Thackeray

In the Toyota/Lexus hybrid setup the battery's primary aim is not really to propel the car. Instead, the way the car works makes more sense if you think of the battery as a place to store the energy that's regenerated from braking via the motor-generators. This is why the car aims to keep the battery about half-full, so that it generally has enough capacity to store any regenerated electricity. But of course, having stored this recaptured energy, (rather than it being lost as heat from conventional brakes) the car then aims to make use of it in the moments when it can. So it will use it to briefly help acceleration. Or it will use it to run the air conditioning when the car is stationary, rather than running the petrol engine. And of course, sometimes it will be able to propel the car without help from the petrol engine on flat surfaces for short distances when the driver isn't pressing the accelerator too hard. But as it's a hybrid car rather than fully electric, the primary aim isn't to travel long distances on battery alone. So it's a relatively small battery, just big enough to capture as much regenerated electricity as is practical in average situations.

Looks like you're sure the door has been resprayed but I was going to mention that every metal panel, including bonnet and boot, has a VIN sticker. If a respray is done by a Lexus dealer they should replace the VIN sticker; if done elsewhere they may not bother. So absence of a VIN sticker probably indicates a respray. Is yours missing or painted over? It should be on the inner rim, visible when the door is open.

That looks a useful and good value device. It's also interesting to see that it looks as if you can start the car with the battery at 11.65v (I'm assuming you haven't had to jump start it). I don't suppose that would be enough power on a conventional car and increasingly suggests the battery is designed to operate in a lower voltage range. As you've pointed out before, the 14.5v volts is the normal voltage when the car is in the Ready mode although the average figure probably doesn't tell you very much if it combines periods when the car is running and not running. All of that, of course, doesn't detract from all the criticisms above. In particular, the car can produce a warning when the battery in your keyfob is getting low - how come that doesn't happen for the main 12v battery?

In my experience, the average tyre fitting outlet may not have staff with the experience to do accurate wheel geometry. I personally had a repeated bad experience with a nationwide tyre fitting service that produced worse results each time they tried to adjust the tracking. So after an MOT tester advised me to find a garage with a Hunter alignment machine I found a garage around 20 miles away but the results were really impressive. On an earlier thread on this topic, someone put up a link for AlignMyCar, which is a website that lists locations of garages with Hunter machines. I haven't tried this website myself but if it finds your nearest Hunter machine that sounds helpful.

Every metal body panel, including boot and bonnet, has a VIN sticker. If one of these is missing it might be because the panel has been resprayed by a non-Lexus bodyshop which did not replace the sticker. This may not matter but it might be helpful in any price negotiation after inspection. And obviously there should be no warning lights or messages on the dashboard. If the green P light for the parking sensor is on it just means the sensor is turned on. You can turn off the sensor and the light with the switch to the right of the steering column. You can also turn off the artificial engine noise with a switch close to the parking sensor switch, just so that you're not misled about what the car actually sounds like while driving. It's probably turned off anyway.

I know a lot of people have claimed that the radio will run the 12v battery down very rapidly but I'd be interested to see any evidence that this is so. I'm doubtful that the radio on its own would need a lot of power to operate. Last summer, with time to kill waiting to pick someone up, I checked the impact of the radio on the voltage of the battery, with the car on the ACC setting rather than Ready or IGN. It started off at 12.5v, went down to 12.4v when I turned the radio on but went back to 12.5v when the radio was automatically turned off after 20 minutes. Here's a link to that thread. I doubt that the effect would have been much different when I turned the radio back on for a further 20 minutes - it always turns off after 20 minutes in ACC mode. If the battery dies after 40 minutes of radio use, my guess would be that the battery's charge was already very low when the radio was turned on. It might also be that the car was on the IGN setting (two presses of the power button) rather than the ACC setting (one press of the power button). The IGN setting activates a number of other features in addition to the radio so the power usage would be higher but I haven't checked the impact on the battery's voltage to compare with the ACC setting.

I would guess the sensor is to monitor the battery temperature and adjust charging rate. That's what it is on the IS300h. The AGM battery is also factory installed with a vent tube, https://rvnerds.com/2017/11/01/electrical-myths-part-4-agm-batteries-dont-need-venting/

This brought back a memory for me from 20 years ago. A two-year-old Mercedes diesel had exactly the same pattern of briefly starting, then not firing at all; then briefly starting, then not firing at all. The car was under warranty and the dealer struggled to find the cause. Although this sounds almost exactly the same, it's unlikely that it's the same cause. But just in case it sparks any ideas, I'll tell you what the dealer tried before solving it. First of all, it only happened in winter. The car was started from cold, driven three or four miles - not enough to fully warm up - then stopped. And then it wouldn't restart and instead did the pattern in the youtube recording above. I called the breakdown service but after 20 minutes of cooling down it had fixed itself before they arrived. But it kept happening and the dealer made three attempts to fix it. First, they said it was air in the fuel supply and changed some part which they didn't specify. By then it was summer and the problem disappeared until the cold weather. But when November weather came, it did it again. This time the dealer changed the catalytic converter - or so they said. They didn't give a convincing explanation of why. But it didn't fix the problem. At the third attempt, they changed camshaft and crankshaft sensors and that seemed to fix it. The problem went away and didn't come back. I don't suppose any of this is going to help with a completely different car. But the recording of the symptom sounded so familiar that I thought it might be of interest and maybe prompt some ideas.

In my experience resulting from advice from an MOT tester, the key thing is to find a garage with a Hunter machine and people who know how to use it properly. I discovered this after a tyre place adjusted the tracking on a one-year old car for me. They left the steering wheel off centre so I went back. The boss had another go and if anything it was worse. So I just put up with it for a long time. As Rayaans said above I just thought "Most cars will pull to the left slightly due to the way the road is in the UK". Then I got the advice from the MOT tester and looked for a garage with a Hunter machine. I vowed not to go back to a tyre place where most of their experience is with ripping tyres off wheels and telling customers they don't need to use a torque wrench. Instead I found a small independent with a Hunter machine. The result was a marvel. The car never felt so firmly planted four square, even compared with when it was new. It didn't pull to the left either. When I got my IS I had assumed I'd probably need to take it to the garage with the Hunter machine. But it's been perfect since I had it. No pulling to either side, steering wheel dead centre. Goes dead straight. It can be done, and even a Lexus dealer may get it wrong.

It'll be interesting to see if a new 12v battery solves the problem. People often point out that with conventional cars you can tell that the 12v battery is failing because you can hear the starter motor getting slower and slower whereas on these hybrids there's no warning that the 12v battery is about to fail. But perhaps a lack of heated seats is a signal that you need a new battery. Maybe you can report back when you find out the answer!

Interesting (and reassuring) that the car will start on such a low voltage! As for the fans, bear in mind that if you have the climate control on Auto they will scarcely operate in cold weather until the engine is warm enough to provide some heat. This can be several minutes depending on the outside temperature. There's a long discussion on this issue on the NX forum here.

The heated seats and the fans should come on as soon as the car is in Ready mode. It may be that if the 12v circuits still have low voltage the computers don't allow them to start until the voltage is high enough. I've never experienced this. When the voltage is showing around 14 or 14.5v, this is because the high voltage battery has begun feeding the 12v circuit to recharge the 12v battery. It doesn't mean the 12v battery is healthy (or unhealthy for that matter - it just means the recharging has started.) Just out of interest, would the car start at 10.4 volts? I've seen it start at 11.4v but I don't know whether it can still start at lower voltages. Mincey has made the interesting discovery (above) that the manual seems to imply that the car should start down to 11v. I didn't know that was in the manual. It would be interesting to know how true it is.

This looks a good price and a good capacity - 20,000 mAh. But being unbranded, I wonder how long have you had it in the car? And how long does it stay fully charged? Are you using it to jump start the car? Do you think it's sturdily and safely made? Sorry for the list of questions but I'll probably buy one if you can recommend it.

A fascinating account of changes in social habits. But I'm doubtful that people would take off their shoes when visiting a house as a guest in the early Victorian era. A lot of people didn't have shoes in the early Victorian era! If they did, it would be far too cold on flagstone floors to take them off. When a lady visited a friend for tea she would keep her hat on as a courtesy to her host or hostess. I can't imagine her keeping her hat on but taking her shoes off! In Britain at least I've only seen this habit take off over the last two or three decades. With film going back nearly 100 years now, there would be some evidence of this happening if it had begun so long ago. But I can't say I've ever noticed it. So yes, people now often take off their shoes when visiting friends. But I doubt this convention began in the 19th century or much earlier than the late 20th century.

I remember a radio programme many years ago which was discussing the difference between American and European kitchens. One speaker said a European kitchen was the one where you couldn't find the appliances. Less true today than it was then, I imagine, as more American kitchens have appliances hidden behind cupboard doors! But every home washing machine I've seen in America has been a top loader. And the speaker on this programme said the problem with top loaders (at that time, anyway - I can't say that I make much effort to keep up with toploader news) was that the clothes on the outside of the drum get all the action but the ones in the middle of the drum near the impeller rotating back and forth just wobble about a bit and don't get properly clean. By contrast, a front loading machine gives equal cleaning action to all the clothes because every item is spun to the top of the drum and then dropped forcibly onto the bottom of the drum, like an Indian riverside outdoor laundry service with employees smashing the clothes down on the rocks as the river flows over the garments.

Vaillant has been the boiler of choice for many, many years and still recommended by older gas engineers I know after a lifetime of reliability. But I've noticed the younger engineers, while acknowledging the strengths of Vaillant suggest they're fading and being challenged by a similarly large German company Viessmann. They say, for example, the stainless steel heat exchangers used by Viessmann are more durable than the aluminium used on some Vaillants. They also say some Vaillants are rebadged Gloworms. What do you think, Paul. Is Viessmann the up and coming boiler to choose nowadays?

A good idea! It would be good to know how long the engine runs. If it's only half a minute, it might not be long enough to register on the mpg, though.

Yes, I was surprised to find that if you drive away straight after starting the car, you're actually using power from the battery initially rather than from the engine until it has gone through its multiple warming up stages. The Hybrid Assistant app tells you which of the five (or six) warmup stages the engine has reached. (Sorry for another plug for Hybrid Assistant!) Here's a link setting out more than most people want to know about the engine warm-up stages.

Are you sure the engine is actually using fuel? Have a look at the Hybrid Assistant app, which will tell you if fuel is being used. I may have misunderstood your description but it seems (a) the car has been running for an hour and should be fully warmed up, (b) the high voltage battery is virtually fully charged, (c) when the car is parked after the long run the engine keeps turning when the car is stationary and (d) the charge in the high voltage battery goes down as the engine keeps turning. My guess would be that all this points to the hybrid system deciding to reduce the charge in the battery from what may be close to its normal maximum. It does this by drawing on the electricity in the battery to turn motor-generator 1 (MG1), which in turn spins the petrol engine without using any petrol. This reduces the charge of the battery from its maximum. But if you find that petrol is being used when the engine spins while the car is stationary and at the same time the charge in the battery is going down, there must be another explanation.

It sounds as if the engine wouldn't be running to provide heat if you have the climate control turned off. One unlikely possibility is that you've been going down a long hill and the high voltage battery has been charged to maximum. Even when the car stops, the car may reduce the battery charge by using the electric motor to spin the engine without fuel. What you hear sounds like the engine running but it isn't running on fuel. I would think this is unlikely unless you routinely take a route down a long hill. (Edit: your last post says the charge level goes down, which makes this explanation sound possible.) On the other hand, when the battery is low the engine will run, even when stationary, to charge up the battery. On the IS, the engine will start when the battery goes down to 40% charge (two bars on the meter) and the engine will stop, around four minutes later, when the battery reaches 50% (three bars on the IS). Do these possibilities fit with any of your scenarios? The 2007 GS450h may be a bit different from my experience with the IS300h.

She isn't asking for help on diagnosing the problem. She's asking if anyone knows of a Lexus specialist. It's a simple request and the model isn't relevant to that question! As for only showing it's an IS, that's not quite correct; her profile says it's a 2010 model. So I'm happy to be corrected but I don't think it could be IS300h which was the first hybrid IS, launched in 2013. Though I'm sure, if she wants to provide some more details, there are plenty of people who would be willing to suggest what might be wrong with the car.

When I went out in the car today, I thought I'd better check if I was right in what I said above. It turns out there's a bit more subtlety to the climate control than I thought. The outside temperature was 5C when I turned on the car and presumably the same inside the car. The engine was cold and the climate control was set to Auto and 21C. I was surprised to find that air comes out of the windscreen demist vents right from the start. I didn't know that before. But of course the air was cold initially while the engine was cold. I didn't realise there was always air from the windsceen vents right from the start, not just when you select Demist. After two minutes the air from the windscreen vent began to warm up a little but there was no air coming from other vents. Then five minutes after starting I heard a flap open and warm air began to come out of the footwell vent. But there was still no air from the face vents. Then around eight minutes after starting the engine, a trickle of warm air started to come from the face vents. Then around 10-15 minutes after starting the engine, with the engine temperature gauge approaching normal, the fans started to speed up and more warm air came from the face vents (and the other vents, of course). This presumably speeded up the process of getting the cabin up to the set temperature. What surprised me, though, was that after 30 minutes from starting, although the fans were slowing down a bit, the air from the face vents was still warm (though not hot). I had expected there would be cool air by now. I found that if I reduced the set temperature to 18, the face vents produced cool air instead of warm. I assume this showed that the cabin had reached 18 rather than 21. With milder weather than today, the face vents would produce cool air sooner than when the outside temperatures were fairly low like today.

There's a thread on DAB radio from a couple of years ago which might help, depending on what the problem is. Scroll down to comments six and nine. And in case you're interested, I did a followup post last year when Times Radio started broadcasting and I tried to work out how to find it on the terribly designed Lexus DAB system.

There's Toyotec in Redhill. I don't have personal experience of them but there are a number of recommendations on the forum. Search for Toyotec in the forum search box. Here's one of the comments but there are others.

That's not quite how it works. If you have the climate control on Auto the answer depends on what the current cabin temperature is. For example, if the cabin temperature is 20 and I turn up the temperature setting from 20 to 25 I would not expect to get warm air out of the face vents because the required rise in temperature is only five degrees. I'd expect cool air to continue to blow from the face vents and warm air from the foot vents until the cabin temperature reached 25. But I wouldn't expect warm air from the face vents at all in this example. But if the car had been standing overnight, the cabin temperature was zero and I set the cabin temperature setting to 25, I'd expect no air from the face vents until the engine had warmed a little. Then there would be luke warm air from the vents and much warmer air from the foot vents. This is for two reasons. First, the heating has to raise the cabin temperature 25 degrees so it will need to pump out quite a lot of hot air from the foot vents to achieve this. And second, the only source of cool air initially is from outside, where the zero degree temperature would provide uncomfortably cold air to the face vents. So until the cabin temperature has risen a bit, the face vents will have luke warm air that is a little more comfortable than freezing cold air from outside. When the cabin is warm enough the air from the face vents will be cooler than at first. Paul has pointed out above that you aren't setting the temperature of the air coming out of the vents. Instead, you're setting the temperature you want the cabin to be. I had forgotten until now that before climate control was common in cars you would set the temperature of the air in a range from cold to very hot. When you started off in the car in winter, you would set maximum temperature, maximum fan speed and demist vents. As the car warmed up you would then reduce the air temperature, redirect the air to the floor vents and reduce the fan speed; and so on as the car warmed up. I'd forgotten this was normal routine! But you may be able to emulate this by not using the Auto settings. Sorry to hear of your Raynaud's; maybe the heated steering wheel will help as well - I've never tried one. But if you want warm air from the face vents you may be able to achieve this with manual settings. What I'm not sure about is whether the temperature of the air from the face vents will still go down as the cabin warms up, even if you have the setting on High. Perhaps it won't and you'll be able to achieve what you need for comfort. Let us know how you get on after some experimentation.