Air Con, Hybrid ECU Scandal!

[Lexus GS450H 2007]

My car was in Lexus Lincoln 2.5 years ago to do the valve springs recall.

Service Manager called during replacement and said it was going to take longer as they were concerned about damaging hybrid electronics and wiring harnesses due to having little space. They said it will take another day so they can take their time.

When completed, I picked up car and since then I had issues with intermittent 'Check hybrid' warnings . The hybrid energy monitor on screen never worked again, and gradually the air-conditioning failed!

First- Service Manager Lexus lincoln told me the AC compressor has failed and the 'Controller' cost of £4531.

Second- I asked service manager for further info on which 'Controller' was faulty and he said it's the 'hybrid ECU' and when it fails it will damage the aircon compressor too.

Third- I said due to all intermittent faults since recall on valve springs i am concerned the hybrid ECU must have been damaged like they were concerned during the valve spring recall. Therefore the faulty hybrid ECU and subsequent aircon compressor damage is down to Lexus.

Fourth- Lincoln service manager then conveniently changed his story and said that it's not the hybrid ECU that can damage the compressor, it's the compressor that fails and damges the hybrid ECU....

Fifth- I arranged meeting with General Manager and service manager to discuss this and other issues. During discussion on AC faults they completely out of the blue claimed that the Hybrid ECU was already faulty before the valve springs replacement 2.5years ago therefore it cannot be their fault!! They lied, and have never once told me about any issues with this!!!!

Sixth- I asked to speak to the fitter and see my car immediately. Fitter then said that the air con compressor has failed but the Hybrid ECU appears to be fully functional and does not need replacing!!!

Seventh- I said why have I been lied to and why did they quote to replace hybrid ECU when it's ok. General manger said that we  like to quote worse case (which was never mentioned before) then when you get your bill and it's £1200 cheaper you will be very happy with our service!!! Unbelievable!! 

All of the above is just the tip of the iceberg too as there were a number of very alarming accusations, lies etc it was utterly shocking!!

The car kept cutting out when I first bought it nearly 3years ago and it was loosing all power, power steering and abs ,total loss of control and just had wait for car to stop!!!!!! Extremely dangerous! If this happended on a country road me and my family and others could be dead. They took car in and I was expecting a huge bill, when I went to collect they said no charge and would not tell me what they did to car to repair! Now Lexus Lincoln are still refusing to tell me what they did to my car and now say they did not repair the car and just did a diagnostics but they did not tell me their  findings.!!!!

Question- Does anyone know if and why the Hybrid ECU would control the aircon and would it not be the cars ECU doing this? Also is there fuses between the ECU and aircon compressor to protect equipment during failures?

Really really  appreciate your time with all this mess!

                                               

[Spacewagon52]

One wonders what is going on there? Hope you get some satisfaction.

[tayaste]

Yes, the Air Con is controlled by the Hybrid Control ECU. The compressor has a DC converter built in and is actuated by the hybrids 280 odd vault A/C inverter. It's so the Air Con can be actuated regardless of the engine running or not.

[Lexus GS450H 2007]

On 26/02/2017 at 4:03 AM, tayaste said:

Yes, the Air Con is controlled by the Hybrid Control ECU. The compressor has a DC converter built in and is actuated by the hybrids 280 odd vault A/C inverter. It's so the Air Con can be actuated regardless of the engine running or not.

Hey thanks for your reply, do you also know if there should be a fuse between the hybrid ECU and the AC compressor?

Cheers