sorcerer

Yes, but a debit card works in conjunction with your bank account and if you have money in the account you can use the card to pay for goods. A credit card is where you use the card provider's money to make the purchase and then either pay back a monthly sum until you've paid off the debt, or you can clear the balance in total if you so wish. The difference between the two cards in the context of this situation is that a debit card offers some protection if things go wrong for you, but nowhere near as much protection as a credit card does. If you pay for things on a credit card, the card provider becomes jointly responsible with the trader if things go wrong. For instance, if the engine of my £5,500 car blew up beyond repair within, say, three weeks of buying it, but the trader I bought it from had ceased trading when I went back to them for recompense, the credit card provider would be liable to put things right under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. There would be no such compensation forthcoming from my bank if I had paid on my debit card though, which is why I paid with my credit card and then paid the bill in full when my credit card statement came through. Or, as I said earlier, even if I had only paid £1 of the transaction by credit card, I would still have been fully covered under Section 75, which is why I always pay for things costing £100 or more with my credit card.

Another thing worthy of note is that when using a credit card, Section 75 protection applies to anything over £100 even if you only put £1 of it on the card. When we bought our RX300 last year, we had the money for it in the bank but I paid the £5,500 with my credit card in order to have the protection if I should have needed it. It was actually the trader who pointed out that I would still have the protection even if I'd only paid £1 on the card and the other £5,499 by cash or cheque.

Hi Matt and welcome to the forum. Sorry, I can't help with your question but I can almost guarantee that you'll get the best chance of help by posting in the LS400 forum rather than audio/video forum.

That looks very low and if a copper was looking for something to do he could well make a point of that.

Here's the text from a posting I made about a year ago: The ZX7s are 'A' rated for wet conditions and I now know why - they stick like glue! The only thing we haven't had since having them fitted is snow, so I've yet to find out how they handle that, but I've done about 11 or 12,000 miles with them now and I'm well chuffed with them. Excellent tyres and highly recommended.

These people are very helpful and great to deal with http://www.carparts-direct.co.uk/power-steering-pumps

I don't know what sort of keys a 2016 IS300h uses but now that you've found one, you might be able to get a couple of spares from eBay and code them yourself when you get your newly ordered MiniVCI and Techstream

The haze is caused by UV radiation oxidising the plastic. To get it to last any longer you need to polish it up and then put on a UV-resistant protective top coat.

That's how averages work. Whether or not it returns to the exact figure you had before depends on how you drive, weather conditions, wind speed and a whole host of other parameters - and don't forget fuel consumption always goes up in the winter months.

Ah well, that's 'progress' for you

DRLs should only come on when the engine is actually running, and not when the key is in either the ACC or IGN positions, but I think most aftermarket DRLs are wired to come on with the ignition, as mine are. I only found out a couple of days ago that the way to get them on when the engine is running is to take the power from the alternator - as soon as the alternator starts to charge the DRLs come on. They have to go off when the side/position lights are turned on or at the very least they must dim to about half of their normal brightness so that no one gets dazzled by very bright LEDs at night. Have a look at my video in the thread below:

Even if it's an easy enough job to change the actual light units, your car may not be wired for DRL functionality. My 2005 RX300 has a fusebox in the engine bay and all fuses are labelled up to show which circuits they control. If you pull any fuse out of its holder you can see two metal contacts in the holder and, obviously, the fuse is just a bit of wire that bridges those two contacts, which allows the current to flow. According to the label in the fusebox, one of the fuses (I think it's No.10 if I remember correctly) is for the DRLs. However, in reality, there is no fuse in the No.10 position and if you look down into where the fuse should be, there are no contacts there to push the fuse into and no wiring exists for a DRL circuit. Maybe the American, Japanese, and some other markets around the world sold RX300s with DRLs, but the UK market didn't so no wiring was ever installed for them. Luckily, the RX300 uses an amber bulb through a clear lens for the indicators so I got these switchback LEDs from eBay, along with a couple of relays and they work really well. Not as good looking as the ones you want but an easy, cheap alternative.

If you have a cigarette lighter in the front that you don't use you could do the same as I did in my RX300. I got the USB socket from eBay and it's a direct replacement for the lighter, with no drilling or anything else to do, just lighter out, USB socket in. And because it's 2.1A output on each socket, they charge phones quicker than a 'normal' USB that's 1.0A. Here's a link to a similar socket on eBay

Yep, make a bit of a holiday of it to see the guys at http://www.hybridbatterysolutions.co.uk/ Alternatively, you can get replacement cells on eBay and DIY but ONLY IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND YOU HAVE THE PROPER EQUIPMENT. There are a few YouTube videos of the procedures involved.

Once the engine is running the alternator supplies all of the car's electrical needs and then, IF there's any power left over so to speak, it'll charge the battery. Your journey is only half an hour each way so if it's cold you may have heated seats on, heated rear window, for the evening journey you'll also have the headlights on etc., etc., so the alternator may not have enough time to get enough charge back into the battery and leaving the car standing at weekend may be the final straw for it. Make sure your alternator is working alright for a start - I'll add more later but got to go for now.

@grantwils I turned off the flash on my phone camera and just took a quick picture, hoping to show you what a difference the LED interior lighting makes. Not sure I've captured it properly but it's the best I can do on my phone.

1. No idea. I know there isn't one on my 2005 RX300 but yours is 2 years younger and a different model, so maybe, I don't know. 2. Certainly not, that would just be SO vulgar! I'm only joking of course, but honestly, if you wanted engine sounds you probably should have gone for one of the sportier Lexus cars rather than an RX that truly is meant to be quiet refinement. 3. I changed all the interior festoon bulbs (both front and back dome lights and all the door/boot/tailgate lights) for LEDs. I think these are the ones I used the C3W ones at 31mm long. It's been over a year since I did them so I can't swear to it but I'm 95% sure they're the ones. You'll find that they fit alright in the dome lights but they're just ever so slightly too long for the door/boot/tailgate housings, so you've just got to slightly bend the contacts in those housings to make the LED bulb fit. Take your old one out and measure it first though, like I said, it's been more than a year since I did mine.

Welcome to the world of luxury motoring where you pay luxury prices for anything from a Lexus dealer

Aha, right, I see now. Presumably, that's something that came with the car, is it? I thought we were talking about a 'real' compressor like the one I got from Aldi (below). My LPG tank lives in the spare wheel well so I carry around a similar compressor to the one you've got and a can of Holts TyreWeld for small punctures, anything bigger and I'd have to call out the breakdown people. This is the one that I carry around in the car for emergencies:

I do sort of agree there Linas, but as the old saying goes, "Two wrongs do not make a right". I would happily punish any of those issues Well it was when I was learning to drive, back in 1975. My instructor would rap my knuckles with a wooden ruler if I failed to apply the handbrake and select Neutral when stopping for anything other than just a few seconds and it's a habit that's stuck with me all through life, even though it is a bit more awkward in a Lexus due to the 'handbrake' being foot operated. I may well be wrong but I think even the Highway Code says that is what should be done - but I can't say for sure because it's been a long time since I read that.

Not sure what you mean by 'sealant', 'sealant bottle' and 'compressor box'? Maybe some pictures would help us understand what you've got and what you're trying to do with it. I bought a small air compressor from Aldi a while ago that sits in my garage. I have an air hose connected to it and I bought a kit of air tools to use with it, amongst which is a tyre inflator attachment, that I just put on the end of the hose to inflate my tyres. In the picture below, 1 attaches to the compressor, 2 attaches to 3, and 4 attaches to the tyre valve, job done:

Except, of course, for the poor people behind you who are dazzled by your brake lights at night.

Even if I live to be a hundred years old I'll never be able to afford a brand-new car, but then again, I'm not sure I'd want to anyway even if I could afford it, given the huge depreciation hit they suffer in the early years. Buying a secondhand car and never really knowing how the previous owner has looked after it, one of the first things I do is to have all fluids changed and that, of course, includes transmission fluid. It may only be of psychological value but I like to know that everything is starting fresh under my ownership.

Hi James and welcome to the forum. You'll see that I have an RX300 so can't really help but, just a general point - you'll probably get better answers, and quicker too, if you post in the IS300 forum. This 'New Members Area' is really where we just say hello and maybe post a photo or two of our motors. Hope someone can help.

Not sure about hybrids as so many things are different in them, but gurgling behind the dash in a 'normal' car would most likely be coolant and/or air in the heater matrix. Check coolant level and top up if necessary