Lexus4Me?

Thank you Eduado, When you say type anything into Google may I assume you mean on one's mobile phone not using the Lexus remote touch? I'm not sure whether to try it because if I have to use the phone for entry I'm inclined to use it for navigation too. I've found a nice little clip that holds the phone just above the instrument cowl, but I don't intend to do data entry while I'm moving! Having said that I remember that it is possible to instruct Google by voice, although I don't seem to be able to do so effectively while driving. I suspect it is background noise (Yes, even in a Lexus hybrid!) - if only I could use the car's voice control to work the phone! I couldn't agree with Ten Ninety more. Have a screen for controlling aspects of the car (although direct control through a switch or a knob would be better) and another screen for all the things a modern smart phone can do - navigation, texts etc. controlled by voice. When I suggest two screens they could be the same physical screen toggling between the two uses or the same screen split to accommodate them both at once

Hmm. My OnePlus3 (Android) phone and 2012 GS450h Premier work fine together and unlike Capase 21 I just get messages shown and, if I want, read out. I don't really understand about the BlueDUN app. How exactly does one request that it looks for shops etc? Buy using the remote touch or voice command? Sounds clever if it in some way communicates the answers to the navigation. I'm pretty certain i can enable shops to be shown on the navigation without a mobile phone connected if I fiddle in the menu settings but it won't just give Tesco.

Well done John. An excellent job and thank you for sharing with us.

Respect John and good luck with fitting.

Thank you for this Farqui and Ambrose John for the original post. What a sneaky idea.

Sorry I'm clearly getting a mite slow. This is obviously a photo of some TPNS sensors in a cast box with one of the sensors fitted into the side of the box but I can't find what it refers to or why the sensor is fitted into the side of the box. I'd welcome a hint Ambrose John.

The Premier also has Sport S and Sport S+ modes like the FSport.

I have a red 2013 GS450h and I list below the reasons not to buy one:- Enjoy the car.

I have a Premier and it does have a lot of toys, most of which I don't use. You may wish to consider Pre-collision braking which comes with adaptive cruise control which I don't have but which could be handy. I don't know if later years have a head up display. The FSport which matches my 2013 onwards model has rear steering which is supposed to be good and variable ratio steering which I fancy but it also has black headlining - great if you're a Goth - and aluminium rather than wood trim inside which appears to dent very easily. It also has 20" wheels which look great but you'll need to be very careful parking near kerbs. I believe also that to provide the "more aggressive frontal aspect" there aren't any fog lights but if I'm wrong I'm sure someone will soon correct me. I like my 450h very much it is very quick but also very smooth. Enjoy your purchase.

I find the sat nav clunky and expensive to update but it uses a nice big screen and a very pleasant and reassuring voice offering me directions. Frankly Google Maps on my Android phone knocks it into a cocked hat on that all I have to do is to say "Navigate me to ..............." and I'm provided with a choice of a few routes and a Start button. Oh why can't Lexus let us mirror our phones on the screen and use the "mouse" to control the phone?

I'd been away for six weeks and returned to find the Lexus wouldn't quite start. 12V battery flat engine wouldn't fire up alarm started sounding weakly with lights flashing. I've been told that I may have damaged the traction battery - some cells would have discharged more than others and then been damaged by the rapid charging once I'd got a jump start. About a week later I jumped into the car and on startup was greeted by the yellow exclamation mark and the message "Shutter grille inoperable". I googled it and found out what the shutter grille does (shuts to restrict airflow through the lower vents at the front of the car - to reduce over cooling and possibly improve aerodynamics) but only one report (of a Prius owner) having a fault - which was diagnosed as being caused by poor routing of wiring in the engine bay through the shutters. I worried about it for a day or so. Did some more fruitless Googling and checked out pricing for the online manual but put off getting out the spanners because of a visit from friends. Next time I got into the car to take these friends for a ride to the North Norfolk Coast (not fretting too much about the grille because it was open rather than closed) to find the warning triangle and the message had disappeared. Is it usual for faults to disappear like this?

Gosh you've had a lot of problems. I'm rather scared having last year invested rather more cash than I would have liked in a GS450h Premier. If I get the sort of problems you have had in the next few years I'll be on my uppers. I've previously preferred rougher cars with a bit of poke but liked what the Lexus seemed to offer. Maybe it was time to buy an old git's car now that I am one. It is smooth, very comfortable and looks splendid. It is nice having the power on tap but it delivers that power so elegantly I don't always appreciate it. No bellowing exhaust no churning engine. Good fuel economy for its performance but mine costs more in depreciation than fuel per mile. I'm not so sure about the gadgets - of course I wanted them when I was looking at the options but I'm not sure 18 way electrical adjustment of the seats is really necessary as with my old cars with a few manual adjustments I get it to suit me and leave it at that. Passengers big and small seem quite comfortable without adjusting the seats despite my trying to impress them with the plethora of controls. Automatically lifting steering wheel and sliding back seat is impressive but not exactly necessary (but maybe in a few years it will help me disembark onto my Zimmer frame). Mark Levinson - lovely and better than my Dansette it is true but is it so much better than my old Pioneer stereo? At my age can I really tell the difference? I actually find it surprisingly quiet even when turned fully up but if I wind up the bass the parcel shelf bounces, the rear view mirror wobbles and I'm sure the sub-woofer coil wouldn't last long. Of course as a gadget fancier i looked at the F-Sport - variable ratio front steering and rear wheel steering too but I hated the black headlining (why can't it be an option for Goths?) and the aluminium trim is clearly much too vulnerable to denting and doubtless a fortune to replace (I'm puzzled by the whole wood/aluminium strips stuck into the dash idea as if in some sort of homage to pre-war burr walnut veneer in the days when one needed a bit of timber to hold the knobs and dials), I couldn't find the front fog lights either but the salesmen told me it had a more aggressive look (who do I need to frighten?). Sorry I don't know anything about the RX so I can't help your choice there. Good luck with whatever you choose and maybe Boddney has a good point. Perhaps I should sell you mine and buy yours - the latter can't have much more to go wrong can it?

I had almost identical damage, but on the passenger side, on my 450h the other day. The bumper suffered the worse damage and had become detached from its locating tabs at one place. It cost me £170 to get it fixed at a local body shop. He managed to polish out the damage on the metal and achieved a really good match where he resprayed the bumper, which I think he managed to do in situ. Thanks for the advice about avoiding Oxford but it appears that Norwich is a no-go area too. I'm beginning to think that video cameras mounted to my house may be worth the investment. At least that would catch perpetrators not owning up while the car is at home. Perhaps I could then wrap the car in a big inflatable tube when I park at the supermarket. I've got to say that my Skoda Octavia is much better protected against damage to the doors at least. Barry

Thanks for that Luigi. I've only scan read it but it certainly does look complex but not, I think, so complicated as to justify the Lexus pricing. I contacted Beat-Sonic. They have a system with lots of wires, plugs and boxes which connects up behind the audio system. It mirror the Android phone on the screen but does not allow control using remote touch. I looked at a You-tube video of it working - it looks a bit clunky and at close on £300 definitely not for me.

Yes, Colin. Vaistech is expensive until one compares it to updating the Lexus maps! Sadly they don't seem to make a system which will work with the navigation system in my car. Maybe I'll follow your course with a phone holder but it isn't really what I'm after. Lexus will never be able to keep up with mapping applications which can be sold cheaply/free to a vast number of consumers and which do the job better. All they get by trying to do so is adverse criticism.

Yes Zotto I think we are caught with systems in our cars which did not have a huge production output in our countries and navigation systems that changed quite often. I can understand why we may not be Lexus' highest priority which is why I'd rather find a way of linking to a mobile phone system.

At last The Lexus Portal reports an update for the navigation on my GS450h Premier Gen4 (2012)! It now gives 02-16-50 as the latest version for my EMVN (11HDD) model navigation. I still have the original 2012 version (12-02-00 (2011-11-0) installed but the up to date version when I bought the car was 2015-05-1 which indicates they seem to have changed the version naming format. Establishing what the latest update is seems difficult and inclines me to wonder if the information one receives is always accurate. The garage where I bought the car claimed that they could supply me a updated data from early 2016 but the Lexus Portal has remained with the 2015-05-01 until very recently. I contacted Lexus tech staff through the Portal but they just referred me back to the garage. One wonders if the tech staff don't know who does. I'm tempted to get this latest update since I have a deal with the garage to get it at half price because of a misunderstanding when I bought the car but £80 is still quite a chunk of cash for a piece of software which will soon be out of date on fairly clunky bit of kit (although the GS screen is great and I like the voice guidance). Google Maps on my mobile seems brilliant - I can even tell it verbally to provide the route to somewhere and it does it quite well. I also understand that Sygic is good for Android at about £17.50 - £29 depending if one wants only European maps or World coverage and either the standard system or the one with Traffic information (The maps can be downloaded and don't need an internet connection - I think the latter is only needed for Traffic). So how can I get my mobile screen displayed on the car's screen and controlled by the car's remote touch/steering wheel? Viastech provided a system for the Gen 3 GS and I've picked up rumours about BeatSonic, MirrorLink and Grom but don't know anything about them. Has anyone experience or advice on how to do this and how well it works? I like the Lexus screen and I don't really want to have to clamp the phone to the car and have charging wires draping all over my lovey interior.

I once had a Honda Prelude with an aerial having two heights. One for normal use and a lower one so one could drive into the garage with the audio playing. Maybe this is what yours is doing. Sadly I cannot remember how one could choose which height.

OK guys. So how do I get the wretched thing back on the car? I've spent the best part of today trying. Plastic at top rear seems difficult to locate properly - maybe I've distorted the metal latching tabs on the top outside edge of the boot. I've managed to locate the bumper into the plastic tabs at the top on the right hand side but the left hand side is proving a real pig. I eventually noticed that I'd bent in the plastic strip attached to the bumper which needs to go into a latching piece of plastic. My difficulty is getting it lined up so I can slide it in. I'm now removing the rear lights to get a bit more access but they seem reluctant to leave the body too! Getting mighty frustrated and my mood has not been helped by the drawing in the instructions for the cut-out in the bumper to provide access to the tow bar was wrong. Fortunately I checked before I cut but I wasn't expecting to be correcting fitting instructions.

My pleasure gentlemen. The typing didn't take me long especially compared to the week or so I appear to have spent fitting the tow-bar! I was quoted 8 hours at £50 per hour. I admire any mechanic who could do it in that time.

Well guys and gals, I'm disappointed by your lack of suggestions so far but it may help to know that the top item, found in the bottom of the boot, is attached to a pipe underneath the boot which terminates in a metal box fixed to the back of the differential (or are they called rear transfer boxes these days?) two other pipes lead out of (or into) this box on another side. My best guess so far is that it is a breather - but I don't know for what. Barry

Hi Mal, I've just taken the bumper off my Mk4 GS450h and you are welcome to what I have so far written. When I've reassembled it I will offer it as a guide on here. Firstly take a look at the American Club Lexus site http://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-3rd-gen-2006-2011/569543-rear-bumper-removal.html where you will find some instructions. Beyond that this is what I found for the Mk4 :- Lexus GS450h Generation 4 2012 - Removing the rear bumper. You would be well advised to sign up to www.lexus-tech.eu for access to their technical manuals. Some of these are free others you have to pay for. Signing up is free; instructions on fitting a tow-bar including rear bumper removal is too. Look in the Lexus Technical Manuals/Repair/Accessory Information Manuals then search for your Model, Generation and choose Towing Hitch. There are two I couldn’t decide which to go for and looked at both at different times – couldn’t see much difference. Sadly these manuals are in diagrammatic form with almost no written explanation so I hope the following helps. It is all quite straightforward – in places! Remove the two bolts under the circular tabs at the back of the bumper revealed when you open the boot. Take care to use a soft pry so as not to damage the paint. Remove the two 10mm bolts at the bottom front of the bumper accessed from below at the back of the wheel arch then remove the two 10mm bolts at the top front of the bumper from under the wheel arch. Lever the rubber/plastic mud flap/wheel-arch liner back to get to it. Working under the car - remove the four push in connectors between the back of the bottom, black piece of the bumper and the plastic under-body protector. You do not need to remove the four outer ones. Then remove the four bolts holding this protector to the body. Inside the boot on either side you will find five black square connectors retaining orange/pink poppers which have been inserted from the outside. There are also a few square connectors without the poppers (or there were on my car anyway). Ease the black connectors’ tabs with a small screwdriver and push the poppers out. Then squeeze in the locking tabs on the square connectors so that they will pull out from the outside. Do not lose the small square washers from the square connectors. Make sure you have protected the bodywork above the bumper by applying wide masking tape just above the body/bumper line. You should then be able to pull the bumper away from the car. Be careful not to trap the back two poppers in their holes when you get to the back. Not quite there yet. On the right side you will find that there is a white plastic support connecting the bumper and the body. I couldn’t find an easy way to release this. The top appears to be fixed on by a fitting which requires a 90 degree rotation – not practical when attached to the bumper and the bottom is fixed by a popper. You may have better luck with this popper than I did but do give it a try if you fancy your luck. Instead I eased the black fixings away from the bumper and separated it here. It may be possible to just pull the bumper clear of these on either side without touching the orange/pink poppers in the boot at all - but I didn’t fancy risking it. Lastly disconnect the plug for the parking sensors at the back left by squeezing in the locking catch and pulling. Lower the bumper onto a soft surface to protect the paintwork. Good luck. Let me know how you get on. E&OE Barry

Glad you manage to get what you wanted Robert. It is indeed a lovely machine. Barry

I'm fitting a tow -ar to a GS450h Mk4 (2012 - ). I couldn't find any supplier other than Lexus and I think there may be problems with insurance and something like "type approval "for non Lexus tow-bars. It cost a fortune. I managed a small discount to just over £800 by buying it when I purchased the car last year. They wanted £400 for fitting so I'm doing it myself. Huge complicated and inelegant, over-engineered design. Weighs 80kg and is likely to reduce my 0-60 by 0.2s making it more than 6s The fitting instructions, which one can find in the Lexus Portal do not say anything about an oil cooler but I'm only towing a little rowing dinghy so I don't think it will be a problem. Good luck with finding a solution Deet27

The ML in my GS450h also plays DVDs when I'm parked and the sound continues when I'm moving.