Fortiswick

As a follow up to my dashcam install, the Nextbase dashcam is set to (while parked) only switch on if there is an incident to record, Nextbase say that it will still drain the battery if left connected for a considerable (no hints as to what considerable means) time while the car is unused. I could rewire it to switched power source and have a battery pack cut in to power it when parked, but they don't seem to do one for this model and I am not going to experiment while its still under guarantee. I have left it undriven for up to 4 days without draining the battery, that's good enough for me as I wouldn't expect it to be left in an unsecure spot for longer than that so would remove the dashcam anyway. @Roy of the Rovers I've now bought one of those jump starters you recommended, thanks for the advice.

Yes it would've so I installed a Nextbase 622GW, piggybacked it on the fuel filler flap fuse (as its always on) so I could use the record while parked function. All good I thought, until I was laid up with the flu for a week, went out to the car and the battery was completely drained. I've left the undriven car for up to a month before and never had battery issues! So what about the Nextbase automatic battery cut off, designed to stop this happening? This is what the Nextbase FAQ says So lesson learnt, when I get home now I remove the camera and install it when I set out. if i'm going to be away from the car for more than a couple of hours I remove the camera. Much as I'd love to test it to see how long it takes to drain the battery, I'm loath to drain the battery again. Shame really as I was hoping for a fit and forget solution.

Still good, no recurrences of the problem, so yes I think its cured. But having written this, sods law dictates it will return this week🤣

Someone stove in my front offside wing in an Argos carpark (no CCTV unfortunately). Hastings paid out with no quibble and gave excellent service, but as the claim was unrecoverable they listed it as a fault claim, explaining that it would only be a no fault if they could recover costs from the party at fault (the unknown driver). It didn't bother me as I had the car for less than a year with no NCD to lose ( My RX 450h is the first car 'I've had in my name for 30 years as the rest have all been in the wife's name with me as as added driver, but she is not driving my baby 😁 ) Then I changed insurers on the hunt for lower premiums and noticed that with all the questions asked about claims there was nothing covering my type of claim (damage caused to a parked vehicle by an unknown driver), and it can only be listed as a fault claim which indicates that I ( the driver) was at fault, and the premiums rose accordingly, in the end I ticked the vandalism box as this was the closest descriptive they had.

I bought a pack of 'Lexus Clips' off e-bay. 100 assorted for £6.59 with free delivery (see photo). I have used them to replace most of the ones I have broken or lost while fiddling with my car. Not sure if I can upload the link but they are listed as. 100x For TOYOTA LEXUS Push Rivets Undertray Car Body Splash Guard Clips Retainer

6 months on now, and no reoccurrence 🤞

Here we are some pics of my RX 450h premier, I.ve rubber mats over the Lexus carpets as I live in a rural area up an unmade lane, and it gets very muddy.

Wheel Alignment needed was flagged up at my last Lexus service, the quote was £122 with my gold club discount. I asked them why they were charging that much for a service which typically costs around £40, I am still waiting for the answer. There are things which you need your Lexus dealership to do (such as Hybrid health checks) and things you definitely don't, such as any minor jobs. If you can't DIY to a reasonable standard, find a good local mechanic and use the money you save to pay for the necessary big stuff.

Last November I bought a Honda Jazz as a London runaround, parked near my daughters so when we visit we have a handy vehicle. It lasted a month before the cat' thieves struck, we knew nothing of this situation before. After speaking to friends and family we were told many horror stories about cat' thefts from outside houses, on driveways and even at a funeral. I read this thread and even though my local Lexus dealer (Snows at Hedge End) says RXs are rarely targeted, after spending a sleepless night at my daughters nipping out every half hour or so to check my RX I decide to get a Catloc fitted for my own piece of mind. Initially Snows wanted £435.50, but after my quoting from this thread they matched the £391 price. As you can buy a Gen3 Catloc for £346 (delivered), £45 to save me the bother of fitting it myself seemed like a good deal as like Barry7 I too am 'well upholstered and on the wrong side of 60'. I informed Snows of the fitting issues mentioned here and am happy to report they did an excellent job with no noise or rattle issues. I'm looking for another ULEZ compliant cheap and reliable London runaround which will not attract cat thieves, any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks to all for your welcome. I fully intend to test the Lexus' limits once Covid restrictions are eased enough and I can get onto a legal space 😁 Rich asked about the car I have moved up from. Cars I've had before, so many from a mini van to a Rolls...... I started driving life in a Vauxhall Victor, moved through Austin Morris's, (best ever early car was an Austin Maxi) the obligatory Cortina. Along with marriage and a family came the need for bigger cars so the Granada and Jag then Daimler came along, but I ended up with Mercedes, 8 different models, they went from one of the worlds best made cars to a pile of overrated junk and I swore I would never buy another . I got rid of my last Merc when the starting motor failed and have been tooling around in my Renault scenic dustbin I ( it's for transporting dogs, and trips to the dump) until I spotted the RX 450h I wanted. I had my share of Frenchie's and a few oddballs, biggest regret..... selling my Citroen Pallas, biggest pile of junk Austin ( Leyland) princess wedge (and I had am Allegro). Car I really hated BMW..... Best car ever, I'm driving it now and I've had plenty to compare it against.

After years of dithering I've finally taken the Lexus plunge and treated myself to a 2013 RX 45h Premier, seems to have all the bells and whistles I need without a surfeit of buttons or any OTT nanny tech.. First impressions: I can see immediately why these are the best engineered mass produced production cars in the world. Sitting in it, it feels substantial and solid. I freely admit I sat in it parked up for nearly an hour soaking up the ambiance, listening to the best ICE I've ever heard in a production car and playing with the controls (mainly the multimedia centre) Once I got driving it feels positive and tight on the road, steering is spot on, no under or oversteer, light enough to rock through chicanes and no effort at all lock to lock, yet positive with enough feedback so you know exactly what its doing, the way this drives its hard to believe its a 2 ton bus, I have had a few double takes from other motorists when I hurl it into a tight bend without braking, I'm sure they expect it to roll, but it corners on rails. Its quick, very quick. With all the talk about CVT transmission needing gradual acceleration and not happy with being booted I took it out and booted it (come on there's a 3.5L V6 lurking under the bonnet). It took off like a sports car throwing me back in the seat and just kept on hard accelerating but so smooth it took me into 3 figure territory before I realised, it was a genuine I swear I was doing 60 guv moment. Not a real 4X4? Manages to get me across muddy fields OK with standard cross climate boots on! Cons Its big, suddenly the drive is very narrow so a severe pruning of the hedges was in order. Its a very firm drive for a luxury car, my old Renault scenic dustbin was a smoother ride. I found that driving it on the low setting seems to give me a smoother experience. This is probably the last car I will ever have before age stops me driving, so I will not get a chance to own any more. Why did I waste all those years driving tin cans?

At 16 I worked for a few months at a gearbox refurbishers. A mechanic would bring in the clients original gear box, we would strip it replace any worn or broken parts, then paint the gearbox in black paint making it look like a different unit and return it, typical cost to the garage £10. If we couldn't do that within a couple of hours we would take another refurbed one off the shelf and add £5, the garage would then sell it back to the client for £30 to £45 plus fitting (we are talking manual synchromesh boxes here). That's basically how it works you either get your own component back refurbished or someone else's, ether way you must supply a unit for exchange or repair. That's the history, now to your problem: Many people want the old part back (or sight of it) to ensure a new unit is fitted (yep secret marks are suggested so you can check its really the old unit you are examining) and not the old one refurbished, from their behaviour do you think that's what they have done? If you thought the alternator was faulty then you should have asked the garage to test it so you would have a professional opinion and data to prove your case. I would advise, if its working then forget it and move on, but if you really want to pursue it then: First read the invoice and any Ts&Cs very carefully to see if they can keep old parts as part of their service, if you've agreed to use them, you've entered into a contract and better off abiding by it than paying solicitors £1000s to contest it. If not then...If they have quoted you for fitting a NEW (meaning brand spanking new OEM or otherwise) alternator then the old one is your property, if they fail to return it it is theft. Inform them you are going to report it as a crime (expect no action from the police but maybe you can persuade them to issue a crime no.) and threaten to take them to the small claims court. If they have quoted for fitting a refurbished unit, they can take out your alternator refurbish it and refit it, or exchange it for a refurbished one. Your alternator has to be swapped so you surrender it for refurbishment or replacement, so no you won't get it back and what they are quoting you for is the retail price for a refurbished alternator. If they have fitted a refurbished alternator and charged you for a new one, then its time to get trading standards involved selling refurbished parts for new prices is a rip off and illegal. Then again they may have meant refurbished when they said new, as in exchange the old one for a new (as in replacement) one, not newly made from scratch. The clue is what did they charge you? Was it a new part price or a refurbished one, no idea of the cost but knowing stealerships a new one would be would be ridiculously expensive. Maybe ask for a stealership quote (ask them to break down the price into parts and labour) ask another garage for the same quote and n breakdown, telling them it must be an OEM part fitted and compare prices with your guys.

Hi. Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not onboard with techstream yet, but it seems I need to be so I'll be sourcing it this weekend, my little OBD reader is not showing any faults. I've checked the rubber over the boot switch its OK, the onboard sensors don't seem to be playing a part in this either. I started by emptying the boot space and taking off the tailgate trim, so no obstructions, rogue bits of rubber or trapped debris anywhere. Before removing the latch I siliconed the struts (in case they were sticky) and greased the working parts of the latch. After removing and testing the latch assembly I refitted it, put the lining back on and shut the tailgate...of course it now works perfectly, but as we all know these things will always recur at the worse possible time. I have read an unlatching tailgate is an issue with some of the R series (usually first noticed when the key in car warning is flashed up), various fixes have been tried, from packing the rubber stoppers to bending arms on micro switches, which indicates there maybe several causes as a opposed to single one, but in most cases a new latch assembly seems to have solved it, I suspected a broken spring inside the sealed black bit (its metal not plastic) which pulls the actuator away from the micro switch after it cycles shut, but no way to tell unless I break it open. So its wait for it to fail again, bite the bullet and fit a new latch and report back.

Whilst reading through the forums there are plenty of posts about tailgate faults, but I cannot find a solution to this specific problem. The power door works perfectly, except when it closes and latches, it has started immediately unlatching leaving the tailgate unlocked. The sound I hear is of the latch closing then immediately opening again, this happens whether I close it manually or using the power door, I have tried slamming it shut hard, very hard! This works sometimes but on a journey it will sometimes unlatch itself again. I have meticulously checked to see if there are any obstructions preventing the tailgate from closing. I removed the latch (leaving it connected to the electrics) and tested it by using the barrel of a screwdriver to simulate the catch, when I put it into the latch it closes around it as it should then cycles open. The only way this stops happening is if I hold the metal actuator away from the lower micro switch whilst operating the latch (see pic with my thumb on it). I can feel it slip against something and then it rests away from the micro switch and the latch says closed. Unfortunately what is behind that actuator is sealed inside the plastic case which I don’t want to be break open for fear of causing unnecessary damage Has anyone had this fault and if so any fixes please? I am tempted to get a new latch assembly and fit it, but if it the fault is generated elsewhere I will be throwing good money away on a part I don’t need. For now to make sure it doesn’t fly open while driving I secure it internally with a bungee. This fault has two irritating side effects I need to mention 1. Triggering occasional key detected in vehicle warnings, this not an issue as it seems to be caused by driving with the tailgate unlocked over bumps, the movement cause to latch to cycle ( latch-unlatch). 2. The constant audible door open alarm, is driving me crazy 😱 does anyone know of a way to silence the audible warning alarms? Thank you