Britprius

It should be pointed out that the extended battery guarantee is for up to 10,000 miles or one year which ever comes first, but there is no limit on how many times a year the test can be done. The scheme is set to run until the cars 15 birthday, and can be carried out for the first time at any time in the 15 years. So if you miss a year or more it does not matter. John.

But they do. I was travelling in North Wales, and passed a horse box trailer in a layby with a speed camera in it. John.

A flux that was often used back in the 60's was called killed spirits. It was made by dissolving as much zinc as possible into hydrochloric acid. Very pleasant stuff. John.

Look at the video below starting at 34 minutes in. This will show how the stretch in the chain affects the cam timing, and how it affects the tensioner. This is for a 4ltr engine but is otherwise identical. There is an inspection cover in front of the tensioner that can be removed to see how far it has extended giving an idea of how much stretch there is. without dismantling the engine John.

I made a mistake in my description above the wording should read bank 1 cam sensor drivers side. John.

I am not saying that your chain has failed, but it is a possibility. So check the other avenues first. There have been reports of this problem on the Toyota V6 engines at only 100,000 miles. The chain is only a single row chain driving 4 cams "two indirectly", and is quite long. It only takes a thousands of an inch in each link to give enough extra length to cause problems. I believe on later engines they fitted a duplex chain. I have replaced chains on V6 & V8 engines without dismantling the front of the engine saving hours of work. Do a search on Youtube on changing the timing chain they are quite informative. The downside of using "my" method of changing the chain is that it does not replace the timing chain tensioner guides just the chain. Having said that I have not had any failures after just changing the chain. If you require more information let me know, and I will see what I can dig out. John

Steel tins fine with clean metal, and an aggressive flux, Back in the sixties I was tort how to lead load by a skilled body repair worker. It had the advantage of preventing rust on the repaired area, and did not flake off the steel like filler can. John.

This may help. John.

P0017 is often caused by a stretched timing chain. It gives the code for bank 1 cam sensor "passengers side bank" compared to the crank position. This is because the length of chain being pulled round by the crank goes from the crank to bank 2 then down to the idler sprocket above the crank, and then back up to the bank 1 timing sprocket where the sensor is located. When the chain is stretched it causes bank 1 cams to be retarded, and in severe cases can cause the chain to jump teeth on the sprocket. John.

Using non OEM shocks may alter the ride for the better or worse. Any car fitted with non adjustable shocks is set up as a compromise, and may not be the ideal for your particular driving style or the type of terrain you drive on. Buying aftermarket shocks should give a similar ride to the OEM because they should be set to have the same characteristics as OEM. Buying adjustable shocks "if available" would give you the choice of setting the ride to your liking. Any car manufacturer is going to say only use our products, but they may not be the best option both on ride quality, cost, and reliability. John.

Most cars have these hidden away somewhere. They are there for two reasons. When the heater or AC is on drawing air from outside the air in the cabin would have to be compressed unless some air was vented. The air in the cabin has to be vented to make way for the fresh air. The other reason "more noticeable in older cars without the feature" is that it enables easy closing of doors. If say only the drivers door is open and you try to shut it the air in the car is compressed particularly if the door is slammed or closed quickly. This can prevent the door closing completely. The vents have a one way flap valve that prevents airflow in the reverse direction. This also helps keep the car from flooding if driven through deep water. John.

Imran. That noise is very much like a noise in the brake system the Prius can suffer with. The cure is to bleed the brakes, but for this you will need Techstream to be able to bleed the brake actuator properly. It is caused by tiny air bubbles in the brake actuator. John.

I could not have put it better myself Herbs. To describe the hybrid functions rely needs a book, but the big no no that is not self evident is avoid neutral if at all possible. John.

Just about to go through this on my wife's Aygo. Three years ago my wife took out insurance in her own name so had no no claims bonus with GA. Price £160 "not bad". Year two £160. Year three £162-50. This years renewal with three years no claims discount £189-55. This makes this years premium before discount £270. I have checked comparison sites, and the cheapest "AA" comes in at £155 along with the first eight companies listed falling under £160. I am going to try ringing Saga the company I am with as they have not only kept my premiums constant over the same period "even with a no fault claim last year", but also gave excellent service when I did claim. If this fails I'll go with the AA with breakdown cover included at £155. John.

I have a 2007 gs450h with 150,000 miles on the clock. I see no reason to be concerned about your battery condition. You say you can only run about a mile on battery only, and that is very good. The car was not designed to run on electric only, and using it in that manor is bad for fuel consumption, and battery longevity. Discharging the battery, and then recharging it as far as you can is not a good thing. It is far better to have small charge discharge cycles at around the full blue bar level for maximum life. Buying a used battery is a mine field. How do you know it is any better than the battery you have? and how do you know if battery modules have been changed by the previous owner when buying from a breaker? The dr prius app is not accurate. If the battery is only at 50% capacity according to the app, and it still does a mile on electric only it should do 2 miles with a 100% capacity battery. The GS will not do that when new. John.

You may well find it easier to fit the complete knuckle than to try ,and separate the bearing hubs from both knuckles. As they can seize in, and be a pig to remove. John.

This does seem to be penny pinching on behalf of Lexus though. If it required a lot of extra onboard equipment I could understand it but since the information on individual tyre pressures, and even temperatures are available at the OBD port the ability to display the pressures would not be costly. using the same screen that now displays "low tyre". John.

The rear back plates have the mountings for the parking brake shoes, and operating cable as well as the disk shield. As such it is two parts welded together. A central thicker plate, and a larger thinner plate to shield the disk making it more expensive. It does not warrant that sort of extra price though. John.

Hi Ash. The code you give is for "engine did not start". So my question must be are you sure it does start as when the engine is spinning on it's electric motor (MG!)? it will sound as if it's running. The ECU will allow it to spin for 5 seconds, and then aborts the starting attempt. The ECU also limits the number of start attempts to prevent the HV battery from being depleted. If this happens it's a dealer job to recharge it "unless your reasonably skilled at building a 330 volt Dc constant current charger". Get the battery to as high a state of charge as you can by starting the car leaving it in park, with the heater fan turned on, and controls set to hot. This should charge the battery to a safe level. You then need to investigate why it is not starting. I suggest you buy Techstream to read all the codes as there must be more. You could try cleaning the crank sensor, but without codes life could be difficult. Whatever you do do not let the HV battery get to low on charge. John.

I have a detachable tow bar fitted to my GS450H ok not an RX I know. When the bar is not attached the fitting is invisible from the rear of the car. Looking up under the rear of the car there is a square hole in the under tray of 2.5" X 2.5" cut neatly around the cast iron receiver. A hinged flap hides the pull down 13 pin supply socket. The fitting looks like someone cared about the job they were doing. I cannot say the same for the destruction of the under tray in the pictures provided by Ron. I would ask they supply a new tray cut carefully to the minimum amount required. John.

As Herbie above says with the hybrids having at leased two batteries "some such as the GS450H with active suspension have three". There is some confusion on what battery powers what. The 12 volt battery generally powers the computer systems and normal 12 volt systems such as lighting, heater fans, and windows. The high voltage battery "voltage varies depending on vehicle type" is use as a traction battery, a starter battery, and also used to run the power steering via a voltage converter to 40 volts or another converter up to around 500 volts 3 phase variable frequency AC for the aircon. It is also used to charge the 12 volt battery via another voltage converter. Running out of fuel, and continuing to drive till the high voltage battery is depleted will put you in a position where the car will not start, and require recovery to the dealer to charge it. No amount of 12 volt jump starting will help because the car does not have a 12 volt starter motor. If you run out of fuel, and stop reasonably quickly you will need to put around 3 gallons or 14ltrs of fuel in the car before the computer recognises that fuel has been added, and will start. John.

You will loose power steering, but still have steering control. The brake system has an emergency backup capacitor supply, but this is very limited. The mechanical "hydraulic" brakes will still work but without power assistance. This is no different to a normal car where if you loose the engine you will have no power steering, and only a limited number of brake operations before the vacuum assist is depleted, and no longer works. John.

Yes I do know about the importance of using the correct oil. In fact it was me that bought it to the attention of the forum having discovered the problem in 2004 while belonging to the Prius Chat forum "hence my tittle Britprius". The Prius uses the same AC system as all the other Toyota/Lexus hybrids employing an electric motor driven compressor. PAG oil used in normal AC systems is electrically conductive, and since the hybrid motor compressor actually runs, and is cooled by the oil it is imperative the oil acts as an insulator. The compressor motor runs at around 500 volts, and any current leakage to ground is detected, and shuts down the car completely for safety reasons. The reason for using an electric motor is that with a hybrid the engine may turn off at any time. If the compressor was engine driven this obviously would stop working. A number of other systems on the car also have to operate along the same lines for the same reason such as the power steering, brake assistance, and even the cabin heater hot water supply from the engine. No engine no hot water pumped to the heater. John.

No I meant the cabin filter. Sorry I did not make that clear. Changing the drier sock filter requires emptying the system of gas. If your car only gets cold at speed check that the radiator fans come on when the AC is turned on as the system requires that the rads have air flow through them at low road speeds. John.

If an AC system has a major leak I totally agree with you. If however you have a system like mine that has a minor leak "needs topping up about every 3 years not totally re filling" you can spend a lot of money chasing a leak that is impossible to find. I have put dye in my system, and that does not show the leak. So what I am saying is it depends on the rate of leakage, and not on loosing some gas over a long period. My wife has a Toyota Aygo from 2006 still only 70,000 miles. The AC has never been topped up, and works fine. But still if I take it in for service the dealer will push for an "AC service". The AC filter is part of the normal service so what else are they going to do. Are they going to draw out the gas that has nothing wrong with it creating a vacuum in the system reversing the pressure on seals that are 16 years old, and refill with fresh gas reversing the pressure again? For no reason. I see this as more likely to cause a leak. If it ain't broke don't fix it. John.