Herbie

That was my point - it isn't - certainly not in the 2013 RX I used to have and the 2018 RX I now have.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/omega-1-is-a-game-changing-internal-combustion-engine-too-good-to-be-true-179507.html

The one that Peniole linked to is not intended to start the car, but rather to be left connected for, say, 20-25 minutes to push a charge into the flat car battery, which can then be used to start the car.

Again, I think it's a case of reading the manual. Certainly, none of the 12V power/cig lighter sockets in my 2018 RX will work with power off. The car must be in either ACC or READY for power to be available at these sockets, therefore no booster could be plugged into one and be expected to provide power into the car. I would assume the same to be true of all Lexus models/variants but who knows - that's something only an owners manual will tell you.

Well done Peniole sir The fourth post down on that page is exactly what I was talking about, so thanks for that my friend.

Gut feeling says that's bull**** I'm only a hobby mechanic but surely that can't be right?

Good point my friend, I'd forgotten about the EPB. I'm with you on this one, why change from manual parking brake? Nothing wrong with a manual one and I do wonder if the electronic ones are a case of technology just for the sake of it rather than it being a real improvement.

Fitting a Grom Vline 2 into the space under the centre console lift-out bin:

I suppose different models could be different, but my 2018 RX didn't need to be in ACC mode when I recently stripped out my centre console. In fact, the Power button was in the house so I couldn't have put it into ACC anyway

Dumb? I don't know but one of my pet hates is people who don't read their owners manual I'm assuming that your car is equipped with a 'shift lock' as all my RXs have been? All you needed to do was press it in and you could have moved the gear lever. In the photo below you just pry up that cap and press the shift lock button that it reveals:

You misunderstand me Vadim. Yes, there is a part number and any dealer can order that part for you, but when it arrives it will not be a brand new battery pack, just a reconditioned one. I'll try to find the original post where I read about this.

I don't think that's quite true. Someone on these forums has (I think) an IS300h that he uses as a taxi and he did a brilliant write-up of his DIY battery change. Of course, now that I want it I can't find it but I'm sure he said he paid about £2,500 but that was for a reconditioned battery pack. There is no catalogue listing for a brand new pack so you just can't get brand new, only recon. Of course recon units are like new anyway. The plastic casings can be reused, as can most of the metal parts too; the only things that need to be replaced are the chemicals within the cells.

Android 10 is being tested at the moment and should be available in the next two or three months. Overall I'm very happy with it. It does have one or two little quirks but I can live with them because they're minor annoyances rather than problems. For example, if I want to go back to the OEM screen all I have to do is to click on the Media button, but it doesn't take me back to where it was before. Having said that, it's only a couple of clicks to get there so no great problem. As far as I can tell, most things work as they should and yes, it is smooth. Originally, I could neither justify, nor did I want, to spend £510 for the Grom unit so I paid £200 for a Carlinkit Decoder 2.0 from AliExpress and it was awful. I never managed to get it working properly and there was very poor to non-existent support from China and also a lot of barriers to returning it, so I put it down to experience and got the Grom after all. I had a lot of initial problems with my Grom unit but I have to say that the UK distributor for Grom, Richard Heap from Carputer Shop in Ashby De La Zouch is very good to deal with and is very helpful. The only problem is that he is literally just a distributor and has no workshop or testing facilities. All technical help and support is done via Grom HQ in Texas, USA, and the time difference makes it very slow, literally just one message per day. If I sent a query on Monday the reply would come on Tuesday, so I'd try it and if I had to say that it was unsuccessful, they got that on Wednesday and a new suggestion would arrive on Thursday. And, of course, nothing gets done at the weekend. Although it was a bit of a faff they were very helpful and saw me through to a successful conclusion. In my case the Vline itself was perfect but the main harness they supplied with it was at fault and a new harness sorted it all out. I don't know if you've seen my topic below but if not, have a look and it may answer some of your questions that I haven't covered above:

Only a guess but maybe these are things that would generate 'Lexus-only' codes so a generic reader wouldn't be able to read them?

Hi Enrique and welcome to the club

This is what the workshop manual says about poor radio reception:

Now that is a frightening thought!

Right, I see what you mean now, fair enough, I didn't know such things existed. It's all a compromise though. People still break into banks and so on, and if they want it they'll take it - all we can do is try to deter them. The point is, if you can see the installation cables and/or the thing itself, then it's a very poor installation. My tracker is wired into the car supply but neither the tracker itself or its wiring are 'on show'. It's all hidden away and unless you had an electronic tracker finder (bug finder) then you could rip half the car apart and still not find it.

The tracker I've got (the Rewire Security DB2) can be placed anywhere in the car as long as there is a 12V supply to wire it to; could be in the roof lining, could be in the boot, could be in the spare wheel well and so on. It has an internal fuse for safety but, perhaps more importantly, it has an internal rechargeable battery that will keep the unit up and running if the car battery is disconnected or goes flat - you'll see the state of both car battery and tracker battery below. I've never seen a tracker that works on battery alone and I can't imagine it being much use really.

I agree entirely Bill and I'm sure it'll happen very soon after it becomes law.

Two things wrong with that: If the space is that tight I'd be frightened that the people either side of me would damage my car when opening their doors and would therefore never go in such a tight space Driving, manoeuvring and parking are all skills that we should be proud of and they need doing on a regular basis to keep up that skill level. I don't want a machine doing something I take pride in doing well myself.

Don't bother with the aircon service as there's absolutely no need for it. The aircon is a sealed system and there is literally nothing to service. If you've noticed that it's not getting as cold as it used to then you may have a refrigerant leak somewhere, in which case you need to have it sorted. The refrigerant doesn't have a 'use by' date and it doesn't wear out or degrade in any way. I've had cars for 10 years or more, never had the aircon serviced, and it's been as cold as the day I bought them.

All I can suggest then is to have a read of the topic below. In case you don't want to read it all, someone proved that it was down to cold/damp/moisture, in his car at least. He pulled the head-lining down to get access to the motor/ECU assembly and used a hairdryer to warm it up, after which it worked alright for a short while. Unfortunately the fault came back as it got cold and damp again, which seems to imply that the only real cure is a new unit.

You can hide this one almost anywhere you like, just as long as you have a 12V supply, although it has to be in an area that isn't covered by too much metal so that it gets a good GPS signal. There are obviously better ones with constant 24/7 monitoring in a security centre and so on but they cost a lot more and you have to pay for the monitoring as well. I think this one is a good compromise; it alerts you to movement and ignition switch on (as well as other parameters), then you can ring the police and give them a running commentary of where it is. I'm still of the opinion that prevention is better than cure so I also use the tried and tested method of a mechanical steering lock as well, so that hopefully they'll take one look and decide to move on to an easier target.

You'd think so wouldn't you, but no, they're not. They put the plates on an identical car and can then raz around committing crimes, or speeding, or not paying for petrol etc., etc., and it's you the police will come to because to all intents and purposes, that car is registered to you. I fitted a small and inexpensive GPS tracker to my car like this one an unexpected benefit of which is that if someone nicks my plates, I can prove that my car was nowhere near the scene of the crime.