GSLV6

I simply replaced mine with a leisure (deep cycle) battery which from memory was about 60Amp Hours, for way less than the Panasonic. It's lasted 2 years so far. My original Panasonic died after 2 years from new.

I fitted Yokohama Geolander all terrains to our RAV4 which were superb in the snow...really on a par with winter tyres imho. Good in the wet too and quiet as my last road tyres on dry roads I am going to see if they do a similar model for the RX and if so, that's what I'll be fitting next.

+1 for the relay issue. The clue is if you operate the glovebox switch, you should hear an audible click as the relay operates. Mine isn't making any noise and no power is reaching the rear compartment including PBD and courtesy lights. These are all supplied from one relay supplied by that fused link. No click=no power even if the ECU calls for it. Mine's in Lexus tomorrow to try and get to the bottom of it, but I'm crossing my fingers it's a £40 relay blown and not the megabucks PBD ECU gone awal. Lexus will usually offer a free 30 minute diagnostic session...at least my dealership does.

Sorry for tardy late response...have only just returned here after a long break! I didn't bypass it on my GS but I did on my VRS Fabia (diesel) and yes, it flew through emissions testing! It also improved throttle response, idle and fuel economy. The EU regulations have made cars less reliable, over complex and shorter lived imho. Every car up until my Lexus cars that I've had, suffered in some form or other with the same EGR issues, some after short miles. Town driving and short trips are worst of all as the engine is in a fuel rich state when cold and this recirculates a lot of carbon deposits. I'm not sure if Lexus would permit the ECU to be reprogrammed to chip out the EGR valve once disconnected though hence I have left well alone on my RX. which we reserve for longer journeys anyway. Our ancient RAV4 is one car we've had zero issues with, nada, not a thing...ever since owned. IMHO, a simple, robust, well put together and over engineered car...one of the most reliable ever made.

I have the same problem. Let my auxiliary battery go flat over the last 2 weeks (I know I ought to have hooked it up to my charger). I connected the battery (insitu) up to my CYTEK "intelligent" charger after Lexus confirmed it didn't need to be removed to recharge the battery (it won't damage electronics doing this). No rear courtesy lights work, reset as per manual doesn't work, disconnecting battery -ve terminal to reset the ECU didn't work, toggling the glove compartment button doesn't work. It used to operate a relay in the fuse box, but I hear no relay operating and if I am lucky it is just a blown relay which could have occurred when I attempted to open the tailgate one morning it was freezing (causes overcurrent which could trip the relay or burn it out). I have the later buzz-bar high amp common connector for power feed in the fusebox, covered with the green plastic top which I cannot see how to remove. Called Lexus and they say I've done everything that they would have tried but they have offered a 30 minute free diagnostic session tomorrow. My warranty ran out in July and as we couldn't use the car anyway (we were using a smaller runabout for shopping etc during lock down and self isolation) I didn't renew it foolishly. I suspect it's one of two things: either 1) a blown relay as nothing in the rear is getting power, or 2) the rear (separate) ECU which operates the rear lock and power door motor/sensors. It might even be a faulty rear sensor which I guess is a micro-switch buried under the rear panel somewhere. Whatever, I am crossing my fingers it's nothing seriously expensive! I despair with Lexus. Every time I've had a flat battery on any of my lexus cars, something like this ALWAYS happens! The only car that has been faultless is our 16 year old 105,000 miles Toyota Rav4 which is just indestructible and utterly reliable. If this is a big bill, I will have to seriously consider keeping the car. I am now relying on it for longer runs to hospital as my wife is a cancer patient (as of November) and we have to depend on the RX.

Happened twice with me...turned out to be a spider making a web!

Nextbase themselves included advice to regularly reformat SD cards. If that has changed due to reliability improving, that's fine. I just followed their advice when I purchased mine which was a few years ago and it has been working faultlessly since then. Haven't re-formatted mine in a while though as it seems to have been working fine. I had a glitch early on, reformatted it then and all has been fine since that time.

You can only speak as you find I guess Malcolm. We had our 16/60 for some years without any issue and that engine had done over 140,000 miles and was perfect. My father replaced a headgasket a few times (rather he annealed a copper gasket and refitted it) and once he removed the head and polished the ports and reground the valves, and that motor purred like a cat. He was fastidious about oil changes and it had bodywork protection added. As we didn't own it for as long as you owned yours then I can't say what condition it would have been in 11 years down the road, but when we owned it, it was lovely in all respects. I'd happily take a restored one now if I had garage space. It remains one of my favourite classic BMC models. Mind you, he also owned a Triumph 2000TC Bullnose which after a few years and close on 100K miles developed very expensive engine trouble needing new pistons, but I liked that too, so much so I bought a Mk2 and that turned out to be a huge mistake. I bought on the cheap (mistake nr 1) and bought the later BL made Mk2 (mistake nr 2) and just about every panel underneath, including sills, wings and floor plates all needed welding work or replacement. Plastic bags filled with horsehair were used for noise insulation and placed in between inner and outer wings which did a fabulous job of speeding up terminal rust! The engine had to be taken apart, the head reground and the engine rebuilt. I also put a new exhaust on it a new distributor, the sides needed re-spraying and I re-carpeted the whole interior and saw to damage on the woodwork finish. It cost me a small fortune. The suspension bushes were also all knackered, and then the thrust bearing on the clutch went. That was the last straw. I sold it and made a small loss after my costs were taken out. I loved the engine and the shape of the car but buying a BL made anything was bound to end in tears. Earlier bullnoses were, by and large, better made I think. The LS400 I think was my 2nd favourite of all time Lexus cars. My favourite was the equally well appointed non CVT GS300V6 which I rate as the best car I've ever owned.

I think it's true that the days of the most reliable petrol and certainly diesel lumps have been and gone. Early to mid Noughties designs I think may have been the pinnacle. Ever tightening EU emissions (and I'm not one that buys the whole emissions controls thing as being as significant as claimed and certainly not when compared with central heating!) , over complexity and limited operational serviceability or redundancy life of certain components effectively encourage and promote the changing of vehicles rather than economic repair. As any mechanic what the value of any of the current crop of 3 cylinder tiny engines is, and they'll likely tell you they're disposable units. Give me an LS or GS 6 or 8 pot lump any day, looked after they run to extraordinary mileages.

The only car I remember fondly from my youth was one my Father owned. It was a Woseley 16/60 in Maroon, I think a 1962 model with full leather seats, wood everywhere and a lovely series B 1600 engine. It was one of the most reliable cars I can remember that we ever owned right up until the 1980s, and easy to home service. At standstill with the engine running I well remember people remarking that they couldn't hear anything other than a gentle ripple of tappets. It was a wonderful car and an example of one of the very best to be produced from the BMC stable, although styled by Pininfarina which was no bad thing. I remains to this day one of the few classic cars I'd own in a heartbeat. Other than that, I can't remember many vehicles from my youth or my early work days which I remember with as much fondness as most of my early cars, bought well used, were all trouble in one form or another. The first really reliable car I owned was a 1980's Mk2 Cavalier 1600 GLS. Whilst many of my mates drove around in fords, I felt like a king driving in opulent luxury in plush velour seats with (for the day) all the gadgets and the Mk2's 1600 lump was smoother than the equivalent ford and quicker as I seem to remember. It remained reliable and easy to home service. I had a mk2 Opel Manta GT after that which again was reliable, punchy and a bit different and I covered big miles in that car pretty much trouble free. The same cannot be said of the 2 litre GT/E which I replaced it with. It fell to pieces with rust and developed a nasty rear differential whine. Those engines though were good and far more reliable than the VW's I bought in the 1980's. I had three of them . A Mk2 sirocco gti...unreliable, with electrical issues, it blew the head gasket twice, snapped drive shaft bolts, had failed suspension at modest miles and I got fed up with break downs so sold it for a diesel passat estate needed for the space. Similar story...cracked block, engine knackered after modest miles and it needed a new gearbox when that failed which I replaced myself. I vowed I'd never own another VW after that. Roll on many cars since then and now and my current 450h has been the most reliable of anything I've owned bar some warranty work for a failed auxiliary battery and a steering rack replaced because whilst it worked fine, there was a slight knocking so it ticked the warranty box and cost me nothing. I preferred the previous GS300 to drive and it was more luxurious inside, quieter and quicker imho, but I didn't want to part with what the gov't highwaymen wanted for annual tax and the RX was bought on the claimed economy savings over the GS...which in reality are neither here or there. I don't hear of many headlamp units failing but if it happens, and the rest of the cart is sound, I'll pay for it and drive the car into the ground. All cars cost in the long term. There aren't many that over a 10 or 15 year period won't need at least one or two expensive items or services. For what it is, the RX is probably one of the cheapest SUVs in class to run longer term,providing regular maintenance is carried out, which makes them so popular on the used market. By comparison, I well remember my uncle's 1990's Jag xjr needing a new headlamp bulb or replacement unit and it costing him £1000 back then which he was spitting teeth over.

I replaced both front control arms on my E36 Barry, including labour for the price of supply of just one control arm from Lexus. That was from a local motor factors. I don't think I can justify their prices if they decide that it's not a warranty item. For a 5 1/2 year old car, that is the only thing I've had to pay for since I bought it so I suppose I can't really complain.

It's the "genuine bits" where you're usually stung on cost though. I've already got the quote for the arms....£240 each was the Lexus quote...

Great info, thanks Lee. I may just do that although I;m sure I'll get the usual "if they're not Lexus approved your warranty will be void" remarks. Best course of action I think is to see if they'll agree to replacing under warranty (I don't hammer the car over bumps and do treat it with kid gloves). If not then I'll go the local garage route I think.

My go-to tyres are the ZX7s. I'm not so concerned with mileage as my annual mileage these days seldom exceeds 7K miles. I get 15K miles from the rears (RX450h) and about 8K miles from the fronts, so not great but what I wouldn't trade for anything is the great handling, low noise and fantastic wet weather grip these things have (the best tyres in wet conditions I've ever used). For my bike's I've always used the adage "safety before economy" when it came to tyres so have always fitted the grippiest and best handling tyres I could. I recently looked at pricing and got 4 ZX7s fitted and balanced for £520. They might not last as long as Primacy's or Cross Climate's but I swear by them.

We have used our RX for the past 3 years for camping trips and usually have the double rear seat folded down (our son selfishly insists that the single one is left in place so he has somewhere to sit😆). It's usually crammed to the roof, with a huge airbeam tent (105lb lump), camping gear of all sorts, clothes and food. I just used the rear mirrors and the onboard reversing mirror takes care of parking or checking behind when stationary. Having a wifi linked camera would work well (wifi or blue tooth?) but I never saw the need and never felt hard done by for not using one. My main niggle is the compromised load space due to the sloping rear. It's not that impressive for such a large car (compared even with an X3).

I did check that and the answer was that the bushes and surrounds need the control arms to be removed so that heat can be applied to get the bushing out with a drift and hammer. If this is the case then I'd expect the advice to be sound, ie may as well replace the control arms as labour is the same. It was done this way some years back on an E46 Bimmer I had. Bushes themselves shouldn't be any more than a few pounds apiece I'd have thought.

I've used one for two years with no problems. Most problems occur due to corruptible SD cards as some won't work well for more than a few weeks without reformatting them. I have used a Sandisk Ultra card in mine which has been fine. No problem downloading or making a DVD. If you're etting problems then odds are it's the card and a change of card should sort them. If you do a google search it should come up with a list of recommended cards for the Nextbase.

It's been a few months since my Dec 2014 RX450h went through it's MOT from which I received advisories for split control arm bushes. As they had not completely torn through I was advised to do nothing until the next service this summer and they'd look at changing them then. I enquired on the after market for these as I thought I could get some cheaper only to be told by several companies that they come from Lexus at Lexus prices. Here's the shocker....replacement of two control arms (nearside front and back) was estimated to be about £700 plus the VAT!!!! I would reasonably expect these to be replaced under warranty as at only 33K miles, that's not reasonable wear and tear. Anyone else had this? I know the pot-holed, speed bump strewn roads don't help but this seems early for failure of those bushes.

On the flat in light traffic where you're not up and down due to junctions and road works, mid 30's seems about right. I live in quite a hilly area so don't stay on the flat for long. As it's a heavy old barge this is where you start to suffer mpg-wise. My long term (4 year) real world average, and here I am not a heavy right clog driver, is 28mpg. On short trips with the engine barely warm you may struggle to better low 20's unless on EV but on a journey of 10 miles or more, with some initial hill work done, I can get low 30's. Motorway cruising at an indicated 75mph (GPS checked as a true 69mph) I can average about 32mpg. At an indicated 65mph, that figure rises to closer to 36mpg. The interesting thing here is how that mpg is calculated as I'm unsure if the odometer carries the same inaccuracy as the speedo...if it does, we're all achieving less than we think. My old GS300 V6 used to average (long term) 27mpg so the RX is only very slightly better but quite a bit worse on motorway miles where I regularly acheived over 40mpg from the GS. Comparisons with cars like the BMW X3 or X5 aren't really like for like when you consider that you're hauling around 400Kg more, so the RX isn't too bad really, all things considered.

Excellent point. Yes, once the deep cycle battery runs down and the cells aren't able to take a recharge then the main engine will have to run more continuously in order to try and charge the battery. Once it gets down below a certain voltage I understand that it will throw a fault code and may affect some other functions too (not least of which is non-starting!). It is meant to be replaced with a deep cycle sealed battery (VGR/gelmat type) or sealed L/A equivalent. Normal automotive car batteries aren't designed to be continuously be deep discharged and may not last long under that duty, although they'll get you out of a hole short term.

I think that you can replace this with any deep cycle battery of a suitable duty. Later models used a 12V 110AH deep cycle VGA type battery located under the rear boot lining on the LHS. Yours may be the same type. They're not cheap but there are some sealed L/A equivalents for much less. Don't use a high current short term discharge cranking battery (ie normal car battery) as this won't be up to the job and isn't designed for repeated deep discharge. Basically any deep cycle equivalent will do. It doesn't have the be the Panasonic battery that Lexus use.

Just as a footnote, the correct battery is not the normal 12v battery. It's a deep cycle battery so needs to be replaced with the same specification replacement. This isn't the same thing as a typical automotive cranking battery which doesn't use much of it's charge when providing short, high current bursts to the starter motor circuit. Deep cycle batteries are designed for regular and prolonged full discharge and recharging...normal batteries are not so wouldn't last long in the RX450h if used for this purpose. Deep cycle batteries are more expensive than automotive cranking batteries. Here's a link I posted on another thread to a suitable replacement example: Suitable Battery replacement for RX450h This isn't sold as a sealed battery though I think it might be. I have a feeling that my last one was a sealed L/A version. For and AGM alternative there is this which is still £100 cheaper than Lexus prices and will last longer than the lead acid equivalent: https://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/12v-110ah-agm-deep-cycle-batt-bat412101084.html

Gosh Herbie, I thought full postcode came in late noughties with Lexus? My old GS didn't have it (2007) but the RX I have does have it. Have to agree about fine tuning with the mouse. I find it better than fumbling with touch screens but when you want to make small movements it can be infuriating. We'll probably be told that we shouldn't play with it whilst on the move but sometimes there's no choice if you have to come from one screen to another. I agree that the Lexus system is over complicated and unreliable. I don't have many in-house systems to compare it to except our current Honda which I think is based on a simplified Garmin system. Easier to use but less information on tap. One thing I ignore completely is the "live" traffic information on the Lexus one. It can be over a day out of date! I travelled to Cornwall last spring and whilst near Taunton, it was telling me to leave the motorway and take the scenic route due to delays ahead. It also pinged up that there were delays on the A30 (due to roadworks). I ignored it and had a trouble free trip with no delays. The A30 roadworks had finished the day before and the M5 accident had been cleared hours earlier. It's just a rubbish system. Conversely the Garmin stand alone uses bunched up cell phone signals to determine congestion ahead and is usually very reliable. If it says 5 minute delay, then that's usually what you find. Tom-Tom have the best system though which allows editing way-points on the fly without trying to redirect you back to one missed (it simply recalculates for you to the next point).

Great result! I can't understand why no new matching wheels are available for a 4 yr old car. Surely they must keep some stocks....was it the 19 inch wheels you have? Had a cloase look at mine (a year newer) and they look fine except for a scratch on one from me stupidly using a wheel cleaning brush when washing it a while back. Lesson learned. I never use brushes on wheels now.

Yes, its amazing how easy it is to get disorientated. Mind you a few drivers this morning drove me nuts. One decided that she didn't want to turn off the road into a car park to wait for someone she was picking up, and promptly parked her car in the middle of the main road through town at some pedestrian lights blocking the road for everyone else. A brainless family, led by "dad" then stepped out 20ft in front of us without looking (they were only 20 yds from the same pedestrian crossing!) and I thought for a moment even at 10mph, I was going to lock up and take them all out as they looked around and just stood there! A few choice words of advice were given! Another parked across the turning into where we live to make a phone call, engine running, and partially blocked the whole turning. Some people shouldn't be allowed out behind the wheel this weather. Roads are seldom so bad (unless it's hard packed ice) that it prevents a competent driver getting about here in the South West. It's always the drivers who haven't a clue how to drive in these conditions that cause the problems. If they lack that much confidence or are that inept then they shouldn't be out and about creating unnecessary hazards for those who are competent and careful.