Britprius

This is where the confusion arises. The item you link to is a D to A converter or D to blue tooth. It will not convert to SPDIF. John.

There is no aux input on pre 2008 ML system cars even on the rear of the radio unit. People have resorted to opening up the radios and connecting input wires to the tape heads. John.

My effort was to find an easy cheap method of adding a good quality audio input on pre 2008 vehicles that do not have an audio input socket. In my last car a 2008 Prius there was an audio input on the JBL sound system, but that is all it was just an aux audio input. Finding, and a method inputting audio without resorting to tape adapter "that I have" or a transmitter at a realistic price was therefore my aim. I agree control of an MP3 player from the steering wheel would be nice, and there are units capable of this but this would come at at leased 10x the cost and still use analog audio as the input. I do realise that a bluetooth system could also be input, but this raises costs considerably with little advantage. All of the existing audio touch screen controls work as does the volume control from the steering wheel with the method I am using. Up until now I have not come across any information that even suggests there was an SPDIF input on the ML system, and no information on how to access this input. John.

In the 2007 models and earlier there is no audio, blue tooth, or USB input. The only alternative was a tape player adapter or an adapter costing around £70. John.

The Panasonic battery is an AGM battery (absorbed glass matt). Treated correctly they will have a long life, but they are getting close to double the price of a normal flooded lead acid battery. In my opinion buy a well known branded battery "Bosch, Varta, Lucas etc" but buy a battery with as high a capacity in amp/hours as possible that will fit the carrier. John.

I do not think they are adjustable, but I could be wrong. You could try putting a piece of tinted cellophane over the sensor on the dash "think sweet rapper". This would reduce the amount of light seen by the sensor, And make the lights come on earlier. John.

I have at last found time to find a simple cheap high quality audio input method for those with Mark Levinson systems. After much investigation I can now confirm "from my previous post" that the single blue connector with a screened cable on the ML amp is indeed a SPDIF (Sony Phillips digital interface) input. This input is only used for the CD player audio. Using an analog to digital converter available for around £6 on Ebay analog audio from you phone or tablet can be converted into quality digital format. This can be fed into the ML amp in two ways. The first way is to remove the Blue plug on the ML amp in the boot, and inject the digital signal into the amp, But it would be better to cut the lead, and wire in a switched jack socket. So that when a jack plug is inserted the signal from the CD player is disconnected, and the new signal substituted. The alternative is to do this at the rear of the radio unit sending the signal down the cable to the rear of the car. Once connected there must be a CD in the player, and the CD player selected. With the jack plug inserted no sound from the CD player will be played, but the substitute audio will be played. Sound quality is governed purely by the quality of the audio input. Removing the jack will resume normal CD playing. All the OEM on screen audio controls will still work as does the OEM volume on the radio as these are all controlled within the amp. Sorry no pictures at the moment, but they will follow with a wiring diagram. This is very simple requiring only the converter and a switched jack socket. There is only one channel input with SPDIF as the stereo signal is digitally encoded. Make sure when buying the converter it is an A to D (analog to digital) not a D to A (digital to analog) the D to A being much more common. The converter is about 2.5 x 2 x 1 inches, and has SPDIF, and optical outputs. John.

Coming from a Prius to the GS I wondered if the same remedy would work to protect the wheels. The Prius came with 195/55/16 tyres with alloy wheels, but still had plastic trims. These trims would damage easily on a kerb often taking great chunks out of them or splitting them in two. Not cheap to replace a circa £55 each. Changing the tyre size to 205/55/16 removed the problem completely as I could feel the kerb with the tyre, and take avoiding action. I wondered if going from 245/40/18 tyres to 255 or even 265/40/18's on the GS450H would give the same protection. The cost difference in the wider tyre is minimal. John.

Have you replaced the battery in the fob? John

The reason I asked the question is because Toyota/Lexus use two electric fans for cooling. These fans rotate in opposite directions. The fans have a different number of blades, and are designed to run in one direction only pushing air into the engine compartment. If the blades get replaced because of damage it is not unknown for them to get put in the wrong position the drive motors turning them backwards. This makes the draw air from the engine compartment blowing it forwards against the airflow at the front of the car as it moves forwards. At higher speeds the air comes to a standstill, and the car overheats. Leaving the motors where they are and swapping the fan blades cures the problem. John.

There are two points to remember here. A 4 watt solar charger only charges at a maximum of 0.3 amps, and a lot of the solar chargers on sale are only rated at 2watts. This however it is sufficient to put back into the battery the load of the security, and entry systems of the car, and normal battery self discharge. The formula to achieve the charge current is wattage of the solar panel divided by the battery voltage being charged. So 2 watts divided by 12 volts = 0.166 amps (or 166 ma). Remember this is only in daylight hours. The traction or high voltage battery does not receive any charge from the 12 volt battery or battery charger. When the car is in ready mode the traction battery charges the 12 volt battery. Once the car is turned off the traction battery is completely isolated from the rest of the cars electrical circuitry. John.

Solar chargers are an ideal way of keeping the 12 volt battery charged while a car is not in use. Fortunately the high voltage traction battery is completely disconnected from any load when the car is shut down. The high voltage battery also has a very low level of self discharge meaning it can be left for long periods without loosing it's charge shown by the bar display. There are reports of Prius high voltage batteries being left for three years, and still starting the engine.

If you have a few pictures of the motor concerned at various angles I may be able to guide you through repair procedure. John.

If they are brush type motors it is most likely the brushes are stuck or worn down. This is normally an easy fix using brushes from vacuum cleaner, strimmer or lawn mower motors, and the like. It may be you will have to size the brushes with a file, and use the original steering motor springs. John.

It is possible that the engine coolant thermostat is sticking, and that would be the first thing I would change. This may seem a strange question, but has the front of the car been damaged at any time? John.

I pull a similar weighted van with my GS450H without any problems. I do not even use a stabiliser that on previous cars was a necessity to prevent snaking. There is no sign of this with the GS. Running the car in sport mode also helps by stiffening the shocks. John.

The easy safe way of keeping the discs clear of rust on hybrids is to put the car into neutral on a downhill run and brake gently over as long a period as possible. In neutral the regen braking is not used forcing the car to use the conventional hydraulic brakes. Doing this once or twice a month will keep the discs shiny. Once the rust has a hold it spreads across the disc surface rapidly. John

Park will equally do. Neutral is the only "gear" that the car cannot look after it's self. John.

Technically correct. Although most items in the hybrids are run from the 12 volt battery this still must be charged by some means. The Toyota/Lexus hybrids do not have an engine driven alternator that other vehicles have to serve this purpose. The high voltage from the traction battery is stepped down for charging the 12 volt battery. The reasoning behind this is that at times the engine does not run even with the car moving so a conventional alternator would not work "same goes for the AC". The traction battery gets it's charge from either of the two motor generators in the gearbox as as long as the engine is running "with the car in any gear position but neutral" or the car is moving without the engine running one of the generators will be producing power to charge the traction battery. In neutral this is not possible, and both batteries can become discharged if the car is left in ready mode, and neutral. The AC is supplied directly from the traction battery by it's own inverter. The power steering on the GS450H runs from another step down supply from the traction battery running at 48 volts. John

Very indirectly it does. It is powered directly from the 12 volt battery, and this in turn is charged through a DC to DC converter from the traction battery. The motor is of the same type, "but smaller" used to drive the gearbox oil pump. There would be a small efficiency gain if all the electrics were powered directly from the traction battery, but that would mean having most of the wiring carrying 280 volts DC not conducive to safety. John

I'm with you Dave. I am a retired electronics engineer well into my 70's with hydraulic, pneumatic, and mechanical experience. I do all my own servicing keeping records, and receipts of all work done. I stopped using the agents when on retiring I took my Prius for service at the Toyota dealers to keep up the service stamps. "was my company car" Two days after the service I had a puncture "fortunately at home" and could not remove the wheel nuts. On complaining to the dealer about the use of air wrenches to fit wheels I was told the did not use them in the workshop. At that point you could clearly hear someone in the workshop fitting wheels with an air wrench. My local village garage loosened and re torqued the other wheels for me, and they now do any work I cannot get to "exhaust ect" at 1/4 the price. This work is minimal as I can do most tasks. John

It is a bit of a pain to dismantle the rear trim of the car to get to the fan but that would be the best way. The vacuum filter cloth has very little resistance to air flow so is a reasonable alternative removing the need for disassembly of the rear trim, and cooling ducts. The fan motor it's self is a three phase brushless motor, and is very efficient only drawing around 1.4 amps from the 12 volt DC supply at full speed John

A bit of a mix bag of questions there. Smaller diameter rims with higher aspect ratio tyres will generally give you a more comfortable quieter ride. Handling will become less predictable though as the tyres will flex more under cornering loads. Speedo accuracy is affected by the rolling radius of the tyres chosen or TPM figure (turns per mile) not by the rim size. you can check the rolling radius of any given size of tyre with the many calculators found on line. Many cars come with different wheel and tyre size options, but you will find all the options produce the same rolling radius TPM of the tyres within a small percentage typically 2%. Speedo's on all production cars over state the speed of the car, and this is allowed for within the law, but it is illegal for a manufacturer to produce a speedo that under reads your speed. John

The battery cooling fan works on a number of speed steps dependent on temperature. Ar the lower speeds it is all but silent, but still acts as a vacuum cleaner for the air around the rear seats. It is not uncommon for the fan to become completely blocked with pet hairs where owners carry there pets either on or behind the rear seats. The result unless cleared can be a failed battery. Unfortunately there is no check or clean the fan in the service schedule even at 60,000/120,000 mile big services. It can be a good idea to remove the intake grill, and fit a piece of vacuum cleaner filter cloth trapped behind it when re fitting. This can be seen and cleaned easily as it changes colour when becoming blocked. John

Almost certain to be the hot weather that caused it to run. In the CT as with the Prius it is recommended that you run the AC with the windows shut so that the air intake for the battery cooling draws cool air. Make sure the air intake is kept clear, and not covered by anything. If you carry dogs in the car check the air intake and fan for obstruction by hairs. Heat is something that degrades the NiMh batteries. John.