chris1601

It's when she has the personality change when reading a road name, I think. Although I particularly like when she reports 'incidents' in that soft, inviting way but sadly, there never are any incidents.

I used a wet wipe and it removed the marks without removing the anti-glare. Dried the screen and now it's immaculate too. Nice!

If the mouldy smell is there I think you'll need to use one of the fogger products first but give the heat trick a go first as it's basically free 🙂 No, you don't need the AC on, the air always flows through the evaporator whether the AC is on or off. Recirc on or off doesn't matter either, although it may help to further raise the temperature at the evaporator if you do recirculate. If you can get the heater outlets to 60c, that'll help.

Not running the AC does NOT cause mould/bacteria. Running the AC full time, leaving it (the evaporator) wet and then left to stand (parked up for a few days) can cause mould/bacteria to form. Typically in summer when its sat, all nice and warm and moist (oo-er). Provided the evaporator is dried out after a season of regular use by not running the AC and just using the fans, it should remain odour free. I don't run mine during winter (except a few minutes every few weeks to keep the seals healthy) and never have nasty smells. If your car is going to stand idle for days at a time, then dry the evaporator out by running the fans only for 30 minutes or so and you shouldn't need the disinfection maintenance. Note that this is not specifically a car issue. All air conditioners suffer the same problem of moisture on the coils. The reason why most believe leaving their car AC on full time is once the evaporator is cold, it masks the smell of the presence of bacteria. Turn it off and the smell comes back, as you have found. The key is avoiding leaving those coils wet for long periods of time. Hard to do in summer but come autumn when you don't need cooling anymore, it's much easier to dry out. FYI I never have trouble with misting windows ever with the AC off provided the coils are dry.

I had similar feelings with the loaner UX. Road noise and in-cabin comfort were just miles away from the IS.

Just popped to Sainsbury's to pick up wifey, all of a mile away or about 5 minutes journey time. Car has been baking in the sun all morning. AC on 19c, face+floor, seat on 3 and without the mesh back support thing, the seat back was definitely cooling. By the time we got home after just 15 minutes in all, the seat was cool if not cold, cushion and back. I think this mod is a success.

That looks spot on!

Yes, face plus foot mode is needed to send air to the footwell vents plus disabling S-Flow to open the rear footwell vents.

@200h nice 🙂 My seat back mod was quite successful, in combination with the mesh back support. My back was actually cool to the touch after a couple of hours, so much so I turned down the seat fans from 3 which I'd normally use on a warm day to 1. It was actually a little too cold! I think I'll try it next without the mesh back support and see if it still keeps me cool.

It's not quite what I had in mind, but I have used an old vacuum cleaner extension hose to duct one of the two footwell outlets under the driver's seat into the seat back void. It's a flexible hose so moves with the seat. There are a few cables to be aware of when pushing the hose through the gap between the seat and seat cover at the back but otherwise it slots in without any drama. The car has been sat baking in the sun all afternoon. Seat temperature was about 30c after I got the sun off it with a silver windscreen shade thing. I had the AC on Lo which recirculated, doors and windows closed, still with a lot of residual heat in the car. I had my right hand measuring the temperature of the same point on the seat, my hand resting on the seat to minimise any movement. My left hand holding my phone (excuse the closeups while changing CC mode). With the climate control on Auto Mode, AC On, S-Flow off and temp set to Lo, all air was coming from the face vents, directed up to the roof. No air hitting the seat directly. I measured a fairly steady 28c and turning on the ventilated seat to 3 it was still steady at 28c. Then I set the air mode to face + floor, still Lo and still AC On. The temperature of the seat back started dropping. Set it back to 'auto' mode, still Lo and still AC On. All air is now from the face vents only. The seat back temperature stopped dropping and stayed steady, rising slightly. Then I set the air mode to face + floor, still Lo and still AC On. The temperature of the seat back started dropping. So it seems that ducting into the seat back works well. I'll be out for a couple of hours on Saturday so that will be the test. Video of testing: Start with seat fans on full, no air to floor 0:50 - set mode to face + floor 2:15 - back to auto (face only) 3:45 - back to face + floor

FYI I use Eco mode all the time and my AC is ice cold. There may be an upper limit on how warm outside Eco mode can cope with, I know my previous Toyota Auris struggled in last year's scorcher 38c day and I used recycle mode periodically (I didn't remember Eco mode reduced compressor capacity at the time) but even then we were kept cool enough.

That diagram was really useful @ColinBarber. I ran some bog roll tests and found that there was no obvious suction for the seat back in the seat back perforations. Even right at the top there was positive pressure outwards when turning the fan on. I next tried blocking the seat cushion intake and confirmed that there was no effect on the seat back, so it appears that intake doesn't pipe over to the back. Lastly, I unzipped the left zip on the drivers seat back and saw the seat back ducting. There's actually a lot of room in there and with my hand near the fan itself confirmed that the air intake for the seat back is taken from the seat back void. The void itself when zipped up is fairly tight so I'm thinking perhaps a slight gap introduced at the bottom of the seat back might be enough to suck up some of the cold air from the foot vents. Now to think of something that will do the job, needs to be quite narrow but wide...

The seat cushion is pretty effective by virtue of the air flow being mainly towards the front half where air can escape between your legs. Ducting the foot vent up to the seat cushion and putting the AC on makes it really quite cold indeed but it's by no means essential. The seat back is different. I feel little effect but it depends on what you're wearing and your build. I'm 6' and 14st and fill the seat fairly well and I find it's not enough ventilation for a long journey. The air gets trapped and after a while it still feels very warm. I've added a mesh lumbar support thing which puts a little distance between my back and the seat without compromising comfort. I removed the central nobbly part which was just stitched in place. With this mesh support on the seat back, I can feel the warm air escaping from my sides and the ventilation is reasonably effective and good enough. I'd still like to duct cold air from the AC to it if I can figure out roughly where the intake is.

I found it on Youtube. Whilst it references an IS250 and the previous gen, it still works great on the gen 3 as well:

I've done the listerine bottle mod for the seat cushion intake and with the AC on, it gets nice and cold. Does anyone know where the intake is located for the seat back?

Agree 100% and my previous car was a BMW 550i Touring. I do sometimes miss the grunt and the noise but I don't miss the unreliable car, engine oil leaks, annual tax, low mpg, racers trying to race me...

Yes, there is a kickdown switch of sorts at the bottom of the pedal travel and you get a distinct nudge in the back as the acceleration really hits. The CVT thing is much much better controlled in the IS300h, you can use quite a bit of part throttle and it will use more battery/motor meaning the engine doesn't scream away as easily as other Toyota hybrid drivetrain generations. It's the one thing that seriously bugged me about the Auris I had before was the way it would scream uphills, even moderate uphills would make me turn off the cruise and gently decelerate up just to avoid the noise. The 300h doesn't do any of that. It is a pleasure to drive, genuinely, and if you already appreciate the hybrid/CVT drivetrain, I think you'll love the 300h. I don't recall enough how the RX drivetrain performs compares to the Prius/Auris to comment on that though.

... is it me you're looking forrrrr? (Does that help?) 😄

The IS has a slightly firmer setup which you may enjoy. I find it, on 17" wheels at least, a good compromise between comfort and sportiness. It's really enjoyable to cruise along in on the motorway or A/B roads. It never encourages me to drive quickly (that's the nature of the hybrid drivetrain more than anything and I do enjoy that relaxed feel), but it is still a joy to take out on any road. I've never had a car where I've been to the dealer for routine servicing and looked forward to getting back into my car compared to the newer loan cars. Usually it's the other way around! Regarding the 400/450h RX versus 300h IS, on paper acceleration is similar, but I found the RX didn't feel as fast and those extra mpg from the IS certainly feel good whilst delivering similar performance to the RX. If you don't regularly need the extra boot space and weight, the IS could be an excellent choice. You can always hire a van for those odd occasions when you need to fill the boot.

Sport mode doesn't change anything other than the throttle map in my premier. That said, the 300h drivetrain is superb on fuel but so much better than the Prius/Auris drivetrains which wail like a banshee if you go anywhere near the throttle. The IS is a really nice place to be and with the folding seats in most trim levels, it's reasonably practical too unlike the GS (which has the 450h option) which has no folding seats. I think the IS is the sweet spot in the range and is even nicer than the newer UX. The 300h has enough performance to satisfy but still delivers high 40s to low 50s mpg over a tank.

That sounds like a flap in the ventilation matrix moving to adjust air between different vents. Probably just needs a little lube of some sort on what I imagine are rubber seals. I might be wrong though.

Yes, even if you're not using navigation, it still beeps.

I know this is an old thread, but was there any fix for this? I also find that the cabin temperature gets slowly lower over time. I generally settle on 22c but if I start at that, I end up in a sauna for the first half an hour of my journey so I start at 20c then increase to compensate as the temperature in the cabin drops. Never had this on any of my previous german cars, nor the Toyota Auris I came from before the IS300h.

Weird analogy.

Agree there is a 12v problem somewhere. What worries me is that you can start it after a run just fine. This suggests that the alternator is charging the battery. Could it be that the battery itself is actually fine but there is a parasitic drain somewhere? How long is there between a good start and a sluggish start?