Britprius

You can reset the warning lights by connecting pins 13 & 4 on the OBD socket with a paper clip or similar. However you should not do this until you know what codes are stored

There was a policy going back a couple of years or so of removing centre white lines, and cats eyes on rural roads to increase safety by slowing traffic down. Using this logic maybe all road markings should be removed like stop, and give way markings leaving you to guess where to stop. However who ever thought this one up did not take into account conditions of poor visibility where the white line are essential to help drivers keep to there side of the road. John.

Plus one for the above. If you own a Toyota/Lexus hybrid or "even a non hybrid" a mini VCI cable and the software that comes with it are a must have. Not only will it read all of the information available in the cars systems it will enable you to alter dealer options without going to the dealer, and to do service tasks such as bleeding the brakes, and so much more. It will pay for it's self many time over the first time you use it saving all the guess work on what is wrong, and what faults are pending. John.

If both bulbs went out at the same moment there is some other fault "perhaps the headlamp relay" that is causing the problem. Since the headlamps each have there own separate ballast unit one side does not affect the other as long as the 12 volt supply line is intact. The normal failure mode of the bulbs is for one to go out after a period of time, but switching them off and back on again restores operation. A failing ballast "can" exhibit the same failure mode, but this is rarer than bulb failure, and is more often complete failure to operate. John.

That battery is still only 45 AH as said in my earlier post. This is fine for a car that is in regular use, but as the battery ages, and looses some capacity can become problematic if the car is left for a couple of weeks unused perhaps because it is a second car or is left at an airport while the owner is away. A battery is considered deeply discharged at 50% of it's rated capacity, and actual damage can be caused by discharging further. John.

Drill the caliper at the end of the seized pin. Fit a grease nipple "you can use the knock in type" then use a grease gun to hydraulic the caliper off the pin.. The grease nipple can be used afterwards to keep it lubricated. John.

The engine, and hybrid transmission ECU will be re-set, and will automatically learn your driving style over the next few miles. The windows will have to be re-set manually as will the sun roof "if fitted". The windows just need to be opened to about half way and then closed holding the switch in the closed position for about 5 seconds. That is all that there is to it. You "may" loose any radio preset stations. John.

The lights do have an adjuster on them, but it is very fiddly to do, difficult to get at, and they both have to be done. The only thing the adjuster behind the front wheel affects is the height of the headlamps, and it adjusts both equally together. A 10 mm spanner is all that is required, and is a simple 5 minute job. On cars with air suspension the mechanism also affected the cars ride height so this method could not be used, but for cars with ordinary spring suspension it is there just for the headlamps. There is an adjuster on the rear suspension also, this being there to lower the lights when you carry passengers in the rear of the car. This adjuster is difficult to get at requiring the removal of the rear wheel which makes setting the height of the lights difficult with the rear of the car on a jack. John.

Surely this is still under guarantee so a trip to the dealers comes first. John.

Reading my handbook it says nothing about not using the space saver wheel on the front of the car. It does give you a maximum speed when it is fitted "80 kmh", and I beleave this is a legal limit also. It would be rather long winded to swap wheels round if you have a puncture on the front with only one jack. You would have to change a rear wheel for the space saver first "difficult with a flat front tyre" then fit what was the rear wheel on the front. One item to check is that the wheel nuts for your alloy wheels are suitable for the steel space saver requiring tapered nut seats. John.

Hi John. If I had got a ramp I would have made one for you, but I am getting to much back trouble to do it lying down now. Is Worcester any good for you to get to? I can dig out the details of the place I got my exhaust parts from as they also do a fitting service. John.

No you need to buy a battery with the same layout of terminals as the one fitted. John.

Exide make an AGM battery of the correct size with the correct size and layout of terminals. They are sold under the title of "Exide Edge". The cranking amps do not matter with a hybrid since the battery is not used for cranking the engine. Virtually all batteries of the physical size of that fitted in the CT200H have a 45 amp hour capacity, and it is the AH capacity that matters for hybrid vehicles. There is however a battery that will fit is an AGM and has a capacity of over 60 AH. The down side is that it comes with different terminals to the standard post type. This however is not really a problem. The battery I refer to is made for mobility scooters from a number of manufacturers including Lucas, and are priced at circa £100. I used one in my Prius "the CT is a Prius in different clothes" Normal car batteries of the same size can be fitted without problems, and are available for circa £45. The difference is that they contain more liquid acid than an AGM battery. So if the battery is damaged in an accident there is the remote possibility of rear seat passengers being splashed with dilute acid because the battery is carried under the floor of the boot. AGM stands for "absorbed glass mat" where the liquid acid is held in a 90% saturated mat between the plates rather like a sponge so there is little chance of acid escape. The downside of AGM batteries is that they can dry out faster than "flooded standard car batteries" because they have no reserves of liquid acid as does standard car batteries. John.

Do not put it in the transmission under any circumstances. The hybrid transmission has the high voltage electric motors running in the oil, and this acts as a coolant. If the oil is in any way conductive to electricity "graphite, molybdenum, and many other so called oil improvers do conduct" it can burn out the motors by short circuiting. Only the correct Toyota oil should be used for this purpose. John.

If the above is not the problem the only legal way I know of to improve the light output is to fit 50 watt HID bulbs with a 50 watt ballast unit. The standard setup uses 35 watt bulbs, and ballast. John.

Check the dipped beam alignment before doing anything else. I found the same problem with my GS450H when I first bought it, and found they were set very low to the point where they were lighting up the road immediately in front of the car "not an MOT failure" in an area that could not be seen from the drivers seat. Adjusting the rod on the ride height sensor behind the near side front wheel cured the problem. A picture of the adjuster rod shown below. Slacken off the top nut on the rod and move the bolt it is on to a lower position in it's slot then re-tighten the nut. This can be done by turning the steering to the left. No need to jack up the car or remove the wheel. A 10mm spanner is all that is required. John.

Happy you got it sorted. The seal on the adjuster shaft leaking does only show under the actuator motor covers so is difficult to see until these are removed. This area is not as prone to leakage as the main rod seal as it is in a relatively clean environment. I get over 40 mpg in my 2007 GS450H on country roads with no dual carriageways or motorways, and I do not drive for economy. I think on a motorway I would be getting close to 50 mpg. John.

You will not be able to tell much by looking at the pump. You may be able to feel some vibration if it is running, but this will be very slight. If there is no turbulence in the reservoir the pump is not running, and as you already know it is blowing the supply fuse. You are correct in assuming the fault code is triggered by an over temp sensor. John.

Because the pump is a centrifugal pump with the outlet set at a tangent to the rotor direction is critical to the performance of the pump. The rotor position is needed to get the optimum switching timing for electrical efficiency. These so called digital motors are very efficient compared to both brush, and squirrel cage motors offering more torque, and speed at less current. They do not work with fixed frequency, but ramp up when starting to remove the current spike associated with motor starting, and give better torque. John.

The voltage at the pump is only 12 volts ac when running, However if the motor is disconnected or faulty I believe there will be no reading as the motor uses hall effect transistors to give feedback to the ecu for rotor position, speed, and direction of rotation. Without this information I believe the ECU shuts down. I could be wrong on this, but this is the usual setup for this type of system. The HV battery cooling fan runs on the same system, but uses input from the HV battery ECU to control it's speed although on that motor the control ECU that converts the 12 volts dc to 12 volts three phase ac is built into the motor. The ac frequency is controlled by the HV battery ECU to give speed changes. John.

There should be evidence on the Lexus "My car web site" or at any dealers to show the pump has already been changed once. After that any further work is at your expense. It is virtually certain a new pump is required. It is possible for a faulty pump to damage the drive ECU, but that is unusual. John.

It is unlikely the pump is jammed, and this in it's self due to the design of the motor would not necessarily blow the fuse. The pump recall was because it was found in manufacture the three phase winding's for the pump motor were being scratched "the formal coating insulation on the winding's was damaged" this eventually cases the winding's to short circuit causing the fuse to blow. Exactly your symptoms. The winding's are in a separate housing with no moving parts to the magnetic armature or rotor that is formed as part of the pump impeller running in the coolant. The impeller runs on a fixed shaft with a carbon bearing lubricated by the coolant . John.

You can also adjust the brightness of the instruments for daytime use. Adding an active sub if required will not in any way affect the hybrid system. John.

It is quite possible to get a knocking or banging noise from the shock it's self. In the bottom of the shock tube is a free floating piston with nitrogen under pressure at about 500 psi beneath it pushing it upwards. Above it is a second piston attached to the top rod. The piston has adjustable restriction valves in it to allow oil to pass through under control. This piston is in the oil above the floating piston putting the oil under pressure, and moves up, and down as the suspension moves.The oil is under pressure to stop bubbles forming affecting the oil flow through the piston valves and to allow for the different volume in the rod piston chamber as the rod move in and out of it. Normally the rod piston works in an area well above the floating piston being held down by the oil above it. Over time oil is lost through the top seal, and this space is taken up by the floating piston rising keeping the oil under pressure. When enough oil has escaped the floating piston rises to the point where when the suspension is under compression after hitting a bump the piston connected to the rod can move down and hit the floating piston giving rise to the knock or bang. John.

Saga are on the comparison sites as I insure through them. I know there are many factors that are involved, but they were for me by far the cheapest company. John.