Herbie

@james250 The post above is the first one from you since the 25th so how have you gone on - any progress?

I think you've misunderstood Phil. We now have a hybrid but it was our old RX300 non-hybrid that we had converted to LPG. Although it is technically possible to convert a hybrid and some people have, personally I wouldn't. I really don't see the point in adding another layer of complexity into a car that is already very complex as it is.

We had intended to keep our RX300 for at least five years and probably more but we had a change of circumstances and received some inheritance money, so we traded it in for our current car just two years after buying it. It had 79k miles on when we bought it and about 102k when we sold it. It was absolutely rock-solid and I'm confident that it would have gone on for another 100k miles at least. Within a month of buying it and knowing we were keeping it for a long time, we had it converted to LPG and it was excellent. The conversion cost about £1,400 if I remember right but was well worth it. I seem to remember that running on petrol was coming out at about 22.5p per mile but after conversion, running on LPG was about 12 or 13p per mile.

Any progress on this Steven?

Hi Nadeem and welcome to the club. We had a 2005 RX300 before trading up to our current RX450h so I know you'll love the car Let's see some photos of your new beast when you can, and if you need to ask any questions or need any help, be sure to post in the dedicated RX forum rather than this 'New Members' area. There's lots of helpful folk around and I'm sure you'll get any answers you need. Above all else, enjoy the car!

I have never, ever, known anyone having to replace their cat because it 'wore out'. They just keep on working for the whole life of the car (a catalyst is something which enables a reaction between other substances but which is not altered in any way itself) so an old one is just as good as a new one, ergo there can be no betterment.

Although the text is mangled these may help with locating what you need - but I'd still take it to a specialist anyway:

I would have absolutely no confidence in Halfords to do something like this anyway. As we know from another recent thread someone on here took their RX450h hybrid to Halfords for a regas and they caused hundreds of pounds-worth of damage. The branch he used didn't have a proper aircon machine to carry out the work. All they did was to basically use a 'top-up' can of gas, open the tap until no more would go in and then close the tap. The proper procedure is to hook it up to the machine, recover what gas is in there and check the quantity, pull a vacuum on the system and see if it holds and if it does, refill the system with the correct amount of gas. What I'm saying is that if they've done the same on your car, maybe it's simply still blowing warm because it's not got the correct quantity of gas in the system. I would take it to a proper aircon specialist to let them diagnose it properly.

Sorry, I don't know the answer to your question but it would seem very strange for a "solar sensor" to be under anything - surely it's purpose is to detect sunlight/daylight/temperature so would need to be up near window height somewhere? It also depends where the car was when they ran the diagnostic. Because it's looking for solar radiation (light) if the car was in a garage bay or somewhere out of daylight, it wouldn't be unusual for these codes to come up. Try clearing the codes and look again in daylight or when shining a torch on the sensor.

First guy has a relay box so they have the equipment, but don't want the hassle of removing the steering lock. I do admit that all steering locks are not equal but the one I have has been tested by two motoring organisations and each time took more than five minutes of attacking it with hammers, saws and chisels to defeat it. That's five minutes of noise and hassle that they just don't want or need.

No doubt the Ghost system is good but it can only come into effect once the scrotes are already in your pride and joy, at which point they may become vindictive and frustrated at not being able to drive it away and cause damage like ripping through the leather seats with a knife or some other damage. I still reckon deterrent is the best plan. Make them think it's too much hassle and they'll move to an easier target.

If the scrote with the relay box is at the front of the house and the key is at the furthest point at the back of the house, they can receive the signal.

Honestly don't know but that's what I'm paying so I'm happy

Of course it is. Your car has now reached an age where it makes no sense at all to go to the main dealers for any work or even for parts like brakes etc. The only time you'll need to go there is for some Lexus-specific part that can't be bought anywhere else (which may be the case for these two-part brake discs). There are plenty of excellent garages and mechanics out there who can work on your car to a very high standard. Don't forget that it's a Lexus but it's still 'a car', not some other-worldly thing that's unknown to anyone who doesn't come from the Planet Lex.

This is the actual quote I got from Lexus Teeside and it's 'live' now, in other words I went ahead and signed the paperwork. Don't take any notice of the mileages shown as they made a mistake - it's currently up to 47,874 miles: Maybe they made a mistake or maybe they gave me some other discount, I don't know, but that's the price I got it for (payments being taken monthly).

That's because this trick doesn't work for series 3 RXs, only series 4 from 2015/16 onwards I believe.

This is the video mentioned above, but I don't think her existing system is a Mark Levinson, although I may be wrong:

Or with 'Gold Member' discount from here, just short of £570

£39.95 per annum - well worth it in my opinion.

Well there you go - every day is a school day! That's why I love forums like this, because there's always something new to learn. I suppose looking at it logically the coolant only needs to flow when the engine is working so it can be belt-driven. No point in squirting water around the system when the engine isn't working so no need for an electric water pump. Cheers Alan

If only life were that simple It's a completely different engine and a completely different set up. The RX350 is a petrol engine and the water pump is belt driven from the engine. Because the engine doesn't run all the time in a hybrid nothing can be belt-driven, so the water pump in a 450h is electrically operated. Different engine, different pump, different orientation, different everything.

That sensor from China should be fine. In the meantime, have you taken yours off to see if its repairable? Could just need the internal contacts cleaning or one of the springs replaced.

There's no real need to get hung up about service history, or at least not about having a full Lexus history. I used to do all my own servicing and most jobs on the car when I was physically able to, but I couldn't put a stamp in the book. What I could, and did do, was to keep all the receipts for parts and mark the mileage on the receipt so that it tallied with MOT history etc. Also, Lexus servicing is not cheap so when a car gets to a certain age (maybe 9 or 10 years old) there's absolutely no point in spending extortionate amounts at a main dealers. As I've said in many postings, it may be a Lexus but it's still just 'a car' and any reputable, trusted, garage will be able to service it. There may also be people who have a close family member in the trade. For instance, if you have a brother who's a good mechanic and he says, "You buy the parts and I'll do the service in exchange for you looking after the kids this Saturday night", you're not going to turn him down in order to spend a few hundred quid at Lexus are you? And finally there's people like me who buy a car and run it for years and years until it dies, so resale value and stamps in the book mean nothing.

Very true - but not very secure. You need to keep luggage below the cargo cover to keep things away from prying eyes that may think, "I'm having that!"

I do believe you're right Eddy, well done, I missed that.