sorcerer

Thanks Keith. Like I said above, I've seen a few Youtube videos so I think I'm ok with the method but I was hoping someone may be able to suggest actual products to either use or stay away from - something along the lines of "I used 'Brand X' lacquer and it was rubbish so I went with 'Brand Y' instead and it did a great job, and I also got 'Brand Z' UV protector". It seems to need quite a bit of effort to do the job correctly and if you do make a mistake it's expensive to rectify, so I just want to do the best I can do, first time. But again, thanks for your reply, I appreciate it.

Thanks Carl, not a stupid idea at all but I've seen Youtube vids of the toothpaste method and it's not the best. I want to do the job right so I won't be starting it until I have everything I need to hand. Thanks for your reply though, I do appreciate it.

I don't know about an IR camera but I find it helps a lot to turn off the auto-dimming mirrors when reversing - mine dim so much they're almost black in the dark!

Could be the TPS I suppose but really couldn't say for sure. Whatever it is I hope you get it sorted without needing to sell a kidney

I'm afraid that I can't answer your question as I've never seen an ATF that's 'apple juice' colour - I've only ever seen red so I don't know if that's indicative of a problem or not. However, topping it up yourself has got to be the best and quite possibly the cheapest thing to try first. If you drive that 10 miles as it is and something is wrong, you could do a lot of damage. On the other hand, towing charges and/or getting the garage to come and pick it up would be an expensive way of finding out that nothing's wrong and it just needed topping up. Surely you've got a small funnel lurking around somewhere, or could buy one locally?

That's apparently where the UV protector comes in. The lenses are coated with a UV-resistant protective coating at the factory, but over time it oxidises and becomes yellow, which then necessitates the sanding/polishing to take off that oxidised layer and get them clear again. Once clear, they then need to be protected again with another coat or two of UV-resistant stuff. I've seen a few videos on Youtube but they've been american and I've had no luck in finding the same UV coating they're using when I Googled for it, hence my question.

The headlights on our 2005 RX300 have yellowed so I'm going to clean them up. I'm probably going to go with the 3M Headlight Restoration Kit (power drill version rather than human power) as it seems to get great reviews, but it doesn't come with any sort of UV protector as far as I can see so can anyone recommend something suitable? Should any other form of sealer/protective coating be used either before or after the UV one?

Is that the pressure Lexus states they should be in the handbook/on the car label? If not, I'd be very careful because you may find that in the event of an accident your insurance may be void. A couple of years ago a guy I worked with at the time had been a bit lax about his maintenance routine and was involved in an accident where, on inspection, his tyre pressures were found to be incorrect. His insurance company either refused the claim or reduced the payout, I can't remember which it was now.

I agree with Steve - if the garage is giving a 12-month warranty then that's a good sign. If you have any receipts though, check to see if the water pump, idler and tensioner were changed at the same time. The reason is that most of the cost in doing a cambelt change is the time taken to get to it, which is why the other items are usually changed at the same time. I'd hazard a guess that maybe 90% of the work done to change the cambelt would have to be done again to get to the water pump if it was done at a different time. As for the satnav, forget it. Buy a TomTom or something instead. I think the most up-to-date map available for the RX is dated around 2011 and a LOT of road changes have happened since then. I also believe that you can't do a full postcode search on these units. The biggest drawback for me though is that being disc-based, you can't add in your own POIs. As an example, our car has been converted to run on LPG so I've got every LPG filling station in the country listed as POIs in my TomTom but there's no way to do that with the native satnav. I do leave the satnav display on, basically as a 'rolling screensaver' but as a satnav it's about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.

Well to all intents and purposes, that couple of inches going across the A-pillar is the only wire you can see on mine because when sat in the car, that floor-level socket and the wiring at that end can't be seen anyway but yes, fair enough my friend - it would be a strange old world if we were all the same

Wow! Seriously? That's an incredible amount of money for a very easy, 20 minute or less job. Ok, in your case there appears to have been some drilling involved but that's still serious money. All you need is a power source and a plastic spudger (or even the blunt end of a spoon will do the job). I discovered that my RX300 has a cigarette lighter socket at floor level so I plugged into that then ran the wire under the carpet and used a couple of self-adhesive cable ties to attach it to the underside of the glovebox and round to the door. Then you just use the spudger or spoon to gently push it behind the rubber door seal and take it up to roof level, across the 'A' Pillar and then push the excess into the gap between the roof lining and roof at the windscreen. If you want a more permanent power connection just use a 'fuse piggyback connector' to piggyback on the cigarette lighter fuse at the fusebox, although I admit that that method is a little more complicated and will take slightly longer.

I've got a NextBase 402G and it's excellent. I hard-wired it in myself, took about 20-25 minutes at most, quite possibly less as it's a very easy job. As Bob mentioned above, some insurance companies give a discount on premiums (approx 10-12%) if you have a camera installed. However I didn't ask my insurers about that because Sod's Law indicates that if I'm ever involved in an accident then that will be the day that I forgot to put the camera in the car and no doubt they'll use that as an excuse to reduce or refuse the claim. Not that I'm cynical about insurance companies, of course

I passed my driving test in June 1975 so that's more than 40 years ago and in all that time I've never bothered with 'winter' tyres. Does the need really exist in the UK?

MPG makes perfect sense to me. Like I said, some metric units seem natural to use and are easy, but for me, MPG is more normal and natural - and I can't see myself changing after 42 years of using MPG. Mind you, last time I went to the timber supply place I asked for 6 pieces of 3" x 2" at 1.6m long!

First of all, definitely UK gallons if it's a UK car but as to the other bit I'd say it depends on how long you're abroad and if you're living there or coming back to the UK regularly. What I mean is, even when driving around Europe on holiday, litres/100km means nothing to me but if you're living out there and want to fully get into the metric mindset, fair enough. Some metric measurements seem 'natural' and easy to use, but with this, I always think in terms of miles/gallon and always will - much like I'll always think in terms of pints of beer rather than half-litres

Nah, stick with the badges and be proud to show the world what you've got. I don't like the 'debadged' look at all.

I passed my test, first time, on 5th June 1975 at the age of 17. My dad put me as a named driver on his fully-comp policy for his three-month-old Morris Marina Estate and it cost £10 for the 9 months of cover left to renewal. A couple of years later I got my own car and cover and although I can't remember the figure, I do remember we all commented that it was expensive, and we were told that "under-25s were always hammered - wait until after your 25th birthday and it'll come down a lot; it'll be really cheap then" Load of rubbish!! Since June 1975 I've driven over 700,000 miles, had one small 'at fault' accident; one 'not at fault' accident and two speeding tickets, separated by 15 years (35 in a 30 and 76 on the motorway) and my insurance has never been 'cheap' - truth be told, I might even struggle to call it reasonable, let alone cheap. However, what really narks me more than anything is that we can no longer compare like-for-like. 'Fully comprehensive' used to mean fully comprehensive but now, "You want this? That's extra; You want that? Oh, that's extra too. But we do give you free breakdown cover and a fluffy bunny keyring". NO!!! I want car insurance that covers my car, fully-comp that means fully comp. I do not want free travel insurance (that only gives basic cover and is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard so that I have to go and buy 'proper' travel insurance anyway) or a free voucher for wine, or free 'lost key cover' or free breakdown cover (that only gives basic cover and is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard). Sorry, rant over - but I do feel better for it

Admittedly I've never had a Lexus warranty but I do have experience of other warranties and usually, yes, they only replace the failed part, even in cases like this where normal advice is to do them in pairs. In my case it was tailgate gas struts on a Nissan. I even provided written evidence that they should be replaced in pairs but the warranty company wouldn't have it. "Only one has failed, so only one is covered by the warranty" they said, and I had to pay for the other one myself if I wanted both doing.

Have a look at this topic here: You can ignore the one below because I can't seem to delete it and the one above gives a better answer.

Yep, definitely. I think it's anything over £20 attracts import duty and VAT but I'll ask my wife for confirmation and post back later (she works in HMRC).

Hmm... you may be right Duncan but earlier in the thread the OP says that it's a £60k car with original value of £80k. Of course, there's a gazillion factors that could affect the value and without knowing the full story and all the facts we're just making assumptions, but I still put a lot of store in the old saying 'if something seems too good to be true, it usually is'. Still something dodgy to me, but then again I'm just paranoid

There's still something dodgy about this. The only legitimate way where all parties are covered is for the current owner to pay off what he owes to the finance company and then, when he becomes the full, legal owner of the car, he can sell it to you. You've already said that it's a company car so I don't see why the company is so reluctant (or maybe unable?) to pay what is owed to the finance company and then legitimately sell it to you.

Doh, silly me! At this point I'll bow out because I don't know if the satnav in yours is hard-drive or DVD-based and the answer could be different, so a fellow 400h owner is best placed to answer that one.

I haven't got a 400h so again, just a guess, but I can't see how disconnecting the car battery would affect any data on an iPhone app? Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

I'd guess that the disc provides an update to the satnav operating system as well as the mapping so like any computer, it'll need a power-off reboot maybe?