sorcerer

I got this heated replacement glass from eBay for my RX300. Ok, it doesn't dim like the original Lexus one but I don't like the dimming feature anyway; it's good for the internal rear view mirror but not for the sides. This replacement cost £15.49, so it may be worth looking if the same trader has one for your GS450h.

Wow, that is pricey! If it does turn out to be the same as the one Ribblesdale are selling for £8.87 I'd be inclined to tell Lexus to send theirs back.

I can't give you an answer because I don't have an LS400 so I don't know what's in there. My only observation is that 'Rock Auto' are in the USA aren't they, so why go there? Why not try somewhere closer to home? I live a couple of miles from these guys in Preston, Lancashire and I'm sure they'll be able to sort it. They are very helpful so if you can't find what you're looking for on your own, just give them a ring and they'll be more than happy to help.

Ah right, I see. Don't know then

My RX300 (2005) doesn't have them installed and from what others have said in here in the past, they were never a factory fit but a dealer option so maybe contact a dealer? Can you not perhaps get one of the other sensors out to get the part number from there?

Thanks Maurice Like I said above, you don't really get the proper effect in the video because I think the LEDs are too bright for the camera to handle, but in 'real life' they do work very well. I'm just ashamed to admit that I haven't got round to tidying the wiring up and doing the permanent job yet, just been too busy this week - but it'll soon be sorted

According to toyodiy.com your existing one and the 86110-48130 are both RX300/330/350 and the other two on your list are for the RX400h. Unfortunately, I have no idea whether or not it would make a difference.

As I always say when warranty enquiries come up, it's a phenomenon called The Lexus Paradox - people are drawn to the brand because of their reputation for reliability and then spend hundreds, maybe even thousands of pounds on warranty cover because they're worried about the reliability! We bought our 2005 RX300 about 15 months ago from an independent trader with 6 months warranty and that's it. I use a good, trusted, local garage to service it and do any other work necessary and it will never again see the inside of a Lexus main stealership. Nor will it ever see "genuine Lexus/Toyota" parts such as brakes, battery, exhaust etc., etc., because Lexus/Toyota don't make those parts anyway, they just buy in from whoever does make them. I've been at the garage when delivery vans from motor factors such as Euro Car Parts, BBC, Andrew Page and Dodgsons have been dropping parts off, so if the mechanic says that it needs new brake discs and pads (for instance), I know they are buying in reputable parts from reputable places and not some sweatshop in China, so I'm happy to go with whatever they get. Of course, it really depends on how new/old your car is and whether you intend to sell it on at some stage. Our car is 12 years old, 95,000 miles and we intend to drive it until it dies a death, hopefully with another 200k or so on the clock

What's that old saying - 'never look a gift horse in the mouth' Even if you only have it on a temporary basis it's got to be worth going for it. Sell it 6 or 12 months down the line if you really don't like it.

I forgot about this video I saw a while ago. May not be what you're thinking of but worth a look and a very good mod. I'd like to do it myself but we have other priorities for our money at the moment.

Ah yes, the front fog lights on the 400h are round aren't they? The ones on the 300 aren't so I didn't have that option, but if I had, I might have taken it. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing hard or difficult about the ones I've fitted but as you've already found out, it can be quite awkward to get your hand into the required position. I've not exactly got small delicate hands and did indeed struggle but with a bit of perseverance, I managed it without removing anything other than undoing that one 10mm bolt securing the washer filler tube and just letting the tube lean down a bit. Don't be horrified by the photos below - this is just a 'first fix' or temporary lashup just to make sure things work and that I like them. Now that I know everything's alright, I'll make a nice neat job of it (got some proper automotive cable and that ribbed conduit to run it in etc). The car's flasher unit is designed to work with a certain wattage of bulb (21W) but the LEDs are much less than this so the CANBUS system thinks the bulb has blown and they start to 'hyper-flash'. The orange-coloured resistors you can see prevent this from happening and allow the indicators to work normally. However, they do run very hot so they must be screwed/bolted to a metal surface to allow the heat to dissipate and I've also spread some thermal paste on the bottom of them to facilitate this. I repair computers for a living and use Arctic Cooling MX2 thermal paste to mount the heatsink/fan onto the processor so I used a bit of this and it works really well - the resistors are running really cool now. The two relays are there to ensure that the DRLs only come on with the ignition and also turn off when the sidelights are turned on so that no one gets dazzled by the DRLs at night. This requires a feed from the sidelights and although the passenger side would have been closer, it was impossible to get my hands in and work down there so I stripped a bit of insulation from the sidelight positive wire on the driver's side, soldered a new wire onto it and ran that round to the passenger side to relay 2. It looks like a lot of work but it wasn't really, just a couple of hours and it was done. Like I said though, I've now got to tidy it up and do the proper job but it'll be a lot quicker this time. Question is, will it be quicker than just swapping your fog lights for direct replacements? I don't know. Depending on how the replacement lights are wired you may still have to install your own relays like I did and of course, there's cost to take into account. I think I've spent £30 in total including the conduit and everything to do the job properly, so I'm not sure how that compares to the units you've seen on eBay. Anyway, if you decide to do it this way and you need any help or advice (circuit diagram for the relay switching, where to buy etc) just give me a yell.

Finally got round to wiring the DRLs and I'm quite pleased with the results. You don't really get the full effect on the video (presumably the fault or limitation of the camera) but in reality, they work well. The DRL set was just under £12 from China and I think I spent another £8 or £9 on a couple of changeover relays to make sure they went off when the sidelights were switched on. Just got to get round to refurbishing the headlamp units now as they're yellowing quite a bit. I've got a 3M Headlamp Restoration Kit for that but still need to get some UV-resistant clear topcoat/sealer. [youtube]

I doubt it to be honest. If it was just a radio/CD there may be a chance but the screens in our RXs also control ventilation/heating, satnav, trip computer and other stuff so I doubt you'd get a third-party unit to interface with those functions - but I stand to be corrected if anyone knows better

The white/black are the earth connections so either the green or yellow is the one you want. If you can't find it in the loom, just run a wire from wherever you're working to the reverse light and pick it up there.

Ah right, fair enough. I don't know about the Archoil (never used it) but in my experience the computers are always on the high side. According to mine, it managed 29.6 but good old-fashioned pen and paper calculations of how much fuel I put in the tank vs miles travelled never gave me more than 26 - and that was driving like Miss Daisy

That's amazingly good Piers - are you going by the car's computer or by 'real world' calculation?

Before we had our RX300 converted to LPG, the best I managed out of it was about 20 around town with about 26 on a run - and I'm no Sterling Moss (or Lewis Hamilton for the young 'uns). Hybrids are great for lots of stop/start and town driving up to about 30mph where the traction battery tends to do most of the work in 'milk float mode', but once you get much above that they just become ordinary petrol-driven cars that have to lug the weight of a huge battery around. You'll see from my sig that I use fuelly.com to keep track of mileage (more as a novelty than any serious use) and I must confess that I haven't updated it in a while but I'll get round to it in the next couple of days. In the meantime, below are three screen grabs that I did a few months ago. The great thing about Fuelly is that you can compare your own car to others but I must point out that because fuel prices vary around the country the figures are of very limited value. To get anywhere near a true figure I'd need people living in the same area as myself to compare with so that we know we're paying the same prices for fuel but as yet I've not found anyone, so take these figures with a pinch of salt - but you'll get the point. Most expensive is a petrol-only RX300 at 22.5p/mile, then an RX400h at 19.6p/mile and finally, my LPG RX300 at just 12.6p/mile:

Strangely, almost all of my cars have had a sunroof including the RX300 that I have now, but I can never understand either their attraction or why manufacturers put them in cars with aircon/climate control. Nothing better than setting the cabin temp to what I want and letting the climate control see to it; far, far better than a sunroof in my humble opinion - especially as the sunroof tends to mess with my hair

Hey Nicky, you've not been here for a while so just curious - how's the car doing and are you enjoying it?

Same price as Asda here, 110.9ppl

Whenever I see topics like this it always makes me smile because it's an argument that just keeps on going - people will believe what they want to believe. Personally, I think it's all hype. As Wass says above, it's all made to the same EU standard and the one tanker filling up from the one storage tank can deliver to both supermarkets and high-street forecourts on the same day. MPG is too fickle to make a difference and cannot be proved to be down to the petrol except under laboratory conditions. In the real world it can be affected by many things, even wind speed and direction on any given day, yet some people will swear that it's due to the super-dooper expensive stuff they put in. If clean engines are your thing (not just the OP but anyone), run on LPG like I do, which is by far the cleanest fuel. 9,000 miles between oil changes and the oil comes out almost as clean as it goes in with no lack of performance - better for the environment, better for the engine and better on the wallet.

Off the top of my head, no, and I'm away for the weekend now but will look when I get home and let you know. This particular tap is for the relay coil alone - power for the LEDs will come from elsewhere via another fuse. The idea is that battery voltage (suitably fused) goes to the input of Relay 1. The coil of that relay is energised by that 10A EFI fuse when the ignition is on, switching battery voltage to the NO contact and on to the input pin of Relay 2, through its NC contact and out to the LED DRLs. Relay 2 has its coil energised by a feed from the sidelights, so that when the sidelights are switched on the relay pulls to the NO contact, thereby cutting the supply to the DRLs for night driving.

You don't need the audio really. When we got our RX300 last year one of the first things I did was to put a traffic cone on my driveway and reverse so that the red line on the camera display was 'touching' the cone (if you see what I mean). I then got out to look and discovered that in reality I could have gone back another 18 inches or so before actually touching it. You'll soon get used to judging the distance

As my dear departed Granny used to say, "Well, I'll go t'foot of our stairs." I do believe you're right Bob I think the fuse should be alright with the combined load but I'll make sure to get a spare just in case. It's the EFI2 (Or was it EFI1 - can't remember now) and I'll be using my tap off to energise the coil of a relay, which I'm sure won't take much current draw over and above what it was handling anyway. Thanks for that sir, excellent

On the fuse taps, yes. You need to test the car fusebox to see which side of the fuse holder is live, then make sure to insert the fuse tap the right way round. This isn't my image but it shows how they work: