tom123

This is what broke on mine

Same thing happened to mine. Lexus Wolverhampton fitted a new clip for free whilst my car was in for a service. Before it was fixed I had to simultaneously pull the cord in the boot and press the fuel door with my other hand to open it.

The Lexus extended warranty is not actually an insurance-based/underwritten warranty, but rather a manufacturer warranty: Lexus themselves collect the money paid by customers for their warranties and pay out for any claims. TWG are merely the administrators of the warranty. If you don't like a decision that TWG makes then you have to deal with Toyota UK.

There is some good advice on the Financial Ombudsman website: "We generally consider that if insurers expect substantial "wear and tear" to occur within the period covered by the policy, they should not sell policies for that duration." http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/extended-warranties.html Your claim in the small claims track of the county court would be against the dealer who (mis)sold you the warranty, rather than Lexus themselves. The only way to get them to change their mind is to publicly shame them..Twitter, Facebook, the motoring press...

'Lifetime' in car terms of course means 10 years or 100,000 miles maximum. Nothing is designed to last any longer than that. I had a quote from a Lexus main dealer for a CVT box oil change - was about £260 for parts plus labour if I remember correctly, although when it came to it they didn't change the oil as the service manager told me that the technician has dip-sticked the transmission oil and found no trace of metal particles.

I'm not 100% sure if it applies to this model, but most car reviews tend to mention that cars bound for Europe have their suspension tuned by the manufacturer to 'European tastes' (e.g. firmer shocks/springs to give flatter handling). If you look at the RX400h dampers available at Rock Auto, you will often see that some of them are listed as for the American and Canadian market only. The RX450h ones Rock Auto have listed don't make any distinction, so perhaps Lexus have used the same dampers globally for this model. The Monroe Spectrum dampers which may give you a softer ride, but I think that you will struggle to find someone in the UK who has tried them themselves and who can tell you for sure. http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/lexus,2011,rx450h,3.5l+v6+electric/gas,1446887,suspension

Well, it turned out it was the offside inner CV joint rubber seal that had gone. Got it fixed under the Lexus warranty, which was good. The cost at the main dealer would have been £206 to replace the rubber boot and clip if I was going to pay for it myself.

I'm wondering whether to replace my 55-plate RX400h with a pre-face lift RX450 (I much prefer the pre-face lift car's looks and also the lower cost!). Did you notice any difference in the ride quality between your RX400h and the RX450h that you tried? I find my RX400h deals with smoother bumps very well, but sharper-edged road imperfections tend to send a shock through to the cabin. Is the RX450h any better in this regard?

I got my local garage to fix it. I thought they would just put some large washers above the nuts to hold the shield in place, but they actually drilled some small holes and used plastic cable ties to secure the loose shield. Only charged me a fiver so I couldn't complain, and everything is still in place a year later.

Thank you. Last time I had to get a national car magazine to help persuade Lexus to approve a warranty claim!

Noticed some slight juddering on full lock at parking speeds recently. Took a look and saw some green gunk seeping out of the CV joint on the driver's side. Car has just passed 100K miles, 55 plate. Going in tomorrow for the Lexus dealership to have a look as still have 6 months or so remaining on the extended warranty. Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem yet, and if so how much it cost to replace the CV joints. The service manager was very non-committal about whether they thought this would be covered under the warranty.

As stated above, no RX400h's were available with air suspension, whatever trim level they were.

They look like great value. Just a note, I think that the US and Canadian market RX's had softer suspension set-ups, so the struts from Rock Auto may have altered damping characteristics compared with the European market ones.

There was no space for the air suspension parts in the RX 400h due to the hybrid battery (I think), so only the RX330/350 petrol models of the second generation RX were available with air suspension.

Lexus dealers offer a fixed-price deal for older cars such as the RX400h. They charge £395 for rear shocks. http://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/servicing-and-maintenance/#ServicingYourLexus Other than that, Rock Auto has Monroe struts at £74.55, and KYB struts for a bit less. They ship from the US, so you will have to add shipping and import costs. http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/lexus,2006,rx400h,3.3l+v6+electric/gas,1431837,suspension,strut,7584?a=Referer+www.google.co.uk+URL+%2F%3Ffrom_co_uk

Can you remember what is was they replaced? I would love to have the seat heater stay on permanently, it's nice even if it's not particularly cold!

I tend to always put it up to the maximum, but after 15-20 minutes it switches itself off and doesn't come back on again, despite the red light still showing.

Makes sense that there would be a thermostat, but mine seem to heat up quickly, stay very warm for a while and then seem to go off completely after 20 minutes, and they don't come back on again unless I switch them off and then wait a while. I read somewhere about someone who had a relay switch or something replaced by a Lexus dealer for a similar sounding problem.

The parking sensors in my RX 400h do exactly the same. Never really bothered me that much to be honest.

Mine switches off after 15-20 minutes (both the driver and passenger side). Is this normal?

Glad you got everything sorted! I completely agree re. the myth of the Lexus dealerships - it seems that people are swayed by the ego-boosting staff and the marble floors and 'free' coffee and biscuits.

I would write to Honest John for advice on what to do, he responded within 20 minutes when I emailed him once. If Lexus try this trick on me then I will pay for an independent engineer's inspection and, if they can find no sign of a re-spray I will probably get the work done and then sue Lexus in the small claims court for the cost of the work. Does the GS 450h have the same wheel arch design with the lip that catches dirt from the road? Can you post a picture?

Thanks, will update next week hopefully when I've heard back from the dealer.

Took the car to a body shop yesterday. He thoroughly inspected the area - took some of the door seal trim off, inspected around the inside of the petrol filler cap which he said had never been removed. He noted that a scratch near to the area of corrosion had gone straight through to the original factory applied primer coat. He couldn't see any sign a previous accident repair or of re-spraying, and said that there would always be a lip/edge of new paint somewhere to feel if it had been re-painted. He advised me to fight the case with the dealer. Now waiting for the service manager to get back from his holiday.

Thanks for the reply. I just got the follow up 'courtesy call' from the dealer receptionist and told that actually I wasn't happy with my experience when I took my car in last week for a service. She said that she would get the service manager to call me back next week. It will take me a whole afternoon to drive there and back for them to inspect it, like you say will take them all of 15 minutes to look at it, so it's annoying that they didn't have a proper look last time.