the settings it is possible to set things so that the windows can be opened and closed with a long press on the unlock and lock buttons respectively on the key fob. You can sometimes press these buttons accidentally, eg by bending down with the fob in your pocket or if something heavy is placed on the fob in the house, or if a child plays with the fob - the fob has quite a long range. You say it was tucked away, but is it possible something like this happened? Both settings (which are independent) can be changed/disabled via Techstream or by a dealer (at a cost!) My Gen 4 GS300h doesn't do it, but I don't know if that is because it's the default setting - I suspect so, or maybe it was changed by a previous owner and again it would be a Techstream setting to change it.

Good luck - and a comment - dont straddle speed humps - that's probably what's wearing the inner edges of the rear tyres! It also eventually upsets the suspension geometry. Sent from my PSP7551DUO using Tapatalk

There's probably nothing wrong. The steering geometry goes all to pot at full lock and one or both tyres have to not follow a perfect curve so they slip - what you hear is the tyres scraping on the road surface. (It's usually just the 'inside' one - ie right hand tyre on a right hand turn and vice versa) My IS250 did it, as does my GS300h, but worse. Search Google for Ackermann steering - you'll find articles which explain it and why the geometry can go wrong at extreme steering angles.

Absolutely agree. Brake and suspension components and tyres should always be replaced in pairs - like for like each side.

Well well - the picture changes! I was going by John's (Britprius) assertion that GS450h don't have a vent tube. Paul's post has prompted me to have a look at my own 2014 GS300h battery - guess what - it has a vent tube! (Only one, from one of the vent holes - most batteries have one in each end). See pic attached - the vent tube is at the left hand end - black tube in the middle. Re Prius and CT200h having a more expensive battery (see several posts ago) - don't know about the Prius but going by the Lexus Essential Care price list the CT200h has a flooded battery (price for a fitted replacement £125). the GS450h and GS300h price is £235, implying an AGM battery - but even so, with a vent tube. Perhaps that's just belt and braces, because even AGM batteries can potentially discharge acid spray via their vent holes, albeit in lesser amount than from a flooded battery. Refer to my previous comments about corrosion caused by this acid spray in non-vented boot mounted battery installations - even a minute amount of acid mist will cause corrosion given time and no ventialtion. I guess all this means that Lexus fit AGM batteries with a vent tube in hybrids - you could replace them with flooded batteries but be sure that the vent arrangements are secure - possibly fit an additional tube to T into the existing tube but from the 'other' vent. Flooded batteries are described as 'EFB (Enhanced Flooded Battery)' in battery specs. AGM batteries have better deep cycling capabilities (ie can stand more discharge) but may require more controlled charging conditions, especially when nearing full charge.

I think we have answered my question re difference in battery prices. GS hybrids are fitted originally with AGM batteries, non-hybrids had flooded batteries. Going by Lexus essential care price list, CT200h have flooded batteries and are fitted with vent tubes. GS hybrids with AGM batteries don't have vent tubes. You can replace an AGM battery with a flooded one and it will work fine, but if you are concerned about the longevity of the metal near the battery you might think about fitting vent tubes. Windscreen washer piping works well and you can modify in line connectors to attach the tubes to the battery. I have come across batteries with square vent holes - avoid them. Tubes can be connected together with T- connectors. Lead the pipes to underneath the car. If you decide to fit an AGM battery they are available for a helluva lot less than Lexus prices - round about £100 to £110. Sent from my PSP7551DUO using Tapatalk

OK that makes sense. I haven't explored the battery installations of my GS300h yet - been too cold mostly since I bought it. But I do know it's in the boot so I guess is identical to the GS450H installation. One reason for using AGM batteries in boot installations in because of acid spray. All lead acid batteries vent hydrogen and oxygen when charging and the gases, which emerge from the vent holes which you will find usually at the top of the ends of the battery can carry a fine mist of acid. There is much less chance of acid spray with AGM batteries. eg the MX-5 Mk 1 and 2 have boot mounted batteries and use AGM ones. People replace them with normal liquid acid batteries and the result is often that the area around the battery gets very corroded - this can be avoided by connecting vent pipes to the vent holes to lead the gas and spray out of the boot (via a hole in the boot floor). I guess Lexus GS might be somewhat similar. Engine compartments are much draughtier then boots, so the spray is blown away by the breeze and doesn't cause harm - unless neglected - you often see very rusty battery trays on some cars. You might think this spray is insignificant, especially in a modern sealed battery. It's not. And even sealed batteries have these vent holes.

Interesting and quite reassuring tale. But why is it that Lexus quote basically two prices for GS models. For non-hybrids, the price according to the 'Lexus Essential Care' page is £125. For hybrid models it is £235. One would have thought that this was for significantly different batteries. But why? This from the Yuasa web site ( https://www.yuasa.co.uk/info/technical/auxiliary-back-batteries-explained/ <Quote Hybrid Vehicle Auxiliary Battery Most Hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius feature a conventional 12 Volt auxiliary battery in addition to the high voltage hybrid system battery. The 12 Volt battery is not used for engine starting or to power the traction motors but is used to supply power to: Accessory systems Headlights Audio systems Computer controls (Accompanied by a picture of, presumably, a Prius installation.) End quote> I had thought that the more expensive battery was due to the hybrid 12v battery needing to be one with stop-start technology capability. Is this not so? It doesn't sound like it. So, will an 'ordinary' battery do - or do we really need a stupidly expensive one?

I think I'd be forgetting the idea of a GS200t if for use in UK - they were not imported to UK - I don't know if they were available in Japan, but those are your only real sources of RHD cars. I suspect they were not made in RHD form. Do you really want the hassle of LHD and no dealer support (I doubt they'd be interested) for a relatively newish car? Why not look for an IS200t? There are a few on Autotrader.

Er..not sure how that marks it out. Most cars in Germany are left hand drive!😉

There is no doubt that Lexus is a left field choice. I think the thing to note is the disparity between magazine road testers' views and those of owners. Testers in newspapers, magazines, Autotrader etc rarely rate any Lexus cars highly - see reviews of NX, RX etc - even reviews of LC and RC are pretty lukewarm. The GS gen 4 got fairly good reviews at launch but was still rated below the german, etc. mainstream opposition. Some of that was due to lack of a diesel option at the time, but look where that has gone! But then see owners' ratings and comments - once people have experienced ownership of a Lexus, many are hooked for life. And even many who stray end up coming back! For all their shortcomings - and there are some - they are a great ownership and driving experience overall. And you're driving something that most of the rest of the world don't even know about!