Britprius

This is a common problem with the Toyota/Lexus leveling system. The connecting rods with the ball joint cups are made of cast zink, and are fitted to steel ball joints. There is a small rubber boot that is supposed to stop water and dirt getting into the joint, but it fails badly in this task particularly due to where they are situated. The result is a seized joint flexing the cast zink rod, and it snaps or pops off the ball. It is easy to repair the old rod and lubricate it, but this is a short term fix. The best way is to but some plastic cups with threaded ends, and use a piece of threaded rod to join them. These are readily available in various sizes. This makes for a rod that is adjustable in length to adjust headlamp height to a greater degree, and the plastic cups do not seize or need lubricant on the steel balls. This is the same system as used on the boot lid or tailgate struts where they do use plastic cups on steel balls. The rods are not available as a replacement item only as a complete leveler at about £350 each. John.

Did you check the modules under load. Off load voltages are virtually meaningless. Although I agree you have one dead cell in module 25. The voltage you are measuring is for 6 cells (a module) 7.8 volts. One cell if you could get to the connections is around 1.2 volts. To test on load use a car dual filament headlamp bulb, and using both filaments wired across the volt meter probes test for voltages. The bulb will put a load of near 10 amps on the modules each time you take a reading. As I tried to explain in my previous post all 240 cells (40 modules of 6 cells) are in series. Any single weak cell effectively stops the system working. Bad cells have a high internal resistance, but still have to pass the high current required to run the 140 KW electric motor. This causes the bad cell to heat up rapidly often destroying other cells close to it. The system checks every pair of modules (called a block) for voltage of around 14.4 volts. Then checks each block against all the others under load. Any voltage discrepancy over 0.3 volts between blocks for a given time issues a fault code for the low block, and the car goes into limp mode. A good block (2 modules) has a resistance of around 24 milli ohms John

There are height sensors on the front and rear of the car. Both are on the nearside suspension. The front one that easily be seen with the front wheels on a lefthand lock. John

If you have the car serviced by Toyota/Lexus the battery will be under guarantee up to it's tenth birthday irrespective of millage. With each service (10,000 miles) they check the hybrid system, and extend the battery guarantee for one year or 10,000 miles. This can be done up to it is ten years old. When I was working "know retired" I drove in this country 55,000 miles each year plus millage in other countries. Services were every 7 or 8 weeks. John

Once all of the modules have been cycled, and assessed to get them all to the same voltage connect them all in parallel for a few hours so that you have one big 7.2 volt nominal battery. "actual voltage will be higher than this." This way higher, and lower voltage module will charge and discharge each other until they are all at exactly the same voltage. After this you can connect the modules in series knowing that all modules have the same voltage and charge level. This work cannot be rushed to complete properly. It is time consuming. Some years ago I bought a job lot (30) of the chargers in an auction for little more than the price of one, and this allowed me to rebuild Prius batteries with 28 modules in three days. I sold the chargers after I had finished with them. Low capacity modules can sometimes be reclaimed by re-hydrating them "putting back lost electrolyte into dried out cells. I will not go into the process here" John.

Refurbishing the high voltage batteries is possible, but do not fall into the trap of thinking, buy a replacement from Ebay, throw it in, and all will be well. There is much more to it than this if reliability is required. The battery consists of 240 cells in a series chain. The current if being charged or discharged passes through every cell, and as with any chain one weak link "or cell" will brake the chain. Over time after many thousands of charges and discharges some cells will have less charge than others. This is called being "out of balance". In the most severe case when the battery is under load "discharge" a low charged cell can be completely discharged, and will then be reverse charged as the load continues on the rest of the battery. This destroys the cell requiring the module that cell is in to be replaced. The cells when new have a capacity of 6.5 AH "amp hours". As the cells age this figure goes down. When buying second hand modules from Ebay you have know idea of the capacity remaining in them. The voltage measured will still be the same, but the capacity may be 6.5 AH or may be only 2 AH you have no way of telling. The charger named in my previous post will check the actual capacity. All the modules in your battery "40" should be checked for capacity, and all should be as equal as possible. None should be below 4 AH and ideally all should be above 5AH To do this work properly takes lots of time, but there is no short cut to reliability. John.

The best chargers to use are the Imax B6 mini chargers. These are made for charging, and restoring model car, and plane Nimh batteries. They can be programmed to charge at any given rate "up to 5 amps" and cut off at a predetermined voltage or auto cut off when the battery "in the case of Lexus modules 6 cells" is fully charged. The charger self adjusts to the number of cells. They can also be set to charge lithium batteries, or lead acid batteries. The chargers can also be set to cycle the batteries "fully charge then discharge the batteries" up to 5 times automatically. This can rejuvenate NiMh batteries. Ordinary 12 volt chargers if left connected to NiMh batteries will overheat the batteries as with this type of chemistry once a cell is charged all energy put in after this point produces heat drying out the cell. The charger must turn off once the cells are charged. If fitting one new module in a battery it must be charged or discharged to the same voltage as the others in the battery. Failure to do this will bring trouble at a later point. John

Why is it we complain about petrol at circa £6 a gallon when we happily pay £25 to £30 for a gallon of beer, John.

Thats About what i paid for a gallon when I started to drive John

Your Morrison's is expensive. I filled up today at my local Morrison's "Leominster" at £1-16.9 four pence cheaper than yours. John

The problem is that buying the best you can afford implies that the more money you pay the better the tyre. However this is definitely not true. Some tyres are just over priced. I am not a tyre snob, and I am prepared to try other so called non branded tyres. Dunlop and Goodyear are made by the same company in the same factory. I was offered a free trial of a set of tyres a little while ago, and while they have not been on the car for many miles I can only say I'm impressed. How well they ware is to early to say, but when they have a few thousand miles on them I will report back with a name, and "good or bad". If I were to name them many would probably deride them, but I'll keep an open mined. In the past I have had Goodyear, and Dunlop tyres, and been disappointed with the high ware rates "less than 18,000 miles". On the same car running Hankook's I got over 40,000 miles with much the same levels of grip and noise. When I was working I used to cover 55,000 miles a year driving so most tyres lasted less than 6 months. Doing this sort of millage in all whether conditions soon shows the weaknesses of any tyres. Some brands get very noisy as they ware. I found Bridgestones particularly susceptible to this. Michelin do "now" make some good tyres, but at a very heavy premium. Before the labeling system came out they claimed there tyres were fuel efficient, but the labeling system proved otherwise until they raised there game. John

In my opinion being in almost the same situation as you "but my GS450H prices are about 25% higher" at most I would go for the £200 option at most. Your local garage will probably be cheaper even with a plug change. Our cars are at an age and millage where dealers service stamps mean little. I do as much work on my own car as I can, and this means keeping a record of work I do and all the receipts to materials I have bought. John.

I used the ELM 327 application on my Prius, and while useful it does not come close to Techstream. There is no battery information, and no method to alter custom preferences. One of the guys on the Prius forum made a screen called Priddash for the gen2 Prius that did have a lot of the missing information all on one screen, but sadly it does not work on other Toyota/Lexus models. John.

I have used many different brands of silicon spray on my GS, and not had any problems. Most will say on the can that it is safe to use even in areas where food is prepared. John

There will be many different opinions on this, and by far the most will say buy Michelins, but these are possibly the most expensive. My own preference is for Hankooks. Buying the tyres with the lowest db rating on the now compulsory tyre label should give you the quietest tyres. A reading of 68db is quiet, and you will find the level goes up to around 74db with some brands. I am testing some cheap tyres at the moment put on free of charge for me to asses over the next 10,000 miles. At the moment I can say they have exceeded my expectations in all aspects including noise level, but it would be unfair of me to disclose the brand until I have put at least 5000 miles on them. I am only at 500 miles at the moment. They are less than 1/3 of the price of so called top of the range tyres. Tyres get noisy as they ware so your Dunlops are probably suffering from this. The tyre label gives information on wet grip fuel ecconomy, and noise level, so have a look at suggested tyres. The economy rating can make such a difference as to pay for the tyres in there life on fuel saving so do not ignore this rating, and the wet grip speaks for it's self on safety stopping distances. John.

In your picture "particularly on the righthand side" you can see the black plastic cover over the motor that drives the shock adjustment. This cover just lifts off. John

Being lazy or just getting old? I am about to fit a cigarette type power point in the boot fed via a fuse strait from the 12 volt battery. This will be used for two or three things. (1) To plug in my electric tyre pump. (2) I have a 12 volt electric wheel wrench " much the same as the air wrenches used in garages, but runs on electric". No more wheel nuts I cannot undo. (3) in the summer I can plug in a portable 12 volt fridge to keep my beers sorry sandwiches cold. The problems with the ones in the car are they only work with the ignition, and it saves dragging possibly dirty leads across the seats. John.

I just removed the carpet cover over the 12 volt battery removing two plastic fasteners one on top one on the side. Then pulled the carpet away from the corners enough to reach in to the mounting points. There is a strange shape plastic piece over the motor unit. This just pulls up off the three mounting pins. It is not obvious what this does. Reaching in, and moving your fingers over the area of the shock mount it will be obvious if there is an oil leak. There is no danger of electric shock in that area around each shock absorber mount. The correct way is to remove the centre top and back carpet first "long winded". I have not seen a guide on how to do this. Next time I take mine out i'll take some notes. There are from memory some plastic hooks on the roof part of the carpet that hold the top in place along with visible plastic fasteners on the vertical piece. This fully exposes the HV battery. John

Ok I'LL have another go. List of airbag codes:- B0100 Short In D Squib Circuit / 13 B0101 Open in Driver-Side Air Bag Module Squib Circuit /14 B01023 Short in D Squib Circuit (to Ground) / 11 B0103 Short in D Squib Circuit (to B+) / 12 B0105 Short in P Side Air Bag Squib Circuit / 53 B0106 Open In P Side Air Bag Squib Circuit / 54 B0107 Short In P Side Air Bag Squib Circuit (to Ground) / 51 B0108 Short In P Side Air Bag Squib Circuit (to B+) / 52 B0110 Short In Side Squib (RH) Circuit / 43 B0111 Open In Side Squib (RH) Circuit / 44 B0111 Cab Side Airbag Circuit (Range/Performance) Malfunction ( 4 AV.’99) B0112 Short In Side Air Bag Module Squib (RH) Circuit (to Ground) / 41 B0113 Short In Side Squib (RH) Circuit (to B+) / 42 B0115 Short in Side Air Bag Module Squib (LH) Circuit / 47 B0116 Open In Side Air Bag Module Squib (LH) Circuit / 48 B0117 Short In Side Squib (LH) Circuit (to Ground) / 45 B0118 Short In Side Air Bag Module Squib (LH) Circuit (to B+) / 46 B0121 Seat Belt Buckle Swith, RH malfunction / 26 B0122 Seat Belt Buckle Swith, RH malfunction / 26 B0126 Seat Belt Buckle Swith, LH malfunction / 27 B0127 Seat Belt Buckle Swith, LH malfunction / 27 B0130 Short in P-Side Seat Belt Pretensioner Squib (RH) Circuit / 63 B0131 Open in P-Side Seat Belt Pretensioner Squib (RH) Circuit / 64 B0132 Short in P-Side Seat Belt Pretensioner Squib (RH) Circuit (to Ground) / 61 B0133 Short in P-Side Seat Belt Pretensioner Squib (RH) Circuit (to B+) / 62 B0135 Short in D-Side Seat Belt Pretensioner Squib (LH) Circuit / 73 B0136 Open in D-Side Seat Belt Pretensioner Squib (LH) Circuit / 74 B0137 Short in D-Side Seat Belt Pretensioner Squib (LH) Circuit (to Ground) / 71 B0138 Short in D-Side Seat Belt Pretensioner Squib (LH) Circuit (to B+) / 72 B1100 Airbag Sensor Assembly Malfunction (Progr. Avens) / 31 соотвт B1135 SRS Control Module – poor multi-plug connection / 24 B1140 Side Airbag Sensor Assembly (RH) Malfunction / 32 B1141 Side Airbag Sensor Assembly (LH) Malfunction / 33 B1142 Door Side Airbag Sensor (RH) Malfunction B1143 Door Side Airbag Sensor (RH) Malfunction B1144 Door Side Airbag Sensor (LH) Malfunction B1145 Door Side Airbag Sensor (LH) Malfunction B1146 Side Crach Sensor, RH B post Malfunction / 32 B1147 Side Crach Sensor, LH B post Malfunction / 33 B1148 Front Crach Sensor, RH Malfunction / 36 B1149 Front Crach Sensor, LH Malfunction / 37 B1153 Seat Position Sensor malfunction / 25 B1154 Side Crach Sensor, Rear RH in C posts / 38 B1155 Side Crach Sensor, Rear LH in C posts / 39 B1156 Front Airbag (Front crach) Sensor (RH) Malfunction / 15 B1157 Front Airbag (Front crach) Sensor (RH) Malfunction / 15 B1158 Front Airbag (Front crach) Sensor (LH) Malfunction / 16 B1159 Front Airbag Sensor (LH) Malfunction / 16 B1160 Inflatable curtain RH short circuit / 83 B1161 Inflatable curtain RH open circuit / 84 B1162 Inflatable curtain RH short circuit to Earth / 81 B1163 Inflatable curtain RH short circuit to Positive / 82 B1165 Inflatable curtain LH short circuit / 87 B1166 Inflatable curtain LH open circuit / 88 B1167 Inflatable curtain LH short circuit to Earth / 85 B1168 Inflatable curtain LH short circuit to Positive / 86 B1180 Driver’s Air Bag, Stage 2 – short circuit / 17 B1181 Driver’s Air Bag, Stage 2 – open circuit / 18 B1182 Driver’s Air Bag, Stage 2 – – short circuit to Earth / 19 B1183 Driver’s Air Bag, Stage 2 – short circuit tp Positive / 22 3 e.g. on a ‘00 Toyota Celica GT-S, Avensis D-4D ‘03 4 I read on this Vehicles DTC on Toyota / Lexus from al tech page (www.alflash.narod(blocked word)/) Note: Not all trouble codes are used on all models 4 B1185 Passenger Air Bag Stage 2 short circuit / 57 B1186 Passenger Air Bag Stage 2 open circuit / 58 B1187 Passenger Air Bag Stage 2 short circuit to Earth / 55 B1188 Passenger Air Bag Stage 2 short circuit to Sorry there is a lot of them. John

The best advice I can give is to have the fault code checked for the fault. This should confirm a faulty ECU or a sensor fault on a given wheel. The code should be a generic code meaning most code readers should be capable of reading it. List of Lexus codes below. C0226 ABS Actuator Solenoid Circuit (Cel.) or ABS Solenoid Valve Circuit (MR) C0236 ABS Actuator Solenoid Circuit (MR, Cel.) C0237 Speed Sensor Circuit (Cel.) C0238 Speed Sensor Circuit (Cel.) C0239 Speed Sensor Circuit (Cel.) C0246 ABS Actuator Solenoid Circuit (MR, Cel.) C0256 ABS Actuator Solenoid Circuit (MR, Cel.) C0273 ABS Motor Relay Circuit (MR, Cel.) C0274 ABS Motor Relay Circuit (MR, Cel.) C0278 ABS Motor Relay Circuit (MR, Cel.) C0279 ABS Motor Relay Circuit (MR, Cel.) John

On the fronts it is a 5 minute job. The rears take some getting at removing the carpets from the corners of the boot. John

There is another place that the shock absorbers leak from that cannot normally be seen. On the fronts the cover over the mounting point under the bonnet needs to be removed "three nuts" these nuts only hold on the cover over the adjuster motor there are three more underneath these that hold the mount in place. After removing the nuts lift off the cover over the motor that adjusts the shock. Sometimes you will find this cover full of oil. It come from a faulty seal inside the rod where the adjuster shaft passes through. This oil is from inside the shock absorber so if you have oil inside the cover the shock absorber is faulty. At the rear you need to remove the carpets in the boot to gain access to the rear top mounting. If you fingers get oily touching this mounting the shock is leaking in the same manor as for the fronts, but there is no cover on the rears. This leak point does not show under the car so it is worthwhile removing the covers to check. John. John

I would not be using a multi meter to check anything on the bulb fitting. The voltage is usually in the region of 25,000 volts AC unloaded. Your average meter is rated at about 700 volts AC or 1000 volts DC with insulation on the probes to match. As an electronics engineer "retired" I do know what is involved. The running voltage is around 80 volts, but if the bulb arc goes out through lack of pressure the voltage springs back to 25,000. You do not need to be touching a wire or connection to get at best a nasty shock. John

Since having the GS450H nearly one year there has always been an irritating squeak from the area above the glove box by the windscreen. I have tried many ways to stop this with little success. Silicon spray, pushing felt strips down the screen gap ect. While cleaning the plastic panels under the bonnet today I was applying slight pressure to the panel that runs along the bottom of the screen " the panel that the wiper mechanism passes through." There was the same squeaking noise. Lifting the rubber lip seal that runs along the edge of the panel against the screen then lubricating it with silicon cured the squeak both outside, and inside the car. I now have a car that is squeak free. This may work for others with this common problem. John

Interesting to see the built in volt meter on screen. Picture quaulity looks very good. John.