Steven Lockey

If it was misfires, you'd 100% have error codes.

I think its 5.2 if you turn the electronics off and how how to pull off manually extremely well. You lose a bit with the electronics on as they are a bit overly paranoid and limit the power more than is needed at lower speeds.

Most have integrated batteries so its not possible to easily replace the battery. Detachable batteries would likely become unreliable if places inside a wheel and spun rapidly 😉

Mercs are great, they are very similar to Lexus. BMW and others, not so much.

Yep, its the great thing about buying older high-end cars. Cheap and high quality. Only thing I miss is all the phone gadgets newer cars have.

Yeah that's a decent price, around what you'd expect if they do decent work (check warranty length) But the amount of difference it will make is negligible. I'd not bother spending anywhere near that much unless you need to replace the exhaust anyway. I mean I can tell it sounds different if I really concentrate on it, but no where near enough difference to be worth anywhere near that much.

True, but its less of an issue if its going into the water since the coolant fluid tends to turn into a horrible sludge when combined with oil and high temperatures. And engines don't like being lubricated by sludge 😉 Might cause some issues with the cats through.

Should see signs of that in the oil if its leaking into the engine.

On my GS which is also pre-facelfit, the parking sensor button is in the drop-down control panel on the far right. If the parking sensors are active, you'll have a light on the dash. GS doesn't have soft close doors no.

For someone as inept as me, procedure was call garage, arrange time, drive in, wait 1 hour, drive home warm 😉 I looked at doing it myself but the garage only wanted £70 to do it so by the time I brought everything and messed about wasn't worth it for the £20 or so I'd save.

Coolant system bleed, feet now warm again 🙂

Nevermind, think I found the answer from 8 years ago on this very forum. Also a post I commented on 3 years ago before I had this issue 😉 Looks like it maybe a air-lock in the heating matrix and just needs running with the cap open and refilling with coolant.

Before I start digging about thought I would ask here. Basically the issue is, when I'm driving slowly (sub-50), I basically get no cabin heat bar the heated seats. Vents just blow cold, even if the temp is set to maximum (I thought it might be a sensor problem but seems not). But it works fine if I'm going 50+ and comes on if for example I'm going up a hill or constantly accelerating hard at lower speeds. Now this all leads to their not being enough engine heat to transmit.... but the thing is, its like 30+ minutes before the heat kicks in below 50 (and often goes cold again). Engine temp on dash rises normally to half-way point before stopping as you'd expect so nothing abnormal there. It's up to the normal level and sitting there regardless if the air-vents are blowing cool or hot. Only sane explanation I can think of is the heat-exchanger isn't connected to the air-vent properly so engine has to be particually hot to actually transfer heat. Any other ideas or where to look for the heat exchanger on a GS450h (pre-facelift) would be appreciated.

300wh/mile might be a touch optimistic given Tesla LR only gets 255 and has a significantly better drag coefficient. Personally I'd assume something like 400-500wh/mile and be pleasantly surprised if you get more. But if you are happy with that range, sounds like a great project. Also give it a year or two and you might be able to swap the battery pack over to a solid state one or semi-solid state, which would significantly increase the range and decrease charge times.

Ah, replacing the ECU explains it. Didn't know it had the ECU replacement built in. That would solve the previous issue and unlock the full 200hp. Confused about your other statement about the BHP of the electrics? They are only rated to 200BHP together so if he's getting more than that output, they are running above their rated maximums which would worry me slightly. Wasn't sure if you meant that on a different car however since you mentioned a BMW. I mean they will work like that for a while but at over 10% over max, will seriously hurt reliability. I'd be interested to see how much difference it makes. I'd guess very little if any. Probably a bit faster on the 0-30 then falls away quickly after that where the normal 450h is able to apply its extra HP to the road. Yeah but it's not the same. Even with under the hood fully loaded with batteries, what sort of range are you expecting? Not done the maths, but I'd be guessing 100-150 miles tops? Even that might be optimistic? Not sure how much battery power you can pack in there.