Britprius

I have just had my alloy wheels refinished by a company called "Wheelfurb", and an excellent job they made of them. What is perhaps more remarkable is there prices. Wheels up to, and including 18 inch finished in standard colors with bare rims supplied to them is £100 + VAT for 4 wheels. They will remove, and refit tyres with balance for £35 extra. Turn around is 3 working days, but this can be reduced to one day at extra cost. You can also leave your car with them for the work to be carried out, and they also have some wheels with tyres "depending on size" as loan wheels to keep you on the move. Diamond cut wheels are charged extra for the machining process. The finish is guaranteed for 12 months "excluding diamond cut wheels, and obvious curbing type damage". They have workshops in Dudley, Kidderminster, Wolverhampton, and Tamworth. I have no connection with this company other than having work done on my GS450H wheels shown below. The first picture is the before shot, but this does not rely show how bad the worming, and corrosion was. John.

That sounds bad on behalf of Lexus. Hopefully the problem will be a bad connection on one of the module link copper bars. In Techstream this would show up as both high, and low "depending if on charge or on load" battery block voltages "the voltage of two modules paired", and also high internal resistance on that block. John.

Powerflow is a franchise. They supply exhaust parts for the particular workshop to build exhaust by welding parts together, and as such the quality of work, and price varies at each franchise. John.

It seems very early for your car to be having battery problems. I would not expect problems until the car is perhaps 15+ years old. Lexus do a hybrid check with each service that extends the guarantee by 1 year or 10,000 milies until the car is 15 years old. This hybrid check can be carried out without a service for around £60. It does not require Lexus service history to validate the guarantee extension, and is not millage restricted. John

The best system to use is Techstream with a Mini VCI available from Ebay/ Amazon for around £20. You will need a laptop with Windows XP or 7, 8, or 10. Make sure you order the VCI with the correct software for the Windows OS you have. Techstream is the system the dealer uses, and works with all Toyota, Lexus, and Scion cars with full system capability. John

This rely should not be your problem, but the garage that replaced the battery. However the sensor is nothing more than a thermistor "a resistor that changes resistance with temperature". A standard fixed resistor will do the job as a temporary replacement clearing the problem you have. I will measure the resistance of the sensor in my car as soon as I can tomorrow, and you can fit a resistor across the sensor plug terminals of similar value until you can obtain the correct unit. This will not cause any problems. A suitable resistor can be bought from any electrical repair workshop for pennies or you could perhaps find one in an old defunct TV. I will supply the color code for the correct value when I have measured it. Let me know if this would be of help. John .

A close friend was recently approached by the BBC through the owners club asking to borrow his car "a rare Ferrari" for a future edition of top gear. After a number of Emails back, and forth my friend decided that he needed to see, and asked for the BBC contract that he was expected to accept for this event. It then became apparent that he would not be driving the car, but be traveling behind in a crew car on closed roads on the Brecon Beacons. His car was to be driven by one of the BBC's "professional" drivers. There would be no fees paid for the use of the car only expenses for getting there, and back. On reading the fine print it then also became apparent that in the event of a breakdown during filming any repair costs would be from the owners account not the BBC's. After further discussion with the BBC my friend arguing that in such an event the BBC should pay for repairs at a workshop of his choice, and that the car should be returned to him in the same condition as when supplied to them. The BBC refused. My friend then withdrew from the event. It seems the BBC wish to use peoples cars to make programs without any responsibility for the vehicles. The only dubious advantage to the owners being when selling the car is to be able to say " as appeared on "Top Gear" John.

In the UK/EU the CT200h cannot be used for towing. This is because the manufacturers rate it at zero kg on the car identification plate. Using it to tow would not only be an offence, but would invalidate your insurance. This intern means if you are stopped by the police while towing the car could be impounded a normal procedure for uninsured cars on UK roads. John.

This could be caused by a failing clutch release bearing. Do you notice a difference in cranking speed at start up with your foot on, and off the clutch? Years ago Triumph 4 cylinder engines suffered this problem, and this was due to crank end float thrust washers warring, and dropping out causing the crank to rub on the engine casting when the clutch was pressed. John.

I stand corrected on the front calipers, but on my Lexus they are 4 piston calipers with pistons on both sides. I agree in principle the rear parking brake shoes should not ware, but in practice on vehicles with 70k plus miles the shoes are often due for replacement. It is not unusual to find the bonding between the lining and shoes to be parting, and I know of several instances "not all necessarily Lexus" but other vehicles like Volvo, and BMW with the same systems where a rear wheel has locked due to shoe linings becoming detached. John.

When you replace the rear disks check the condition of the parking brake shoes "mounted in the drum inside the disks". These shoes have very little brake lining on them when new probably only 3 or 4mm. They tend to ware at one end of each shoe. If the linings are worn close to the shoes at one end replace these at the same time as the disks, and pads. I bought Ferrodo shoes for around £12 the set on Ebay or it may be worth buying some on sale or return from your local motorist shop as it is annoying to find you have the car in bits, and not have everything you need to hand. John.

Seized slide pins can cause warped disks as in extreme cases the disk is bent by the hydraulic pressure being applied to one side of the disk via the pad with no opposite force from the pad on the other side of the disk. I have seen vehicles where the disk or part of has completely broken away from the supporting hub. John.

When the slide pin seizes the caliper cannot move sideways to pull the pad on one side against the disk as the piston pushes on the pad the other side. The caliper only has a piston on one side so needs to be able to slide sideways to apply both pads to the disk. Seized slide pins tends to ware the pad on the piston side, and flexes the disk towards the other pad. When enough pressure is applied to the seized slide pin it operates as it should but then does not release the the none piston side brake pad causing brake drag. The front calipers have pistons on both sides of the calipers removing the need for slide pins, but gaining complexity by having multiple pistons, and hydraulic seals. John.

If you do end up paying for the work to be carried out insist that all the old parts are returned to you. There is no way that with a hybrid car "where most of the braking is done by regeneration" that the discs, pads, and calipers should need replacing at 33,000 miles unless your name is Hamilton. As already said the strong likely fault is nothing more than slider pins beginning to seize. John.

The pressure monitors in the tyres do send out the actual pressures, and the tyre temperatures "even on my 2007", but Lexus cut corners when it came to displaying the available information on the dashboard. The system does not even tell you which tyre has low pressure or in the event of sensor battery failure which sensor has failed. In effect we pay a lot of money for monitors that are not being used to there ability for a saving of a few pence to display the information. This information is already gathered in the cars system, and is available at the OBD port! John.

Hi Derek welcome to LOC. I am sire you will find we are a friendly helpful bunch of Lexus enthusiasts with lots of knowledge Lexus wise. John.

Tyre pressure monitoring is compulsory on all cars from 2012, and an MOT failure if not operating correctly from 2014. My 2007 GS450H MK3 has this as standard John.

I am in the process of refurbishing the wheels on my GS450H. Can anyone tell me if the plastic chromed wheel spokes are lacquered when new or is there no protective coating. After removing the spokes I find they are clear coated, but this has gone misty, and I know the wheels have been refurbed in the past. After soaking the spokes in methylated spirits the coating rubs off leaving a very shiny new chrome finish, but need to know if this needs any protection to keep the shine. John.

Member here Richard of "Hybrid battery solutions" sells such a charger/reconditioner so a quick message to him is the way to go. John.

The drivers on the slightly earlier versions were not designed for 64 bit use, and were therefore difficult to load on the later versions of Windows. With some early systems still being sold on Ebay, and the like with no clarification as to what Windows system they were suitable for it was easier, and more reliable to load on an XP machine. These machines are also much cheaper on the SH market. John.

As Lee states above, but be careful when removing the actuators as there are two small metal spring clips that can be dislodged, and fall into the many voids below. They can be refitted if they do come away. A spring compressor is not required if the job is tackled in a certain way. John.

The system can be reset by disconnecting the 12 volt battery for a short period, but as others have pointed out the effects "if any" would depend on what it has learned from you previously. The improvement "if any" would also be short lived as the system quickly relearns your driving style. John.

I totally agree with member "Herbie" above. For a minimal amount of money you can have dealer level of diagnostics that will pay for itself 4 times over the first time you use it. The system will work on all Toyota / Lexus cars from 1998 on. I have used it on my previous car "a Prius" on my current GS450H, and on my wife's Aygo with MMT transmission. I bought the Aygo very cheaply because after having a new clutch fitted the previous owner could not get rid of sever clutch judder on pulling away, and indecisive gear changes. Using Techstream the cars computer relearned the clutch positions, and gear selection speeds. This transforming both clutch to smooth operation, and gear selection dependent on road speed and load. I am not saying that Techstream it is the only system, but for the hybrids in particular it is by far the best diagnostic solution for less cost than a good torque wrench that with modern cars is another essential item in your tool box. John.

A voltage drop test with load would identify it in minutes. The diagnostics will only tell you which block "two paired modules" is problematic, and this would still be enough information to tie it down to 4 possible modules if you do not have the block position numbers. If the diagnostics say it is block 3 that is the problem this can only relate to module numbers 5&6 or 35&36 no matter which end you count from. John