Britprius

The container with the black cap at the bottom left of your picture is the engine coolant reservoir. Have you checked on the recall situation? Do a search on line there is lots of information on these pumps along with pictures, and fitting information. John.

Science maths technical drawing, and metalwork were good for me, but English, and History were way over my head. However we are not all the same a good thing giving us a diversity of skills. It's just a pity that all skills are not treated equally when it comes to pay. I am in no way putting down there skills, but the pay of some football players is just plane crazy. John.

The white container with the red fluid in it is the inverter coolant. The box with the orange high voltage cables going to it is the inverter. It is cooled by coolant flowing through an aluminium panel on it's underside. The coolant also goes to a heat exchanger built into the transmission. The inverter coolant circuit is not connected to the engine coolant in any way. You should see slight turbulence in the coolant liquid through the filler neck with the car in ready mode. Having checked online as I suspected there is a recall for the RX350 coolant pump so contact your dealer to see if yours has been done. It could be replaced free of charge. It is most unlikely your code reader will read the full Toyota/Lexus list of ECU codes. The ECU you are looking for is the "hybrid control ECU" John.

Hi John. Different pump. The pump you have linked is for the hydraulic oil in the transmission. The OP's code is for the coolant that runs around the transmission, and the inverter. John

If it is a self dimming mirror there is no aftermarket part. Stick on mirror glass is available on the bay but not heated or dimmed. John.

The coolant pump is not difficult to change just two hoses one electrical connector, and mounting bolts. Clamp the hoses close to the pump to save loosing coolant, and having to bleed air out of the system afterwards. Use only Toyota SLLC (Supper long life coolant) for topping up. Although the same coolant is used in the engine the inverter is a completely separate system. Your handbook should show where it is. It may be worth checking if there was a recall for the coolant pump on the RX, and if so has yours been changed. I know a number of Toyota hybrids had a recall for this including the Prius. There was no age or millage restrictions on the recall. The pump is a sealed unit, and from memory is a 3 phase unit meaning you cannot just connect it to 12 volts. John.

This is almost certain to be failure of the electrically driven coolant pump for the drive inverter, and the transmission cooling. The inverter rises in temperature, and if it goes above a given level this fault code will be given. As Lee has already said check the coolant level for the inverter, and if this is ok I would strongly advise against driving the car except perhaps for a short distance from cold to a dealer. If the inverter or transmission fails through over heating your talking of several thousands in damage for a comparatively cheap pump. John.

There should also be some guidance on the information screen apart from the warning light. John

I think at 30 PSI the system will give a low tyre warning. Is this the message you are getting? or is it giving a system error warning. John.

I have done this on many occasions "not on a GS", but the basics are followed by many car manufactures. If you have a brake pipe flaring tool "around £20", and fittings it is something you can do yourself. Many motor factors, and parts shops have the equipment to make up brake pipes to order, but you need to be able to put new nuts, and flare the pipe ends that are on the car when you cut off the rusty section. Again you can replace the whole length of pipe if you wish taking an easier route than the original pipe as this was fitted on the underside of the body shell before such things as exhausts, sub frames, and under body covers. The OEM pipes can be bought ready shaped from Lexus at around £85 for the rears, but it would take many hours to remove eveything that is in the way for fitting them. John.

The brake pipes on the GS are plastic coated except for the last inch or so in the wheel arch where they join to the flexible hoses. It is this short section that rusts. To replace the rear sections Lexus will quote £1200+ because to get at them the rear subframe has to come off along with all the under panels. Your local garage can cut off the rusted sections, and replace with extension pieces for very little money. John.

Yes Lee I do know that the wheel bearings are now an integral part of the hub, and dependent on if the car is front or rear wheel drive has the ABS ring built in. On our GS rear wheel drive cars the ring is on the drive shaft with a separate sensor in the side of the rear hub. On the fronts it is all one unit. On the CT the reverse is the case with the drive shafts going to the front wheels. It is still a fact that according to your link the RRP price of a bearing is close to £290 when they can be bought at less than 1/5 of that price, and I guarantee that at the lower price there is still a big markup. We tend to believe that because something is made in China the quality must be poor even though we have no idea where the OEM components are made. In my working life I traveled the world to all sorts of production plants including China, and many facilities there are ahead of what is available in the west. Manufacturers fit these parts to cars because they are cheaper for them than the old setup, and not because they are more reliable or better in some way. John.

The simple answer is no it will not run on the Ubuntu platform. However Techstream is so cheap on Ebay it is worthwhile buying a cheap SH laptop running Windows XP "for easy loading", and using this just for car diagnostics. You should be able to have a complete system for well under £50. This would pay for it's self the first time you use it. John

Along with many other parts wheel bearings are where car manufactures replacement parts have a huge mark up. I needed to replace a rear wheel bearing on a Mazda 626 seven seat estate. I went to the dealers where I was quoted £268 to which I replied I only wan't it supplied not fitted. I was then told this was the supply price less 10% trade discount. I declined the offer. I went to an industrial bearing supplier "Bearing Services" and they looked up the bearing from the numbers, and manufacturers name stamped on it, and quoted a price of £28, but as this was on a Friday, and Monday was the earliest they could supply it as it was not a stock item being an automotive part and would be courier delivered to them. On asking where the bearing was coming from I was told Fafnir bearings Lichfield. This was only 10 miles away so I asked if I could go, and pick it up. No problem was the reply. On arriving at Fafnir sales counter a very helpful guy behind the counter said "next time you wan't a bearing come direct we could have saved you £10 on the price you paid". This would be a saving of £250 for an identical bearing by the same manufacturer. John.

Jeff yes being an electronics engineer I have considerable soldering expertise. However it is perhaps desirable to solder in the batteries, but it is by no means essential. I have found little if any difference between brands of batteries, since testing would take years for each brand it is difficult to be certain. If you can obtain batteries with tags fitted or get the supplier to fit tags this does help with the installation of them, and makes the soldering process easy. Again this is not essential. John.

Since having my wheels refurbished I have noted that my tyres hold pressure much better than previously. When the tyres were removed the tyre seating area was noticeably corroded where tyre fitters had "cleaned" the rims with wire brushes before fitting new tyres. This scratches or remove the powder coating, and when they apply the water based sealant corrosion follows. I will make sure in future that the rims are cleaned only with a wet cloth or soft brush when tyres are removed, and re fitted. The amount of damage some tyre fitters do to alloy wheels is beyond my. On a number of occasions "once at Chemix" I've had fitters about to try fitting steel wheel balance weights. John.

This problem is common across the complete Toyota/Lexus range of hybrid cars. If the battery voltage level falls below 10.6 volts while the car systems are booting the various ECU's see the wrong voltage response from numerous sensor, and in turn see's this as faults with these systems. The reason the battery drops to this voltage is because one of the first things that operates is the hydraulic brake pressure pump "this can be set off just by opening the drivers door". This pump uses initially 40 amps, and climbing as the pressure load on the pump increases dropping the battery voltage just as the computers are booting. Leaving the car turned off for a few minutes then trying again allows the battery to recover somewhat, and since the hydraulics are still up to pressure the pump does not run to load the battery. John.

I should have posted this 6 months ago, but I dialed in one full turn of each front track rod to give more toe in to see if it cured the loose centre feeling with the steering. I did this knowing I could return to the original settings if anything untoward reared it's head, but the difference was amazing. The car now feels planted at speed with a definite heavier feel to the steering. I have kept a close eye on front tyre ware but this is still very even and square across the tyres with no sign of feathering after 6000 miles. I have checked the camber on both front and rear wheels with an Aldi digital angle level, and all are within specification. The only time I have encountered inner rear tyre shoulder ware on my car was when I had a slow puncture, and was to lazy to get round to fixing it just pumping it back up so the car was used for a number of weeks with a soft rear tyre. The edge of the tread was all but on the cords in a very short space of time, and distance. John

Fortunately for us that have older vehicles with TPMS fitted it is not part of the MOT test. With vehicles from 2014 the TPMS is included in the MOT. Happily I find just replacing the wheel sensor batteries seems to be a cheap, and reliable way over the problem when they stop working. No need for re programming or expensive parts. All four can be replaced for around £5. John.

Yes. If there is a problem the codes will re appear. They may take a few minutes as the sensors in the wheels only transmit information in intermittently to save battery power. John.

I fitted a 120 AH battery in my GS450H with slight easy modification to the battery tray. The battery hold down strap fitted as normal. There was plenty of room for the longer battery, and measurements made indicated I could have fitted a 180 AH battery without problems. It is possible that by going to a mobility AGM battery you will find a higher capacity battery that will fit in the space provided as I did with my Prius going from 45 AH to over 60 AH. The only downside being the different terminal type "a 6 mm threaded hole for each terminal", but I found it easy to bolt on standard tapered battery terminals. Mobility AGM batteries are ruggedly constructed, and are designed to be fully discharged,and re charged on a regular basis without damage to the cells. John.

The charger you have is to high an output, and is not an intelligent charger. You need a charger with an output of 1 amp or less or an intelligent charger. John.

Try erasing the fault codes then try again. Alternatively check the push button switch to the right hand side of the passengers side foot well. This may be set for a second set of winter tyres. It is possible that all 4 transmitters in the wheels have discharged batteries after 12 years of use. John.

To reset the windows all that is required is that you open each one in turn to about half way. Then close them holding you finger on the close button for 5 seconds "not critical". There is a similar process for the sun roof if you have one. The alarm system will not be upset by changing the battery, but the engine ECU will re learn your driving style "no intervention required by you other than driving the car".. John.

Before parking the car up try to make sure the traction battery "not the 12 volt" has as high a charge level that can be obtained. To raise the level of charge put the car in drive and with your left foot firmly on the brake press the accelerator with your right foot. This will force charge the battery, but do no harm to the transmission. This will ensure this battery will keep sufficient charge over the period. If the 12 volt battery is in good condition I would just disconnect it, but after 7 months it "may" be necessary to jump start the car. Alternatively remove the battery, and put it on a trickle charger for the duration. John.