Britprius

Sorry senior moment I did mean RX. John.

The modules "a pack of 8 cells" in the NX are very different to the Prius modules "a pack of 6 cells" in that they are metal cased against the Prius plastic case. The Prius type plastic modules are used in virtually all the other Toyota/Lexus hybrids making them readily available, but the NX modules are difficult to find. The NX battery does share the same total number of cell (240), and the same terminal voltage of 288 volts as the GS450H, but has 30 modules "of 8 cells" against the GS that has 40 modules "of 6 cells" The plastic modules of the 6 cell variety will not fit in the NX battery cases. The NX has 3 battery cases each with it's own cooling fan, against one case, and fan for the GS. The extra cooling is possibly the reason for the NX's battery longevity. John.

I have removed this sort of damage by using a hydraulic jack on it's side, and pieces of timber laid in the boot. A body shop may put the car on a pulling rig to do the job, but I am guessing they would charge perhaps £200 to £300 at minimum. John.

Not withstanding the OP saying he would not run out of fuel purposely. The thing that has not been mentioned so far is that with a hybrid when you run out of fuel it is possible to deplete the traction battery to a point where it will no longer turn the engine over to start the car. For safety reasons the car will run electric only till the battery is discharged. This then means a trailer lift to the dealers for the high voltage battery to be re-charged. The dealers do not normally keep the special charger in the workshops. it has to be ordered in specially with the operator, and can take some time to arrange at considerable cost. John.

All the GS450h's from 2006 on has them this is why they are so expensive. I did some research on this, and I am sure the shocks from the GS350 will fit at about £70 each so that would be a better alternative, but you would still loose the adaptive feature. John.

John the problem with coil overs is that you will loose the auto variable rate damping. This may not bother you, but it will affect the ride, and handling. John.

I am afraid once the 12 volt battery is discharged you cannot get the car into neutral meaning the front wheels are locked! Apart from re- instating the 12 volt supply there is no way to get the car out of park. John.

I believe all the Toyota/Lexus hybrids have the hidden menu. There is an alternative method of entering the menu by going to the settings screen in accessory mode as previous post. In this screen there are two gold horizontal bands one near the top the other near the bottom. Pressing imaginary buttons on the left hand side of the screen just under the top gold band, and just above the bottom gold band starting at the top alternatively three times each. This should bring up the hidden menu. John.

I do not know if it applies to the CT, but my GS does give a low fob battery warning on the small instrument display screen. John

Sorry I do not have an 220d to take pictures of, but virtually all Toyota/Lexus cars have a clear plastic cover usually at the side of the fuse box. Under this cover "that cannot be removed from the top" is a long metal strip with a series of connections. It is this metal strip that is the fuse. Blown sections can be seen through the plastic cover, but the complete strip has to be replaced from the underside of the fuse box. John.

It is very likely you still have other fuses to replace. There are hidden strip fuses along the side of the fuse/relay box that is difficult to both see or replace. John.

Not that I am likely to go into London any time soon seeing Richards post prompted me to check my own car (GS450H). The car is exempt from the extra charge. Reading further I found that being a disabled badge holder I can register 2 cars for exemption from both charges that I may travel in for £10 for three years "even if I do not drive!". The exemption running along the same eligibility dates of the blue badge. So thank you Richard for the timely reminder particularly as the scheme is likely coming to Birmingham in the not to distant future. I have also found that for blue badge holders that register the M6 toll is also free to use. The only tolls exemptions that I had found, and used were the toll bridges across the Severn estuary, but these tolls have now been removed. John.

The CT does have the ability to show the state of charge by showing the 12 volt battery voltage. This information is given in the hidden menu's on the MFD screen. to show the hidden screen menu's press the start button without your foot on the brake then turn on and off the side lights three times. If you go to ready mode the reading will show the on charge voltage of around 14.2 volts. John.

The CT follows the Prius in the way that park is engaged. When you are in ready mode selecting D,R,B,and N engages that function as with normal auto transmissions except that the selector is purely electrically operated. The parking is lock pawl driven by an electric motor in the transmission, and not moved by mechanical means from the selector. When you stop you can select park in the normal way, but this is a waste of time, and energy as turning off the engine with the start stop button engages park automatically making it fool proof when parking "park always being engaged", and unless on a steep hill I did not bother with the parking brake "bad practice I know". When I first changed from a Prius to the GS450H on a few occasions this caught me out as I would leave the car in drive, press the stop button, "as with the Prius" and start exiting the car to find the car rolling either forwards or backwards depending on where the car was parked. I was so used to not having to engage park. John.

Sadly I remember the days when cars struggled to reach half of that millage without at leased an engine rebuild. John.

It should be shown in the handbook, but on the Prius it was a button in front of your knees below the steering wheel. Mobility scooter batteries are all of the AGM type for 2 main reasons. (1) AGM batteries can withstand deep discharges better than wet cell. Important on mobility vehicles where the batteries are used all day without any charging, and then recharged over night. (2) AGM batteries have no free liquid acid to spill or burn someone in the event of the battery case being broken. Where as liquid batteries of the size typically used would contain as much as a gallon of acid. This would be a real danger especially indoors "where many scooters, and wheel chairs are used" carpets could be soaked in acid with the possibility of both children and pets coming into direct contact with corrosive acid. John

The only thing you can turn off that will extend battery standing time, or reducing battery discharge is the keyless entry function. This system is continuously looking for the proximity of the keyfob. This has been a problem with the Prius, and Lexus CT from the outset. I fitted a larger battery "in amp hour capacity terms" to my Prius. The Prius uses the same battery rated at 45 AH, and electrical systems as the CT. Fitting a battery from a mobility scooter that is the same physical size as the Prius/Lexus CT battery raises this capacity to 65Ah nearly a 50% increase. The mobility scooter batteries are also designed to withstand daily deep discharges without significant loss of capacity. Since moving to a GS450H I have fitted a larger battery of 110 AH capacity against the OEM battery capacity of 70AH. I no longer have problems even after 8 weeks of none use. John.

Yes there is even an electrically driven coolant pump that circulates hot coolant from the engine to the heater matrix. Again this is there so that the heater continues to give out heat even though the engine driven coolant pump may be stationary. Another electric coolant pump pumps coolant around the transmission, and inverter through a separate radiator to the engine coolant rad. This is there to keep both the transmission, and inverter cool. The inverter can produce up to 3kw of heat energy depending on it's electrical loading. John.

The Hybrid AC system is much more like your house fridge or freezer unit with no external moving parts. The reason it is driven by an electric motor is that with a hybrid the engine may not be running when the car is moving ruling out the engine to drive the compressor. For the same reason the power assistance for the hydraulic brakes is also driven by an electric motor driving a hydraulic pump to store fluid under pressure in an accumulator. The power steering is also has to be electrically driven. This is at first not noticeable, but once it is understood that the engine can be running intermittently it then becomes an obvious requirement. John.

True of engine driven AC systems, but not the case with hybrids where the compressor is driven by a 3 phase electric motor housed, and sealed in the same container as the compressor. This means there is no rotating shaft with seal to dry out allowing possible leakage of the gasses used. The only seals in the system are "O" rings on the pipe joints that do not dry out. The biggest problem is the vulnerability of the condensers to stone damage as they are generally mounted without any sort of protection from road debris, and are punctured easily. John.

Thanks to John "Old trout" has answered your question basically above, and if you scroll down on the link to a box on the right hand side labeled GS450H- LC600H you will see a depiction of the layout. What is not shown is that the system is operated by it's own external electric hydraulic pump "mounted on the transmission" to enable ratio changes. The pump is turned on by it's controller to enable ratio change. This pump or more accurately it's drive motor has been known to failure due to nothing more than it's bearings failing due to lack of any lubrication. These bearings can be replaced as the pump and motor can be removed from the transmission. The bearings being standard ball bearings available from non Lexus suppliers for less than £10. Lexus will only supply a complete pump unit for over £2500. John.

While I can see to some extent the reason you would do this it is not exactly eco friendly. If stopped by a roadside vehicle check could involve a fine, a notice to get the problem fixed, and a retest at one of the government MOT testing stations "not your local garage". I know the chances of this are slim, but the number of car roadside check points are growing. John.

It is very likely you have a small leek in the AC system, and the pressure is down. Make sure that wherever you take the car for an AC service they do not use a machine that has been used on normal car AC systems. Standard car AC systems use PAG oil in the compressor, and this oil is conductive to electricity, and will "after a time making it difficult to prove fault even a small amount can contaminate your system" destroy the electrically driven compressors used in hybrid vehicles. Hybrid AC systems use ND11 oil that is none conductive. John

You can obtain valve to rim seal kits for the TPMS valves, but a washing up liquid test on them will soon show if this is the problem. Re using the old seals when the valves are re fitted does cause problems, and giving the fitting nuts an extra turn will often brake off the valve stems. John.

Does your insurance cover for lost keys? Many policies do so it is worth checking. John.