ToreOe

It's done in an afternoon :-)

-Tore

Hi Deezell,

My IS300h is a 2015.  The Lexus towbar kit is the same for 300h and 250, but wiring kits are different as is the template used when cutting the bumper.

You can download the installation manual from www.lexus-tech.eu. (go to "Owner", "Accessory installation manuals").  I believe the manual will tell you the part number for the towbar kit and wiring kit.

-Tore

When I got my first IS300h, the nav/radio was freezing up frequently.  Turned out the SD card with the map data was not properly inserted.  Ejected and reinserted it and it was fine as long as I had the car.

The infotainment in my current IS was also unstable for a while.  That was fixed by replacing the WiFi hotspot.

-Tore

Bobkel,

Here are the pictures I promised.  One with the ball detached, and one with it attached.

HTH

-Tore

Hi BobKel,

I have the Lexus towbar on my IS300h.  It is indeed a Westfalia unit, an is the same one as used for the 250 sans some minor installation details.

The bumper does have to be cut, but it is not in a visible area.  As the tow ball itself is detachable, you really cannot see that the car has a towbar installed.  It's actually a very nice piece of kit.

I cannot provide any pictures now, as I am at work, and the detachable tow ball is... detached.  I keep it in my trailer in my garage when not in use.  Can try to take a few pictures tonight, though.

-Tore

On 28.3.2016 at 2:28 PM, ToreOe said:

A bad one: the lug nuts.

They rust.  I have now used all the 40 extra lug nuts we got with the wife's Prius and my 300h replacing rusted ones.  In just one winter, they get really ugly from rust.

I've heard rumors of stainless ones...

-Tore

An update on the rusty wheel nuts:

Stainless steel capped Toyota wheel nut to the right, original Lexus wheel nut used one winter to the left.

One less thing to worry about.

-Tore

LEDs are standard here in Norway too, for all but the lowest trim level I believe.

I have had one loaner IS300h with HIDs and thought they may give more light, the beam pattern of the LEDs looks more crisp and well defined.  Actually I am very happy with the low beam performance of the LEDs, but the high beam could benefit from more light.

-Tore

A bad one: the lug nuts.

They rust.  I have now used all the 40 extra lug nuts we got with the wife's Prius and my 300h replacing rusted ones.  In just one winter, they get really ugly from rust.

I've heard rumors of stainless ones...

-Tore

57 minutes ago, 200h said:

its not a feature i have ,could you leave the cover off the camera and let the aircon

keep the lens condensation free

It might help, but it would look... ugly.  The cover hides not only the camera sensor, but several wire looms too.

The bag of silicagel seems to be working well, though.

-Tore

The car has been to Lexus for this issue already.  They have confirmed that nothing is out of spec on my car, but it has the same construction as the Toyota Avensis and Auris and they admit the IS has the same design flaw.  Unfortunately, it seems to take long from admitting a design flaw to providing a solution, as we saw on the rear suspension vibration issue...

The camera housing is not sealed against the windscreen, so moist air will inevitably enter.  For the issue to appear it takes special conditions, though.  I only see it when I leave home in relative high temperature and humidity, and drive into an area with significantly lower temperature.  As I do on my way to work each day...

-Tore

One of the features in the IS300h that I didn't know i couldn't live without until I got it, is the AHB - Auto High Beam.

However, some mornings I have noticed that it fails to dip for oncoming traffic - usually when the temperature is around freezing.  It does switch between low and high beam based on how dark it is, but fails to recognize other car's lights until they are really close.  Additionally, I noticed that the LDA (Lane Departure Alert) did not detect the side and lane lines on the road.

So, what could cause this?  The sensor for AHB and LDA is a camera.  I decided to stop and take a look at it once it was not operating properly, and this is what I found:

Inside of windshield is covered in dew/mist in front of the camera.  Nothing on the rest of the windshield, and I do my best to keep the car dry inside...

I have notified my Lexus dealer of this problem.  Apparently, Toyota is having the same problems on the Avensis and Auris and have come up with a fix for it that involves installing a heater element in there with the camera.  But no fix for the IS.

While I wait for a fix from Lexus, I have simply put a small bag of Silicagel inside the cover for the AHB/LDA sensor.  The cover is easy to remove and replace, it literally took me a few minutes.  So far it seems to do the job - no more angry gestures from oncoming drivers.

-Tore

I know how you feel.  This is what I found on the parking lot when leaving work one night 2 or 3 days after getting the IS300h:

-Tore

Had a 1988 Volvo 760 GLE for 25 years before buying the IS300h.  In the two years I've had a Lexus, I've spent more time at the dealer/shop than the Volvo did in 25.  I do enjoy having to fill the tank once a month instead of every week, though.

-Tore

It's getting colder outside now and I've noticed that when I'm driving the car into a colder area, like near a river, the tiny triangular part of the windscreen in front of the camera for AHB and LDA fogs up. This causes the high beam to stay on when I meet cars, not good.

-Tore

Rear Camera

Quality of image seemed sharper on Series 2 IS250, also IS300h camera prone to water droplets fogging lens. Series 2 never suffered with this and lens was always clear.

Oddly enough, I have noticed a significant change from the rear camera on the 2014 IS300h to my current 2015 IS300h. The newer one seems to repel water and dirt, and seems to be clear no matter what the weather conditions.

-Tore

Driving at 60km/h over a longer stretch of road today, I could not stop myself thinking... Lexus has kindly provided us with a place to attach a damper to the diff, and it clearly does a great job of damping the vibration for the frequency it is tuned to.

How hard can it be (dangerous words, I know) to replace the passive tuned damper with an inertial actuator, an accelerometer and a microcontroller, making an active damper that will adapt itself to vibrations at any frequency between say 20Hz and 100Hz?

Making the active damper as reliable and longlasting as the car would be a challenge for a hobby mechanic, but a working prototype should be doable.

I think just found myself a new project.

-Tore

Tore, I run 17" rims on both summer and winter wheels

There goes that theory, then...

Hope the damper fix will work as well for you as it did for me. Say "Hei" to Johannes and Isak from me when you take the IS300h in for installation next week ;-)

-Tore

Jostein,

Just out of curiosity, are you running 18" rims in the summer and 17" for winter? It seems the vibrations are more common on cars with 17" rims than on cars on 18" or 16".

Speaking of winter - as the temperature has dropped lately, I feel the damper is loosing some of it's effect. Not so much in the 80-90km/h range as in the 60km/h range. Probably the rubber getting stiffer, disturbing the "tuning" of the damper.

-Tore

I'm sort of annoyed about the arrow on the fuel gauge (non F-Sport gauge) telling which side the filler port is on. When the fuel is below 1/4 of a tank and you need to refill, the needle covers this arrow.

Must be a good car when this is the kind of thing I find annoying.

-Tore

I have used both lexus-tech.eu and toyota-tech.eu in the past, albeit only for schematics. Needed to find a suitable place to tap into the wire looms to power the dashcam, GPS-tracker etc :-)

Bought a 1hr subscription, and that was enough time to find my way through the UI and find the info I needed. For the schematics there is (or was, a year ago) a "Download as PDF"-option for all pages/topics. I never checked the workshop manuals, they might very well be different as Colin point out.

-Tore

Well, back from Lexus after having the tuned damper installed.

I have to agree with Mikael, this fix is amazing. Not only are the vibrations gone, the driveline is so much more silent at all speeds.

They didn't manage to fix the bluetooth/phone issue though. New infotainment "brain" is on order.

Still, I'm a very happy camper now!

-Tore

Well...

As I was about to set off to Lexus on Monday, they called me. They hadn't got the parts. New appointment tomorrow. New call, no parts. New appointment Monday 21.

This could take a while.

Well, today is the day.

I'm off to Lexus now to have the damper installed. (And they are going to try to fix an issue I have where the infotainment freezes when someone calls me when I'm in the car. Good luck to them with that one.)

I must say I'm pretty exited, and anxious. The report from Darren that it wasn't an 100% fix worries me a bit.

I'll report back after "surgery".

-Tore

Thank you for the update Darren.

It seems some owners does not notice this issue, while others are bothered by it. I was passenger in another IS300h a few weeks, and could feel the vibrations clearly, even though the owner claimed his car did not have them. I pointed them out to him... "There! Can't you feel it?".

A couple of days ago I met him again, and he cursed me for making him notice. Now he could feel the vibrations all the time and was really bothered about them

-Tore

So, has anyone else got this fix now? The "during July" estimate from my mechanic is now "start of September"...

-Tore