Britprius

The term ECU is for "electronic control unit", and is often wrongly used as "engine control unit" when even the older basic control units had other systems such as security built in to one unit. To days vehicles are getting increasingly more complex. Going back not to many years ago cars had maybe 3 electric motors. A starter motor, a heater fan, and a wiper motor. Today the list runs into 100 or more. Don't believe me start counting. John.

There is even an ECU to control how all the ECU's communicate with each other. It is called a gateway ECU. John.

The hybrid battery will be fine. There have been many reports of hybrid batteries standing for years without loosing charge. Until the car goes into ready mode the hybrid battery is completely isolated from the rest of the car. I would be amazed if the 12 volt battery has any charge though. The most critical thing when jumping a hybrid is correct polarity connection of the jump leads. Just touching the leads the wrong way can, and will at minimum give some very expensive, and difficult to get at fuse replacement. John.

From the diagnostic sheet the reason there is lots of red is because they have only aligned the front wheels. The rears have not been touched. Many places advertise "tracking", but they only adjust the front wheels making for a waste of time, and money. John.

It depends on which ECU you are thinking of. Although in later Toyota/Lexus hybrids some ECU's have been combined there is more than one. To give some idea my Prius had 28 ECU's. John.

On checking with the handbook you are correct, but as a retired electronics engineer it would go against everything I have learned over many years. To start and have, and have the engine of the downer car running is going to put lots of voltage spikes onto the hybrid ECU supply lines something I would avoid where ever possible. I think these instructions are left overs from the standard car manual. As member "Shahpor" above points out it is not as if hybrids require a lot of current to get to ready mode, and why on earth would you need to run with the jump leads connected for 5 minutes when once the hybrid goes to ready it's 12 volt battery is being charged from the traction battery even if the hybrid engine has not started, and no external help is then required or even desirable . In fact heavy jump cables are not required to "jump" a hybrid 1.5 mm flex will work perfectly well as long as the leads are kept to a reasonable length. John.

The hybrid battery is the battery that turns over the engine. The 12 volt battery boots the computers and runs things such as the hydraulic brake booster motor, and all the ancillaries as in a normal car. The 12 volt battery can be "jumped" as in a normal car, but great care needs to be exercised not to reverse polarity the connections, and the engine on the car being jumped from should not be running. The 12 volt battery is isolated from the hybrid battery, but is charged from it by a DC to DC converter. John.

The light source weather halogen or HID makes no difference. It is the fact that the are projector lamps that produces the flat beam. There is a conformation letter from Lexus on this subject somewhere here on LOC. John.

You do not need beam deflectors on the Lexus. The beam pattern is flat with no kick up to the left of the car. John.

While I agree at first sight on the hybrids there does not seem to be a great advantage in fitting a larger capacity battery. In fact there are are number of advantages. The ability to be able to sit in the car listening to music or even watching a DVD without having to have the engine start up on a regular basis. The car can stand much longer periods of non use without the battery getting to the point where it cannot boot to ready. As a battery ages it looses capacity. Using a higher capacity battery helps reduce this effect. Loosing 50% of the 70 ah OEM battery capacity means the actual capacity would be 35 ah. Loosing 50% of a 110 ah battery means it would still have 55 ah's capacity left important as the battery ages. The difference in price is negligible if any at all. With non hybrids where a normal stater motor is used the higher capacity makes a big difference to engine cranking particularly in the cold. Be cause of space restrictions the CT only has a 45 ah battery, but still has much the same demands put on it as other hybrids such as the Prius. Having owned a Prius, and from reports in the CT section I know the battery in these vehicles is inadequate for it's purpose. Many reporting the inability to go to ready mode after standing at at airports ect, and having to resort to using external chargers at home to help bolster the battery capacity. John.

I have fitted a much larger 12 volt battery to my GS450H and these instructions should apply to other GS cars. The advantages are a much higher capacity "110 ah against 70 ah for OEM", and cold cranking amps depending on the battery purchased of 750/800 amps. For non hybrid cars this should translate into higher cranking speeds, and faster starts. It will also be able to stand for much longer periods of inactivity. The battery compartment is capable of accommodating batteries up to 330 mm in length without problems against the OEM fitted battery of 270 mm. The other battery dimensions "width, and height" remain the same. The battery hold down brackets, and terminals remain as OEM. It is only the battery tray that requires modification to accommodate the longer battery as follows. Remove the terminals to the battery negative first then positive. There is a small temperature sensor on the hybrid battery. This should be carefully pulled out of the old battery, and stuck by whatever means you wish "glue, tape ect" on the top of the new battery Remove the battery and the three bolts holding the tray. The rearmost end of the tray has two spot welds on each side. First, and second picture. Drill out these 4 spot welds at the rear of the tray only. Bend down the rear lip of the tray " i used a large adjustable spanner" till it's top edge is level with the battery seating area, and fit a piece of edging strip. Pictures 3 and 4. Bend up the tag on the rear lip till it is horizontal, and attach the negative lead to this with a suitable nut, and bolt. Trial fit the battery to the tray. Picture 5. Refit the tray and then the battery with holding clamp. Refit the terminals fitting the positive terminal first then the negative. All the covers should fit as with the OEM battery. The battery I fitted measures L 330 mm, W 172 mm, H "to top of terminals" 222 mm. It weighs 24.9 KG, and cost £80 with a 4 year guarantee. This may be possible on some other Lexus models. Careful measuring should tell. John.

A string type repair is now not legal within the EU. The tyre must be removed, and an internal patch type repair carried out. This is a much more reliable repair method as the internal air pressure in the tyre tends to help the sealing of the patch. John.

If you need to swap cars on your driveway without the engine starting from cold. Pressing the EV button will stop the engine from starting if used before it has started. This saves fuel and high emissions associated with a cold start. It has also been found that allowing the engine to start from cold, and turning it off before it has warmed up can lead to a ruff noisy next cold start. John.

Happy you have now got things sorted. Your idea of using a 17 inch wheel with a higher aspect ratio tyre in practice is feasible, but would be against the law. and invalidate your insurance. Although you can use a "skiny" spare wheel of a different size to OEM wheels. To comply with the law the wheel must be labeled as a temporary fitment, and clearly marked with a maximum safe speed that is from memory 50 mph. The car will not pass an MOT with the "skiny" spare fitted or with wheels of different sizes on the same axle. John.

Stove paint for wood burners works very well on discs especially in the fin vents where temperatures get high. I have found delaying the painting for a few weeks after fitting new discs seems to make the paint adhere better possibly due to any anti rust oil being burnt off first. John.

Sorry I cannot help with a spare wheel. However the damage to the paintwork on you wheel does not seem enough to have buckled it. Are you sure it is not the tyre that is damaged? There are companies that will remove the buckle from alloy wheels, and that could be an alternative route. John.

Your Toyota dealer is telling you porky's. The equipment used for the hybrid health check is the same for all Toyota/Lexus/Scion hybrid vehicles as they use all the same hybrid, and engine components. My nearest Lexus dealer is around the same distance as yours while the nearest Toyota dealer is only 26 miles away. They "Toyota" are happy to both service, and do the health check, and on checking with the Lexus dealer they said they would honor all guarantees including the hybrid battery extended health check guarantee as if they had serviced the car themselves. John.

We will not know about the longevity of the "Tesla" batteries until they have been used in the real world for as long as the Prius batteries. There are many UK gen2 2004 Prius still running on there original batteries along with many gen1 Prius from 2001. I know batteries can be cycle tested in the laboritory, but that is not the same as being used by Joe public for 15 years plus. John.

The keyless entry system will stop you locking the car with the car in ready mode, I do not believe this can be overridden simply. John.

The first place to check is the wheel nuts. One slightly loose nut can cause this. John.

You may get more replies if you put this in the RX section rather than the GS. John.

You need to add to this the cost of 4 TPMS monitors for the wheels unless you intend removing them from your original wheels. John.

Hi Martin. I have not insured a CT, but I did have a Prius that uses the same mechanical's as the CT. The insurance for that with everything included even breakdown cover was below £200 with an excess of £150. Having now changed to a GS450H I am still only paying £285 for the same cover, and an excess of £50. Millage is limited to 10,000 miles, but I have another car, and am able to easily keep this limit. I do shop around every year at renewal time. John.

Prop shaft joints should articulate freely without any notch y feeling to them. A point often overlooked is that there should be no side play across a universal joint as this will cause an out of balance effect. John.

If you can give me the dimensions of the battery, and it's AH capacity I can sort some candidates for you. John.