Britprius

Unfortunately it has little or nothing to do with how powerful or even the way it is built. If the car manufacture does not give a tow weight limit on the vehicle identification plate under EU regulations you cannot tow with it. I had a Prius a car that is heavy compared to most cars of the same size, and the formula used to be that it was recommended the caravan should not have a laden weight that was more than 80% of the unladen of the tow car. If the trailer was over 80% the speed was restricted. I had a tow bracket made for it not being able to obtain one in the UK. I could get tow bars for it from the USA, but the freight charges were very high. It towed my Elddis Mayfair all over the UK even up 1 in 5 hills without problem, and complied easily with the above formula. It also returned a remarkable 39 MPG while towing. It was not until after I sold the car that I found it had a tow limit set by Toyota of zero, and that it was not legal under EU regulations to tow with it a trailer of any size. In the USA it is legal to tow with a Prius. On a number of occasions I was stopped by the police for roadside checks, tyres, lights ect and at no time was I stopped from continuing my journey because the Prius was not allowed to tow. If you have a car built before 1998 you can tow a caravan even with a Reliant 3 wheeler, and it is legal to tow a trailer with a moped "go figure". The other thing to be aware of is that if you passed your driving test after 1998 you are not allowed to tow a trailer of any description without passing a driving test with a trailer. Also when you get to 70 years old unless you fill in extra forms for renewal of your driving licence you loose the right to tow a trailer. The DVLA do not send out the extra forms automatically they only send a renewal form for a basic (after 1998 licence) you have to ask for the other forms. This the happens every three years. If you have any other entitlements on you licence goods vehicles ect you also loose those unless you fill in a third set of forms, get a doctors certificate (£60), and an opticians certificate (£40), and then your informed your licence is free. John

Something else to add to my list of things to do is a pre-lube system to get rid of that awful racket for the first second or so from the VVT mechanism, and in-spite of what Lexus say cannot be doing the hydraulic actuators, and sprockets any good. I have the system on my drawing board so to speak I just need to collect another couple of items. Starting the engine after it has been stood for a while in a crowded street or car park is nothing short of embarrassing cumming from a Lexus. It sounds more like a worn out 1960's Ford than an up market limo. John

Your car looks stunning as only black can. However I have found in the past how difficult they are to keep clean, and you can burn your hand on them in the sun. The same goes for your backside with black leather seats, but everyone has there own likes and dislikes one size does not fit all. I have a prefferance for white cars but could not find one. John

Thank you. I bought the car just a year ago. It was in reasonable condition, but this was more than reflected in the price I paid. With a little TLC, and what I call de-rattling it is now virtually as it should be. I am working on a few electrical modifications at the moment to improve it further. These include auto fold mirrors on turning off the car, only having the steering wheel move into position with "ready mode" not with accessory or ignition mode, and full computer tablet display including navigation on the display screen with ball mouse operation along with things such as Techstream for fault diagnosis. I already have a rear view camera on the caravan that displays in the rear view mirror when the van is plugged into the car. The tow bar is instantly detachable so no banging legs on it when the van is not in use. I am also considering possible LPG conversion as this would in price terms give me around 65 MPG about the same as my Prius. Mechanically I am going to raise the rear suspension by about 1 inch as I tow a caravan. This will help with ground clearance particularly over speed bumps with the van in tow. I have also worked out a method of re-sealing leaking shock absorbers, and refilling them at considerable saving in cost. John

I thought I would post some pictures of my GS450H just after a car wash. These were taken in the West Midlands, but I will post some taken around my home county soon.

The GS450H has duel injection 3.5ltr chain driven cam engine with port injection and direct injection. This gives an output of 292 or 296 HP depending on the literature your reading. It is not clear or at leased I cannot find details of the system used in the RX400H that I believe but am probably wrong uses a belt driven cam engine of 3.3ltrs, and without the dual injection. John

I have done a search that comes up blank. Has anyone converted a GS450H to LPG successfully? I do understand the problem with the direct injection injector possibly overheating, but wondered if this problem has been overcome. John.

I use a company at Stourbridge for all my paint repair supplies. They will mix paint to any paint code, and put it in a large aerosol can supplied with 2 spray jets. One circular, and one fan spray horizontal or vertical. They will post it to you at around £10. The colour match is excellent. If your paint is base coat and lacquer they can mix it as a base coat that requires lacquer "also available" or as a gloss top coat. The company is R A Romart automotive. Tel. 01384 891281. Or email sales@romartautomotive.co.uk I have nothing to do with this company other than having excellent service from them over a number of years. Your paint code can be found on the label on the passengers door jam, and is usually a 3 figure code. For instance my silver Prius was 1F7 my silver Lexus is 1F2. John

I must admit Admiral prices are very competitive. I am with Admiral Premier and pay £280 for my GS450H. This includes breakdown cover including hotel accommodation if required, personal injury, protected no claims, legal cover, and just about anything else you can think of with an excess of £250, and 12000 millage. They do try to put the price up each year by some margin, but a phone call soon brings the price back down. Over the last 4 years "apart from when I changed cars" the premium actually went down on the previous years price. I do live in a very low crime rate area "if you discount sheep rustling" Herefordshire Wales boarder country. Oh, and I am over 70. John

Look at the outside of the camera lens critically. If it looks dull with tiny scratches it is probable that the lens is damaged. Spray with WD40, and see if the image improves slightly. If it does a good polish with Brasso/ Tcut/ or even tooth paste can restore the surface of the lens. You have nothing to loose. John

If you have a multi meter as a first port of call I would check the battery voltage under some load. A car headlamp bulb would do nicely. If the battery is any good you should get a reading well above 12 volts, and ideally around 13.4 volt. A reading of under 12 volts suggests a dud battery. A reading taken without some load is virtually meaningless. John

Thanks for putting me strait I was looking at the 8, and 10 speed AT transmissions that are not ECVT's, and getting your discussion confused with that and the multistage THS II transmission. The brain gets easily confused when you get old or at leased mine does. John.

Unless I am missing something here the two transmissions cannot be compared to each other in simple terms. The multi stage cannot be an advancement on an ECVT simply because the multi stage cannot add power output to that of the engine. It can by virtue of the closer ratios keep the engine at it's most efficient power levels. The ECVT can add significant power output particularly with the improvement in battery output, and weight saving by going to lithium batteries. The hybrid is always going to be more efficient, and produce more power even if it is at the expense of the driving experience that over the years we have become used to. With the new ECVT being able to use both motor generators to power the car in the existing GS450H would mean an increase in output from the transmission from 186 hp to something like 248 hp. Plus the saving in weight of the new transmission, and lithium batteries. What would that do to the 0 to 60 time of 5.2 seconds. John.

Coming from a Prius Tspirit to the Lexus GS I found the voice control system to be identical so I was ready for it's foibles. The system is not as intuitive as it should be, but once you have all the settings to your requirements it does work well. I agree sometimes the message "this command is not available in this screen to be a useless piece of information. Why could the voice not say change to the required screen "naming the screen" or even better change to the correct screen. I regularly use the command "home", and the navigation has never failed to respond correctly. John

Back to the topic The sport mode on my car alters the throttle response enormously. Not quite so noticeable is the stiffer ride along with altered steering ratio, and stiffer roll bar settings giving less body roll in cornering. When towing my caravan the sport setting greatly improves or removes the front to rear yaw effect setup by the van. The headlamps only turn on dipped beam while moving above about 25MPH, and even then it is very subtle. John.

I did alter my HID lighting set up, and reported my results but will repeat it here. I fitted 55 watt D2S bulbs with suitable ballasts disconnecting the OEM ballasts. The OEM ballast run at a lower voltage. The difference is very noticeable lighting up the road in front of the car, but still having the same sharp cutoff as the OEM bulbs with no increase in glare to oncoming vehicles. D2S bulbs are readily available in the 55 watt size, and the 35 watt D2S gives out more light than the OEM D4S 35 watt bulb. The OEM ballasts cannot be used with either D2S bulbs. Before the modification "on the very rural roads in the area I live" going from main beam to dip because of oncoming traffic was like turning the headlamps off, and driving on side lights. Now the grass verges and white lines can clearly be seen making in my opinion for a much safer setup. The car passed it's MOT with the modified lighting without problems However since both the OEM D4S, and the replacement D2S bulbs are marked with the same "E" markings they both comply with the regulations. I would recommend this modification to anyone that finds the OEM dipped beam inadequate as I did. I would "estimate" the light output increases by at leased 25% over the OEM lights. Many vehicles using HID lighting use the same lens type light unit for dip, and main beam with a solenoid operated shield that moves in front of the bulb for dip, and away for main beam. Why Lexus did not use that system with the aditional main beam setup I do not know as this would have bean a proper twin headlamp setup. John. .

If the pistons in the calipers are scored the rubber gaiter must have been damaged at some time. Normally the piston working area cannot be seen because it is covered by the gaiter. John

A figure of around 8 volts per module is reasonable for the final rebuild. The charge level should be set to auto for the charging cycle process that will take the module to around 9 volts, and discharge to 5.4 volts. Although going lower than this can be beneficial it also has it's danger of reverse charging a weak cell in a module especially on the first cycle. The charger auto cuts out by measuring a tiny fall in voltage, and then a rise as it reaches full charge. This is called the knee or peak a reference to the shape of the charging graph curve. John

The principle involved in the above is that over time the cells in the battery become unevenly charged. Some will have a low charge compared with others that will have a higher level of charge. By charging the module till the cells with a high level of charge are 100% charged you then continue to charge the module. Any full cells will give off the excess charge as heat any lower charge level cells will continue to charge until they to are fully charged thus balancing the charge level of all the cells in that module. John

Cycle the modules twice saving the data, and starting with a charge. This will show the initial capacity and on the second cycle any improvement. If after the second cycle you are at or near 6000 mah (6000 milli amp hours = 6 amp hours) do not cycle again unless you wish to see if any more capacity can be recovered, but you will need to do a charge only cycle. Know harm is done with more cycles, but as you say it takes more time, and is not worthwhile unless reasonable capacity gains are made. If lower than say 5500 mah it may be worth trying another cycle to see if more capacity can be regained. Set the charger to auto cut off this will take the modules up to around 9 volts (fully charged cells are around 1.5 volts X 6 = 9 volts) Set discharge voltage to 0.9 volts per cell 5.4 volts for the modules this is a complete discharge of NiMh cells Charge, and discharge at maximum current the charger will allow. Setting 5 amps the charger will probably scale that figure back as it can only handle a given wattage " cannot remember what that figure was. The battery in use passes as high as 100 amps so 5 amps is not a problem. A cooling fan blowing over the modules is helpful. John.

With so little miles on the clock, and with it's history where are you going to pick up another like it. Cars like this are hard to value, but the price sounds reasonable to me. John

Nice looking car, and the MOT history checks out the millage. The only failures during it' MOT history are for worn tyres. A lot of car for little money. John

The sensor can often be repaired if that is at fault. It has three small springs inside made of steel. These rust and fall to bits. They can be replaced after cleaning the rest of the unit with springs from click type ball pens. The sensor is in just about the worst place possible under the wheel arches. The front one could have been in the engine compartment worked off the roll bar, and the rear could have been placed higher and near the centre of the car "away from the wheels" and again worked from the roll bar. John

I am almost sure the electrical part is the same across the Toyota/Lexus range. It is only the mounting brackets, and the rod length that differs. I know the Prius unit is the same as the GS electrically. John

If you want to use more engine braking use the manual up/down shift on the gear lever. This gives a large amount of "engine braking effect", but actually uses regen to put the energy back into the high voltage battery. Watching the KW meter as you change down will show large amounts of energy going back to the battery. This is particularly useful on down hill stretches of road where you do not wish for your speed to increase. John