Britprius

The problem with hydrogen as a fuel is the amount of energy required to produce it. It then requires lots of energy to compress it into a liquid under very high pressure to store it. What happens when you run out of hydrogen on the side of the road? With an electric car a generator in the back of the AA van could get you moving if you run out of power. Electric cars are still very much in there infancy as far as battery technology is concerned. The modern internal combustion engine has taken close to 100 years to get it to about 40% efficient. Higher capacity batteries with faster charging times are rapidly being developed. Who knows where we will be in ten years time battery wise. Charging times at the moment I agree are no where near that of filling with petrol, but many battery cars can be charged to 80% of capacity in the time it takes to drink a coffee Solar panels are also rapidly being developed with output power for the same size panel increasing buy 30% in the last 5 years, and still improving. I agree things will need to change rapidly as far as charging infrastructure , but look how many car makers are now producing electric vehicles. John.

Lexus shocks are made by KYB the price difference is the Lexus markup. John.

I had my car in for some recall work at 100k miles. The dealer told me the coolant was low "they did not top it up", and that the water pump was leaking requiring immediate replacement. I topped up the coolant and kept a close watch on the coolant level. At 145k miles at the outbreak of covid I took the car off the road, and did all the service work, and checks I could think of. The coolant was still at the same level as when I topped it up at 100k, but changed the pump to be on the safe side. The pump bearing had slight play when checked, but the pump was not leaking fluid. This was the original pump. John.

The sensor shaft can easily be repaired by epoxying a piece of metal tubing over the broken pieces. Free of the seized ball joints at either end before doing this. You cannot buy the shaft on it's own it only comes as a complete assembly at wallet ectomy prices. John.

Be aware this chart is for flooded lead acid batteries. AGM batteries will have slightly higher figures with a fully charged good condition battery having a voltage of 14.2 to 14.4 depending on the manufacturer. This is why not all battery chargers are suitable to "fully" charge AGM batteries. John.

Make sure you buy the version of Techstream software with the adapter that is suitable for 64 bit W10. The WXP version is for 32bit, and is difficult to setup the drivers on 64bit machines. John.

Phil there is also a strong movement in the US to make it compulsory for manufacturers to give the ability to customers to repair there own vehicles. This rely started in the farming community to enable farmers to repair there equipment. Action being taken to name but one company "John Deer" in a number of states. Imagine the scenario where a large combine harvester fails in the middle of harvesting. In the US the dealer could easily be 200 miles away. The machine would need to be loaded on a low loader in the middle of a thousand acre field, and transported to the dealer, repaired and returned just because a sensor had failed. During this time the crop being harvested could be ruined. When we go to all electric cars this is going to become even more of a problem. It would cost pennies to enable the modern vehicle displays to display any fault codes, and even give information on the probable cause of the code. In a similar vane the workshop manual could be included in the information screen. As vehicle owners surely we have the right to the information already available stored in them. John.

Hi Cesario, welcome to LOC. I cannot help you with help on an independent Lexus repairer in your area, but I can give information on the pump. By far the most common problem with the pump is bearing failure in the drive motor. The bearings are readily available at bearing supply companies, and can be found on Ebay if you type in the bearing numbers that I will list at the end of this post. The bearings cost less than £2 for each, and there is a tutorial here on LOC on how to fit them. Any resonable workshop should be able to remove, and refit the pump held on by 4 bolts. I will try to find the how to on this, and post it later. Bearings:- 608ZZ 61900ZZ John.

I should also have added the mower battery is also suitable for jump starting the Lexus hybrid if the need arises. Keeping the mower battery charged on a regular basis will keep it in good condition while not being used, and give you in effect a starter pack for your cars in an emergency. John.

The lawn mower battery is an ideal candidate for jump starting the Jazz. John.

When I did this my quote was over £1200 when my typical renewal is under £200. There are at leased 40 companies that will insure me for under £350. John.

Insurance premiums are always going to be a hot topic. I am also with Saga, and although not the cheapest the premium I pay is very competitive. As already mentioned though an important point with insurance is how you are treated if you make a claim. I was with Churchill, and had to make a no fault claim. I had written proof of the other parties liability. It took 2 years to settle the claim, and a further 3 years to get my excess refunded after countless phone calls, and emails to Churchill being bounced around various departments with calls never being returned. When I made a no fault claim with Saga the difference in the way I was treated was incredible. When ever I called them I was informed they would ring me back shortly, and they always did within 10 minutes. The return call was always the same person knowing all the details of the claim without me having to go through things every time. They provided me with a new Mercedes C class for the duration of my claim with a fully comp no excess insurance policy free of charge for the duration of the claim. This against "a tin can on wheels (Crysler Spark)" that Churchill provided insurance covered on my policy. Although I can sympathies with Malcolm he did take out a policy with Sags at an price he was prepared to pay for the yearly millage agreed . Saga kept there part of the agreement as far as premiums not going up. Insurance also covers things like fire, and theft that is not millage dependent. It is not Saga's fault he did not use up the millage quota. If he wished to buy insurance based on the actual millage done each year he should have bought from a company that was prepared to do this. You cannot go into a shop, and buy 1 kilo of nails, and go back a year later with 1/2 a kilo demanding half your money back. John.

It is possible the car "may" still pass the MOT on emissions with 2 of the cats removed, but under MOT regulations it would still fail due to original manufacturers emissions control equipment being removed. John.

Someone has to pay for the coffee, and biscuits along with the large glass showroom. You also pay for the service writer behind the counter, the spares counter guy, the mechanic that fits the battery, and the guy washing of the car after the work is carried out. These are just some of the benefits of using the dealer for simple replacement work. John.

A bit late answering this, but the UK GS450H gen3 comes with a LSD as standard equipment. I do not know if the EU or US versions also have this feature. It is a Torsen type that does not use friction discs.This may be different in other countries. John.

When choosing tyres for the CT it is important that you choose a low rolling resistance type. Failure to do this can have a dramatic effect on fuel consumption. In general going to tyres with a lower wall height "larger wheel size" decreases the mpg of the car. Going from 15" to 17" wheels can, and does reduce mpg by 5 mpg. Handling will improve with larger wheels, but the ride comfort will suffer. John.

I am not sure on this, but it may be the transmission is fitted with an electrically driven oil pump as with the GS450H. This can be heard when the car is in ready mode with the engine not running. As already pointed out by other replies the use of neutral should be avoided in all Toyota/Lexus hybrids. Holding the car with the brakes in gear does no harm, and in fact saves any energy produced by the engine while it is running, and stores it in the battery for later use. The engine will continue to run if you have the heater turned on to enable cabin heating. In a normal car the mechanical energy produced by the engine is wasted, but in the hybrid it is turned into electricity that is then saved. John.

As member "Herbie" above says hybrids are exempt from the emissions test of the MOT, and cannot be failed on this. They can be failed if it is obvious that parts relating to emissions have been removed or the engine light is on or does not come on,and go out when the car is first started. John.

My insurance is due, and I have just received my renewal quote from Saga. Even with making a claim in the last insurance period the quote only increased by £18 on last years figure. Due to the excellent service I had with my claim, and the fact that the quote is still very competitive against quotes on the comparison sites I will be going ahead with the renewal. John.

No. The CTdoes not have a transmission that has any ratio changes in the normal sense. It has no reverse gear or true neutral "that is there are no gears that come into mesh or go out of mesh". The simplest way to describe it's operation is to liken it to a differential where power comes in at the input shaft. The one output shaft drives the wheels through a differential, and the second output shaft goes to a motor/generator. Varying the speed, and direction of this motor varies the speed of the drive output shaft. There is a second motor/generator on the first output shaft that can assist drive or used as a generator give regen braking. Reverse is done by reversing the electric drive motor, and neutral is accomplished by removing supplies to the motors. John.

It is important that you check,and set the tyre pressures while they are cold, and not when the car has been driven a distance to warm them up. John.

The sport button alters the suspension, the throttle response, and the steering ratio. The number of turns from lock to lock is reduced. John.

The heater in the GS450H is capable of cooking you, and your passengers when working correctly. If the engine thermostat is stuck open this could cause the problem, but the temperature gauge would also show the coolant temp as low. There is also an electrically driven heater circulation pump that if not running would give the problem. This is fitted because the engine in a hybrid is not always running so the engine driven coolant pump cannot be relied upon to pump the coolant to the heater.. John.

I agree with observing the rules of the forum, but when I got a number of bell notifications about a reply I had made to the post, and wished to see on clicking the bell I was informed "I did not have permission to view this content". No explanation on why that made me wonder. I had done something wrong? John.

So did I with no explanation. John.