Britprius

Not as yet I am still working on it, but other things keep getting in the way not leased the weather. This week I have had a very large beach tree up routed, and blown over wrecking three apple, and two damson trees at the bottom of my garden. The trees roots were in the side of a 12 foot deep bank down to a stream that forms my boundary. Only having a root system to one side, and in full leaf the wind pulled the roots out of the bank. Pictures to follow. I will keep this post updated with all the details on the distance control. The upside "having just paid for two loads of logs for the winter heating" is I now have enough fuel for at leased six years if not longer. John.

Holding the fob very close to the start button overrides the need for the fob transmitter, and batteries. The transponder in the fob reacting directly with the pickup ring in the start button. Since the problem exists with both fobs the fault is likely to be with the start button pickup or ECU. I think you are going to need Techstream, and a laptop to check out the system, John.

Have you tried holding the fob close to the start button when trying to start the car? John.

Try going to your local tyre dealer, and see if they will loan you an electric impact wrench with suitable socket. That should shift it. John.

True comment, but for cars after 2008 it is covered by the 12 year body guarantee. Many people including myself have had new bonnets fitted free of charge. John

The main points to look out for on the gen3 "2005/2011" are leaking shock absorbers. These are circa £250 each to buy, and there is no aftermarket replacement. The exhaust is prone to splitting at the "Y" piece to the rear silencers, and also forward of the joint before the "Y". The exhaust is over £1250 to buy, but most fit stainless purpose made systems. The traction battery can be repaired by replacing one or more of the 40 individual 7.2 volt modules that make up the battery at reasonable cost. These are readily available being used in most "not all" Toyota hybrid cars. John.

All car speedo's over read the cars speed. The reason is that the law will not allow a car speedo to under read the cars speed because of the implications of drivers getting speeding fines, and then blaming the car manufacturer. There is a scale of speedo accuracy in the construction and use regulations that the speedo has to comply with. This can be found on line, but 10% of actual speed at 30 mph is within that range. From memory at 80 mph the speedo could be read 90 mph. Because of factors that affect the reading such as tyre ware different makes of tyre being slightly different in rolling circumference, and even tyre pressures it is impossible to get an accurate reading all the time. John.

Hi David. Welcome to LOC. We are a friendly bunch here with a huge pool of information to which I hope you will add. John.

I was going to give this a "like", but felt I would be saying I like the fact that you got stung by the advertising of the item bought, and that is not my intent. I would return the panel as being not fit for purpose. John.

Solar chargers for car battery use need to have an output of 10 to 12 watts per hour minimum. The problem is they are rated at maximum output in bright sunlight pointing directly at the sun. On dull days the output is likely to be half of the rated output at best, and of course this is is only in the daylight hours. Over a 24 hour period the average output of a 12 watt panel is likely to be in the region of 2 to 3 watts translating to 0.2 amps per hour. A panel rated at 2.4 watts will have an output around 0.05 amps per hour or 50 milliamp hours. This is not enough to maintain a battery with a capacity of 60 to 70 amp hours. The internal losses "self discharge rate" of car batteries along with the standby loading of the alarm, and entry system will be more than this. John.

The belt tensioner bearings are standard bearings that are obtainable from bearing suppliers or Ebay. The bearing number is "6203 RS" of witch there are two. The bolt that holds the pulley has a lefthand thread. The bearings can be pushed or tapped out after removing the centre sleeve "again can be pushed or tapped out". A pair of bearings will only cost about £5 against around £45 for a new pulley. John.

If your going that far I would also replace the two VVT sprockets to make sure you eliminate the start up rattle. This could be the reason for the stretch in the chain as the hammering load on the chain must be considerable at start up. I say this because with the front cover off you have complete access to remove and refit the sprockets. You will be very disappointed if the noise is still there after all the work involved. If the sprockets can be turned by hand a part of a turn without turning the cam with the chain removed they are faulty. There is a locking pin that should lock them when no oil pressure is present, and unlocks when there is pressure. The new sprockets have a design change that is supposed to prevent the rattle reoccurring. John.

The traction battery will normally last a long time without charging. I started a Prius after 3 years of standing. The only problem was the 12 volt battery. You say there was an intermittent alarm coming from the hybrid battery. Can you explain more on this? since the hybrid battery is not fitted with an alarm. Does the car go to ready mode? and if so how many bars are showing on the battery display? Have you fitted a new battery in the key fob? What messages are the on the display screen by the speedo? John.

It perhaps should be pointed out there are two more timing chains in the V6 engine. These are short chains that run between the adjacent inlet, and exhaust cams on each bank. These chains do no generally suffer as the load on them is small only driving one cam each against the load of all four cams being driven by the also much longer main chain. The short chains have there own independent tensioners, and are of the same size, and type of chain as the main chain. John.

You can buy a chain link splitter from most cycle, and motorcycle shops for very little money, and these will also re-fit the links without the need for a split link. Using a split link in the chain replacement I outlined is much easier to do, and after the new chain is in position it may the be replaced using the tool. However in the past when timing chains were the norm they always came with a split link even from new. The only caveat is that the closed end of the spring link should face the direction of chain travel. Fitting the link with the open end facing the direction of travel runs the small risk of thick cold oil at high engine revs pushing the open spring link off the chain. John

Yes that's the item. I knew it was by a well known maker, but could not remember who. It worked very well for me, and has been for a couple of years now. For such a small outlay it is well worth trying. John.

I had this problem, and solved it by fitting self adhesive pads to the back of the brake pad back plates. This material can be bought on Ebay, and is cut as required with scissors to shape. It is not expensive, and works well. From memory it is made by Ferrodo or one of the big name manufacturers. John.

The chain can be changed without removing the engine, by taking off the cam covers, and the front timing chain cover. There are a number of video how to's on "Youtube" covering this, If you do not wish to remove the front cover, and change timing chain guides. It can also be done by splitting the chain over the off side "drivers side UK" timing sprocket after backing off the tensioner, and then attaching the new chain to the old with a split link. The engine is then wound over by hand making sure both ends of the chain remain in contact with the sprocket until the split link re appears at the sprocket. The link is then removed, and used to join the two ends of the new chain. A simple tool can be made to bolt to the cam housing to keep both sections of chain in contact with the sprocket. The tensioner is then released. The tensioner can be got at through an inspection plate on the front of the timing cover. ttps://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lexus+v6+timing+chain John.

Fuel consumption increases in the cold weather for a number of reasons. Cold air is more dense, and therefore requires more energy to push the car through it. Water on the road requires pushing out of the way, and this can be hundreds of gallons of water moved by the four tyres in just a mile. Heat for the cabin comes directly from fuel burnt, and with hybrids just turning on the heater fan If the car is in ready mode with the engine not running will start the engine. Try it, and see. Even the shorter days requiring lights to be on along with window demisters, wipers, and heated seats all require electrical energy that is all produced from burning fuel. Most car heaters will put out at leased the equivalent of 5 kwh of energy in heat. This is close to 7 hp of mechanical energy. John.

If you feel you wish to reduce the costs to your garage I would go the route outlined in my post. However with the stipulation also in my post of a replacement compressor if it should fail electrically in the future. The correct way would be to have the complete system replaced, but the cost would probably run to as much as £5000 with labor for stripping out the dashboard to replace the evaporator buried within. John.

Herbie above is correct. It may be that BMW use an engine driven compressor, or uses a different design of compressor drive system. At minimum your system should be flushed, new dryer fitted, and compressor removed so that it can be totally drained. The system should then be refilled with the correct ND11 oil, and R134A refrigerant. Also insist that if the compressor fails due to electrical current leakage to ground at any time in the future it will be replaced free of charge. The AC should not be used while the wrong lubricant is in the system. The problem is that using the wrong oil does not cause immediate failure, but can happen months down the line as the oil attacks the winding conformal coating, and internal wiring insulation. The compressor is not normally prone to electrical failure, and tend to fail due to mechanical issues. If it does fail electrically the wrong oil is virtually certain to be the reason for the failure. It may be helpfull to you to find how to disconnect the compressor electrically just in case the compressor does fail. As the car will shut down completely if a high voltage leak is detected by the cars safety system. John.

Go to this page, and scroll down to my description of how to. If I can be of further help just ask. John.

This is a common problem with all the the cars fitted Toyota VVT system, and is definitely not an America only problem. I have a GS450H that has the same problem. It is caused by the oil draining out of the cam phasers, and a locking pin that should lock the movement until the system has full oil pressure failing to engage. Lexus will not do anything about it in the UK on the hybrid versions. However vehicles that use the same engine, but are not hybrid have the cam phasers changed free of charge even outside of the guarantee. The problem is the "rattle" has been known to undo the cam gear holding bolts destroying the engines, but Toyota says this only happens with engines fitted with normal 12 volt starter motors, and not with hybrids where the engine is spun quickly with hybrid system to start it. I however know of two cases where the bolts have come undone on the hybrid GS. I have fitted a home brew pre lubrication system to my car to eliminate this problem by bringing the oil up to pressure before the engine starts. the details are available on the forum. The alternative is to have new cam phaser gears fitted at a cost of an arm, and a leg. For a dealer to say they know nothing about this problem raises alarm bells. They do not appear to know anything about the cars they are servicing or are lying about the problem. John.

Extending the warranty is very much up to the individual. However that would not pay for new discs as they are considered ware items. I had a Prius "same mechanicals as the CT", and I was also told the discs were half worn at 60,000 miles, and that the pads were ready to change at 3mm. Having looked at the discs, and pads before the service I new they were not worn to the extent described, and demanded the discs, and pads were measured in front of me. The pads had 8mm of material left "new is 11 mm" while the discs had 1/2 mm of ware "2 mm of ware is within specification" . The excuse given was the figures quoted on the service sheet were an estimate. Suffice to say that at 140,000 miles when I sold the car it was still on the same discs, and pads. Take the dealers claims with a large pinch of salt. John.

My most unreliable car was an MGA 1600 twin cam. It was so bad that it rarely covered a round trip of 60 miles without some problem. When it was running it was great fun to drive, but I always carried tools, and an assortment of spare parts "points, condenser, rotor arm, distributor cap, and many more" so that in the inevitable breakdown I could fix it on the side of the road. The strange thing is I followed it with an MGBGT, and that was very reliable having upgraded the ignition system with a Lucas contactless system with a sports coil. This produced such a strong spark that I could remove the side electrode on the spark plugs, and the car still ran perfectly well. John.