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Okay, the fact that it is up in the air means the struts are holding air and the pump put the air into them so its probably fine. The most common fault with air-sus is the height controllers. Check to see if one corner in particular is higher than the others? On level ground, set the height level to the middle setting on the switch and measure the gaps between the wheel arches and the tyres. If one side is higher than the other, it's very likely to be the height controller on that high corner that is faulty. The other way to check if it's high on one side is on a level road the car will pull to one side. If the suspension goes down and stays down that points to a leaking strut but if they are all 'up' then it seems your struts and pump are fine. New height controllers are about £200, they are quite small items and very easy to fit. You might try to source a good one from a breaker for a lot less but it's a risk. They can sometimes be taken off, cleaned or freed up again if they have just seized up through dirt ingress.

Oh my goodness! How strange is this? Absolutely no issues with corrosion... ...and would you believe it but for sale on this very forum! Odd how these things happen

As a new owner the first few fill ups were around 50 litres when the garage fuel pump cuts off and I was getting less than 300 miles to a tankfull. i read in the manual that the rx400h has a 65 litre tank, so, that meant there must be still 15 litres as a reserve. A quick calculation concluded I should have 88 miles left in the tank after the fuel low light comes on, I was always lead to believe most cars have about 50 miles left in the tank as a reserve. Thought I would try setting Trip B to zero when my fuel light came on, Trip A was showing how far I travelled on this tank of fuel. This is where it gets to be fun (no petrol can as backup), the first time I got to 27 miles and bottled out. When I filled the tank it took 57 litres......... the next time (this Monday just gone) I got to 54.7 miles from fuel light on and the tank took 58 litres and total of 357 miles from that previous tankfull. Oh btw, this is on standard Esso 95ron octane petrol. Don't think I'll try to go further without a backup can of petrol, my nerves won't take it lol. But at least I now know I can safely travel 50 miles after the fuel light comes on. So, has anybody gone further or anyone deliberately ran out with a backup can of petrol to see how far the car will go?

Just pranged my pride and joy 😭 Now, I'm not making excuses here, I did it myself and I'll have to live with it but in the photo below I've arrowed the post that I hit. The ONE post, all on its own in the middle of nowhere, and not another one in the entire street! That picture must have been taken on a Sunday morning though because every parking space was occupied and it was chaos round there today. I was picking my wife up from the hairdresser's and she said that she noticed that the post was already at about 45o so someone else had previously clobbered it and the fact that it wasn't upright probably contributed to the parking sensors not picking it up and my not seeing it in the first place. So, this is how my beautiful RX450h looks now: I suppose it'll have to be an insurance job because I can't see that being only £200, which is what I think my excess is. Oh, and does anyone know what this is that's been exposed by the missing piece of trim? whatsis.mp4

Bristol have one of those 2-litre RXs for sale as well. They seem to be a bit of a curio, apparently 238bhp from a turbocharged '4'. I wonder if the turbo is sufficient to give it the torque that modern multivalve engines lack? It strikes me it would have to work hard to haul the RX around and that economy would suffer as a result. First week in with my new 64-reg Luxury, all very good so far. Doing everything I hoped it would and my first tankful worked out at 33.5mpg. Cleaned it up today and no nasty surprises, indeed I was impressed at how tidy it is.

Missed that, my apologies. Thanks for your input! Glad to hear 12 months good experience. Was referencing something else another member had told to them. I was suspicious / didn't feel it was plausible, but there's always more insight and something one can learn!

No, I already replied to the same question from you on Tuesday Matt. No problems whatsoever. They are just one light unit that replaces another light unit, nothing more, nothing less. The dealer who told you that LEDs could cause significant damage is talking complete rubbish. Thousands of people including myself have changed all their internal bulbs (and some have done external lights too) for LEDs without any sort of problems whatsoever. Even if one was to go full short circuit all that would happen would be a blown fuse, just like if an incandescent bulb were to go short circuit.

Just removed my Sub using the cut method and whilst not easy, much easier than disassembling the back seat. Getting it back in is gonna be FUN!! My sub died from a broken wire where the suspension wire joins the coil wire, so pretty much irreparable.☹️ On the plus side the amp appears to be fine, so now to wait for the replacement Dayton Audio SD215-88 DVC Sub to arrive. Watch this space. 😎

It took me nearly 3 hours with neighbour's help and couldn't undo bottom screw. Taking it to the garage nearest Monday if find time. But now its 100% confirmed it's the shock. The leak could not be seen until wheel was off, car is jacked as on the picture to have shock fully extended, it is wet on very top Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

A few weeks after buying my 2008 ISF, after the honeymoon period, I began to realise how firm the standard suspension was. Actually, that's a total understatement - it was ridiculously firm to the point of pain; my wife hated it and I got weary of constantly weaving about on the road to find a smooth path through the potholes, bumps and other minuscule imperfections. Even small potholes sent huge bangs through the chassis, expansion joints made my teeth rattle and I had little confidence in the car around fast corners. The car is my daily driver, so a crashy, nervous drive becomes tiresome very quickly. This was one of the few complaints most journalists had with the car when it was released. I tried lowering the tyre pressures a bit (quite high as standard), which made the ride softer, although gave the steering a heavier, "wading through treacle" feel - not a permanent solution. I researched a few coilover options, specifically the KW V3s and the cheaper BC BR kit, but choosing my own spring rates for front and back presented a level of uncertainty I was uncomfortable with. I'm not an engineer/suspension guru and I'd hate to choose the wrong springs, change them, get it wrong, then have to buy more and have another go. I couldn't afford that kind of "wild stab in the dark" approach. As these cars are pretty rare, chances to have a ride in one with the suspension options I was interested in were almost nil. Even if I got the right combination by luck, I have no idea how to set bump, rebound, etc and wanted the ride height to remain standard. I'd almost given up, when a great guy on here (PeterP18) put me in contact with a chap who'd fitted 2013 spec coilovers to his 2008 and found the ride much improved, but after 500ish miles, swapped again to an adjustable setup in order to lower the ride height. A few emails later, he seemed genuine and still had the old 2013 ones for sale, so I snapped them up! My local main dealer fitted them and were extremely competitive on price too. The springs and shocks were a straight swap but unusually, the 2013 setup doesn't use rubber cups between the springs and the shocks. They're metal-on-metal. So.... What a difference! The ride height is unchanged and bumps are now damped extremely effectively. Larger lumps are still evident (it'll always be a firm car), but the effect is much reduced without feeling detached from the road. The car seems more composed and flat around corners, and inside the cabin seems a bit quieter. All in all, how the car should have been when it left the factory! I'm really happy and I'd recommend the change to anybody! If anyone's interested in the part numbers required, I can dig them out and pop them on here...

You say that, I sold my original ‘08 suspension to a guy from Puerto Rico!

My car has also a " sealed for life " gearbox, as stated in the owner's manual. However in the maintenance schedule of the repair manual of Lexus published by Toyota-Lexus [ Lexus-tech.eu ], for my car, it is stated that every six years or 72 000 miles ( I am not quite sure of the mileage but it is somewhere around there ) the transmission oil should be changed. Log into Lexus-tech.eu and you will find there all the information you need.

The feature that I've noticed recently on cold mornings is that the traction battery displays only about 50 percent charge instead of the normal 70 or so. It only takes 3-5 miles to get to the usual 80 percent so no problem but I do wonder whether the charge measurement is via a simple voltmeter with no account being taken of the battery temperature. Sounds too simple for a Lexus, I know.

Yes i did specifically ask for a drain and refill and not a full flush i have drained and refilled all the automatic cars i've owned and put over 50k miles on some without any issues some like the IS300 and 2.4 Accord was driven hard as well and all held up well even at 150k miles the Accord was done twice at every 30k intervals.

Hi I've got a slight knock, only noticeable on slow poor roads, mentioned at last service but they couldn't find it. I'll mention your comment. Thanks for sharing.

Small update, just got an updated map dvd for the navigation system yesterday. Old one was for 2016-2017, so not terribly _old_ by any stretch of the imagination, but there's been a few new roads built on the routes I normally take since then, so figured it was worth the update. Anywho, took like 2 minutes, and worked like a charm right away. 10/10 would do again ^^ While I might opt to use my standalone TomTom system for work (mainly because I can enter routes through my smartphone and what not), it's still nice to have the built-in one freshly updated 🙂

Err... It’s a while ago, but I installed 2013 suspension on my ISF - they were a straight swap. I have no idea if the 2014 suspension is the same. The part numbers are in post #4 of this thread. You buy the parts and fit them (I was very lucky and sourced an almost unused set of everything secondhand - dealer prices are extremely high). It’s not really any more complicated than that! The ride wasn’t as good as my GSF is, but I thought it was vastly improved over 2008 spec.

Personally if I were looking for one of these right now I'd go with kayble's advice - be patient and go for one with the least underbody corrosion and with decent service history. I am thinking of getting my car professionally "rust proofed" as the underbody seems to be relatively clean at the moment.

floating disk help with pad wear!!!

i have also noticed this. first thing in the morning i can drive and run the battery down then after a bit of driving the battery level hasn't increased then suddenly it will jump up a few bars in one go.

Sat Nav DVD arrived today and well, well, well, displays ETA or time to destination as it should. Also noticed that the screen splits on approach to junctions, roundabouts, etc. showing the overall map on the left of the screen and zoomed in detail of the junction on the right of the screen with a black background. The other nice thing is if you venture off the destination route it will re-route automatically. The previous DVD would not do that. Only thing is the slow response when trying to programming various things.

After a break of 5 years, retiring, moving to Cornwall, a few Grandchilden arriving etc etc (it’s all been happening here), we have been thinking about getting another RX, we had a 2003 Mk1 before which served us totally reliably for over ten (I thought it was 9 but turns out even more) years. This time we are looking at either an RX350 or possibly RX400H (although I am really not keen on the character of the CVT box on these), but it’s not going to be a daily driver by any means so might be OK for the occasional long journey which it will be used for almost exclusively. Looking around and checking various for sale on the GOV.UK site quite a few have been flagged/failed as rear spring area corrosion, which is making me a bit cautious. I’d like to ask your experiences in here of corrosion issues on RX of around ‘06-‘09? i dismissed the earlier RX300 Mk2 as I already have had that engine and think I would prefer the later 350 engine with its better efficiency and power (as well as timing chain). Any info gratefully received.

Need a new lower trim and grill by looks of it, if not a new bumper. Don't know whether they come separately tbh but Id expect atleast £500 if not more

Bear in mind the potential increase in premium next year if you claim. There have been some horror stories of premiums increasing by more than 100% even in cases where there has been a " No fault" claim.

Can't say much more than there will be quite a few of your fellow club members here who know how you feel! I'd get a quote before claiming on insurance.

No particular issue, the car will swap from charge/load/drain/recharge at will and to suit the complex algorithm that Lexus/Toyota have programmed. There are probably loads of different parameters that are looked at and considered, some obvious (temp outside, temp of car, load, throttle position etc) other not so obvious . I can think of temp of battery pack, cell discharge value, time since last major load/drain situation, the current draw of ancillary devices etc etc etc, there are probably lots of others too. Often when driving on the motorway, mine shows the battery at mid charge level for hours. Other times it shows it nearly full and sometimes near minimum. I've given up worrying about it and just let it do its thing.

Hi, no issues with corrosion here either.. no problems either and I’m at 110,000 miles in my RX400 Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I always fill up when the gauge shows just under a quarter or a quarter.. the drive system won’t start if there’s no fuel in the tank don’t forget Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Long time ago but on our RX300 the aerial starting not retracting all the way but was an easy fix to remove the aerial component dismantle the whole unit, clean and lubricate (white grease) inside and it worked until we sold the car years later. You could/can buy replacement aerial masts with the nylon toothed belt as well if needed.

It's not generally a good idea to let it get low enough to make the fuel light come on. The fuel in the tank cools the fuel pump, if you routinely run it down this low you will likely encounter premature fuel pump failure. For more info see: http://www.agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/195

I had a black one on my silver RX400 and now have a black one on my white RX450 both looked / look fine to me. In the intrim I had a Stainless effect one on my ML350 that got seriously scratched. You're choice I guess. Bri

Really don't know why you guys are still bothering with main dealers. Just had our IS serviced at local independent, £220 all in. Oh 4 OEM spark plugs are £50, and will be a 20min job max.

Interesting looking at the Essential Care service prices - seems to be about £90 cheaper than the intermediate service costs but then for the majors varies quite a bit so that probably accounts for chargeable items not included in Essential Care (like spark plugs and various filters that say chargeable on Essential Care but included on normal servicing) - if those are added back in my guess is that Essential Care is again about £100 cheaper than full service costs. With an Extended Warranty I don't think you can take Essential Care though.

I would check what was done at the last major service - I would assume it was a 60K mile one and if so then spark plugs would have been changed - you can sign up to My Lexus and then see all Lexus services etc. that have been carried out and what was replaced etc.https://www.lexus.co.uk/my-lexus/registration/ My understanding was that Essential services did not include spark plugs, but could be wrong.

OPs particular car will be on the mileage schedule, not the yearly schedule. Therefore I would suspect the last full service was a Full 60k which would include the spark plugs. OP just needs an intermediate 70k service with no additional work. Essential care does not include spark plugs - they are about £150-200 to get done on a 300h

Spark plugs are supposed to be changed at 60,000 miles, which puts up the price of the 60,000 mile service. Inchcape is now showing prices for Essential Care on its website - £645 for normal 60,000 mile service; £355 for Essential Care. (Click here for the website.) The difference being so great makes me wonder if the Essential Care includes the spark plugs. You may not be near an Inchcape dealer but you can use their prices for information. As you had a major service last time, perhaps what you need is an intermediate service, plus the spark plugs, which are based on mileage rather than time.

Take care over sunroof. Mine didn't work when we bought it and it took the garage that supplied the car over 30 hours of labour plus a few hundred in parts to fix it. The problem was caused by a small plastic part jamming the runner on one side and burning out the motor. They had to remove most of the interior of the car and the whole sunroof and supporting frame to fix it. All covered by the garage. Estimated cost if a Lexus dealer had done it probably more than £3-4K! Make sure you really need a sunroof!

Lexus (in theory) operate a fixed price service across all dealers and so assuming you want a Lexus dealer stamp - see https://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/servicing-and-maintenance/# scroll down the page and you can enter the car to see the schedule - here is a screen grab for IS 300h: Not sure if others have managed to negotiate anything off these prices though There is also Lexus Essential Care for cars over 5 years old - see further on down the same page - the IS 300h prices aren't on the website yet for that but earliest IS 300h cars should now be in this category - some debate over whether this gives a stamp or not in the book - some say dealers stamp the book and others that they don't

The reason I intend to keep my RX350SE long term is that I consider it virtually bullet proof. This is just an opinion of course and is based on a number of factors including the lack of rust on my particular car and lack of air suspension. From my extensive research on the USA club site where there are many more of these cars the only common sources of terminal failure are rubber pipes to an engine oil cooler which my car does not have and another rubber oil pipe up to the VVTI on each bank of the V6 which I have had renewed as a precaution. Their cars also suffer from steering rack failure which is unknown to Lexus Guildford and does not seem to occur with our RHD cars. The other preventative maintenance item I have had done was a new water pump fitted when other work was carried out under guarantee. If it blows up in my face tomorrow I promise to let you know.

Yesterday I've driven new ES in top specs and these are my conclusions: Seats are nicely stitched, but for my taste less comfortable. Car is bigger than GS, but i had less space behind a wheel in width. Some plastics inside car looks cheap. Wood decorative panels are plastic too. Ceiling upholstery is made of fabric. GS has nice white velvet. Comparing to my GS, it looks like materials are overall cheaper. Steering wheel was nice, but it has different layout, so i had problems using it ☺️ Infotainment had nicer graphics, but was totally not possible to use while driving. There was new front parking camera + panoramic top view. In the beginning i couldn't recognize what I see on screen, because of strong fish eye camera distortion. Engine at idle is slightly louder than GS (300h of course) and LESS REFINED than its older brother while driving. Slightly better it sounds at higher revs. Insulation is remarkably thinner than in the GS. Engine feels more powerful. It is probably thanks to help of electric motor, which is being used much more often than in GS. Moving centimeter by centimeter on parking lot is harder, as the pedals are somehow sharper. It is like driving 5km/h or 0. Steering is harder, maybe there is less power steering. Car has relatively huge turning radius and. On the road it is typical FWD... I was surprised there was Mark Levinson sign on center console. Sound system didn't performed so nice as my Pioneer in GS. My final conclusion is quite negative. This car is step forward, however 2 steps downstairs. In terms "premiumness" I would rate it below both GS and IS. On our market it is comparable to Skoda Superb, VW Passat, Arteon or Opel Insignia.

Pure coincidence?? Porsche is now saying the Macan, one of their best selling products will now be pure electric within a 2 years. In my book VAG have done good, they have admitted their error with diesels and recognised no one really is going buy a V6/V8 petrol in mass in today's world and pushing their EV development at speed. Lexus NEED to get their EVs to market ASAP. There is simply no comparison in the driving experience of the EV powertrain versus anything else. Lexus will loss their customers very quickly in a few years if they haven't got a product to compete with the EVs Porsche/Audi/Merc are all developing!!! Or maybe Lexus can use the engine from a IS250, afterall according to some that is the best drivetrain ever made ;). https://www.evo.co.uk/news/22349/confirmed-next-generation-porsche-macan-to-be-all-electric?_mout=1&utm_campaign=evo_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

It's nothing more than a light unit which replaces a light unit. Yes, they're safe and no, no issues over the 12 months I've had them fitted.

Ultimately all types of (affordable) metal will suffer corrosion....and we are talking about cars that are quite old now, yet still in good condition. Now if owners start to find structural corrosion then end of......however if Lexus Dealers are warranting cars up to 15 years old then, given the price v quality and luxury on offer, why wouldnt you? 😎

All very encouraging.......liking the direction I am heading for.

Just bought a 2006 RX350 from a Lexus Dealer complete with 12 month Lexus warranty. The car is in v good condition, and is well set up for another 50k miles. Have had it up on ramps, no problems found, and had the six plugs changed. Only rust is on n/s rear door at base where a stone chip has clearly been ignored for too long but it is cosmetic and will survive with a coat of WD40 until the summer. We bought the car to do the Scotland NC500 next month, including some suitably gentle off-roading. Avoided the RX400 because it’s drive train is recognised for being not as good as the 350 in the sticky stuff. Love the car, so much that it is now at risk of becoming a keeper. 25/27 mpg is ok for the size and weight, and having the 3.5 V6 AWD is great fun! hth

My 06 RX350SE has now 60k miles and no rust whatsoever. Each summer I put it up on a lift and inspect underneath and it resembles a two year old car. The history of the car looks like southern England although not always far from the coast. Strangely the underside is only partly covered with a thick goop and much of the metal appears to have minimal surface protection but it is simply pristine. Also water had been entering inside the cabin at the very back and was only apparent when the plastic storage bins were removed but there again the metal had no rust. I would inspect any RX for rainwater ingress caused by a variety of reasons documented on this site. Have heard of RXs suffering from rust but do not know if salt on the roads up north is the culprit. This is a big subject but I have come to the conclusion rust can affect two identical cars with similar usage to very differing degrees. I had a very low mileage '95 LS 400 and no Lexus enthusiast could believe the excessive rust under that car. I believe you need to crawl underneath with a strong torch and inspect each car on its merits.

I have a 350 (56 plate) which is a fantastic car. When I bought it in 2011 it would have cost about £8000 odd more to get a similar year 450. You get a lot of petrol for £8,000! All I have had to do is to upgrade the main beam headlights to HID (cost about £120), change the useless reversing lights to high output LED (about £15) and replace the rear level sensor (about £80). I get about 24 mpg ( same as any car I have had for the past 20+ years) and love it. I understand that the 400 has problems with the battery if it's not used regularly but this was solved on the 450. Good luck with your search.

Amazing isn't it, get away from the UK motoring press, and Lexus get more favourable reviews. Or perhaps I don't mean "more favourable" (Bob has his criticisms), but rather "less dismissive". No, an ES isn't going to compete for the accolade of 'ultimate driving machine" as some self-proclaim, instead it offers something different. Cynically, you could also speculate if Lexus spent as much on magazine and website advertising as the VW group et al, then may be the reviews would be "more favourable" 😜

@PCM: Not too often you see a silver Soarer, very tasty in silver. Some bulb replacement and out with the alternator which got a new rectifier. All healthy again. Old fuel pump looks pretty rough!! New AEM in and working a treat.