Britprius

Do a search on Ebay "Lexus GS450H door mirror". It will show what country they are from and the names of dealers. John

You do get a lovely frothy coffee or two at Westlands, but only a shortbread biscuits. However you could take a Danish with you to eat with your coffee paid for out of the £75 you saved. John

While I agree that money can be saved by servicing the car yourself or going to your local trusted garage it is not everyone that has the tools, space, or knowledge to do there own work. If you keep your car till it falls apart again you do not worry about service stamps. The poster that started the thread is a young lady "ok some ladies do service cars" and is unlikely to want to crawl under a car this time of year, and may well be an owner that changes her car every 4 or 5 years so service stamps could be important. One size does not fit all. John

Having the car serviced at Toyota/Lexus at only 30,000 miles gives the advantage of having a recognized dealer stamp in the service book. This adds both value, and sale ability to the car when it is sold. How often on here do we say to prospective buyers buy a car with a full dealer service history? John.

Spot on Rebecca I'm in Wigmore. I had my Prius serviced at Westlands for 8 years, and had good service from them. John.

I also live in North Herefordshire, and have the same problems with servicing. You can however have the car serviced at the Westlands Toyota dealers at Callow south of Hereford. They will have the expertise to service Hybrids, and stock all the required service items such as filters plugs, and belts as most Lexus engines ect are Toyota parts. The work will also be deemed as carried out by Lexus. The prices charged by Toyota dealers is usually lower than Lexus dealers. You also get the mini valet after the service, and coffee with biscuits if you wish to wait for the car. They also do a free collection and delivery service from your home or work. Do not use Halfords! Lexus informed me that Toyota dealers can even carry out Lexus recall work. John.

Bringing an old post back to life I am working on using an android phone or tablet through the GS450H screen. I am going to use a ball mouse or possibly a touch pad and buttons from an old laptop to give a mouse pointer on screen. This is working on the android devices I have. This will mean the Lexus touch screen will show the mouse pointer, and the "mouse/touch pad" will be used to input instructions "post code ect" to the android devise via the touch screen mouse pointer. Voice input could also be used. For those that like Tom Tom the software is available for android phones, and tablets in Playstore for very little money, but free software is also available. I am at the moment working on the method of transferring the video from the android device to the Lexus screen, but I have a few ideas on how to accomplish this in the simplest manner. This will bring the Lexus Satnav up to date with speed camera, and speed limit warnings along with full postcode entries at far less cost than a map update without loosing in fact gaining functionality. Audio will also be implemented. When I have a viable system up and running I will post details. John.

Tyre ware is directly affected by tyre pressures as is the grip of the tyres on the road. Under inflating tyres causes accelerated ware on the shoulders, more heat to be generated by the flexing of the tread, increases rolling resistance, and fuel used ultimately increasing pollution. Things are made even worse when you load the car with passengers that are not normally carried unless you adjust the pressures. Lets be honest do we alter tyre pressures unless we are going on a long prearranged run with 4 or 5 people in the car or do we carry on driving with the same pressures. Over inflation causes the centre of the tyres to ware, road grip to be lost, and extra shock loads to be transmitted to the suspension, and car body, and a greater risk of punctures and blowouts. There is a reduction in the amount of fuel used so less pollution. John

I should have added to the above post the HV battery is rated at 6.5 amp hours at a nominal voltage of 201.6 volts depending on the level of charge. In use only something in the region of 3 amp hours capacity is ever used. Maximum discharge amps in use is around 100 amps, and can supply 25 kwatts to the electric motor (MG2) the motor used for traction via a voltage booster to bring the voltage up to 700 volts. John

Have a look at the Exide Edge range of AGM batteries. Also although this sounds a bit off the wall I use a mobility scooter battery in my GS450H. These batteries are designed to withstand deep discharges on a daily basis. They also generally have a much higher amp hour capacity size for size against other batteries. They are available on line, and from some battery outlets such as The Battery Bay at Cannock. The batteries do not have standard terminal posts, but standard adaptor post can be bought and fitted for a couple of pounds. I also used a mobility battery in my Prius a very tall thin battery, and was able to find a battery of the same dimensions, but with 30% more capacity. If you are disabled no VAT is charged on mobility batteries. If you can measure the battery tray I can give details of suitable batteries. John

There is a law in the UK that states running a vehicle on under or over inflated tyres is an offence. Now I would imagine there is a reasonable percentage figure allowance on the manufactures figures of perhaps 10% or more, but down to 30 from 38 is a 27% drop would surely be outside of any reasonable figure. Also remember the manufacturers figures are cold pressures so a cold pressure of 38 could be a warm figure of 40+. John

The batteries used in the CT200H are the same as in the Prius NiMh not lithium. Although the 7 seater Prius does use lithium to save weight. It is possible to get the charge filling all the bars, but this generally only occurs on long downhill runs where a lot of regeneration takes place. Even when the display shows the battery as full in actual fact the battery is only charged to 80% of capacity. At the other end of the scale no charge bars being displayed is a charge level of 40%. The reason these limits are in place is to increase the number of battery cycles from around 1000 for NiMh technology to 100,000's of cycles. John.

A 12 volt feed can be found above the centre light control panel as the lights are ground switched with a permanent feed. I use this feed for a mirror mounted LCD display when towing my caravan with a camera mounted at the rear for complete rear view coverage. John.

Another reason that the rear brakes pads wear out more slowly than the fronts is because braking to the rear is done much of the time by regeneration. This is done by using the electric motors in the transmission as generators to produce electricity to put back into the HV battery "regeneration". This electricity can then be used to help propel the car thus saving fuel. This affect can be seen if you brake steadily the large gauge showing kilowatt used will go into the green "kilowatts recovered" the more you brake "within reason" the more the needle goes into the green. Changing discs is easy not a job for the dealer, and branded quality discs can be bought on Ebay at very good prices. I bought a pair of rear discs by Quinton Hazel for £19 the pair. There is no evidence that the OEM discs are any better than known branded versions.Branded pads can also be bought at good prices. With pads people often have there own preferences depending on how the car is driven. Hard pads last well often with less brake dust, but you pay the penalty of the discs warring instead. Generally if you fit new discs you also fit new pads, but fitting new pads does not require fitting new discs. John.

Being used to a Prius that goes automatically to park when you press the stop button caught me out a few times with the GS450 with the car not shutting down properly "the screen staying alight". That is what triggered my thoughts on going from ready mode to accessory mode. John.

If you need any tips on changing shock "message me" and I will give you some pointers to make the job easy. The Last car on your list indeed has wheels that have been well kerbed, and painted over chrome. The tyres are also cheap Jinu Chinese tyres. The third one also looks like the rear internals are well marked.

I think I have found a way over this problem. Try this:- leave the car in gear or any position, but park. Now press the stop button then return the car to park. John.

If you need any tips on changing shock "message me" and I will give you some pointers to make the job easy.

I guess I'll have to get my test equipment out and do some checking on the steering wheel control unit. This must be programmed for the steering to go to a position when it gets a 12 volts accessory feed "unless they complicated it and did it via the can bus". If I remove that feed, and replace it with a ready mode feed that should give the desired results. Anyone got a circuit diagram? I have everything for a Prius, but nothing yet for the GS450. John

While in some respects I agree with your statement in this instance it is the technology that is there that is poorly implemented. John

Good idea John, but it would be much easier if it could be programmed out rather than reaching for yet more buttons. Nemesis, I too find it somewhat of an anoyance for the radio/CD to go off, and then have to go into accessory mode to continue listening again with the steering wheel bobbing in, and out when not required. With a normal key operated switch you can turn the engine off and continue listening to the radio, but in the GS you have to turn off completely and then turn on again without the brake being pressed. John .

Does anyone know of an easy way to stop the steering wheel moving into the driving position when the GS450H is put in accessory mode or ignition on. When parked to listen to the radio or watch a DVD the steering wheel does not need move into position. There does not seem to be a way to program this in Techstream, but may be I am missing something. On odd occasions I have sat with my legs crossed, and pressed the start button "no brake pressed" to listen to the radio and nearly had my legs crushed by the steering wheel. The steering wheel exerts quite a force in this situation, and there does not seem to be any anti trap mechanism as there is with auto windows. It seems pointless to have a wheel that moves away from you after turning off the car, but insists on returning to the driving position in accessory and ignition on modes when the wheel is only needed in ready mode. You have to go through ignition on mode after accessory mode to turn accessory mode off. The drive motors for the steering wheel could possibly have as much as 50% less use if programmed not to move unnecessarily. John.

I have fitted a tow bar to my GS450H used for towing a 2500lbs caravan. It pulls this with consummate ease as if it was not there. The car is rated at something like double that figure. As stated in an earlier post leaking shocks front and rear are the thing to look out for at circa £300 each just for parts in the UK. US parts being cheaper. They are easy to replace though and can be done without a spring compressor. John.

It is most unlikely the HV battery is at fault. The fact that you are getting warnings about the hybrid system suggests the problems are with the various ECU's or the 12 volt supply to them. It may or may not be the case with your car. Jump starting "a term not really relevant to hybrids" or charging a completely discharged 12 volt battery is fraught with dangers from reverse polarity connection of the charger or jump leads. As I said in a previous post the 12 volt battery does not start the car as with normal vehicles. It is there to start the computers, and it is then there job to check all the systems are correct for the engine to be started. The computers connect the HV battery to the various systems including the 12 volt battery charging that is done from the HV battery the car having no alternator in the normal way other cars do. It also has no normal starter motor run from the 12 volt battery. A low 12 volt battery does cause problems with the computers as signals returned to them from various sensors on the car are incorrectly interpreted, and false error messages are given on the displays, and the computers assuming problems that may not be real refuse to start the engine. John.

Check for 12 volts at the large terminal in the fuse box under the bonnet. If a 12 volt supply is not there it is likely that the fuse at the 12 volt battery + terminal has blown. This fuse is rated at from memory 150 amps. If you do not have a multi meter a 12 volt bulb connected from the fuse box terminal, and any part of the metal body or engine should light. John