Barry14UK

It's obvious really, but as cars gain all the extras we like and all the components and systems designed to extract a few extra mpg, more performance and to meet evermore stringent emission targets, there is more to go wrong. Also cars these days often include parts from countries where these can be cheaply sourced. Just about every car will develop a fault(s) if kept long enough and even with models that are generally considered reliable there will be a 'rogue' few where their owners may think that their model of car is unreliable. Some models have acquired a reputation for having one or more particular faults. BMW in particular has come in for a lot of criticism and there are well known problems with for example the cooling system (which can be largely preempted by replacing parts as part of a maintenance schedule.) Control arms, drop links and suspension bushes also need earlier replacement than expected and the membrane seals in the doors can fail in a few years causing water ingress. Also, the plastic adjusters in the 'Hella' headlights fail over time causing the lights to dance and become a MOT failure. They have a few other issues but In other respects, I don't think they are any more unreliable than other marques and I have had 4 and still have one now. They are comfortable, handle and brake well and are well finished. The interior of my 2001 E39 doesn't have all the hard area of plastic found in my Premium 2015 RX450h. Incidentally, I had a 2.5L V6 Camry for a few years some time ago and although it was a nice car, it needed head gaskets, radiator, recon drive shafts, suspension bushes, boot hinges and a few other sundry parts. It had a lightweight feel about it like a twang when closing a door compared to my BMW or Mercedes that had safelike doors by comparison. Also, an electrical problem which needed a lot of investigating was sorted when auto electricians eventually found the problem when they opened up a main harness wherein very unusually there was a broken wire. I think this car along with a couple of Fiat cars got my vote for being the most problematical. My least troublesome car was my 1958 Morris Minor 1000 which once needed a touch with some wet and dry to the points in the petrol pump. It was a slug but gave circa 40mpg but began to use too much oil, possibly because I thrashed it from cold each morning to the station and because oils and metallurgy were not so good then. This car was replaced with an MG ZB Varitone which was reliable, only needing a wheel cylinder replaced during several years of ownership and also some work done on the sills. After this was done, I sprayed it mid blue in my garage and kept it until at high miles the teeth wore on the starter ring due to starter throwing in at same position every time car started causing it to jam and need to free with spanner. These were the days of spark plugs, points and condenser, oil and filters and some grease nipples; little to go wrong, hand wound door glass, no switches and relays there and without all the complications of modern car electrics generally. The Italian cars I had all suffered quite severely from rust as well as other problems. I liked the look of the Alfa Stervio but there are questions about build quality already yet alone in the long term. All my other cars needed something doing aside from regular maintenance. Probably the best was a W124 Mercedes coupe which only needed a partial under bonnet cable harness - well known fault I was told with heat destroying the insulation causing misfire on the former eastern block sourced harness. The car felt like it was hewn out of rock but was rather bargelike compared to the BMW's that followed.

As regards trolley jacks, I read a report sometime ago which recommended to avoid alloy ones but i probably went over the top a bit in buying a 3T 'Compac' (made in Denmark rather than a Chinese offering). Important of course to have adequately specified stands too.

Be aware that some of the coastal towns in Devon and Cornwall are very busy, clearly destinations for those that would otherwise be going abroad but for Covid-19 restrictions. It would be interesting to know what your mpg works out to for the trip.

What a vast colour choice offered with those Minors! Mine was one of the mid to dark greens of 1958 and my 1st proper car. It was so simple and easy to maintain but the acceleration was poor, particularly having come from some pretty quick motor cycles.

The NX is the most attractive Lexus SUV in my eyes - enjoy!

You may have been right about driving with lights on. Few drivers did so outside statutory lighting hours at the time. The 130 coupe had a number of advanced features, was attractive for it's time and was commodious. Unfortunately, there were so many faults and shortcomings, I broke both of mine for spares which were expensive and hard to come by. Specific colours do seem to suit particular cars best in the view of most people so this and current fashion can influence what is available for those of us who buy only previously owned a few years on.

It's pretty inevitable that with age and flexing these will crack/perish. I would go along with getting an appropriate gaiter and cut it lengthwise. Make sure its clean and carefully join with good quality superglue having removed any powder. Then apply cable ties. It's amazing how well superglue can secure rubber. I have seen this done on the drive shafts on some cars where there is grease. Indeed some universal kits are supplied to be joined this way. whether there is one suitable for the your Lexus would require some research.

When it comes to Goodyear's, the Vector 4's have good reports in tests, particularly if you are mainly more North in the UK but probably differences between good brands are probably not great. Anyway, glad the noise has gone. I must admit I was very skeptical about the noise on mine being due to the Dunlops but this proved to be the case.

I have been prejudiced against dark blue ever since I was T boned by a driver who came straight out from a side road onto the main road I was on. He said he didn't see my 4.75meter long Fiat 130 car of this colour https://www.classicitaliancarsforsale.com/1973-fiat-130-coupe-5/ I felt safer in the silver one I had of the same model.

As a seller you would have to consider whether the cost of establishing and being able to show all was in good order would more likely result in a sale or higher price if car sold privately. I doubt Lexus dealers would pay more as they hedge their warranty costs elsewhere. If you buy direct from Lexus or reputable dealer you have the guarantee. Maybe some people would be prepared when buying privately to pay extra for this as they sometimes do for a pre purchase RAC inspection and report. It also has to be remembered that like the MOT, the check is only applicable at that point in time and battery and air suspension components could fail unpredictably shortly after testing/inspection.

Looks a little darker from pic posted than I envisaged and if you like it fine, however, although perhaps not a consideration now, at some stage you will probably want to update it and how popular a colour is can affect it's value and ease of sale. One other thought is that if driven in the country colours that tend to merge into backgrounds and are therefore less obvious, tend to be subject to more accident damage.

Khaki Green! This was the colour of our webbing years ago in the British Army. in some areas. We used to treat it with and polish it with Blanco which came in several shades. Can't believe Lexus would use this LOL. It was also used on Army vehicles including motor cycles.https://www.google.com/search?source=univ&tbm=isch&q=Blanco,+for+khaki+webbing&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjPxOSh2YzrAhWMVBUIHV4rBvoQsAR6BAgKEAE&biw=1056&bih=454#imgrc=BqZ3O3PIUK9T-M

Hello Peter, Good hunting.

Surely the proof of the pudding is in the eating when it comes to using these jump start devices on our hybrid cars. Theoretically they should should work and only need charging very occasionally. It would be helpful therefore, if a few members could confirm they have actually used them successfully and without damage to their cars. I believe one person has done so but we have learnt that one person 'got away' with using his 12v battery to start another car whilst still on his car which is not recommended. So I would be more happy to know that the start device had been used more than once.

I will be arranging to take my RX for service there later that month or early next month but it will be their 'economy' service, pretty much the same as standard although due to small mileage I do, exacerbated by non use for four months, it has only just done over 40K but would be 50K service. It's not my nearest Lexus Dealer but the car was purchased from them originally and subsequently by me and all services from new were done by them. It also means that if they will loan me a car again, I can pop over to see my sister and her husband in Stroud for much of the day.

Had same experience as Les. Was pretty sure it was a wheel bearing. Was assured on here and by Lexus it was highly likely to be the the Dunlop tyres which still had quite a bit of tread but were just starting to crack. Replaced these with Michelin Cross Climates and noise gone and better ride ensued.

I would endeavor to get my money back from the trader. If you leave it to the trader to fix it for you and they are prepared to do this, you might end up with a unit he has purchased from a breaker that may be oil tight but has covered many more miles and who knows how long that will give satisfactory service. Are you prepared to take this chance? Many years ago I bought my first BMW, a 528 petrol of about 1997 vintage. The air bag warning light was on and the trader agreed to pay for the cost of a BMW dealer doing what was necessary to fix this. I took it to a franchised BMW dealer who said while investigating this that the car needed a replacement bottom end because it had the 'Nikasil' problem, (premature failure of coating on cylinder bores), a widespread issue at the time. In view of relatively low mileage BMW agreed to replace the bottom end FOC but would not pay for pulling the motor out and transferring the existing head onto the replacement block and refitting. This would still have been expensive and the trader refused to pay for this. He said he could buy a used engine from a breaker and install this for £500 and offered this instead. But I bought the car on the strength of it being low mileage and was not prepared to chance any used engine of unknown provenance being fitted. Luckily the trader had previously collected it from the BMW dealer as I refused to drive it. I took the case to the small claims court but the dealer failed to attend and the judgement was given against the trader who failed to return my cash. It wasn't until the trader was told that bailiffs would be attending his premises to remove cars that he responded and I got my money back. So persistence paid. As a point of interest, does anybody know whether there are any independent specialists that rebuild Toyota/Lexus transmissions.? There are many that do conventional manual or automatic boxes of course.

If you have been momentarily blinded by an oncoming car with aftermarket HIDS as many of us will have been at some time, it is surprising that it has taken so long for these to be declared illegal. These after market HIDS fitted in a housing and lens designed for Halogen may well enable the driver to see better but don't have the tight beam of factory fitted xenons and it is the scatter that causes oncoming drivers to suffer. So whether it be xenons or LED, it's sensible that headlamps have only the light emitters designed for them.

There is a buyers and sellers corner section if you scroll through the forums. In any event you should have no trouble in selling the front to back side rails. There have been 4 or 5 people seeking these since I have been on this forum including me (and I had to buy new as not readily available used)

Ride quality is a very subjective thing. There are cars that are noted for a soft ride particularly many French models whereas many German cars give quite a hard ride. Yet even with the latter there are owners who fit still larger wheels with ribbonlike tyres and compound this by fitting shorter and higher rate springs and shorter and firmer shocks. This is fine for the track but for general road use must provide a bone shaking ride on our poor roads. To such drivers the RX suspension must feel very soft! My RX450h has air suspension and I find the ride about right for me and the type of car it is. My regret is that I didn't try a conventially sprung model to make a direct comparison before purchasing mine but on other marques air suspension is supposed to give a smoother flatter ride. (Road testers took a particularly strong view of this on the Audi Q5 for example). It is interesting that Lexus dropped air suspension for the 4th Generation RX450h. One can only speculate on whether this was becase they had had a lot of trouble with the air suspension on previous generations, wanted to keep costs down or found a combination of springs/shocks that were at least as good as provided by air suspension. Use to which a car has been put and the way it has been treated as well as age and mileage, tyre type, size and pressure can all make small differences. I rembering reading a road test by a regular tester who found a 3rd Generation RX450h bouncy and floaty which mine is not, so as I said subjective.

Certainly holding the brakes on whilst stationary if car has just previously had the brakes strongly applied can cause pad material to transfer to the discs. However, if this is the case, I would expect both front discs to be similarly affected. Ask them to explain the discrepancy if you have not yet done so. If the pads were sticking in the caliper this might be a possibility but should have been determinable when individual brake performance plotted and was not offered as a base cause of problem.

A slight softening could result from fitting 18 inch rims with correspondingly higher profile tyres but I would see if you could get a ride in a model with these fitted before going this route. My RX450h certainly gave a more comfortable ride after I replaced the Dunlops with Michelin Cross Climates

I don't think it's a safety issue and provided the pads are genuine Brembo, retard the car as OE in normal driving conditions and don't fade more than stock brakes it comes down to how much you are irritated by the noise. Pad material is a bit of a compromise. Some pads work better when hot with reduced fade as used for racing, others are designed to produce less dust, Greenstuff have a different layer of break-in material (or did when I last fitted them) on another car. Some pads wear quickly but work well. In my experience of many automatics for everyday use, pads fitted originally by the factory give best results. However, for Mercedes and BMW I go with factor sourced ATE which are one of the makes used by these marques. I go along with what Colin has said about progressively breaking in new pads, but would add that particularly when the car has been slowed rapidly from high speed the brakes should not be then held on in the same place because this can lead to minute amounts of pad material being transferred onto the disk in one area and this can lead to brake judder. It certainly helps the smoothness of operation in breaking if all parts that the pads make contact with (other than of course the pad material) are appropriately lubricated. Even then with automatics where creep is a given, you are likely to get some noise and vibration with differences in pad material at slow speed.

In your situation I would either adopt the suggestion that you get a trimmer to make over-covers incorporating bolsters that can easily be removed if required when car is sold or keep the standard seats so these can be refitted when the car is sold. Selling with modified seats could affect the sale value and deter some purchasers. This situation must also be a problem for many ladies who in general have smaller frames than men. I think more manufacturers could offer greater choice with seats. My BMW came with a choice of 3 seat variations, 'standard', 'sports' with more defined bolsters etc., and 'comfort' that were more luxurious and also in cloth rather than leather as a further option.

I like to buy the concentrated and dilute to requirements. I Increase the strength as it gets colder and take the opportunity to give the wiper blades a rub over with it at the same time. Be aware though that an overstrong mix can tend to block the jets. Radiator coolant is of couse totally different and it is important that Lexus recommended fluid be used if needed. My old 2001 BMW has two systems, one for normal use and the other for a more intensive wash so I use the same stuff for the latter but at greater strenght but I don't think Lexus have achieved that level of sophistigation yet!