Steven Lockey

7 hours ago, usuf_x said:

 

Thanks Steven, im playing it by ear will see how it goes over the new days or weeks maybe lucky it might be OK, out of curiosity where did you source your battery from and is it an AGM battery?

£100 from Halfords. 
AGMs are overkill. 

If its just cos the light was left on overnight, well probably means its on it's way out soon, that wouldn't kill a fresh Battery I don't think.
Before mine finally died, if I left it running on Battery with just electronics running, it would turn off after about 30mins.

Yep, had the same issue before Xmas.
In my case the 12V Battery was doing an impression of a 3V Battery. I had noticed it was starting to die already
given the car would die and need a jump start if it was left without the engine running on standby mode (so running 
from the 12V) for more than 30 mins or so. 

Basically the car is having troubles installing the 12V circuit and the VGRS is vulnerable to fluctuations in voltage.
Since replacing the 12V (was £100 for a non-lexus equivalent) I've had zero issues since then.

I said practically impossible which is true for hydrogen due to the small size of the atom and the pressure involved. 
This is pretty basic engineering knowledge.... the world isn't full of these. There might be a few specifically designed to not
leak but these are rare extremely high tolerance examples not your common gas tank. 
The fact you don't know this is your issue.....

There is plenty of rare-earths actually, the issue is getting them with minimum environmental impact as they are hard to harvest.
Rare-earths, despite the name aren't actually rare.... and again you ignore the point that hydrogen needs JUST AS MUCH.....
Well unless you are planning to use oil/gas/coal to generate the hydrogen..... which would be stupid and defeat the point.

Again you need to educate yourself on the full costs of trying to switch everything to hydrogen.... not only the far higher energy
costs.... requiring more wind-farms e.t.c. (which need rare-earths), the hydrogen production plants themselves e.t.c.

Things that can't be "changed back to water".......  Just cos burning hydrogen produces water doesn't make it a magical substance
where all stages in the process are clean does it.

I notice you've not even TRIED to answer any of the facts I gave in my previous answer which says all it needs to about how much
you've actually looked into this subject.... Please stop spreading your ignorance and claiming they are facts. They aren't.

3 hours ago, Las Palmas said:

We need power plants to produce the power we need no matter whatever kind of storage we are going to put that power in. Hydrogen can be stored years in containers, or till it is needed, while we all know that batteries self-discharge.

 

The way to get materials back from worn out or dead batteries is inefficient and polluting using among other thing extreme amount of water, which then needs to be cleaned using again more energy.

 

Most batteries for cars we buy from China and how is it to be depending on our best friends like the Russians with their gas and oil?

 

Hydrogen is made from Water and when the energy is used, we get back water. Materials used in batteries we do not get back when batteries are dead.

 

Instead of just being sad we can have a good piece of news that Porsche has developed a hydrogen engine prototype for luxury sports cars that will not only match a V8, 4.4-liter internal combustion engine while also reducing fuel consumption and maintaining emissions equivalent to ambient air.

 

 

 

Yes and we need considerably MORE to use hydrogen. 

Amount lost through self-discharge is comparable to hydrogen leakage. It is basically impossible to store hydrogen without leaks which makes large scale hydrogen 
storage difficult... you don't want to get a potentially expensive build-up. 

Rare earths aren't actually reliant on china, they are found practically everywhere. China were the ones who started exploiting them in large amounts first. Most countries can set up rare-earth extraction facilities which is actually happening at the moment in the US and multiple other countries.
And you still need more of these with hydrogen to product the extra power production facilities.

And yet again you ignore the production facilities for that hydrogen which wear out and need to be replaced. As well as the production facilities for the extra power needed for hydrogen which wear out and need to be replaced.

And good luck buying that porsche engine... even they admitted it would be much more expensive than a EV or ICE equivalent hence their statement they weren't going to put it into production. And no, emissions weren't equivalent to ambient air, it outputs a noticeable amount of NO2. Also they haven't even actually made a prototype of this engine at the moment, it's all a simulation on a computer at the moment.

So yet AGAIN, you ignore all the downsides of Hydrogen while listing all the downsides of EVs. 

To show how much extra energy is needed for hydrogen, lets do the math shall we. 

So let's start with electric cars, its much simpler, for both we'll start after the common stages that apply to both:

80% (transport efficiency) -> 85% (car efficiency) = 68% efficient use of produced power

Now lets try hydrogen
40% (hydrogen production efficiency) -> 70% (shipping hydrogen) -> 60% (car efficiency) = 16,8%

For every produced KWh, an EV actually converts FOUR TIMES as much to useable driving energy. 

And I picked the numbers with CURRENT EVs vs all the BEST hydrogen tech in development and assumed it will work and scale up.

It just shows how much more energy you need to produce in the first place for hydrogen cars to be remotely viable even in the best possible predictions. Trying to switch to hydrogen with the current tech would be basically impossible and even more so to actually produce the energy in a green manner. 

Stop ignoring the downsides of hydrogen just to try and make it look better in comparison.

Just now, Malc1 said:

I sure hadn't realised there was a need for Rare Earth materials to build a windfarm or a tidal barrier  .  thought they would be constructed from natural materials and steel and maybe concrete or natural stone etc  ..  the storage of the electricity produced might of course require some products ,  and i know not what ........  might be like a solar panel farm somewhere  ........  but those " rare " materials would be maybe common and easy and safe to obtain

Maybe the normal stuff we would use to power-up our usual capacity for home and industrial use and  NOT for vehicle running ( apart from home plug=in EVs )

Please enlighten us  !

Malc

Yep, several rare-earth minerals are used in the actual bit that generates electric. 
Neodymium is one of the main rare earths needed (far rarer than lithium or cobalt btw) and is used in practically every single wind-farm in existence today.

Solar cells also use rare-earth minerals so you can't get away from them there either.

Same as batteries its POSSIBLE to build them without rare-earths, however it's just not sensible to do so. You end up causing even more harm because
you need twice as many wind-farms to produce the same amount of energy, which requires much more of other materials which surprise surprise.... also 
harm the enviroment to produce (and would be far far more expensive to produce the same amount of electric).

8 hours ago, Las Palmas said:

Not at all against electro motors, a well made one will outlast combustion engines. MTBF will for a brushless be at least 10 times the MTBF for the battery powering it.

Not at all against batteries, just do not like to destroy the planet in search for the rare earth materials needed to make these, when knowing there is not enough to build batteries enough to serve as power stations for all transport needs. Without even mentioning the human cost for the poor people digging them out.

https://www.resources.org/resources-radio/rare-earths-101-digging-facts-jordy-lee/

For hydrogen, on the other hand, there is no real problem as it goes back to the state it was in before when it has been used.

So, continue the destruction of our planet in search for precious batteries.

https://hir.harvard.edu/not-so-green-technology-the-complicated-legacy-of-rare-earth-mining/

https://www.sciencehistory.org/learn/science-matters/case-of-rare-earth-elements-history-future

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-10105-2

if you want more disasters, just search Google.  If you want possitive for EV's ask politicians before they find out they again are wrong.

Yep, and that is countered by the increased energy cost of producing hydrogen as well as the massive facilities they need to build to
produce said hydrogen. Every mile in a hydrogen car has over double the energy cost of a EV due to the inefficiencies in the process over
and above that of an EV. Then when you take into account the extra production facilities, transport e.t.c. for that hydrogen and the fact
hydrogen cars are less efficient as well as the extra power production needed..... well it brings it back into balance with EVs. 

Assuming you are producing all that hydrogen from green sources.... where exactly are you getting the rare earth minerals needed to build
the wind/tidal farms to produce the extra energy needed? Oh right... mining....

Again, you take all the bad stuff about EVs and ignore the downsides of Hydrogen completely. 

Is mining an issue. 100% it is. But it's not an unsolvable one and applies to both. 

2 hours ago, Las Palmas said:

 

Do you mean that inside, racing cars look beautiful?

 

So, you think that the engineers working for Toyota are complete idiots.

You are perfectly permitted to believe that.

Batteries lose efficiency in a rather limited time frame. Just look at cell phones and laptops. New batteries will cost so much that EV cars will be converted to fuel-cell cars or be landfill. Just wait. Before 2030 politicians will have found out that they were as wrong going 100% EV as they were when they promoted diesel.

Tanks should leak? How many LPG cars drive round without leaking gas?

When did I say that? I specifically stated hydrogen cars had a place.

Sure batteries drop off over time. Current batteries lose around 1% per year. Solid state batteries look like they will lose about a quarter of that so they will far outlast the rest of the car.
And then they aren't that difficult to recycle and make new batteries from. 

Hydrogen losses are considerably greater or requires a much more highly sealed system which is considerably heavier, larger and requires more maintenance and everything has to be manufactured to much higher tolerances.

Not sure why you are so bias against EVs but your bias has absolutely zero basis in reality.

On 12/29/2022 at 5:22 PM, Las Palmas said:

The inside of racing- and rally-cars are not as pretty as the inside of our Lexus cars either.

The hydrogen container in the rear of the Corolla GR Cross does not look much bigger than the LPG gas tanks and not bigger than most gasoline tanks either.

Remember, if you spill hydrogen it is less dangerous than spilling gasoline.

Not sure where you got this idea from. Or most of the other things you've posted which are flat out wrong. 

1> In order to get any sensible fuel density out of hydrogen it has to be stored under high pressure.

Not only is the pressure itself dangerous if the tank is damaged at all, but this means it dumps out a high amount of hydrogen REALLY
quickly and causes it to mix with the air. If there is a spark.... well you've just got yourself what is commonly known as a fuel-air bomb....

And it means hydrogen tanks LEAK. The combination of the small size of the hydrogen atom and the pressure means it practically impossible
to not have leaks. 

2> You talk about advancements in hydrogen cars and how that will cause them to overtake EVs.... and completely ignore that EVs are getting many
advancements as well. There are multiple new Battery techs that will give the same range with 1/2 the current batteries that are going to to production
now as well as vastly decreasing recharge times. 

3> You efficiency equations missed out a big step. The hydrogen production which is very inefficient even with the new technologies mentioned earlier.
Not only are EVs themselves more efficient, it wastes a lot less energy transmitting the power to them over the grid than it does using the same energy
to produce hydrogen, pressurise said hydrogen and then transport it to the fueling station for the car. 

4> Low temps? Unless it's below -20' C, EVs generally lose a max of 10% of their range.

Are hydrogen cars completely useless? No of course not, they have their place certainly. It's just not a place that makes EVs useless either.

12 hours ago, PRT68 said:

The irony of the penny washer is they cost more than drilling a hole in a 2p piece! That's what I did when I wanted some...

Of course technically you've committed a crime by doing this 🙂

Sounds like that guy completely ignored the error code and tried to treat it as a misfire. I believe there
is a different error code if its just misfiring. May have just been attempting a quick fix without researching
it as I can't see how a camshaft position error could ever happen due to faulty spark plugs.

The other suggestions seem sensible, I think replacing the sensor is a sensible first step as the other possibilities
are expensive.

4 hours ago, hazelnut said:

I've been in contact with the P.O. of my GS450h, and the inverter died while he was requesting maximum power leaving a round-about. So I suspect the freeze frame data was reset when it last visited the garage.

Sounds like it might of shorted and arc-welded itself then. Not the first time I've seen high voltage inverter do that.

Guess the only way to know for sure is to seal it all up and let it run!

2 hours ago, hazelnut said:

Thanks Herbs,

I think I did read that thread, and a few more. Yes, I did buy a dead hybrid, I am interested to figure out how it works, I'm an electronics engineer by trade, but my hobby is cars, so this seems to tick many boxes. If it turns out the inverter is dead I will attempt a repair.

-H

I wish you the best of luck, I think the main issue will be there are a lot of integrated components where the only option will
be to replace the whole unit which isn't cheap. 

I'm assuming you got it at basically scrap price as with a failed invertor, if you paid more you where ripped off lol
While an electronic engineer (I used to be as well 🙂 ), if you've not had experience with mid/high voltage systems, please
be very careful once the system is energised. 800v can jump a surprisingly long way in the right conditions. 

I think the other issue you may have is that you really need to elevate it to work on it, so I hope you have access to a ramp/car elevator
of some description. I can't imagine it'd be a fun job to try if you are just putting the car on jacks.

You might want to see if any scrapheaps near you have any 450h, may be your best bet for replacement parts you don't need to trade a kidney for 😉 

Not sure why you wouldn't try to get a 450h unless the 300 is a lot cheaper.

Its nippier and gets better mph due to it been a hybrid. 
Only downside is you do have the hybrid system breaking to worry about as well but they are
pretty reliable. Road tax is also several hundred a year cheaper. Insurance will probably be a little
more however.

If you get it from a dealer you've got 6 months peace of mind either way since if it breaks in
6 months, it's the dealer's issue.

2 hours ago, Riccccccardo said:

Yep which why I have now altered my driving style slightly especially taking it super easy when I’m last 5-10 minutes to my destination so I don’t cook heat up hot the discs before parking up. 

Last 5-10 minutes are the least important bit lol, they cool down fine when the car is stopped/turned off.

Its when you are driving its most dangerous since hot brakes 'fade' meaning if you need to slam the brakes on in an emergency, you may not get as much braking as you should.
When you press the brakes, it should (on mine at least) use the regenerative braking until the power meter reaches the bottom of the charge bar. Thats already braking rather rapidly for normal driving.

Probably salesmen wanting more commision.

18 minutes ago, Shahpor said:

This is simply not true, at least for the Mk4 GS that I had.

The regen braking was certainly not strong enough to slow me down effectively when, like Colin said, coming off dual carriageways.  Entering the slip road at a perfectly reasonable 50mph would definitely require me to use to brakes quite a bit before reaching the junction/roundabout on the exit.

Perhaps it depends on the roads you drive on, but around here, using the brakes is not optional.

When you say "use the brakes" you are aware that pressing the brake pedal at first uses the regenerative braking right?
You've got to brake hard enough to be absorbing over 50KW of energy for the mechanical brakes to kick in. The way to tell in mine is that the balance of the car noticeably shifts when the mechanical brakes kick in since the regenerative braking is entirely on the rear wheels.

Can easily do 70 - 10 mph in MUCH less than 100 meters just using the regenerative brakes.
I completely agree there are some slip-roads short enough you do need to brake harder, these aren't that common and are the reason I did say 'regularly' not 'ever'

As far as a roundabout at the end of a dual-carriageway goes however.... nope never ever a reason to use the manual brakes barring abnormal circumstances since you literally have 300m warning minimum. Literally do it all the time from higher speeds without a single issue.

Unless they reduced the amount of regenerative braking available to your version compared to mine. Mine is pre-facelift so that is also a possibility. Could be they reduced it in the later models to extend the Battery life or something like that. 🤷‍♂️

On 9/17/2022 at 11:38 AM, ColinBarber said:

That is rather hyperbolic. At high speed the amount of retardation is quite low so you often engage the mechanical brakes when coming off a motorway, at roundabouts at the end of dual carriageways etc.

Eh? Amount of retardation is roughly the same unless you are going very slowly when the mechanical brakes kick in automatically. 

I rarely if ever use the mechanical brakes in any of those situations unless something unusual happens like someone cuts in land in front of me e.t.c.
Only time you'd need the mechanical brakes in those situations is if you hammer it down all full-speed till you are practically at the end of the road and then slam the brakes on which is bad driving practice and can be dangerous. 

The electric braking provides more than enough braking for almost every normal driving situation.

On 9/14/2022 at 5:50 AM, Riccccccardo said:

I’ve always driven hard with all my cars I wouldn’t say I slam the breaks just sprinted driving style when in the mood every other day. 😅 I do also now have to factor this is the heaviest car I’ve ever owned it’s almost two tons. My last car was around 1.5 tons and was a Audi A4 special edition 2.0tfsi mk7 with ome drilled breaks and all wheel drive and handled everything I threw at it easily including even when I changed all the discs on it at some point after years of ownership. 

Just cos the brakes CAN handle it doesn't mean they should handle it.

And yeah it's really slamming on the brakes hard to get them to kick in at all. In normal driving the brake pads should basically never be used. Kinda the point of regenerative braking since you want to recover as much power as possible and store it in the Battery rather than wasting it as heat on the brake pads. The friction brakes are literally there for emergencies and when going very slowly (which should cause very little wear)

On set of pads lasts most GS450hs about 100k+ miles. Mine is at 195k miles and on it's 2nd set of pads.

If you are regularly braking hard enough to hit the pads in non-emergency situations then you are driving dangerously because at those levels of braking you are extremely vulnerable to something out of your control going wrong no matter how good a driver you are. Road conditions are a killer and oil/diesel or black ice can be completely invisible as can a failing road surface.

10 minutes ago, Riccccccardo said:

I’ve had to completely change my driving style with the newly replaced discs especially when nearing work place so as to not leave brakes super hot cos of hard braking. not dragging/holding the breaks and do light pulsing press’s in my general driving style. Is this why race cars do cool down laps re brakes?

If you are actually using the pads at all on a hybrid then you seriously need to change your driving style lol.
It should be using the regenerative braking unless you are REALLY slamming on the brakes or going less than 10mph.

Ha, had the exact same issue. Was only steering 1-2' right to correct but was starting to annoy me 🙂

I think my mistake was letting Halfords do a wheel alignment after getting my tyres changed... that garage didn't seem like the most competent in the world to me!.

On 7/23/2022 at 8:57 PM, petrolhead239 said:

Sorry to whoever just called me a liar! Tell it to the extremely well equipped diagnostic specialist who not only checked out the codes, but also spent time physically checking the systems. I find this kind of comment both counter-productive and personally insulting!

Well then someone is lying to you if you believe that to be true. 

The lights only turn on at all when the computer generates an error code. 
No error code, no lights.

So if the guy told you there are no codes, he's either incompetent or lying to you. 

The only other realistic possibilities are a complete computer communications failure which would result in no display on the dash at all or everything lit up on the dash + no speedo e.t.c. or a dash failure which should have a lot of other noticeable consequences.

You know what I find counter-productive and personally insulting?
People twisting what other people said. Colin never said you were lying, he said it was untrue that there were no faults. He even explained WHY.

Get a code reader that reads all faults instead of just engine codes and you'll have your answer. 

6 hours ago, shahed26 said:

Thanks for the advice, considering its 06 plate i am currently looking at with low mileage, I just cant justify spending half the value of the car for faults like traction battery or suspension if it was to go wrong.

Wow 2k for suspension, my rx400h had front and rear suspension replaced for almost half that.

Lets see If i can get the dealer to lower his asking price.

Check with lexus if its still eligible for the Lexus Hybrid checks, if it is, you'll have the Battery covered for £60 every year. So if it goes, Lexus pay for it. 

Yep the shocks weren't cheap, that did include labour. One of those things that goes with mileage so shouldn't be a worry if this is a low milage one. Worth
watching out for through before you purchase. There are cheaper options like the non-adjustable ones available as well. From what I've read, the shocks
tend to start going between 120k-150k miles so you may have a way to go before you have to worry about that.
 

11 hours ago, serbarry said:

Steven, so you have had the traction battery, the suspension and the exhaust all replaced? 

Yep. Exhaust from just before the resonator back (cats were all fine)
Shocks only, the rest of the suspension is fine. 
Traction Battery I could of got repaired but decided a new one was better given the longer warranty.

Given I got it for £1700, then they refunded £700 when the traction Battery was confirmed faulty (after much pushing by me)
I can't complain, it's still a very nice car for the £5500 I've effectively paid for it over the last 3.5 years. (not including MOT, servicing
and tyres)

10 hours ago, shahed26 said:

Hi 

I found a low mileage GS450h 2006 (56k mileage)with full lexus history. I will be part exchanging my current RX400H 09 plate with 196k current mileage.

Just wanted to know how reliable are these vehicles, really cant find much info about these compare to other Lexus's. I just want a reliable motorway cruiser and some city/town driving.

 

Any experience advise would be much appreciated. Thanks

GS450h got top marks for reliability multiple years in a row so you aren't going to get that much better.

You do have a few things likely to fail: 
Traction Battery - Around £700 for a refit for £2200 for a replacement. Either will come with a warranty but avoidable if your car is eligible for
the lexus hybrid checkups which guarantee it. 
Exhaust - This is going to rust from the cats back. Fortunately you can get the entirely exhaust system replaced for £500ish. Just don't go to lexus
as the front section includes the cats where as an exhaust specialist can just chop of the bad section and replace it instead of replacing the cats as
well.
Suspension - Well it's a heavy car and that takes its toll on the shocks. Costs around £2000 to replace all 4. They are going to go at some point 🙂

Other than those bits, it's probably one of the most solid cars on the road mechanically. Generally even if something does
go wrong, it'll give you more than enough time to get home before dying at the very least. Basically everything is engineered
with a much higher margin/tolerance than most other cars so even after a long time its still unlikely anything will go wrong.

Mine is 2007 at 190k+ miles and other than the 3 bits above and normal wear and tear components its still in perfect running order (touch wood)
and mechanic reckons it's good for at least another 100k minimum. 

1 hour ago, Ragzv6 said:

Im pretty sure the thermostat still needs replacing because thinking back a couple weeks before i changed the water pump i noticed that when the heater was set to 24c it was coming out cold but i thought this was due to the water pump. 

The air lock could possibly be contributing to this also.

As when i tried to do the burping process with both topped up to full and engine running, both res and inlet caps open, i found after holding the revs, coolant was rising in the res tank, overflowing and spilling. 

I have ordered a replacement thermostat and intend on replacing that this week.

 

 

If the car has been sitting in the sun, the internal heat sensor may have been over-heated by the sun so thinks the internal temp is
over 24'. I get this quite often till I've been driving 5 minutes or so and the air has had a chance to circulate and cool the sensor down.