Vadim

I would definitely do wheel alignment every 10-20k miles, given how many road humps snd pads we have these days in towns.

The purpose of the additive is primarily to facilitate injection system cleaning. The effect of the cleaning lasts for a while. I observed a material reduction of injection valve noise in old diesel engines after a proper cleaning, but not in petrol. Given generally high quality of petrol and its additives in the UK, I’d say there is no need in such additives before 100k miles. On the other hand, there is no harm either.

Update: ordered original pre-mixed antifreeze from “toyotaofficialstore” (on ebay and amazon) for £43/5l including delivery. The antifreeze is Hybrid Organic Acid Technology. Even if you find same spec on aftermarket the price difference would not be worth the potential worries. The antifreeze which is currently in the motor and inverter seems to be still OK, compared with the fresh liquid: same pH, same density, vivid pink colour. Long life indeed)

Buy new from one of the official parts dealers and keep the original plastic covers, so that you can uninstall the bars and re-sell to recover cost in a few years.

Welcome to real world )

In GS 450h it should be the 2GR-FSE V6 3.5l engine. The start up rattle is somewhat standard for ageing engines of this model with the most common cause is the variable valve timing camshaft gear assembly while the engine increases the oil pressure at start up. If the rattle disappears within 1 second, there is usually nothing to worry about. If it stays for longer - consult toyota specialist. Fresh engine oil sometimes help to reduce or eliminate the rattle.

Couple of notes: 1. The vent house adapters of more popular size can be sourced from Halfords. 2. There was a heated discussion on the value-added of AGM batteries. The AGM's primary advantage is higher tolerance to deep-discharge (>50% and under 12V). Where the standard lead-acid battery start to loose its capacity due to discharge, the AGM would hold for a few hundred cycles. This is why AGM batteries in Lexus Hybrids tend to last years. The secondary advantage discussed was the fact that AGM batteries contain acid in gel pads, and don't spill in accident. In my view this is non-critical, as the acid is diluted, and anyway if you smash you car in a way when the battery is crashed and forced into the saloon, the acid leak will probably be of relatively little concern. Overall, if you want the replacement battery to last 5+ years, go for AGM, despite higher price.

Has anybody done engine and inverter coolant replacement? My car is approaching 200k miles and 12 years treshold, and I'm quite sure it has not been done before. At this age the coolant may loose its protective components, become acidic and start eating into seals, water pump etc. Toyota suggests using its own Super Long Life Coolant (red) in the engine, but it is unclear whether it is the same for the inverter. Also does it make sense to do full draining and bleeding or just drain / refill the radiator? Thanks in advance for any advice on coolant specification and DIY experience.

The manual usually has instructions for normal driving, motorway driving with full load (higher pressure), and "eco" driving (even higher). I think with the current fuel prices it is worth to stick to "eco" numbers which can be as high as 2.5 bar. The risks for suspension are not much higher than with usual setting, but you may find the fuel consumption go down 1-3mpg.

It should be possible to remove the plastic covers and inspect the belt (check online). I bet you will not find any warning signs there. As long as the water pump is not leaking, I would keep on driving and plan the replacement with no rush.

If you take care and still get mid-25mpg or less, most probably, your hybrid battery has degraded. With a fresh battery you may expect something >= 30mpg with light-footed driving.

+1. Even if mileage is moderate by this age the depreciation hits to an extent that dealer service history becomes a secondary factor when selling the car. Also going to a dealer does not always guarantee higher quality.

Had similar problem with front corner sensors on my RX450h. The cause was that the parking sensors were installed with sockets up, and water drops slid by the wires i side bypassing seals. Once in the socket, the trapped water created oxidation. Fixed by removing the sensors (via wheel arches by partly unwinding the arch cover), cleaning the oxidation and re-installing sensors with sockets down. Disconnect the 12v battery while working on the electronics.

Well, if your journey is 5 miles, and you make 2 of them on “EV only” with a good tailwind then it will be a close number. Another option is to pull the car with a couple of horses and use engine only to charge battery for entertainment and air conditioning. I get 24mpg on school runs and slightly above 30 on motorway (depends a lot on speed).

There is a theoretical limit on ICE efficiency, and it has already been closely approached in modern engines. The main advantage of Omega engine is its low weight and compact size, which can contribute to some extent to further reducing car’s weigh and improving aerodynamics. Another consideration is lower NOx emissions, but with current NetZero trend it would hardly matter as long as it still consumes hydrocarbons.

Anyway, Lexus is more about safety and comfort rather than fuel efficiency.

My RX450h is surprisingly thirsty on short school runs, because it has to run to warm up almost all the way. This is particularly noticeable in winter.

Herbie, apologies. This makes sense.

The label on my battery is located near the safety fuse, so that it can be viewed without removing the battery. I assume it is a standard logic across lexus hybrid models.

The batteries are spare parts with catalogue numbers (see photo below of my RX450h battery label). If a dealer tells you that it can’t be procured as a spare part, you need to change the dealer. And you can always shop for the part number online. BTW, I also did battery replacement myself. There are good manuals on YouTube, the process took 4 hours. I only needed help to move the old battery out and the replacement in as it is very heavy. I used a pre-owned battery of the same age but considerably lower mileage, and the improvement was noticeable.

I heard from a hybrid specialist that Lexus sells them new original batteries in range of £2-3k. One just needs to find the right dealer.

You are welcome to try it. In case of any doubt - Orchard Engineering is the best option.

Shock and the strut assembly are worth replacing when you have issuers with them (noise, leakage, air bag punctured etc. I had once a completely toast shock absorber with no visible indication of failure, which completely lost damping power. So it is a matter of good diagnostics. Given the cost of new struts for lexus, the price of wrong diagnosis can bite. After strut replacement, it is required to do wheel alignment, because the lower strut bracket allows for some adjustment, and it is very difficult to put the new strut to exactly the same angle as the old one. Having said the above, replacing struts does not cover the wishbone and its bushes.

Haven’t experienced this behaviour so far. Do you drive in “Eco” mode? If so, what happens in normal and “S” modes? I presume the ECU would readily flash error lights, if there was something really wrong with the powertrain. It has been 2nd refill with E10 for my car - no issues so far.

I think for the most of the cases discussed in this topic we had absolutely no reaction from the PBD unit, not even a beep, with Central ECU stating “no connection”. And the key inconvenience was that you could not open the boot from outside (the PBD controls the tail gate lock as well). On the video it beeps and opens manually, which suggests that the PBD ECU is functional and there is a different kind of issue. I suspect the mechanical part was broken or the PBD was simply not initialised after battery disconnection.