ColinBarber

Just doing a drain and fill will only change 1/3 of the fluid - which may be all you need to keep the fluid in good condition if you do it regularly. I'm not sure the Lexus dealer was quoting you correctly, or they just didn't want to do it. They probably included dropping the pan and changing the filter but even then it is a couple of hours work and £150 in parts and fluid.

The 400h has essentially the same suspension set up as the sprung petrol variant. It is really just spring rates that are different due to weight differences at the rear. They both use the same wishbone, although different engine mounts. Either way both the 300/330 and 400h manuals both list the first step as remove engine assembly with transaxle as you need to remove the engine mount which sits over the wishbone. Whether you can just raise and support it enough to do that without disconnecting all the wiring etc. I don't know. It's a slightly bigger job on the petrol version as you have to disconnect the prop shaft which the 400h doesn't have. Look at page 23 (SP-20) here: https://cardiagn.com/suspension-2006-rx330/

Worth checking the load index on the tyres you have. No point having firmer ones than came as stock as that will only make things worse.

The NX has poor economy compared to what is possible, the engine is too old and not even up to the performance/economy of the superior but almost identical IS300h engine. Shame the NX didn't get the latest Rav4/ES300h engine at facelift but looks like we have to wait until the new generation of NX to get a modern engine and a current generation of hybrid system. Size and price aside, the RX is in a different league to the NX in terms of power & refinement and has virtually the same economy.

Under

Hi Anthony. Please follow these instructions and post in the for sale forum.

You do the ES a great disservice there. It has a completely different and much more modern engine compared to the IS300h and is combined with a newer generation of hybrid system and CVT transmission.

Possibly. When you have a roof nearly made entirely out glass then you have that risk. Just tightening up the bars too much could crack the glass. Lexus do show pictures of pano models with roof accessories but not sure if they have now stopped it. I've heard of dealers not allowing it both in the UK and US. When you purchase the vehicle you have the choice of pano or sunroof and one of the consideration should be if you need to carry things on the roof. Obviously we are talking pano here: If you have a standard sunroof or nothing then it is fine to carry things on the roof.

That is correct for the pano roof but the vehicle in question is a series II where pano was never an option. SE and SE-L grades had both the sunroof and rails as standard.

It sounds like the drains are blocked. The seal around the roof should be watertight but doesn't have to be as any water coming in should fall into the channel and drain away. There are four drains, one in each corner. Open the sunroof and pour some water into the channel near each drain hole to make sure it runs away. The water comes out under the vehicle, just behind the front wheels/ in front of the rear wheels. They tend to get blocked at the exit as road dirty gets into the pipes. This video shows you the drain holes and where the water comes out. Be careful it you blow out the pipes as shown in this video, if you have too much pressure you could blow the pipe off the connector and then you have to remove the headlining to get it back on again.

Not sure how easy it is to get to the pumps, normally the reservoir is in the wing so it is either front wheel off and remove the wheel arch lining to get to it, or worse the front bumper has to come off. Have a look in the engine bay to see if you can see them. I'd start with the switch, you should be able to narrow down where the fault lies from there. If you disconnect the wiring connectors from the stalk then measure the resistance between pin 5 of connector A and pin 2 of connector B. It should be infinite and then approx. 0 ohms when you move the switch to wash. If you have a reading other than infinity when the switch isn't being moved to wash then that may be where the low power is being supplied to the motor and the switch is faulty. If that is ok then measure the resistance across those two pins but on the plugs rather than the switch - you are then measuring the resistance between one side of the pump and the vehicle ground - if you have anything other than infinity then you have a resistance path in the wiring somewhere or at the pump connector. I cannot see it being the pump itself as that probably has plastic body and mounted on the plastic reservoir and therefore has no direct connection to ground to complete the circuit itself. Connector A Connector B

There are a couple of reasons for essentially what is a refusal to perform/complete a hybrid heath check. There is an existing error code relating to the hybrid system. This will be cleared but Toyota/Lexus insist that the vehicle is driven for 400-600 miles (not sure the exact distance) to make sure the fault no longer exists. If the 12v aux battery goes flat/is disconnected then all error codes are wiped, or if codes were purposely cleared. Again 400-600 miles needs to be driven to make sure no faults exist and a code wasn't cleared on purpose to try and get warranty coverage. The reason for the distance is that certain faults only show up intermittently or after a certain conditions e.g. vehicle speed, hard acceleration etc. etc. The distance stipulated means most, if not all conditions, would have been encountered and so Toyota has confidence that the system is working fine. They are relying on the hybrid system itself to detect faults, ones that cannot be tested for in a workshop and within the timeframe allocated to conduct the HHC.

No, the washer circuit doesn't use a relay, it is directly powered. You can pull the Washer fuse to prove it is an electrical faulty - the single fuse protects both front and rear washers. It's a weird fault but the wiring for the rear washer is quite simple so it is either a fault with the wiper control stalk or a wiring issue. The design of the circuit means there is a 12v feed on the pump at all times when the ignition is on so it is possible that the return could have a high resistance path to the vehicle ground which would give you low speed running of the pump - e.g. the connector is damp/wiring insulation damaged etc.

Be careful here, the 2GR-FE is similar to your engine but you have a 2GR-FSE and it seems the timing cover is a different part. The 2GR-FE is rare in the UK, it was only used on the RX350 which wasn't sold in great numbers hence you may struggle to find parts, but you don't want that anyway. Do a bit of research to check but if the part code here is correct, it seems the cover is used on quite a few different models in the UK so it may be easier to find it as an IS250 cover for example:

Yes, the complete pump assembly would be replaced under warranty. However many series III GSs are getting to the age where the official Lexus extended warranty isn't an option as they are over 10 years old. Obviously there are third party warranties available but small print should be checked for what they cover, maximum single claim, labour rates they will pay etc.

I may be misunderstanding here but the standard rails on the series II RX have no bearing whether the vehicle has a sunroof or not.

Officer

There are three different designs/part codes for these but all around the same stupid price. Left and Right ones are available separately. This is what toyodiy.com shows for the early ones as an estimated dealer price:

The HHC only covers the battery. The GS450h series III also suffers from transmission issues - turns out it is a pump issue, and just a £2 bearing at that but unless you are mechanically minded it will cost a lot more than that to fix. Whilst not unreliable, the series III GS450h is the least reliable hybrid model. There are probably more of these vehicles with problems than all other hybrids combined, and it has sold the least. Yes the battery and transmission can be fixed but it is hassle and expense you don't get on the other Lexus hybrids, or the petrol versions of the GS.

Difficult to price but they don't typically make much money unfortunately. There are a couple of 430s on eBay at the moment which seem to be up for far too much.

I doubt the dealer took the trouble to pull it apart to measure the battery voltage - more likely it wasn't working, they replaced it and assumed the battery was dead. That may have been the case but it also could have been an electronics failure, it was damaged slightly when you had the tyre replaced etc. Techstream will give battery level information if the unit is working, but obviously if the thing is completely dead then that isn't possible.

looks thin metal that will only take a few seconds to cut through using the same angle grinder/reciprocating saw used to cut through the exhaust pipe. Maybe not much worse than the official ones, but they don't put up much of a fight either.

The extended warranty T&Cs change over time, mainly due to who actually administers and provides the warranty but at present the following applies: To take out an extended warranty the vehicle needs to be under 10 years old and have less than 140k miles on it. Once the vehicle is already under the extended warranty and you are just renewing (extending) the warranty then the 140k mile restriction doesn't apply. The warranty has no mileage restrictions during the term. i.e. it has unlimited mileage cover. Provided you aren't using the vehicle for hire, racing, driving tuition etc. So for example you could take out a warranty on a 7 year old vehicle with 110k miles on the clock, do 200k miles during the 2 year warranty period and purchase an extension to the warranty so the vehicle at 9 years old with 310k miles on the clock will be covered for another 2 year period with unlimited mileage restrictions. The warranty can be extended at 310k miles because there was no period when the warranty lapsed. Once the vehicle is 10 years old the warranty cannot be extend again so in the example above the warranty would end when the vehicle is 11 years old.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like that would slow down the theft by more than a few seconds.

That was a series III. Not sure the series IV is wildly different but would be good to confirm.