Herbie

We bought our car at Lexus Teeside and, even though it's over 100 miles/2 hour drive away, that's where I've set up the servicing and extended warranty agreements. With hindsight, maybe not the most practical of decisions but partly driven by the fact that I'd heard that my nearest dealership (30 miles away) doesn't have a brilliant reputation for servicing/Customer Service and Teeside were absolutely excellent to deal with when we bought the car. On Monday I'll be ringing to book it in for its 50k/5-year service (even though it's only done 41k) and I'm just wondering how long it will take? I've seen tell on these forums of people dropping off their cars for servicing and getting a courtesy car from the dealer but how long can it be kept? Is it feasible to keep the courtesy car overnight? The logistics involved in getting to Lexus Teeside means that I could only be there for about lunchtime, so would I just have to hang around while they work on my car or would I be able to say that I'd pick it up the day after and keep their courtesy car overnight?

Original battery 5 years old and only 5,000 miles a year. Some of those miles presumably in winter when you have headlights on early and for longer, heater, demister, deicer, heated rear window and maybe heated seats too. All that drain on the battery with no real chance for the alternator to recharge it properly leads me to think the battery has just given up the ghost and did indeed need to be replaced. However, there are some tests you can do to prove the hypothesis but at the very least you'll need a multimeter. First, check for what the 'standing voltage' of the battery is and compare to this chart: Next, fire up the engine and see what voltage is at the battery terminals now that the alternator is spinning - it should be about 14.2V if the alternator is working. Now turn on the headlights, heater, heated seats/rear screen etc., and the voltage should still be above 13V. If everything is OK then you've just proved that the alternator is working well and is charging the battery as it should. If the voltages are down then get your alternator checked by a proper auto-electrician rather than a 'traditional' mechanic. Remember that there is a certain amount of current draw when the car is just parked up, such as the alarm system, the radio memory and presets etc., but even so, you should be able to leave it standing for weeks rather than days and it'll still fire up when you need it to. If the battery is losing so much charge that it won't start the car then it's possible that you have a parasitic drain that needs investigating. If you want to do it yourself there are plenty of videos on Youtube showing you how to do it, otherwise it's our friend the auto-electrician again.

I'm using this one in my RX450h and it works well. Don't buy it from there though, much cheaper elsewhere.

No worries Gavin. Have a look here for an explanation of what you should and hopefully shouldn't see.

Sorry Abdul, I can't tell you what you need because I haven't got a CT200h but the owner's manual should tell you, or if you didn't get a manual with the car then I'm sure a few minutes googling will come up trumps.

Sounds like you got a great deal that you just couldn't refuse and I can see that, especially if, like me, you've never had a brand new car before. However, why you would think is well beyond me I'm afraid. It doesn't look that different from those of the recent past and you can even see the 'family resemblance' right back to almost the first generation. Each to their own, of course, but for me, in the words of Craig Revell-Horwood, "Bo-ring dahling" 😉

Just buy the individual bulbs rather than a kit - here's where I got most of mine.

Refrigerant sight glass for the aircon.

Great until you need spare parts and they aren't available. I once had to scrap a perfectly good Nissan because a headlight unit lens had broken and there were none to be had throughout Europe, Japan or anywhere else that I could find - not even in breakers/scrappies.

And I bought Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen2 at £180 each, fitted.

OK, so maybe I got the figures a bit wrong. It is a while ago now and I haven't got the paperwork to refer back to because I included it with all other paperwork for the new owner when we traded up to our RX450h - perhaps it was closer to two years. Either way, it paid for itself and started saving money in two years or less - certainly not a long time, especially if you're keeping the car for a long time like we tend to do. I just like looking at the end figures where a journey that would have cost over £900 in petrol was actually about £437 because the LPG is cheaper. I seem to remember someone on here doing a comparison on fuelly.com and finding that a petrol only RX300 came in at 22.6p per mile, an RX400h (nearest equivalent as it's built on the same body etc) was 19.5p per mile and his LPG RX300 was running at 12.6p per mile. As for your other points, my insurance company added £25 per year to the policy but I had it in writing from them that this was to cover the LPG equipment and the breakdown company had no problem at all with providing cover for a car without a spare wheel, even though there should have been one. LPG has been around for many, many years and although these may have been valid points at one time, that's no longer the case.

Not necessarily. A proper conversion will cost about £1300 to £1400. Ours paid for itself in about 14 months and was great, well worth the outlay. I had an 85L tank fitted where the spare wheel used to live on our old RX300 and just carried a can of Holts TyreWeld goo around for small punctures, letting the breakdown service take care of anything too big for the goo to handle. LPG really is excellent and I'd have it done again in a heartbeat but, although it's technically possible to convert a hybrid, it may not be a wise move as you're just adding yet another layer of complexity to an already very complex car.

It is possible that it's the alternator but somehow I doubt it. The alternator only comes into play once the engine is running and it feeds all electrical circuits first, then if there's enough power left over (so to speak) it will charge the battery. If the battery still has enough power to feed the starter motor (draws about 300A on cranking) and fire the engine, it should also power the radio etc. Does the radio work without the engine running? I don't know of anything in a car that is intelligent enough to decide what needs power and what can do without it, so my money is still on a major fuse. Having said that though, how have you tested all the 'normal' fuses - just by looking at them or by checking continuity with a multimeter? Multimeter is the only reliable way really. EDIT: Also possibly a bad earth somewhere. Take off and clean both the main earth strap from battery to body and also the engine earth strap too.

I think I'd disconnect the battery for a few minutes as it may reset something but it may be one of the master fuses.

I have to confess that although I fully intended to do the job myself, an injury prevented my use of the spanners so a mate of mine who is a mechanic of more than 30 years experience did it for me. It is an awkward job for a DIY or hobby mechanic but not impossible and for someone like my mate it was merely slightly annoying 😉 I'll PM you a copy of the workshop manual tomorrow but for now this may give you a bit of an insight:

My late (November) 2013 RX450h displays four separate pressures but doesn't identify which pressure relates to which tyre.

Exactly what Linas says. Put a screwdriver in the slot and lift the cover off to expose the button for the shift lock, as in the video below (starts at the point you need):

Yes - stick to the proper Toyota Type-IV. The fluid has various friction modifiers and other properties and the seals within the system are engineered to cope with that particular chemical makeup. It's not worth trying to save a few quid now and then possibly have a major tranny failure later. When we bought our 2005 RX300 it had 79k miles on it and, as with every secondhand car I've ever bought, I changed all fluids as a matter of course. I intended to drop the pan from the transmission to install a new ATF strainer/filter so bought that as well as the gaskets etc. I think the strainer and gasket set were about £80 if I remember right and I bought two 5L tubs of Toyota Type-IV ATF for £75.60 from my local Toyota main dealer (nearest Lexus dealer is about 30 miles away).

A week after buying our RX450h from Lexus Teeside we were visiting family in Carlisle and I called in to Lexus to ask advice because I was unsure if the 'Hill Start Assist' was working correctly. I had to ask three separate people, all from the sales side, before I finally got the answer "I don't know how it works and I've got to unload these cars so I haven't got time to find out". Rather unhelpful I thought, to such a degree that I'll never go back in there!

Is yours a Mk 4 because my Advance is a Mk 3 (first registered in November 2013) and it doesn't have the ML system. Maybe they were an option rather than standard?

I think it may mean that they are literally spare fuses, not necessarily spare slots that are available to be used for circuits. Pull the fuses out from 40, 41 and 42 and you may even see that there are no metal contacts for the fuses to push into and they are just 'place holders' to leave spare fuses in. When you look at a fusebox you see the top end. The wires that feed the fuses come in and out from underneath, at the bottom end, so if there were spare wires, where would they go to and how would you access them? I think the only way is to utilise a piggyback fuse tap. Oh, and if you're going to do any electrical work then a multimeter is essential. You can get a cheap and cheerful one for under £10 if necessary but even really decent ones can be had for about £30.

I completely agree, along with Kwik-Fit too, but as you say, if money's a bit tight at the moment....

Just received the latest newsletter from the Money Saving Expert website and thought this may be of use to someone: Free MOT at Halfords

Are you sure the problem is at the gearbox end? The reverse light switch is part of the neutral safety switch (makes sure that the car only starts in P or N) so are you getting any other symptoms to do with starting that would indicate a fault with that switch and have you definitely ruled out a simpler solution, like a fuse perhaps?

Yes - thread about it here (look for other posts by @BrightonRX300 for more details of his conversion):