sorcerer

2 minutes ago, xmnut said:

Did you fit a complete system or just the two boxes before the cat?

 

I got everything from the cat back on my Nissan. It's a few years ago now but if I remember correctly, Nissan wanted almost £800 whereas I had the custom one made and fitted for about £390.

48 minutes ago, xmnut said:

Hi, how well has you Stainless exhaust survived.

Stainless steel exhausts are very much a 'fit and forget' item. The company I got mine from for my old Nissan Maxima QX guaranteed it for the life of the car and it was also transferable to the new owner if I ever sold the car, which I did.

Welcome to the club John  

There's plenty of very knowledgeable folks in here so I'm sure you'll get plenty of help if or when you need it. Be sure to post some photos when you've got your new pride and joy, over in the dedicated RX forum - we all like to see photos!

Cheers,

John

35 minutes ago, Mr Vlad said:

I'm assumingyour car is a hybrid as I don't know the model. If it is hybrid then you're goosed. If not then there will be replacements available.

What makes you think that Mr Vlad?

The hybrid side of things has got nothing to do with speakers - as long as they have the same electrical characteristics and physically fit in the hole, speakers from any car audio/electronics shop/radio shop/wherever will work, hybrid or not.

Did it have covers on underneath and they've not been put back on?

Do you not find that Halfords are way overpriced anyway, so that the 15% discount only brings it down to what you pay elsewhere? That's the way it is here.

Vlad's idea is a good one but I'd go one further - try an Advance or an F Sport. Just one step down from the Premier but without air suspension. I've never owned or driven a car with air suspension but I have been a passenger in them many times and I really don't think they offer anything over and above 'traditional' suspension systems except a whole new level of complexity for little or no return ride-wise.

8 hours ago, Rocky ride said:

I am curious John what size wheels do you have  are they also 19 inch?

Yes they are Steve - Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen 2 on the rear, Bridgestone Duellers on the front (at least for another couple of months - at £180 each I couldn't justify changing the fronts to Goodyears while they still had so much tread left).

I'm afraid that I have no answer for you, just an observation.

We had an '05-plate RX300 for two years and traded it in for a 63-plate RX450h Advance just over 5 months ago. I can truthfully say that we see no excessive side to side movement and it is honestly the most comfortable car we've ever had in more than 43 years of motoring, giving a superb ride in every way.

I had a lightbulb moment with mine when I realised that the DAB radio only lost signal when I selected reverse gear and that a few days earlier I had replaced the wedge-type incandescent bulbs in the reversing lights with LEDs, so obviously I can put up with that and don't need to do anything further.

3 hours ago, monte92jj said:

I have used a fully shielded cable on the cam and it makes no difference

Have you tried ferrite chokes - may be worth a go if you haven't.

Plenty of posts on Google seem to indicate that it's the electronics in the plug that you plug into the 12V socket/cigar lighter. If you don't use it as a 12V socket but only ever use it to power 5V items, you could perhaps take it out and replace it like I did in my RX300 (pic below). Alternatively, hard-wire the dashcam using a power supply that piggy-backs into an existing circuit in the fusebox like this one. They seem to use better and 'less noisy' voltage conversion circuitry

May be worth giving the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen 2 a look. Amazing tyres.

Not sure what's going on there my friend - as long as it's cold then it's working.

I never switch my aircon off. It's on all year round and I've never needed to have an aircon system serviced in more than 40 years of driving. I think I'd be inclined to just keep it on and forget about it unless and until you feel a difference, and if that ever happens I'd take it to an aircon specialist (and I don't mean Kwik-Fit) for their opinion.

7 minutes ago, Eric71 said:

Great thanks for reply. I'll give it a check at an aircon specialist. Can aircon be working when a compressor has gone? I don't get it, cos at the moment aircon is 100% fine...

Is it really cold - because it certainly can't be faulty and 100% fine at the same time  

You should be able to get it down to less than 10C if I remember correctly. What symptoms are you seeing?

3 hours ago, Vlady said:

So, I need to download the software 1st and then buy a OBD cable or can it be done as one

It can be done as one but it'll be a pirate copy of Techstream. Almost all MiniVCI cables listed on eBay/Amazon will come with a pirate copy of Techstream on CD but it'll be a matter for your own conscience as to whether you use it or not. The correct way would be to download Techstream from Toyota, legally and free of charge to download and install, but then you have to buy a block of time to use it.

Either way and whatever you choose, you'll need to buy a miniVCI cable anyway and as I said above, they're available from eBay/Amazon.

I would imagine that the work can be done at either a general garage or at an aircon specialist but the problem, and perhaps the biggest chunk of the cost, will be in the replacement compressor - if one is needed, as they don't sound too sure?

First job is to confirm that it needs a replacement and then I think I'd be looking at eBay breakers for one if needed.

20 minutes ago, Hadrian said:

Although cameras are fitted to the newer models of is300h...

At 2015 yours is hardly an old car.

There was a reversing camera with guidelines in my 2005 RX300 and I thought Lexus, being the luxury brand it is, would just fit these things as standard to ALL their cars.

Have you had the trim panel off to check if wiring is there but unused, or not there at all? Even if no wiring exists, I would imagine that if the head unit has an input for video, you may be able to run some cable and make use of a cheap Chinese camera at about ten quid as per this topic:

1 hour ago, Hangie said:

Basic thing with Lexus hybrid is to not confuse them with plug-in ones. In RX you got small batteries which can provide 49bhp when engine is off.

That why you can't accelerate in EV mode or drive fast - there just not enough power. In EV mode just think like you got 49bhp under the bonnet and 2000kg of mass.

Thanks for your input Krzysztof, I do appreciate it but in this case it's not the answer. My disappointment was coming from comparing my car with other cars that are exactly the same, so yes, 49bhp and 2000kg, but so are the other cars I'm comparing to and they get better results than me, so I was wondering just why and how it is that I can't achieve the same results as they can.

As it happens, I think I've got it cracked now. Most of my 'in town' driving is now being done in ECO mode and it's now returning 37mpg and above quite regularly and I'm also seeing that it's using EV mode much more. One thing I wish the designers had done was to make it so that the green EV light comes on every time it's actually running in EV mode and not just when you manually press the EV button.

Nice carpets Richard.

On the links to the pictures - why not just upload the pictures directly to the forum instead of linking from a third-party hosting site?

1 hour ago, wharfhouse said:

If the incline is reasonably steep use the parking brake too which reduces the issue of the pawl binding that you are experiencing - having a high resistance regularly won't be good for the mechanism and cause wear I would have thought 

Indeed. I cannot understand these people who seem to take great delight in never using the parking brake - that is what it's for. The whole transmission and all its components are under strain when only the pawl is used when parked up.

Glad to hear it Roy, well done 

I guess that you've never driven an automatic transmission before?

When you put the car in Park (P) a mechanical pawl is engaged to lock up the transmission and prevent the wheels turning. Because the car is on an incline there will be pressure on the pawl so a bit of extra force is required to disengage it.

More details here

And I've just found this short video that shows it as well:

9 hours ago, Rexlex said:

Got my new brake pads I went for genuine Lexus pads! Eighty bucks a set! Is that expensive? Been a few years since I worked on cars... I thought to myself cheap pads will probably burn up quicker so I'll just pay the money but also I just like using genuine parts

Genuinely pleased that things are coming together for you but just on the point above, I don't know if the price is good, bad, or indifferent, but you do know don't you, that Lexus don't make brake pads, batteries, exhausts or any other 'consumables' and they just buy in from the people who do make them, ergo, there is really no such thing as 'genuine Lexus' pads?

13 minutes ago, Malc said:

is this the only guy ( called Paul ? )  that i have seen recommended by you guys ?

For me, yes, but as I said above, I've never had any personal experience - I only know that he's well regarded on the Facebook group of the same name as this one.

3 hours ago, Vlady said:

I have a laptop but do not have a CD drive

You could do as John said and get a friend to do a USB drive or transfer files by Bluetooth, or you can buy an external optical drive for about twenty quid and then you have it for future use too.