Poundy

It's worth noting that newer Lexus vehicle convertors are produced with less of the valuable metal content, so theoretically the will have very little scrap value. Of coarse we can presume it may take a while for the thieves to realise this, before they stop taking them

What a load of low down bums we are 😁

Some interesting comments re the catlock on here. Just to add my 2 cents, I had the Lexus catlock fitted to our CT, 1/ Thieves can remove an unprotected cat in well under 3 minutes with a trolley jack and reciprocating saw. 2/ The Lexus catlock has additional heavy supporting brackets attached over the cat, under the cover to inhibit speed of removal. it is not just a bolted on cover. The window stickers also act as a deterrent, if thieves look under the car and see the catlock fitted, the poor scrap value is not worth the additional time involved and added risk of being rumbled. 3/ The Lexus tech informed me that even in their workshop with all the tools available to them removal would be at least 20 to 30 mins to butcher the convertor from the car. 4/ My dealer/service dept have had plenty of cars in for cat replacement due to theft but NONE! that have had a catlock fitted. 5/ I have not experienced any additional road noise when driving the car. 6/ One of the biggest problems apart from the cat replacement cost/NCB loss is the fact that new cats are in short supply, because of the demand that has been created. So be prepared to have your car off the road waiting for a long period of time if yours goes. To me weighing up the positives and negatives and not having to jump out of bed every time I hear a clang outside 😅 for the small cost involved fitting one was a no brainer.

My Ct200h has the same feature shuts down after a time if parked up. The problem with the small auxiliary battery is it only powers up the initial screen to get the hybrid system working. The battery supplied is therefore rather lacking in any decent power reserves. I changed mine soon after purchasing the car because regular checks showed voltage in the low 12's even though it never failed me. The new Lexus battery fitted, still performs much the same as the old one, if the car is unused for a couple of weeks I just hook up my C-Tek via a comfort lead in the boot area for the day.

No clearance problems I think there are several other points of ground contact before the Catloc hits.

Cars look great in Black they are just so difficult to keep looking good and swirl mark free. I had my Jaguar XF-R-Sport "ultimate black" prepped and Ceramic coated never polished again, like new every time with just a wash and hose off.

I had the Lexus one fitted like JPG above, fitted with shear bolts and a couple of window stickers as a deterrent. Service Tech assured me that even with all the required workshop kit it would take in excess of 30mins to butcher off. As the rewards are only in the £100/£200 range at the dodgy tat yards it is only really viable if one quickly jacks the car up while the other chops the pipe off both sides of the cat with a reciprocating saw. The whole deadly dead is usually completed in 2-3 mins, they will not bother now if a catloc is fitted, takes too long and increases the chances of getting caught.

Sorry I didn't realise it was the first service, The lock nut design is crap, even so they should have changed them as a good will gesture I am sure my service dept would have done. The downside being the replacements if OE will be just as prone to rust, the ordinary wheel nuts are a decent standard though so I would just get 4 lockers off EBAY. I got these much better looking ones IMO match the non lockers better https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4x-ALLOY-WHEEL-LOCKING-NUTS-FOR-LEXUS-CT200H-CHROME-SECURITY-STUD-LUG-BOLT-0Lb/323686436453?fits=Car+Make%3ALexus&hash=item4b5d370e65:g:X9QAAOSwddpcXb4D

In all fairness, I think there are very few items that would get more wear and tear than a car wheel nut. Especially when looking at how some tyre places torque up there ratchet guns, I always check and adjust my wheel nuts with a torque wrench after any service work etc. Nice to know that my current Lexus dealer always returns the car to me correctly torqued.

Well that was a time consuming job, but little else to do in lockdown. 🤣 The Extractors removed the bad screw heads easy for me. The broken cover corners that had been previously caused by the tech leaving the bad screw in place and lifting the cover for battery replacement, I fixed with Araldite. The only real pain is getting the screws as they are a specialised head size. Mainly because of the head depth in relation to the cover being able to slide on and off for access. The required screw size is 1.6mm thread diameter, 3mm thread length with a head diameter of 3mm and a head depth of only 0.9mm. The only ones close to that my searches / enquires came up with were 3 correct dimension but a pan head with a head depth of 1.42mm in SS. What's half a mill me thinks, sod all, but alas it was too much to allow the fob cover to slide back on. I got round it by sanding inside the fob cover to give a little extra clearance and a film of WD40. Job done. Now back to the Honda BlackBirds fuel injection strip down 😁

Our Ct200h is looked after by Lexus Birmingham (Fort Dunlop) part of the Steven Eagell Groupe. They have been very good over the time they have been doing the necessary work on our car. Always ready to go the extra yard for me if required, an independent survey gives them 9.2 out of 10 which seems a fair number' I have the Vantage 3 service plan that is well priced compared to the individual service price costing. It is more expensive than the Essential Service option offered for cars 5 years old or more but offers a more extensive service option. Although our CT is a very low mileage car, I find the Vantage plan has been worthwhile as it offers 10% discount on items not included in the service plan, So far I have saved !0% on supply and fit of new Accessory Battery, 2X Yokohama tyres, Catlock, and rear pads and discs probably a saving well in excess of £100. Be aware though I always point the 10% saving out when booking the car in for additional work so as to prevent any confusion, it is on both labour and parts IIRC. 👍

Well mine was fitted yesterday, apparently according my service engineer it is still an escalating problem.

My lockers were going rusty and some of the other looked a bit battered from wheel on and off removal' I never thought about warranty just got a full set off ebay for around £38. The lockers are a better design and less likely to rust than the OE Lexus ones I think

I think your right John I might get it sorted tomorrow as I am going in to get the Catloc fitted.

When we bought the CT in 2018 it was 4yr old with 36k on the clock. it came with 1yr Lexus warranty and I purchased an additional full Lexus Extended for 2 years at a cost of £450 which will expire in about 4 months. The car is only averaging a max of 2 or 3k a year and they offered me another 2 for1 for £495 which I was going to decline because of the usage. The Warranty now includes the £39 MOT test fee which will be deducted from the current service plan and looking at what the Lexus road side assist entails it would cost somewhere in the mid to high 100s to get equivalent RAC or AA cover with home start. So it appears that if I allow for the MOT saving and the road side assist saving, the extra cost for warranty is excellent value, yes ????

My used 2014 Ct200h Advance came with a fully documented service book, so I would presume your 2013 should have one.

Mini extractors arrived today sizes go from 0 to 4 so the 0 should suffice, still waiting on the new screws though, hopefully they will be the right size.

Thanks for the info Steve, Ours is booked in at Lexus on Friday for a fitting, they reckon it could delay the theft by up to 30mins which sounds like a decent deterrent.

Fair comment Linas, But I think I would prefer dealing with damage that didn't offer the scumbags a profit than letting them make money from me, by stealing something of value. I spoke to Lexus Birmingham today they reckon it was 3 or 4 in for cat theft last month, one was a 68 plate they had only sold very recently. I was told that the higher ground clearance vehicles like the RX450h are more favoured because they can be cut without the need for jacking up. Not too concerned about ours but decided it's a bit like car insurance if you have it you probably never make a claim but if it expires smash bang 😔 They reckon the Lexus Catlock could extend the process of removal by up to 30mins even if the right tools were at hand. As such our Ct200h is booked in for Friday to have one fitted @ £275 inc vat and a car clean, it's only money that cannot be spent in lockdown 😄

It seems that Hybrid models are the firm favourite because the operating system means the CC tends to be much cleaner than conventional cars. Putting our cars at the top of the pecking order While I think we would agree that if they want it, it will be gone. Does the Lexus catlock offer any real deterrent in stopping the theft, i.e. delay the theft process long enough to make the investment worthwhile? Why didn't they just stick to mugging us oldies at the cash Machine, I blame the cashless society we are leaning towards 😉

I find it hard to imagine where there would be any kind of market for old used catalytic convertors, unless of course they have some decent scrap metal value. After all said and done it's not a big repair issue item, is it ?

Hi Mark I am just making sure the right size new screw are in my possession before I try and get the damaged ones out, as they certainly wont be reusable 😉 With the info I have gleaned off you guy's and google, I am sure they will be coming out lol!

So measuring is a bit of a hit and miss thing being so small, I estimated as near as my old eyes allow, for them to be a big 1mm in diameter probably 1.2 mm and about 3mm in length. I have ordered an assorted box of 1.2mm and 1.4mm etc watch and specs screws of ebay for around £3.50. I also ordered a micro set of easy outs for £4, just in case the less invasive extraction methods fail to bear fruit 😉 I should have them in about a week and will let you know if it went well lol! I did phone Lexus parts first to see if they could supply the correct screws for the fob, I would have been better off talking to next doors cat, the more I explained the problem the more confused he got, to the point that the only suggestion he could come up with was a pair of new key fobs. 🤣🙄.

I am definitely a tool freak and although now retired did 50 yrs in the motor trade Wholesale Motorfactor in my 20's to ground up high end Car (mainly Mercedes) and Motorcycle restorations. I am sourcing the tiny screw extraction tools as we speak lol! When I locate the screws I will order several spares in case any members need a few 😃