Richard Fixter

Just an addendum to this The VSC light on its own is vehicle stability if on with another light it is Vehicle System Check.

A couple of things come to mind from when my 12v battery went south, usually from cold when I move off the car moves off on electric and then starts the engine a little while later switches to petrol ,this didn't happen so I was revving a cold engine to get moving I assume running richer than normal. A lot of functional errors came up as well maybe the engine ecu could be affected by low voltage and cause the car to run in a richer mode.Seems like a lot of sensors are run by the 12v system such as the 02 sensors etc so could this cause the engine to run richer?

This is possibly the worst body panel to repair.I have changed a lot of bumpers,Through work not because I crash a lot, there are plastic clips bolted to the body which interlock into tabs on the bumper. The tabs on the bumper are fare weaker than the clips and when removing 8 times out of ten its the tabs on the bumper that get broken which equals new bumper as they are moulded when the bumper is made.If you can get hold of some plastic weld you may be able to repair the bumper or a really good quality plastic cement. I would check which its is before getting the bumper retainers. HTH

I went for the rx330 kit the tensioner is different after 2003 but I did a bit of research first by going to gates website and trying to find the part numbers for my car also parts are listed on ebay etc on rockauto site usually there are cross references for original manufacturer part numbers if you have a 2003 model year registered in 2004 there may be a problem I was confident as my car is 2005. All Lexus did as far as I can work out is make the same engine but bored out for the USA the rest of the UK car is the same as the RX330 including handbrake cables as I have bought them from Rock auto also. I hope that Helps.

Toyota policy was 16yrs lifespan before they stopped stocking the parts, we had parts for stored for the original carina e when I left 17yrs after the first one rolled off the production line I don't know what they would do with unused parts but you have to remember like all manufacturers they don't make their own parts other than the metal so ac delco or Gates etc may continue making parts long after, if there are a large number of cars still on the road.

I have a 2005 rx300 and the kit for that from rock auto was for an rx 330 the only difference I could work out between earlier rx 300 and later rx 300 was the tensioner. I did a lot of research cross checking part numbers on Gates and other websites before buying though.

When you switch to manual it automatically selects 4th if you push the lever to minus it will go down one gear minus again to second. If you push it to plus it goes the other way there are 5 in total.

I have changed cambelt twice on mine but haven't changed the water pump I have used Gates kits from America which come with a water pump but there was no freeplay in the original so didn't change it If I had gone for the more expensive aisin kit I would probably have changed water pump as well because they are oem. The gates water pumps have plastic impellers where as the original is metal.There is a real good video on you tube regarding changing the transmission fluid if you do change it buy original Toyota or a quality Aisin warner fluid not dextron it has to be aisin warner. If when you change the fluid the pipe for the transmission cooler looks really rusty I have one that's not in bad nick you can have for postage,I changed it out thinking it was worse than it was. If you use Rock Auto you will need to cross check part numbers because for our model they only list RX330 which is fine for the cambelt kit and some other parts but not for eu specific parts. hth Richard.

I've just done my discs and pads on the front of my RX300 £66 for blueprint discs and £27 for brembo pads so £93 for the parts about an hour in Labour. If you are only talking discs and pads any garage can do them just take it to one you know is good or gets good recommendations from friends.

Generally with anything Toyota/Lexus there would be a template for dealer fit parts, so I am guessing they just followed the template? There may well be a reason the hole needs to be so big but it does look sizeable to me .

If you have towing electrics you will have a little emulator box which stops the car thinking there is a blown bulb when trailer attached. could it be this that is causing the problem.

It's a Toyota global production thing I am guessing after 2003 the 3 litre engine was too puny for the American market so they put a 3.3 litre in and called it the RX330 everything on our 2003- 2006 RX300 was the same as their RX330 when I ordered a cam belt kit it was for the RX330 same for handbrake cables and power steering components.

I have done a bit of research on the Direct and Port injection and the one thing I couldn't work out is that Lexus says the car switches seamlessly between direct injection and port injection so if the direct injection is not being used on petrol would it not then overheat? I am also at a loss as to how you could LPG one but have seen it done on a polish installers web site. I think I will have to do a bucket load of research for when the time to change comes.

I am currently running an RX300 on lpg and was looking to convert to a 2014 is rx450h have checked out the google and have seen this model converted.Also seen some of the earlier 450h and 400h in the flesh whilst filling up at Asda both drivers said they were excellent so with lpg at 52p per litre that makes for one very economical car.

How badly are they leaking I read a post on the American site that said just changing the oil can stop this so when mine started weeping I changed the oil and suprisingly this worked.Something to do with water in the oil and when it gets hot steam causes positive pressure plus also the new oil helps refresh the seals. I think they are about a £5 each from rockauto in the states plus postage for your year its RX330. Hth