Farqui

Yesterday evening I collected the rear track bolts/etc from Lexus Sheffield, ordered last Friday morning. The parts dept did say that bad rear alignment on the GS is known to chew through rear tyres, so pay attention to yours folks. At lunchtime today the new rear control arms arrived, ordered from RockAuto on Monday morning. Priority shipping was really fast and only around £10 more than a regular parcel I recently received (roughly £10 shipped). I wasn't hit for any import duty or UK postal charges either The forecast looks drier tomorrow, so I hope to get another crack at removing the OSR inner pivot bolt, wish me luck...

Excellent, well done finding and fixing that yourself [emoji106] I'd he happy with that result, so i hope you raised a glass to celebrate.

Check the internal fuses under the drivers side of the dash board. I used a multi meter to confirm an ignition switched source and piggybacked off one. Check my 'build' thread https://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/112713-gs-450h-my-first-lexus/

You're tyre wear is pretty good but I wonder if adding a few PSI will help with your "skipping" and even out the wear a smidge?

Vladimir, I'm not from that area but I've used Grinspeed just up the road from you in Leyland. They're x motorsport engineers and really know their stuff. Best of all they won't fleece you and will do a proper job. I discovered them/used them via the Honda forums but they work on other cars too.

Lexus Sheffield have kinda redeemed themselves, apparently they've already placed the order and will call me when they're ready next week. Not sure why they said they'd call me back later today, I was expecting to hand over a kidney and pay before they'd order anything!

Exactly that John, I just want it sorted and to cover the bases. The bolts aren't cheap but they're cheaper than a pair of tyres that are killed, even though they're oodles of tread left across the rest of the tyre. I recall that one lower shock bolt was a royal pain to get out and would surely would have been locked solid if it had been left for much longer.

The US forum make frequent mention of inner tyre wear but only if the car has been lowered, you can source aftermarket/adjustable camber arms to prevent the issue. I see adjustable rear toe arms are available but they around £200 a pair + shipping. Even Rockauto lists an adjustable option, at £78 each.

Thanks for the replies chaps, the car hasn't been used much since but I have found that the ride has improved on the new tyres. Hardly surprising really as it was riding on the carcass with little/no tread. I am now running my tyres at 35psi all round, as per the B pillar guide. I was running less that this as the ride was firming up, which I can now attribute to less rubber/thread on the tyre. Nothing is rubbing and the rear suspension is all tight, it's just passed it's MOT too. I wouldn't read too much into the inside ridge as I suspect that was due to driving to the hard shoulder on the deflated tyre. I took it to a reputable tyre shop yesterday and they confirmed the rear geometry was..."way out". Unfortunately they couldn't free up the rear toe adjusters and didn't want to risk using the big breaker bar and having a broken car in the workshop They didn't charge me (phew) and said that the camber was okay, just that the rear toe was sketchy. Once I've freed up/replaced the adjusters then I'll be back to the tyre shop for a full set-up. So it looks like I'll get the car up in the air again tomorrow (weather permitting) and give them some 'welly' or heat. I've called around for replacement 'cam' bolts and as usual, they aren't readily available. Oddly Toyota prices were higher than Lexus and although Lexus said the parts would be in on Tuesday but they haven't called me back to finalise the order I really do despair with Lexus dealers, I even tried a different one this time!

I'll have had mine 2yrs in February and at it's first service the dealer tried to make out the shocks were leaking but what they didn't count on was me checking and getting a second opinion from my local indi. Needless to say, I now no longer trust them and service the vehicle myself. I'm currently trying to get the rear tracking sorted out but the cam-bolts aren't available at my local auto factor, a local Toyota dealer can get them next day tho :) Let us know how you get on with that 12v battery of yours.

One of these, not cheap but they're much quicker than the cheaper devices previous discussion;

Interesting that your pong is stronger in the boot, check the 12v battery behind the NSR panel. At the rear there should be a vent hose from the battery to outside the vehicle through the rear panel. If this hose isn't connected, then perhaps it's the cause of your odd smell. My car came with a busted exhaust but the vendor stumped up for a replacement. I got an aftermarket stainless middle and rear section made up, which makes a little more noise than OEM. I know what you mean about the quiet engine/exhaust, it's weird. Along with the exhaust I've had a few other age related gripes, the rear was riding low and now my rear toe adjusters are locked solid causing poor tyre wear. It's a great car to hop over to relatives in Belgium. I thoroughly enjoy the stealthy, sleeper style and occassionaly surprising other drivers.

I took a look at Torque on my car but couldn't find anything useful. After more searching i took the plunge with the 'Hybrid Assistant' app and a quicker OBD dongle. It's loaded with features and well worth a try.

Hi Dimitru, welcome to the forum and other than the odd smell, how are you enjoying the gutsy Hybrid? When I first acquired mine it had a dank/musty honk regardless of the AC and needed a long session with one of those HVAC cleaning bombs. It's been fine ever since. Regardless of the AC being on/off, your odd whiff might also be caused by a mouldy AC matrix. As the cleaning bombs are cheap and easy to use, then it's surely worth a shot and can't hurt. Cheers, Lee

MOT passed this morning

Is that replacement an AGM battery John?

Limiting your mileage will reduce your premiums by a big chunk. A specialist broker like Adrian Flux should give you a good deal. I doubt the mainstream companies will but insurance is often a lottery so worth ringing around. An agreed value can also help tweak your premium. Is there any reason you want classic car insurance?

I just got 6 plugs delivered from Rockauto for £58 + £10 shipping, no duty charge or silly UK delivery on top either. Shipping covered the plugs, boot rams and a several oil filters. UK retailers are having a laugh.

I had exactly the same experience/ignoring LOC at Lexus Lincoln

Has anyone experienced several inside edge tyre wear on their GS450H ? If so, then did you resolve it ? Might it simply need the rear track re-aligning ? Or does the high rearward Hybrid braking cause some of the multi-link rear bushes to wear more ? I recently had a rear tyre suddenly deflate and found the inner most edge was badly worn. It was down to the canvas in one section but overall the tyre had plenty of tread left. The NSR was the worst and the OSR still had a definite taper on the inner edge. The tyres were less than 2 years old and had covered roughly 18k miles. The vehicle is not lowered and tyre pressures have been roughly 30-35psi.

Turning the cabin heater temps down/right down will keep the car in EV mode for longer.

Yesterday I had a rear flat tyre on the M20 west bound near Ashford, just a few miles after leaving the Chunnel The TPMS flashed on the dash and the car sounded odd a few minutes later. It felt fine behind the wheel but I pulled over pretty quickly to check it out. After unloading the boot onto the hard shoulder I couldn't find the wheel brace! so had to wait an hour for recovery #doh We didn't want to crawl 180miles back home at 50mph so whilst waiting I called around tyre shops and found one 30miles up the road that had stock and could fit us in but the recovery chap recommended one just off the motorway. I loaded up the bad wheel into the boot only to find that hybrid wheel well wouldn't accommodate the full size wheel The 18" wheel/tyre would sit upright/tilted tho so the boot floor and massive awkward wheel/tool support were tossed in the back back seat along with cases/etc. Tyre shop#1 (you can guess where this going) had a full waiting room and couldn't help before closing in 1hr (it was 1pm). So we made our way back onto the motorway and chugged slowly towards tyre shop#2 (who I'd called earlier) only to find their fitter had left and they didn't know when he'd be back! I couldn't make this up, it really happened and it wasn't a dream (unfortunately). I found tyre shop#3 less than 1 mile away who fitted us right in, hurrah. The offending tyre had bad inner should wear with carcass showing for good 8-10 inches #eek and the other had a similarly bad profile. As I was keen to load up the car at the side of the motorway this was the first time I had seen the bad tyre and I can't fathom how the recovery guy didn't spot the issue while I got the spare mounted. Two new tyres later and they couldn't find any issue with the suspension so the tracking was checked and corrected slightly at the front, they thought the rear was fixed tho By this point we'd had enough and we just wanted to get home. So what is normally a 5hr journey turned into 10hrs which was a struggle after getting to bed at 2am the night before/morning of the trip. At least we left our pals at a sensible 10am. In summary; I'm still mad with myself for taking the 21mm socket/wheel brace out of the car, so check you have yours! The boot not taking a full size wheel is potty, especially if your boot is full and you have 3 passengers!! In hindsight I should have loaded the busted wheel into the back seat. Tyre shops are both popular and incompetent in equal measure on Sundays!!! I'm mad at myself for not closely inspecting the tyre's sooner under full rotation AND across their entire width. If you have a slow tyre leak for a few months then don't just presume it's a bad TPMS valve and just keep topping it up. On the plus side; It was sunny whilst we waited for recovery There we only 2 of us in the car We didn't need to get anywhere in a hurry The tyre failed in the UK and not in France, where motorway recovery is pricey The vehicle won't fail it's MOT next week on worn rear tyres We slept really well last night I wonder if the inner rear tyre wear was at least partially caused by the rear riding lower recently? If so, then I may have already fixed the issue (hopefully). I definitely need to check the rear bushes closely and get the rear toe checked/reset properly. Has anyone else fixed rear inner tyre wear by replacing any of the rear links/bushes?

How much! Gawd, i'm glad i am sat down.

^ this, spot on