Damian

Interesting you should say that, Michael. I have mixed feelings about the situation too. However I am going to give it another week or two (as my representative miles are not as high as yours) before passing verdict. Tony Hi Tony. any update on yours? Am now worried that ours will start to slide towards Michael's. Michael, I wonder if your box was reset again would it return to its more positive state before it started to learn? If that was the case I wonder if there is a way to disable the learning aspect as I have yet to find/hear of any benefits of the learning, if anything it appears to make things worse rather than better. An explanation from Lexus as to why the learning element is there would be good. br Damian

Lexus Guildford kind of contacted me but that was ultimately because I had phones them a few days previous to advise them that the fix was available when I had herad the news from Michael originally. They have now I believe done a 'few' upgrades including mine now. Mine still seems to be working much better than before If there is any slight jerkiness to the changes it really only seems to be when the box hasn't fully warmed up. Driving it yesterday I have to say that the changes were so smooth that with music playing I was completely unable to detect the changes with moderate pressue on the accelerator. My wife has driven it a few times but not perhaps as frequently as Michael's wife has driven their's and we have still onyl covered a few hundred miles. The low speed lurch around 8mph that happened before has not yet reared it's ugly head thankfully and the hesitation which almost caused a few accidents when pulling away from a roundabout has not yet occurred either. So from my side looks OK right now but as said in a previous post would prefer to wait a little longer. One comment I would make though is that I am still not convinced about the learning of the box yet. I'd love to know what actual benefit this is meant to provide? Whilst so far I'm happy I would say that it doesn't seem 'as good' as it was immediately after the upgrade of the ECU. Originally it seemed always positive and almost more predictable in its behaviour, now whilst uit doesn't hesitate it's behaviour doesn't seem very logical. br D

Yes, when you press mute on the other party can't hear you but you can still hear them. BTW Have you tried re-starting the phone when it does this? Does it still do it? Pressing the keys I mentioned will show which FW version it is. There may well already be a later FW available which would fix this issue for you. br D

It is showing Mute On and I cannot hear anything. I can change it by touching it to Mute Off, but still cannot hear anything. Next time I dial out, it still reverts to Mute On and nothing can be heard. I'm sure, or at least I hope, that this is going to be a 'DOH' when I find out. I will try someone elses bluetooth today to see if it works with that 'Mute on' is normal status. It doesn't mean that the mute is on but it means that if you press it you will turn the mute on. As for N80, I'm not aware of any issues. I can ask though. If you press *#0000# what does the phone show on its display? br D

I would suggest you delete your existing pairing and re-establish a new one - could be just a quirk ..... Tony Thanks - just tried that but no luck! Still dial out and the Mute On is showing Do you mean that the 'mute on' touch button is shown or does it show 'mute off'? br D

My wife is taking the car for a few says this week, so will be interesting if another driving style upsets the box. So far so good, no low speed lurches and I've tried, but still early days though. Seems there's a definite change in the way it selects and changes the gears at low speed. It's as if it is slipping the couplings much more to create much greater smoothness rather than abrupt changes. Responsiveness is still not to my liking but I guess you can't have smoothness and responsiveness together in an auto box without a trade-off somewhere. Winding roads seem to require use of the manual selection, but then this is an SUV which is a bit of barge rather than a sports thorough bred so I guess I have to be realisitic. br D

Hi Michael, had mine done this week. So far so good. Does seem more responsive and so far no lurches despite my attempts. Will let the box do it's 'super intelligent learning thing ' first before being fulyl converted as a believer but ever hopeful. Thank you very much for championing this. Made my car as smooth and as enjoyable as I had always expected it would be as a Lexus. thanks and br D

Thanks heard this from a few colleagues here at work too. Booked in for the morning. £269 all in (VAT fitting etc) for two tyres if anyone else is interested and in stock. br D

Hi, anyone had to replace their tyres recently in the Surrey/Hampshire area, wondered what you had paid, my fronts are need of immediate replacement. thanks and br D

Wish where I worked time passed as slowly as it appears to at Lexus GB, I'd be able to get so much more done in the day! Thought this might be of interest, as if you need reminding but perhaps someone does :winky: ! Hope you don't mind me collating some of your posts Michael. June 10th 2005: I have again spoken to my dealer this afternoon and he tells me that they are now taking the situation more seriously and that I can expect some reaction early next week. About time too! June 15th 2005: Had a call last night from Steve Settle who is the head of Lexus GB about our lurching RX300. He has promised to talk to Japan and come back to me early next week. June 27th 2005: ...confirm that Mr Steve Settle from Lexus GB is on the case for us. I have just come off the phone with him and have been promised that an engineer from Lexus GB, another from Lexus Belgium and possibly one from Japan will call me to arrange a test drive in my wife's car to actually experience the problem for themselves. July 11th 2005: Have had a call from Lexus GB tech department this morning to arrange a visit to try the car. Apparently though, this will be a bit longer than expected as the Belgian team have been told not to come across due to the London bombings! The chap I spoke to was a little surprised when I told him that there were a number of cars with the same issue which could also be available for them to try. He actually told me that as far as they were aware ours was the only car with the issue as none of the dealerships have reported that anyone else is experiencing this. July 14th 2005: I have just had a call from a gentleman called Steve from customer relations dept at LGB and we are to have a visit by the technical team at our dealership, Lexus Southampton, next Wednesday at 09.00. July 21st 2005: Had a good meeting yesterday with LGB and two Belgian techies. They are certainly taking the matter seriously now. They drove the car and agreed that there was a problem. (Honestly!!!!!) They also had a laptop device connected to the ECU which I guess recorded some data when the lurch happened. August 4th 2005: After a very frustrating 300 mile drive in the car on Tuesday, I called LGB and spoke with Steve Settles office and was promised a call back. This duly happened this morning and I am assured that as a result of our efforts Lexus Japan are now looking seriously at the issue - it seems that they now have 10 dealerships who have had customer complaints on the matter This is the magic number to get the ball rolling. I am told that there is a meeting on the 18th August at which time Lexus Japan will decide what and if anything is to be done about it. There may well be no action taken as it is still called a characteristic of the vehicle. IF they decide to do something it won't happen quickly, as being a manufacturer they will have to have any modifications type approved and tested by the relevant authorities. August 31st 2005: I have this morning received a letter from Lexus GB which I copy below for you all to see - "We have today received confirmation from our counterparts within the Lexus European Division and the Toyota Motor Corporation that a commitment has been made to investigate the development of an enhanced ECU for the RX 300. The initial information we have received states that our engineering division will build and test a new ECU, as the current ECU does not appear to have sufficient memory to make the anticipated adjustments. There will then be testing carried out in the UK before final approval for a new unit. At present this is likely to be by late October, early November. However, it will take in the region of six months to have full production of these revised parts due to the homologation process, something which is beyond our control. Should you be happy to do so, we would very much appreciate your own continued involvment and cooperation with the survey team. We will also be seeking the involvment of other customers happy to lend their support to this project. With your permission we will be in contact with you in the near future regarding this matter. Please be advised that Steve Settle, Director Lexus (GB) Ltd is fully aware of this current situation and will be continually advised of any developments. Thank you once again for your co-operation and patience shown to date." October 12th 2005: My wifes car is being borrowed by LGB for a day or two next week when they want to try out a new version of the ECU in it. October 25th 2005: LGB had my wifes car for two days last week and say that they were successful in programming a new ECU which quote "I can confirm that having tested the effectiveness of the proposed counter measure “ecu” the survey team concluded that it successfully reduced the level of the symptoms to an acceptable level." December 23rd 2005: Just to say that all is ongoing with the lurch scenario. I have been contacted again by LGB and assured that they are on track with a fix... February 22nd 2006: I was assured that the fix should be available in March or early April. March 23rd 2006: I have as expected been fobbed off again and told that we are awaiting feedback. Therefore, last night I telephoned Toyota and spoke to their office about the situation for nearly twenty minutes. They took full details of the car and chassis number and I requested a meeting in Japan. This morning I received an email telling me that they had contaced LGB and asked them to investigate!!! April 3rd 2006: I have just this morning called TMC again. I have had an email exchange with them in as much as they told me by email after my first call to them 'all will be sorted immediately'. April 4th 2006: Having been assured by TMC Japan that I would be contacted by senior staff from LGB - a big fat nothing! Visited our dealer yesterday afternoon. They were very helpful in that they were amazed we still had the issue and that LGB had left us alone. They thought this should have been sorted out a year ago by a swap out or similar. April 5th 2006: Had a message on my office answer phone this morning from the dealership saleman who has been told by the LGB area manager not to get involved with the problem! April 10th 2006: I have had a chat with LGB and am told that here are a few units (New ECU's) coming into the UK in the next week or two. April 13th 2006: The gearbox fix is promised for late May now - it just gets a longer lead time each time I ask about it. May 3rd 2006: I have asked for a face to face but my dealer principal says they will see us in court. May 5th 2006: I have had Mr Settle call me this morning. It seems the fix is out in USA and they rate it well. It's being tested at LGB in one of their cars and if they are happy with it they will want to put it in ours shortly. I am promised that Mr Settle will call me mid/end next week when he has driven the car with the upgraded software himself. May 15th 2006: Another week has passed by and the promised call from Mr Settle at the end of the week never came. May 16th 2006: Just had an email from Steve Settles assistant telling me that hey are awaiting feedback on a test car they are running (why not use us as promised I wonder????) and that I "will be called later this or early next week with further information with respect to our car".

I am. Mine was reset recently and I didn;t notice any difference. I have yet to be convinced what benefit the learning gearbox provides. You would have thought by now it would have learnt how to select a gear for example rather than selecting say selecting 3rd from 2nd then 2nd again then 3rd again within a second or two for example when accelerating gently and then lifting off slightly, oh and then there's the occassion when your foot is on the floor and the car goes to sleep for what feels like a lifetime before it agreeing to kick down and go. The only advanced element of the gearbox I have found is when going down hill and it changes down for engine breaking when needed. br D

Hi Michael, as you know I had heard about this from my dealer almost 3 weeks ago now. What's been happening in that time? Whilst I appreciate the time and personal involvement from Mr Settle taking the car out for an hour or so as some owners have not detected the issue as it requires certain conditions to show it. e.g. driving in town is more likely to show this but a blast down the A316 will not prove anything. I want to get it into my car ASAP as I've been waiting for 18 months, not quite as long as you but this is MORE THAN LONG ENOUGH LEXUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've waited as I put my trust in Lexus based on their reputation. In hindsight it's looking like I should have never trusted Lexus to resolve the issue and simply rejected the car immediately within the first week of ownership. I believe only I and other actual owners can say whether the fix is true or not. Or to be fairer to Lexus someone who also has previous experience of being able to replicate the conditions that this occurs in. I will be able to tell in less than 2 minutes whether it's fixed as I'm able to create the set of conditions with a success rate of 100%. Being fair again to Lexus I guess they want to ensure there are no by products to the fix. But, who is best qualified to ensure this has been done other than the engineers who create the mapping in the first place? Surely this has already been done? My gut feeling is that this is not going to fix the problem. I also have a suspicion that it will change some other element of the change pattern/characteristics of the gearbox etc. This is mainly as a result of why was it their in the first place. As you've pointed out in previous postings in this thread the new 350 has a supposedly smoother box. What kicked them into imprving the box and what changes have been made. is this the same box but with revised mapping or something else. Was there a fundamental flaw in the original design of the box that no mapping was ever going to improve? Looking forward to the outcome this week so I can get my car booked in at last! Thanks and br D

Bear in mind that they use a special kind of sand so you may never get your head out again!

You can deactivate the seat belt warning beep. Do a search you'll find the thread in the last month or so. br D

Shame you didn't get this news earlier as I'll be leaving Tokyo on the first flight home tomorrow morning :( br D

Haven't seen any pics of the RX350 yet. Anyone? Interesting to note that the 400h has different wheels to the 300. Differentiation or fixing a long standing problem? Wonder if the 350's willl be new? Must be costing Lexus a fortune replaving so many. When we bought ours in Dec 2004 I raised this as a concern and was asuured it was an early problem that had been resolved and wouldn't therefore effect our car. 6 months ago had all four replaced no quibble! br D

Me too

Now there's an idea Michael, we've been tackling this in completely the wrong way, as the 400h has a completely different gearbox (CVT), we should all be asking for one of these rather than hope they actually fix it. :D I am like you, somewhat a sceptic. I am not completely convinced yet that they are going to fix it. I have waited in good faith that they will, but if they don't I will be rejecting the car as I said I would before they agreed to fix it. Interestingly enough my car went in for a service a few weeks ago. Not a great experience as they didn't bother to back-up all of my personal settings. Not exactly Lexus experience! Anyway they obviously had the battery disconnected for some time so you would think the ECU would have been reset. However, with mine it still lurches and still hesitates as if it's having an afternoon nap between gear changes. br D

Saw a 911 which was coming up to 6 years old at the weekend. £36k and only 19k miles. Was unamrked inside and out, very tempting but if I sell the RX where do my two girls go, not to mention our luggage including buggies etc? Oh well, will have to carry on dreaming until can afford the RX and the 911! br D

Finally, a tip that works on european models... Thanks again SuperChargedL ! Does anybody know how to bypass these c :tsktsk: gps navigation and bluetooth system limitations? us tips don't seem to work Not an answer to your direct question but should you want even more access to hidden stuff but proceed at your own peril: Hold the info button in and whilst doing so turn the lights from off to on (not auto) and back to off 4 times until a menu appears. Do it again from the same menu and another set of options appears. br D

Still a great car. Although went in my brothers nw Boxster S at the weekend and wondering how to realise my lifetime dream of Porsche 911 ownership again :(

Coming up to 21k on my RX, Rears still look pretty good, However the edges of the fronts are now quite low. Middle has around 3mm of tread so may if lucky get another 5-10K before having to replace the fronts. Someone's given me a number of a tyre fitter in the Bracknell area who apparently is a hell of a lot cheaper than your usual tyre suppliers and can even get unusual tyres which is what the RX's apparently are. I put the wear on the edges down to the multi-stoery car park that it has to navigate 10 times a week. Local Lexus dealership says this type of tyre ware is usual on the RX's as a result of the suspension set-up, seems plausible, although not 100% sure of everything I'm told there. br D

Wow, I don't think mine's ever been that violent. I'm very sorry to hear of the accident. I trust everyone was OK, was your baby in the car at the time, I hope not. I haven't had a near accident from the lurch forward but I have had a few near misses as a result of what seems like a lifetime before the transmission engages gear despite my foot being on the floor, which with such a delay has almost caused an accident. best of luck to you. br D

Well you can adjust the volume. The volume makes no difference to whether you get the traffic signals or not. The only thing you need to ensure you have set is the radio/CD is on, even if the volume of that is turned right down, otherwise it doesn;t receive the traffic signals for displaying on the screen. This is also displayed regardless of whether you have a destination set. But of course if you have a destination set you'll get the warnings about possible problems on your current route without having to recheck the screen along your route. If she's turned down/off then you will not got al of the details. For example she may say that the outside lane is blocked in 2 miles. However the onscreen message will only alert or a problem along the route and ask if you want to divert around it. Hope that helps. br D

Other owners have found this to be only a short term fix (maybe a few thousand miles) br D