sorcerer

I did this very job a couple of weeks ago after scraping the rear quarter panel/bumper on the gatepost Here are the LEDs I got from Ebay

Sounds like it could be the heater matrix. Same thing happened to one of my previous cars but because it meant that the whole dash had to come out to get at the matrix, it basically put the car beyond economic repair

I've never been the sort of person to blame my tools for a bad job but in this case, I think it's justified. The RX300 is a nightmare to reverse in the dark - the rear windows are dark privacy glass, both door mirrors go dark when the car lights are on (even if you turn off auto dipping on the rearview mirror) and the reversing lights are no better, and in fact even worse, than a couple of candles. Couple that with abysmal weather (very heavy rain) and it becomes almost impossible to reverse safely. We've lived in this house for over 29 years, which is more than 10,000 days, going in and out multiple times a day, and I've never hit the gatepost before, so it's got to be the car's fault, not mine Anyway, I've got the car booked in for repair this Thursday and I've been quoted £200 for the job, all in. I don't know how bad yours is compared to mine but for me it's not worth going through insurance as my excess is £200 anyway, so I'm just paying for this myself.

Aha! Now I know what you mean. You weren't so much 'wrong' as talking about something completely and utterly different - you were talking apples and I was talking oranges. Hybrid vehicles such as the Prius or the Lexus RX450h, for example, are indeed exempt from emissions testing. It's a strange and ludicrous situation because they have petrol engines that, when running, will produce emissions, but by virtue of the fact that the cars are capable of running in 'milk float mode' they are indeed exempt from emissions testing. In summary then, LPG fuel systems do need to be emissions tested, except and unless they are part of a hybrid car.

Well first of all I never said anyone was lying - maybe they are just mistaken. All I've said is that my car has always been presented on LPG and it has always had to have an emissions test. I then went on to provide written proof from the government's own MOT Inspection Manual, freely available for anyone to download from the government's own website. If you can provide written proof to the contrary then fair enough, but otherwise I'd say your garage has got something slightly wrong.

It IS on the government website, that's where I downloaded the pdf file from:

Well, have a look at the MOT Inspector's Manual available as a pdf here and you will see the following:

Maybe it's a north/south thing; maybe we're a bit more frugal up here in the frozen north, but I think the majority of people, myself included, never go to main stealers unless we absolutely cannot get the part elsewhere. Maybe if the car is only two or three years old there's a case for it, but once it gets to six and beyond it's just a waste of money. As to your point about getting the correct spec at a consistent quality, you're getting the same spec and quality from the manufacturer of said parts as anyone else. For instance, lets just say that Lexus buy in brake parts from Blueprint (just as an example). Blueprint don't have special factories squirting out parts for Lexus - the Lexus-branded parts will come off the same production lines at the same factories that the rest of us buy from.

You do realise, don't you, that Lexus/Toyota, Nissan, Ford etc., etc., don't manufacture parts such as brakes, batteries, exhausts and so on. They just buy them in from the people who do manufacture them and stick on a markup for the badge/branding that says Lexus/Toyota, Ford etc.

I'm not sure about that. You can choose to present the car on either petrol or LPG for the emissions test but as far as I know it still has to be done - they've always given me the printout of the LPG test. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I would have chosen a 400h purely for the CVT but it just didn't make economical sense. Tax is only £35 cheaper than a petrol RX300 (£260 as opposed to £295) and the fuel economy is only marginally better than a petrol RX300. Although I would have liked the CVT and the idea of a hybrid, it just made more sense to buy a petrol one and convert it to LPG.

This is so weird. Before I had mine converted to LPG and was just running on petrol I never managed anything like that - and I have to say that I was driving like Miss Daisy! The sight of the petrol gauge going down so fast was frightening!. My best ever was about 22 on a long run and about 17 around town, which matches with what Rayann said he got above*. I've also seen a couple of others say that their figures are as high as what you're getting so I wonder why there's such a big difference? At least mine drinks nice cheap LPG now but this does make me wonder if I could somehow get a little bit more out of it. *Sorry, Rayann has mentioned that his RX300 did about 16 most of the time but it was in a different thread, not this one

Just see if any friends have an OBD2 code reader. If not and you could do with buying one yourself, they aren't expensive. Mine is a U581 OBD2 Scanner and cost about £25. Have a look here

Just get a later RX without air suspension, you know it makes sense

Got our RX300 around the end of May and done over 10,000 miles in her since. She had almost 80k on the clock when we bought her and we paid £5,500, which may have been slightly over the odds. If time was on our side we may have been able to get a better example for that money, maybe one that already had the cambelt and water pump changed for instance, instead of having to have that done myself. However, our previous car had just about had it and was becoming very unreliable so we had to get a replacement quickly. We've spent a fair bit of money on it in terms of having all fluids (and where appropriate, filters) changed, cambelt, water pump, four new tyres and also had it converted to LPG. However, we now have a brilliant car that should, hopefully, see us get at least another 100,000 miles of trouble-free motoring done - and it really IS a superb drive! The LPG conversion cost us £1,400 and I am VERY pleased with it. It was done by Simon of LPGC in South Elmsall, Yorkshire and believe me, the guy is an absolute genius. He's done an absolutely fantastic job, very neat and tidy and his knowledge and skill are second to none. Have a look in the LPG Forum and you'll see some of his conversions and a lot of his knowledge - he's in the forum as LPGC. You can see a couple of pictures of my conversion and a bit of info about it here: As to fuel economy, it definitely drinks fuel for fun, but thank goodness for LPG As we all know, fuel costs vary greatly around the country so perhaps these can't be taken as direct, like-for-like comparisons but, have a look at the pics below. They show an RX400h at 19.6p/mile, a petrol RX300 at 22.5p/mile, and my LPG RX300 at 12.6p/mile

But that's the point I'm making - the union (in my case the CWU) pays for the solicitor by way of my union membership so I don't need a 'personal injury solicitor' and it doesn't matter that there's no money to be made from them chasing my uninsured losses. I don't know if all unions are the same with regard to the legal cover they offer their membership but I know that the CWU have their solicitors on their payroll, so the union members pay nothing other than their monthly subs for any kind, and any amount, of legal representation they need.

Google is your friend Simon Also, according to this explanation, it would seem that GAP insurance is only available for cars up to seven years old: One advantage of buying car GAP insurance is that you can usually pay your premiums in monthly instalments, spreading the cost over up to 36 months, although this varies depending on the individual provider. At the end of the 36 months, you can take out cover once again, provided your car does not exceed the seven-year age limit.

One thing to bear in mind is that if you're a member of a union, you probably have legal cover by means of your membership so you don't need to pay for it in with your car insurance. I was a telephone engineer on BT until a back injury at work forced me into medical retirement, but I stayed in the Communication Workers Union as a retired member and have full access to the union's solicitors and full legal cover for any situation that would require it. Ok, it may only be a small saving when compared with the extortionate cost of car insurance, but I refuse to give the blood-sucking parasites even just one penny more than I absolutely have to!

Best place to have MOTs done (if you don't use and trust a local garage that is) is a local authority workshop. Local Council, local bus depot, even Ambulance Service workshop. They don't actually carry out any repair work on private cars so there's no incentive for them to 'fail' it in the hope of making some money out of you - if it fails you know it's a genuine fail and nothing dodgy.

I can't remember if it was Top Gear or Fifth Gear or maybe even something else, but one of the motoring programmes did a piece about manufacturer's claimed MPG figures and basically it's all but impossible to reach them. They are legally allowed to pull such stunts as only allowing one person in the car whilst under test and - this is the killer - even stripping out seats, carpets, spare wheel and even gloveboxes to make the car lighter and so increase its MPG on test. It's scandalous really and I don't know how it's legally allowed, but the truth is that it is.

I'm not sure I agree with LPG burning just 10 degrees hotter. I've never scientifically measured it with thermometers but what I can say is that with all my petrol cars over the last 40 years I've been able to hold my hand in front of the exhaust (some old mechanics would cup their hands and bring up a handful of exhaust gases to smell). However, no way on earth can you do that with LPG as it's far too hot. When the car goes for MOT and it's presented on gas for emissions testing, a few unsuspecting mechanics have jumped and howled when placing the probe into the exhaust pipe because they didn't expect the gases to be that hot.

I've never used anything other than the oil recommended in the Owner's Manual for the car and have never had a problem with my LPG cars. All Japanese engines can suffer from valve seat recession so if you haven't already got it, get a FlashLube kit fitted and everything will be fine.

Sorry for the delay, only just seen your post. Unless I'm missing it somewhere I can't see a 44426:

I can't suggest a garage because I live in Preston, Lancashire, but I absolutely cannot see why your local garage would refuse because it's LPG. What on earth has LPG got to do with the brakes? No garage has ever refused to do any job on my car in the last nine years that I've been running LPG so just take it to any other garage within a reasonable distance. All cars have brakes and any mechanic should be able to fix them - if they can't then they shouldn't be using 'mechanic' in their job title.

And therein lies the problem - so to speak. There won't be a 'problem' unless and until you have an accident and then, just as my colleague found, there could be a problem with insurance.