Leaderboard

I wouldn't spend any money replacing the battery. It seems extremely unlikely to me that the whole thing will just "fail". It's far more likely that a single component within that battery has failed, as in the video above. And as other posters have pointed out, it would be a very stupid piece of design if the car could not function without the traction battery.

You may as well get a new A8 with £20k discount off a broker lol

Hi Simon, this is not the first time i've heard of bad lexus service,..i believe Lexus service in the USA is very good but then again most service in the USA is 10 times better than the UK and i don't just mean Lexus dealers , I have my car serviced at a japanese car dealers and touch wood no problems so far, I don't trust any car dealers never have and never will.....they are all ok when booking the car in for work but the minute you have a problem they fob you off or should I say rip you off, Lexus dealers are no different from any other main dealer .... don't believe the myth that Lexus dealers are the best.. especially in the UK , I think the cars are great, just as well being as you can't rely on the car being looked after by the main dealer.....BMW, HONDA Jaguar, Ford, I won't name them all but you get my point, find a good mechanic and I mean mechanic not a fitter (there is a big difference ) that you can trust and stay with them is the best advise I can give,........any update on your bad Lexus service ? Allan

Out of the 30+ cars I`ve owned my mk4 400 is the best engineered/ride quality/ergonomic car I`ve ever had ! Got to admit that I`m counting Viva`s ,Cortina`s,Avengers Last car was an e36 Bmw 328i with 135k,nice car but felt worn and tired compared to the fresh as a daisy168k 400 I changed for Just passed its second MOT under my ownership without an advisory....Brilliant car !!

Finally got around to pics.Taken with a camera phone and dont show up nothing like how yellow and worn they looked.They really were very faded and yellow on the top half.They look as new now. Before After Before After Drivers side done,passengers side untouched.

Hello again, the colour of my car is Balmoral Bronze, and it has a Suffolk interior. I chose that colour as it doesn’t show the dirt as much as some of the darker colours, and the Suffolk (Cream) leather really lifts the interior, although that’s largely a matter of personal choice. I’m also happy to say that it has just flown through the MOT without problems and no advisories. These truly are remarkable cars.

Removal was simple Very clogged up and there was zero visibility through the body A good clean with some generic parts washer fluid, then some carb cleaner and a blow through. And finally a shot looking through the body to show the gap round the butterfly. Looks like an eclipse.

I take my LS down to Mousehole in Cornwall every year without problem at all and the roads don't get any smaller than they come in Mousehole, in fact as it has such presence on the road people often give way to you. Mike.

agree the "slowed me down bit" - the ls does promote a sedate relaxed style of driving

LEXUS LS FOR MAIN CHARACTER USAGE MARTIN CLUNES BARB 10.29

Well putt

Exactly what I thought Chris .... this all sounds pretty odd, ... the engine ran out of fuel/stopped running but ran on battery & the now the only problem mentioned is the battery ? ...maybe the overdue inverter recall could be a key factor here ? did it run out of fuel or was it possibly an inverter failure in the first place . If the inverter fails the RX 400h will automatically go into its fail-safe driving mode reducing power and speed .... so electric only ? ... sounds like the same symptoms .... did the AA add any fuel to the vehicle ? (was it the correct fuel ?) did they try to jump start it ? did they blow anything ? ... there are a lot of questions ...this may just be a comedy of errors ... but 145k on the clock, it should have gone in for the recall years ago.... Thanks Dennis: The car was low on fuel but not empty, it had however been sitting for two weeks, (holidays). I topped the car up after towing it the last mile home with 20 litres of unleaded. Kept trying to start it (running the main battery down, which was already low due to car running exclusively on battery after engine failed trying to get the car home). AA added no fuel and did not jump start, (12v battery was fully charged so not an issue). Certainly should have had the recall many years ago, Lexus have advised that this was done while the car was in their care last week, still no start though. Tom

Many thanks to you all for the responses. In response to your questions I'm 99% sure the car was running on the battery alone before that ran out, and my initial gut feel of a fuel supply issue is still valid. Lexus Tunbridge Wells were not willing to proceed without changing the main battery, (£4.5k) but would not commit to this solving the issue. Despite on the surface appearing very helpful, they did not seem too interested (perhaps understandably) as my pockets were obviously shallower than their average customer and the car was old and of low(ish) value. They advised that they had attempted to charge the main battery and that they had performed the inverter recall (no way of verifying this). The notes stated that "car runs for 12 seconds and then cuts out, I'm fairly sure that this is the starting cycle rather than the car actually running? There are no exhaust fumes from the rear during this process, nor even a particularly strong smell of fuel. I do believe that there are battery issues, (the car was filling with water due to the infamous rear joins which I solved but who knows what impact this may have had on either the cells or contacts to the HV cells). I don't think this is the key problem though. The car is now with Toyotec in Crawley whom seem a little more sympathetic to the cost constraints. I'd be interested if anyone has had experience of using them. Will try to learn to write more briefly and update as things develop!! Tom