Britprius

The BHP figure for the engine on the GS450H is 296 or 298 BHP depending on where you get the figures from. It is electrically limited to 155mph. The electric motor is rated at 186 HP, but this cannot be directly added to the engine output because of the transmission configuration, and the path the engine power takes to drive the wheels. John.

I find it hard to see the purpose of the drain system. If the filter was mounted vertically upwards it would not drain any oil. Pointing downwards the oil would pour out before the plastic adapter could be fitted. With the filter horizontally as with the only half the oil could be removed, but again would pour out before the plastic adapter could be screwed in. John.

Under acceleration things change, but at a constant high speed very little electrical power is used. The scenario that Sandro envisaged. In real terms the battery has very little capacity. The theoretical full capacity of the battery is 1872 watt hours (a little over 1.75 kwh) 6.5 ah at 288 volts nominal. However the the usable capacity from 40% to 80% charge is only 748 watt hours (close to .75 kwh) 3 ah (amp hours) at 288 volts nominal. The electric drive motor "MG2 is rated at 186 hp or in electrical terms approximately 140 kw (746 watts = 1 HP). This can be driven by the battery alone, but as the maths show the battery would last a matter of seconds in this mode. I do not know the rating of MG1 in generator mode, but I do know it is nowhere near 140 kw, but the power split device is around 72% to the wheels, and 28% to MG1 as a generator. The power produced can be fed directly into MG2 to assist the engine in driving the wheels. Or it can also be used to do this, and charge the battery. If the power is used to drive MG2 the full power from the engine minus some conversion losses is available to the wheels. Further electric motors in use are the virtual opposite to the petrol engine. The torque from MG2 falls off as it's revs rise. It has full torque at zero revs. Again I do not know what that figure is, but it is not unusual for the type of motor used to have 140% of design torque at zero revs. John.

Peter above is correct. Basically at high motorway speeds there will be little or no electric assist. The battery display will remain at or about 5 blue bars. On a slight downhill run the electric drive "may" kick in, but will turn off as soon as more power to the wheels is needed at that point the engine will power the wheels, and recharge the battery. All this is done without any difference in the feel of the car as far as the drivers concerned. John.

The filter housing on my car also does not have the drain plug feature. This is no big deal as I fail to see the way the filter is orientated that it could drain all of the oil out of the filter housing. In fact only about half making it pretty useless, and adding an extra layer of work to be done. John

Robert. The connections are electrical not optical, "I have the system up, and running on my car (2007). Even if they were optical the unit is capable of an optical input. So all that would be required is an optical "T" piece at the back of the head unit or at the amp to configure the optical input. I have configure my wiring by unplugging the cable from the head unit, and manufacturing a plug and socket to extend the required connections without cutting any wires. John.

For people with a GS450H that would like to protect there boot carpet Aldi are selling a black washable carpet runner that is edged, and 24 inches wide "the depth of the boot". This rolls out very nicely in the GS boot, and runs up, and over the battery cover. At a little over £6 is good value. John.

I cannot see why they would be any different. If there are differences with the sump "which I doubt" you could always swap them over. John.

I do not know if you saw my post from July 6 regarding a high quality audio input for the 2006/7 GS range. The system is cheap, easy to install with very high quality sound results. It also keeps all the wheel and touch controls. Unfortunately it is not capable of controlling you Ipod, but is otherwise excellent. www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/112477-aux-audio-in-instructions/ John.

I think Lee above has the correct details. I found the first time I changed the filter it was on ridiculously tight to the point of possibly braking something. The filter does not require it to be tight to obtain a good seal since the "O" ring seal is between inner and outer diameter surfaces, and not end to end surfaces. All that is required is a light pinch on tightening. The Prius uses the same filter but the housing is plastic. It uses the same method of fitting but has a metal spring strip that stops the hosing being turned to remove unless the spring strip is pressed rather like a one way ratchet mechanism. This removes the need to tighten till it will go no further. The filter it's self seems to be very expensive considering it does not have the outer can, and threaded base plate that must cost more to produce. It also is more labour intensive, messy, and likely to have contaminants entre the lubrication system than the canister version. A step back to the 1950's. John.

They stick out about 2 inches, but come back from the pillar about 3 inches. They are usually smoked, and this adds to the amount of visual impact [lus you are not locking directly through them but at an angle. John

I had them on my Prius, and they worked well keeping the rain from running onto the door switches, and arm rest. I found the downside was that although in theory they are see through in practice they are not. So the thickness of the screen pillar was increased along with the blind spot so produced. John.

I would say hes over the moon. John.

As in my earlier post I came across the same problem. As with sorcerer's post (John) in red it states as I did that fuel "petrol" still needs to be injected to keep the direct injectors from being destroyed making the system less viable than it normally would be. Unfortunately for the moment anyway there seems to be no way round the problem. I am now looking into the possibility of electric assist conversion to make more use of the 186 HP electric motor fitted in the GS450H transmission. This could be along the same lines as the Prius conversions. The problem with the Prius conversion is the relatively small electric motor in the Prius "50 HP" severely limited it's performance, but no such problem with the GS. This used in blended mode would give a considerable boost to MPG figures. John.

Good to know you got the tracking sorted. The GS seems quite sensitive to wheel alignment. On many cars nothing is felt, but uneven tyre ware soon points to problems. Sorry I could not give info on local suitable workshops for tracking, but I do live a 150 miles away from you. Unlikely they will try this, but do not let them take the steering wheel off to cure the off centre steering. It must be corrected by adjusting both sides of the steering rack to track rod ball joints adjusters. John.

I think you have the answer from Lexus. The Mechanic obviously did not know about the Lexus braking system. Brake fluid does not come out of the rear brake bleeders in the normal way by pressing the brake pedal, and as you have been told by Lexus the rear parking brake shoes have very little lining material on the when new. They also do not ware under normal circumstances as they are only used when stationary. There are times however that we drive off forgetting to release the parking brake for a short distance. Good luck with your claim, and please let us know the outcome. John.

It would be possible to tell if the calipers were seized, and also a visual check would show some problems with the brake hose. However it would not be possible to properly bleed the brakes without the correct equipment. It is possible to do a fudge job of bleeding the brakes "if you know how", but this is not what your paying for. To be fair to the mechanic if he has never worked on hybrid braking systems before it would be easy to assume the braking system is like any other car, but this is far from the facts. I managed to dig out the typical hybrid brake circuit so that you can see it's complexity. John

To bleed the brake properly on the Toyota/Lexus range of cars Techstream or a suitable equivalent is a requirement. The braking system has a brake stroke simulator in it to use regen braking whenever possible. I have posted the hydraulic circuit elseware on the forum "cannot find it at the moment", but looking at this will tell you why the equipment is needed. Further a linear solenoid calibration should also be carried out on the brake actuator when ever the brake circuit is opened. John.

On the GS there is plenty of space for the oil bottle. If you look down between the front grill, and rads you will see lots of space. Further the oil filter, and oil pressure switch are mounted just in front of the bottom pulley at the bottom of this space. So the take off point for the oil bottle "the oil pressure switch" could not be better positioned. The switch is removed, and replaced with a "T" piece. One outlet on the "T" is used for the pressure switch, and the other for the feed hose. The hose is connected to the solenoid that is in turn connected directly to the bottom of the bottle. I worked in northern Sweden for a while, and yes it was cold. I also worked in Canada where it was even colder. The cars there had a heater in the oil sump to stop the oil turning to jelly. A block heater could be made from a towel rail heater available from B&Q in various wattage's. For the V6 engine you would need the highest wattage version. John.

I made my own using an empty small propane bottle, a 12 volt solenoid, a grease gun flexible hoes, a brass "T" piece, and made my own timer. John.

On the GS300 there was a recall for this because on a number of cars the vibration from the timing sprockets at startup was enough to undo the four bolts holding the front plate one or more of the bolts falling into the timing chain. Lexus investigated this, and found that with the GS300 having a normal type starter motor the startup speed was lower extending the duration, and severity of the vibration enough to loosen the bolts. The recall replaced the timing sprockets with an updated design. On the hybrid GS450H because of the high speed of the transmission motor starter did not suffer the bolts coming loose so did not recall these. There has however been one reported incident of this happening on a GS450H here on LOC. There obviously must have been more than this one isolated case here in the UK, and other countries. My car suffers from this noise at cold startup or if the car has been standing long enough for the oil to drain out of the sprockets. I checked both the valve and the filters, but both were clean. I did not wish to dismantle the cam timing mechanism as this is a long job. Fitting a pre-lube system has removed the noise completely, and was very easy. It also has the advantage of reducing engine ware because oil pressure is there before anything begins to move in the engine at startup. John.

Go to this video at about 3 min 25 sec in, and you will see the filter removal. This varies slightly from engine to engine, but are all much the same principle. John.

If you play the video from about 3 min 15 sec in after the plunger has been removed you can see the two parts rotate separately until they reach the end of travel. This is where the noise comes from as they rattle back, and forth each time they turn a cam over the highest point until the gaps are full of oil. If the plunger was doing it's job of locking them together there would be no noise. Once the mechanism is full of oil, oil is fed to the tapered end of the plunger opposite to the spring. When the pressure reaches 21 psi the plunger is pushed against the spring to unlock the timing mechanism. If the spring is week, broken, or the plunger is jammed in the open position the mechanism will rattle back, and forth until there is enough oil to stop it moving. John.

Having research this further there appears to be a spring loaded plunger inside the timing sprockets that locks them in a retarded position until oil pressure pushes it out of the locked position. If the spring that pushes it into the locked position becomes week or brakes this could cause the mechanism not to lock when the engine is turned off, and to chatter until it is filled with oil. It would then work normally. I can see know other reason for the existence of the plunger, and know it should release at 21 psi oil pressure. This pressure could not be reached until all the space in the mechanism was full of oil. There is a video on the tube that shows this on a Toyota engine, but the guy doing the video could not work out what it was for. John.

There is a small filter hidden inside a banjo oil feed pipe "two on the V6 engines" that can become partially blocked reducing the oil flow to the cam timing gears. It may be worthwhile "since it is such an easy job" to check, and clean or replace this.filter. John.