sorcerer

I've just bought this one which has excellent reviews. I've only had it about three weeks and not needed it yet but it was personally recommended by a mechanic friend who also has one and reckons it's brilliant. EDIT: Forgot to say that it's suitable for petrol cars of up to 5L and diesel up to 3L

You're welcome

I'm not an MOT tester or even a mechanic so take from this what you will but, Section 1.1 Page 19 of the MOT Inspection Manual (available as a pdf from here) states: Daytime Running Lamps are not testable unless they replace the front position lamps. Where this is the case, they should dim when the position lamps are switched on and may extinguish when the headlamps are switched on. (so maybe a pass as they aren't testable and should be ignored) Reason for Rejection 3e - where an obligatory lamp shows any colour other than red to the rear or white to the front - but aftermarket DRLs like yours aren't obligatory (so maybe a pass) Section 1.4 Page 24, 'Method of Inspection' 2f states that the inspector must check: that every direction indicator emits amber light (except vehicles first used before September 1965) (so maybe a fail) Reason for rejection - f - shows light of an incorrect colour. (so maybe a fail) Basically, to my untrained layman's eyes, the tester was right to ask you to disconnect the indicator flashing facility due to the colour changes as they flash.

Ah, right. I've never suffered a build-up of heavy ends or corrosion of/in a vapouriser. Maybe it's the way it's been installed, maybe it's the differences in systems, maybe it's differences in the fuel itself (I usually fill at my local Calor Centre) or maybe it's something else entirely, I don't know, but a couple of in-line filter changes every year and a test on the computer were all that were ever required on my old Nissan with the OMVL system. We only got the RX300 converted at the end of July so it's too early to tell yet how this system will perform in that respect.

Why would you change the vapouriser every 20k miles? I have my gas installation serviced every 12 months/12,000 miles without fail but they've never said I needed a new vapouriser, even though my last car did over 100k on gas (that was an OMVL Dream XXIn system).

I never take any notice of the indicator lights as they are notoriously inaccurate. Best to fill it, set the trip odometer to zero, then see how many miles you get out of that tankful (only refill when empty) and use that as your "time to fill up again" indicator. For example, if you get 300 miles out of that tankful, every time you fill up, reset your trip odometer and when you get to, say, 240 miles, start looking for a filling station - it's much better than relying on the red and green lights. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

No way on earth is that normal! When the lever is released after filling, the small amount of liquid propane between the nozzle and the tank filler is no longer under pressure and is released as a quick PSSST of gaseous propane - certainly not a 5-second squirt of liquid that would get on his trousers.

I always try to fill up before it gets completely empty - after all, the idea is to be running on lovely, cheap gas and not expensive petrol, so I rarely let it get completely empty. However, it has happened a few times when there's not been an LPG filling station around so the tank has completely emptied and the system has switched back to using petrol, but no, just filling from empty has never resulted in a scenario like you describe above. I'd say that there's definitely something wrong there. The filler cut-off should have operated but sounds like it didn't, but it also sounds like the safety valve isn't working either because I think it's supposed to vent as gas, not liquid - and it certainly wouldn't come out of the filler point anyway. Get it to a gas specialist ASAP John and let us know how you get on.

Back in 1974 I started a four-year apprenticeship to become an electrician at Courtaulds factory here in Preston. Don't ask me why, but management decided it would be a good idea for apprentice electricians to spend four weeks in the garage with the auto electrician, working on the trucks and cars. One day, one of the skip trucks came in and the driver said, "Watch this". Every time he pressed the footbrake the windscreen wipers came on! It turned out to be a faulty earth connection. They can produce all sorts of weird and wonderful effects, so my money is still on that being your problem somewhere.

Fair enough. I can't see why it would be but if a mod can clarify that would be great, thanks.

Stephen, any particular reason why you sent a link privately to John instead of just posting in the topic? Just thinking that knowledge like this may be useful to others in the forum as well.

I'll jump on too - have a very merry Christmas and all the very best for the New Year. May 2017 be a better year than 2016 for all

Then stop worrying and get on with it! Life is not a rehersal - you're not looking after the car in this life so that you can drive it in the next. Get out there and enjoy it or sell it to someone who will It's like the folks who win the lottery and then say it won't change their lives - why even do the lottery if you don't want your life to change? All they've managed to do is to rob someone else of the chance to change their lives.

Not wishing to be rude but, to my way of thinking, not only is it "not logical" but it's also irrational. Ok, I understand that you love the car, but surely the whole point of owning a car that you love is to use it! Back in the '60s my uncle got a brand-new Hillman Minx and he also loved his car. He kept the factory-fitted plastic protection on the seats and washed, polished and cleaned the car every week but hardly ever used it. Two years after buying it he passed away suddenly and unexpectedly and the new owner got all the pleasure out of the car that my uncle never did. I sometimes wonder if my uncle is ever looking down and thinking that he should have used and enjoyed his car more than he actually did.

I've got a Nextbase 402G camera and it's excellent. I've posted about it before so just scroll down to post No. 9 here to see how I've done mine: http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/109167-dash-cam/#comment-969772

A good post Stuart but, like you say, you picked main stealer prices which will frighten you to death Our car had 79.5k on the clock when we bought it and I got an independent garage to change the timing belt (along with associated idlers/tensioners etc) and water pump. I'd already bought 10 litres of Toyota Super Long Life Pink coolant from my local Toyota dealer for the great offer price of £63 and the garage charged me about £360 to do the work if I remember correctly, making it £423 or thereabouts (can't remember exactly) for the whole thing. When we had the car converted to LPG, knowing that the guy would be removing some parts, I asked him to change the spark plugs for us at the same time (apparently the rear bank are a right pig of a job) and he charged us £100 to do that saying that it took him about 4 hours, even with a lot of stuff out of the way for the LPG installation. You mentioned exhausts above. Someone on this forum had a custom-made, stainless steel exhaust made for his RX300, guaranteed for the life of the car, for the all-in price of £395. I'm sure you already know this but it has to be remembered that Toyota/Lexus, Nissan, Ford, Vauxhall - in fact, no manufacturer as far as I'm aware - make their own things like brakes, exhausts, batteries etc., they just buy in from the people who do make them. Ergo, there's no point in buying "genuine" Lexus parts at their inflated, extortionate prices - not for items like that anyway.

This is the one I've got but there are lots available out there

I doubt that the battery has anything to do with the problem (although there's no harm in checking it) for the simple reason that the battery is only used to start the car. Once the engine is running, the alternator supplies all electrical systems and charges the battery with any power it has left available. Because your symptoms appeared with the engine running I doubt the battery is at fault. I'd be checking the tightness of the engine earth strap. In fact, undo the bolts, clean the connections and make sure they're tight when you replace them - and that goes for the battery connections too.

My own outlook on this, although the hybrid aspect does pose an additional 'quirk': We bought our RX300 back at the end of May. It's an '05 plate so it's 11 years old, had 79.5k on the clock and we paid £5,500 for it from an independent trader (rather than main dealer) who gave us 6 months warranty on it. Main dealers charge such extortionate amounts of money for servicing/repairs and warranties that there comes a point where the owner, quite rightly, thinks that it's just not worth it and moves away from the main stealers. Our particular car has 7 years Lexus history and then regular paperwork from a couple of indy garages, so it has a full history, just not a full Lexus history. This didn't put us off in any way, shape or form because we intend to keep it until it dies and gets carted off to that great car park in the sky, nor would it have put us off if the intention was to keep it for a year or two and then resell. For what we paid, and probably up to the amount you're looking to spend, I wouldn't be bothered about a full Lexus history and I certainly wouldn't bother with a Lexus warranty and all the cost involved in having to have it serviced at Lexus main dealers and what have you - the only fly in the ointment would be the hybrid system. If you could get the Lexus hybrid check/warranty without the other stuff, I'd do that. If not, I'd be looking for an indy garage who could handle hybrids and go there instead. What you have to remember is that Lexus are just cars. Luxury cars, admittedly, but just cars. To use a few examples from above: - A mirror replacement can cost as much as £450 from a main dealer And if the car is two or three years old you'll probably pay it, but if it's over seven years old, why would you? Just get one from a breakers yard or Ebay - A reconditioned audio unit (they are sealed units and include the 6xCD changer) costs around £1500 to replace Same answer - breakers yard/Ebay or put a Pioneer or whatever unit in instead. My Nissan Maxima QX 3.0 V6 developed a fault with the Mass Airflow Sensor and Nissan wanted over £300 for a new one, whereas I got a brand new aftermarket pattern part for £25 from Ebay and it worked a treat. @Britprius has posted this over in the GS forum in the last hour: I have just picked up a pair of GS450H rear discs made by Quinton Hazel for the sum of £20 the pair from Ebay. Strangely I bought a pair of rear discs for my Prius 6 years ago for the same price from the same seller. And while I'm on about brakes, Lexus (I believe) will charge more than £350 for a brand new caliper even if it's just the slide pins seized, whereas somewhere like Car Parts Direct will sell you a refurbished one for less than half that if that's what you need. You can even send them your own caliper and they'll completely refurbish it for you. The point is (cos I've waffled on long enough), owning a Lexus or any other prestige car doesn't necessarily need to be very expensive. For the last 35 years I've always had top-of-the-range cars (Mk 1 Granada 3.0 Coupe and Mk 2 2.8i Ghia X; Rover 827 SLi and 800 series Sterling amongst others) but only when they got to about 8 or 9 years old, none of which have ever been serviced or worked on in any way at main stealers because it simply wasn't worth spending that sort of money on that age of car. Plus, I prefer to give my business to local, independent garages and mechanics in my own local community.

It can sometimes be difficult equating cross-sectional area sizes to physical sizes but this website helpfully lists both, so you should be able to measure the diameter of your existing cable to match it up.

Ah right, sorry, my misunderstanding

You're actually supposed to replace them in pairs, even if just one has failed, because the new one is obviously stronger than the old one. Force variation will cause side loading and premature failure.

As well as security as Linas mentioned, it's also for safety if someone is working on the tailgate and doesn't want it operated by inquisitive little fingers or anyone else.

Personally I don't like the 'angling' or 'dipping' feature of the door mirrors so I keep it turned off. In more than 40 years of driving and more than 30 different vehicles including a few different makes/models of BT vans, I've never had one before where the door mirrors angle down and I just can't get used to it at all.

I beg to differ sir. Petrol is way too expensive anyway - an extra £8 per tank is both heartbreaking and unnecessary.