Leaderboard

Hello all! Lexus number 4 and this is a Premium Edition variant with Deep Blue and Rich Cream interior. I didn't have a colour choice and didn't realise it would have a multiple flavour chocolate interior until after I bought it but it so happens I quite like it! Quietest and most comfortable Lexus I have had yet.

Heard it before seen suffice to say 🙂

This is in fact, true. A conventional car has a starter motor that draws upwards of 300A to crank the engine. If the battery is low then you'll know about it because the cranking will become slow and labourious. A hybrid doesn't have a starter motor and the engine doesn't crank in the normal sense. The 12V battery boots the computers and gets the car into READY mode, at which point you could drive off on battery power alone. When the hybrid system wants the petrol engine to run it energises MG1 and uses that to spin the engine up to 1,000rpm before applying fuel and a spark to fire it. It takes about 20A to get the car into READY mode instead of the 300A or more to crank the engine of a conventional car, and with no starter motor you never get the slow and labourious cranking that would usually indicate a low battery.

I'd been promised a replacement sat nav unit when it went belly up (on a trip to Skye), but kept getting fobbed off by a local guy breaking an LS, so I just lived without it. I too couldn't see anything wrong with it. For years now, I've used Mobil 1 0-40 from costco, plus either a Wix or Toyota filter. Oil does remain clean between changes though. Windscreen will obviously be damaged and need replaced to coincide with paintwork I'd guess - roads are in a shocking state. Glad you're still enjoying it and nice to hear of updates. Pete

The van at 5.15 shows how it should be done ..... very slowly. Of course that still depends on the depth of the water not being too high.

Sorry to hijack again, but I have an update on my roof blemish. The selling dealer said it was probably bird lime from its time sitting at the docks, they have come across this before apparently. They arranged for a dealer more local to me to try & polish it out, long story short they went too far through the clear coat & had to respray the whole roof. The finish was not particularly good & I sent pics to selling dealer. They were disgusted with the finish that was left on the car & have arranged to take it back to where I bought it from & spray the roof properly back to original spec & finish, which in all fairness is good of them. They have said they will give me a car while it is being done & send me a detailed video when it is complete. Fingers crossed it will come back like new.

and will it be available in the UK?

mines now sat at 216500 and still rocking along. Currently racking up about 300 miles a day during the week and very little during the weekend as it has a well deserved rest next service will be in a few weeks and that will include transmission and back axle fluids as well as inverter fluid by the end of the year we should see close to 230000on the clock

Back home after a month of continental wanderings. Lexus was sublime. Only one issue. After a long 300 mile drive I accelerated hard onto a slip road. Hurt my back with the power of the car. Careful out there!

all brake discs corrode as soon as you park the car ... the car wash might have used some chemicals to increase the effect, but also powerful jets get into places water normally doesn't. It's not clear if your problem is the pads or the handbrake shoes.. possibly the handbrake as that was used. The rear pads are not used very often (only by the computer if hard braking) note sure WD40 is a wise idea... I know it is water repellent (not lubricant), but it is an oil regardless and I wouldn't want to contaminate the pads. maybe layoff the handbrake after a carwash (we don't use it much) .. and get it serviced next time to ensure mechanism is greased up (servicing rear brakes on a hybrid are a real pain .. Lexus wanted to charge a fortune to look at ours)

Been using the LS a fair bit, done maybe 800 miles or so and going very well. Not quite as thirsty as I'd thought, first tank of mixed but careful driving; As noted in the ad, the sat nav didn't work. It gave an error that it couldn't detect the disc. That would be fine, but it meant you couldn't access the menu to turn the screen off, change time on the clock etc. I bought a new (to me) sat nav unit that goes in the boot from eBay for a very reasonable £25. Installed it on my lunch hour and all functionality restored! I opened up the old unit, but there was nothing obviously knackered and easily fixed. I may look at it some other time. Have spoken to a bodywork chap I know to get the roof and rear wing sorted out, reckon it will probably be early next year before he can fit me in but good to know it will be addressed. Probably not be cheap, especially as the windscreen will need to come out but the rest of the car is so nice that it deserves it. Costco have a deal on Mobil 1 oils at the minute so I'm going to pick up the stuff to do a change on the LS and RX, neither are due on mileage but are on time. Levels stay rock solid and the oil is clean, but best to keep up changes. Further to this, I'm venturing on another Lexus collection caper tomorrow and Friday, sadly not myself buying this time but going along for the trip.

https://pressroom.lexus.com/fender-and-lexus-partner-to-release-the-fender-lexus-lc-stratocaster-guitar/ I'm upset. If it were a bass, I'd think about it. I'd think "that would be nice, but $6k....?"

I think the hybrid test is quite involved and certainly worth the £60 for the diagnostic checks and 12 month hybrid warranty that follows. https://mag.lexus.co.uk/lexus-hybrid-health-check-2/ Dave

My 'official' name is John but my nickname of Herbie was coined when I was about 9 years old and has stuck like glue all through my life, so much so that even my own parents used to call me Herbie. In fact, if anyone does use John I often don't realise they're talking to me, but either will do Badly aligned wheels/tyres can cause premature wear and other things that could result in the car not being as stable on the road as it should be, hence the VSC warning was activated.

Hi Herbs or should I call you John? Handbook tell so many things and they are spread out in strange patterns so finding a logical meaning with it all can be time consuming. What I did not understand is, what that has to do with visiting a tyre shop.

The rule became necessary due to people putting any bulbs in any lamp units and causing dazzle to other drivers. It's not as simple as stuffing anything in there that will light up. Lamps, lamp units and lenses are a very complicated science. All those lines you see on a halogen lamp unit glass are not there just for decoration, it takes into account reflection, refraction, defraction, beam pattern and other stuff. Millions of pounds have been spent in R & D to create an end product that works as it was scientifically designed to and then somebody decides, "Nah, I want to put these in so I will" without thought or consideration as to what would happen. The proliferation of badly-matched lights and the dazzle caused by them were the driving force for this MOT regulation to be created.

Stones 😁

Most expensive single item in a CT is the hybrid battery. Finding one where the warranty is in place as long as needed for the budget can be something to consider. We did not buy from Lexus and still have a perfect car. Bought it before the 5 years warranty was gone and went to have it serviced to keep hybrid battery warranty. We service at Lexus/Toyota as they hopefully know more about the cars than most other service places. The CT is one of the most reliable cars and having had a lot of cars costing several times more, we consider a CT a perfect choice if not needing a bigger car. Fuel economy is not as Lexus promise, but that is the same with all other companies: they all promise that a car can drive much longer then they can in real life.

Yes. Sorry to be so pedantic 😉!

Just briefly how was the build and material quality on the volvo?

I don't have an interior picture to hand but will stick one up later when I get chance. I don't think the brown is for the faint hearted but the range of colours does help the interior stand out and let you see the design. Also I like to think that it is more like a piece of furniture on the inside, rather than just a car - or I keep telling myself that anyway. Previous Lexus are CT, an IS and then another CT with a Volvo XC60 wedged in between the last 2...

The health test is just the value of the internal resistance of the battery modules which can be displayed by a scan tool. New modules have a very low value, something like 0.015 Ohms. As the modules " age " this value increases. Normally the internal resistance value increases very slowly over time and according to the charge/discharge cycles. There are many hybrid batteries over ten years old and with 250 000 km on the clock and still going strong. So in your case I would not worry about it. Chris.

🥰😍🤯🍆 Sums it up

Good review Nigel very interesting

I would keep pushing them on it, maybe contact the manager. I did offer to get it sorted at my local paint shop that has a very good reputation, but they insisted they wanted to sort it themselves so that they can be sure it is done to a very high standard. Good luck with your daughters car.

I can think of one problem: I would rather be in the back than in the front! 🙂 I do have to ask though why you would want a GS and LS?

If adjusted correct and having the right beam pattern, LED would be blinding the same as halogen. If not adjusted correct etc. LED could blind more than halogen. When HID lamps were the new coming thing, all that was needed to make the light legal were that there was a lamp washer and a regulator of the height of the beam pattern controlled by a sensor on the rear axle of the car. Of course, they were not allowed to give 3 or more times more light than the original, but as long as the lamp height adjuster and washer were in place HID would pass the control. 1998 - 99 in Denmark (long time ago so a year or more could be not correct) we were selling these where I was working.

A very helpful post Kyle. Will you be adding it under the "How to" heading as well?

Plenty of rain recently and rain sensors working fine. No other problems experienced so far

Hi Arnett, This is my first foray into the world of dashcams. Agree about those chairs at Ipswich. Pity they didn’t fit in my boot space as I would happily have one at home! PeteTP

It wouldn't be happening under braking. And wheel diameter wouldn't make a difference. Unbalanced wheels or uneven pressures more like

Correct. The vented calipers are different and have 18 stamped on them, so you would need to upgrade the calipers too. As for your issue with the steering pulling. That could be down to the tyres, not the brakes. My own car tramlined quite badly when I had 19" wheels on it.

Chuffed to report E10 consumption is now c. 43mpg on 20 mile trips. Assume the improvement is due to the "drive train running in" Want to go on a long trip once fuel supply returns to normal. The Carlinkit 2 remains very impressive even working normally in known signal dead spots that my 2021 Aygo suffers big time. Tel

More of my favourite thing- BMWs getting hydrolocked. The first one is a belter!

I had the interesting experience of driving a UX300e on Friday,when my RX went in for a service and MoT and all their loan cars were low on fuel. Here are my thoughts on it as a newcomer to the fully electric driving experience......... I have no idea what model it was, but it looked very similar to a new one in the showroom that had a price tag of around £52,000. Just under 7,000 miles on the clock. I think the blue paintwork had a pearl/metallic effect, but it wasn't immediately obvious in lower light conditions. It was my first experience of both the UX and driving a fully electric car. Coming from a hybrid the basic drive felt similar, but I wasn't prepared for the immediate and rapid acceleration. Neither my RX nor LS400 are exactly slow in that department, but in day-to-day use I think the UX felt even quicker. As it was fairly low on charge I had to leave it at home while I used the LS for a trip out during the day, so I ended up with the unusual experience of driving RX, UX and LS back-to-back. All very different of course, but the basic smoothness was common to all three. The LS still acquits itself very well as a luxury car, and the V8 and normal automatic transmission combination moves it along in such a way that it's not always apparent what form of propulsion it has. I used standard 3-pin outlets to top it up for the day. On that basis it said it would take over 18 hours to 'fill the tank', and I reckon it was taking about an hour for each 10 miles additional range. I can certainly see how a fully electric car would work for us on local joureys, but for longer trips I'd want to keep my RX for as long as possible, with perhaps a change to the NX450h PHEV in a few years time. That appears to offer a good combination until really fast charging options (or even hydrogen) become the norm. Inside is where it didn't work so well for me. The seats lightened things up a bit, but overall I found it very gloomy, almost claustrophobic. The headlining and chunky pillars were also black, with the latter severly limiting over-the-shoulder visibility (I can see what it has those blind spot monitor lights). The windscreen felt rather short too. I never did get used to the 'gearshift', finding it difficult to go quickly between forwards and reverse when manouevring. Steering felt very eager but a little artificial. That being said, when I drove the LS that then felt a bit heavy and lazy so I obviously got used to it. Brakes were quite sharp after an initial press of the pedal. I'm not one for gadgets, so I found the dashboard, large display screen and HUD a little overwhelming on my day with it, but I imagine they can be configured differently and I'd get used to them. My 2014 RX is quite basic in that regard. In conclusion, an interesting experience and I'm glad to have driven one at last. As an overall package I don't think the UX is for me - I'm used to the size and feel of something larger like the RX, and it would be an expensive indulgence as a second car for Mrs SL. However the driving experience was very impressive and I look forward to seeing how Lexus/Toyota roll that out to other models, whether that's as a full BEV or plug-in hybrid like the forthcoming NX450h.

coz he's a Lexus Dealer and not a sensible real-life mechanic .... as above, take it to a reputable independent and see the world unfold with hopefully small cost outcomes Malc

Russell, Compared to many members on this forum I am not an expert in RX electrics - - but recall from reading previous posts on this subject - - I'd start by looking at the condition/charge level of the 12v battery. I had similar problms a year or so ago, and discovered that it was the degraded condition (inability to hold a decent level of charge) of my battery that was the problem. A new battery resolved the issue.

There are many settings that could result useful, as number of blinks in changing direction, light sensivity for auto switch of light, time for lights off after closing car, and so on.

Hi @Mrt23 I have a 2007 Lexus IS250 (slightly older than yours) and I have a similar oil burning problem (sometimes as bad as 1.5l per 1000 miles). It only seemed to get bad over the last 3 years or so. In that time, I've moved to the city and so my driving style has changed considerably (lots of very short trips). I've spent quite a lot of time researching why on earth it is burning oil so ferociously and the most plausible answer seems to be that it's a common problem with modern Toyota engines since they use weak piston rings that dont have sufficient force to seal themselves against the cylinder walls. This improves the fuel efficiency of these engines since they create less friction against the cylinder walls, but as @Mihanicos explained, this is at the expense of your engine burning more oil and your catalytic converter (and your O2 sensors) are likely to fail sooner due to all the burned oil which is passing through the exhaust. The modern weak piston rings are very susceptible to getting gunked up from your dirty oil. What happens in the early stages is that the piston rings get all gunked up with dirt and carbon and they cease to give a tight fit against the cylinder walls. Oil can then get past the piston rings into the cylinders and is burned during the combustion process. If your problem progresses to the later stages, damage is unfortunately caused to the cylinder walls and this will not be possible to repair easily. How can you fix this? You can try to clean some of the dirt off using a cleaner like Marvel Mystery Oil (MMO) and see if this helps. I've just added MMO with my last oil change so will see how much this improves things. You will probably also benefit from cleaning the catalytic converter with something like Cataclean. I've just done mine and I can tell the engine is immediately more responsive. From now on, I will be doing oil changes twice per year (for me this means a change very 2,000 miles). I've now got all the tools to change the oil myself and it really is a very easy job and, if you buy oil in bulk, it only costs about £20-30 per change. This guy explains the problem with our engines quite well: Here's a video on how to use Marvel Mystery Oil

Assuming you are using the correct type and viscosity of oil, and depending on your driving style, daily trip lengths, ambient temperature, terrain of driving and load, some oil will be consumed by any healthy engine. Make sure you are using the correct ACEA C rating of engine oil. This rating depends on the High Temperature Shear Viscosity of the oil. Using the wrong HTSV oil will cause engine damage. See ACEA oil specifications. Check the compression of each cylinder. Worn piston rings and an engine that overheated will cause oil consumption. Worn valve seals will also cause engine oil consumption. It is possible to change them without removing the cylinder head. Inspect the spark plugs. A healthy engine will have the electrode porcelain colour light chestnut brown, indicating a stoichiometric combustion. An oily and sooty electrode indicates excessive oil consumption either from the piston rings or the valve seals. Some engines other than Toyota and Lexus are designed to burn oil about 1.5 litres per 1000 miles for normal driving conditions. The reason for this is to improve fuel economy at the expense of blocking the catalytic converters. Chris.

I'm glad you're enjoying it Gavin and hope it gives you many years of enjoyment as it's a great car. 35 mpg is good too, but it won't be used to cruising so slowly. Brakes should be bedded in by now too. Corvette arrives around 7 pm tonight. Pete

So as alluded to I'd decided one big Lexus wasn't quite enough. I'd owned this Peugeot 405 GTX 1.9 TD for about four years, until Saturday that is. It departed to it's new owner and it was a pleasantly easy sale, had tons of interest and I got a bit more than I had initially reckoned. Was a sad day to see it leave, but it was time for a change. And on Sunday night I collected my new Lexus! Its the 1999 LS400 DHP that was on sale on the forum from Pete (Plastic Orange). I went up to Dundee on Tuesday last week for a look and returned on Sunday to collect. A really easy transaction and the car is a real credit to Pete's ownership, hope I can continue to keep it in the style to which it has become accustomed! The drive down the road was as lovely as you'd expect. Accelerate to 62mph, set cruise control and assume the position to observe the nearside lane. I'll take 35.4mpg from a 4.0 V8 barge! Yesterday afternoon i took a run out on my lunch hour to the dingiest car park I could find... The interior is ridiculously plush and there's no way you'd know it's a 22 year old car with approx 180k from in here. It wears it's miles tremendously. As Pete alluded to in his advert, there's room for some improvement. It needs some paint on the leading edge of the roof and one rear quarter/arch and a few other small bits and bobs that I look forward to getting stuck into. Took it a run to show my brother last night, pictured with his IS250h Premier. Two cars from the same marque 15 years apart, they're quite different! Cheers again for the easy sale Pete and good luck with your corvette!

Alexander, I have been using Summertown garage mention by royoftherovers above for over 50 years. They looked after my 1998 GS300 for 10 years (125k miles) when I swapped it for a 2007 GS450h. In the last few years seeing the direction the industry was going they trained up for servicing hybrids. This was a shrewd move. Last week I had my 54th MOT and minor service* for £199.98. This includes a battery check but not the year's warranty that Lexus would add. I'm nearing 15 year limit anyway. If you are in Oxfordshire you can't be that far from them. Give them a try. They will work with you if you do some things yourself. John * This is a Britprius idea. A minor service aside for oil and filters is mainly visual. Lots of the MOT is visual too. I have MOT and minor service every year and ask for occasional extra things like brake fluid swap that get done in a major service.

Or, if the OP has somewhere like this near to him