malcolmw

Our NX was in today for its first service (at 1 year and one month old) at Hedge End. They only opened up on Monday. They have stopped washing cars to avoid unnecessary people touching them and do not provide courtesy vehicles. They seem to be taking great care with wiping down touch surfaces, keys etc. The only downside was the much longer than normal time taken to get the service done. We had a lot of time to waste so we went to M&S, B&Q etc. just round the corner and finally ended up sitting on the grass bank outside the showroom to while away the last hour. However, they were very helpful and all was pretty satisfactory. I am sure the service will "slick up" when they get more used to the new requirements.

The quoted £1500 per year is in Aston Martin warranty territory. I might consider it on a 2 for 1 basis but if they don't offer it I might well take my chances as I am only doing 5K miles per year. My car is 3 years old next February.

With Carista, you only pay when you access areas of the App which are chargeable. Just going into the Settings (chargeable) area triggers the AppStore to bill you. You will need a working Apple account for this to work.

I don't know if there is a "Lexus Policy" but my local dealer at Hedge End, Southampton is reopening for servicing in June. They are operating safe distancing with no while you wait service and no loan vehicles.

My cautionary tale. Many years ago I used to have a Mercedes SL500 with the remote locking system. I was at a meeting in South Yorkshire (I live in Wiltshire) and thought I would take my raincoat off and put it in the car. The car was locked. I opened the boot, put the coat inside and slammed the boot shut. My car keys were in the coat pocket. After a lot of phone calls, Mercedes established that it was impossible to open the car or boot without damage so they loaned me a car to drive home, retrieve the spare key and drive back the next day. I have been much more careful about key systems since.

AGM batteries can operate in partial state of charge but what kills them is being left very flat or on a small parasitic load. As soon as you try to recharge them from this state, lead metal is plated out onto the surfaces of the glass fibre mat separator. This causes a high resistance short internally in the battery and stops the battery holding a charge as normal. From the description above, this is what has happened.

@SH20 AGM batteries by their very design operate sealed but have safety vents which open if severely overcharged. If you can open the vents on your battery and see electrolyte, then your battery is a flooded type. AGM batteries operate with a "starved" electrolyte which means that the limited amount of acid is absorbed in a fibreglass mat separator (AGM = absorbent glass mat). If operated at below gassing voltage, AGM batteries remain sealed and do not lose electrolyte. Because of the limited electrolyte, AGM batteries are generally more resistant to sulphation if left partly charged and hence why they are commonly used in hybrids.

The maximum charge rate on AGM batteries is related to the recombination capability of the battery before gassing occurs and consequent loss of electrolyte. This only occurs in overcharge when charged from "dumb" constant current chargers. The CTEK will be perfectly fine and will not damage the battery. I know this sounds a bit trite but I am an expert on this subject as our firm makes the Varley race car batteries. www.dmstech.co.uk

I had a lot of trouble and never managed to get Techstream to write to the car (W10 64 bit). However, there were no problems with reading data.

Be very careful with this. The battery acts as a smoothing device (like a capacitor) and suppresses voltage spikes and surges on the vehicle system. Using a smart charger may result in shut off as described earlier. Much better to use a jump start battery pack as the bridging source.

It is always better to use a trickle charger as this preserves the battery and prevents sulphation of the plates. Battery disconnection can cause all sorts of random issues!

Here is Lexus' advice: https://www.lexus.co.uk/discover-lexus/lexus-news/lexus-hybrid-parked?ac=C7913&mcE01&URN=4956848#Hero 🙂

Wait until you try to park it! They are enormous and no standard parking space will do. 🙂

351. 😄 BTW, on old style V5s the figure is half way down the left hand column.

The Bentley is superbly appointed inside but HUGE. I just couldn't live with the size when trying to find a parking space. The LC is bad enough with the long doors.

Yes, I use Carista for swapping summer/winter wheels. It's pretty useful although not as comprehensive as some ODB systems or Techstream.

Is the TPMS light red or amber? If red then the pressure reading is out of range. If amber then the system cannot read the sensors properly. From your description, it seems likely that the sensors have either been damaged or that their codes have been deleted from the cars memory. Most tyre firms can check read the sensors to see which ones are damaged. I would go back to the supplying dealer and see what they say. The sensors are pretty expensive!

To be fair to Lexus, it is very simple to go to the settings and switch DST on. It took me 5 seconds this morning.

I don't wish to be overly argumentative but I am not aware of any "rule" that says where you should exercise. This is the precise Government wording: You should only leave the house for very limited purposes: shopping for basic necessities, for example food and medicine, which must be as infrequent as possible. one form of exercise a day, for example a run, walk, or cycle - alone or with members of your household. any medical need, including to donate blood, avoid or escape risk of injury or harm, or to provide care or to help a vulnerable person. travelling for work purposes, but only where you cannot work from home. I can understand not taking your dog to a favourite walking spot because dogs tend to congregate and owners might stroke other people animals.

I have observed pretty good behaviour in the queue at Waitrose (who are severely limiting the number of customers in the shop at any one time). However, the thing I have noticed while driving is that people seem to have lost the ability to look before they drive out of side roads etc. They seem to think that nothing will be coming... Take a look at this latest piece of officialdom: https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2020-03-26/police-ban-driving-anywhere-to-walk-your-dog-or-exercise/ What ever difference does it make if you drive somewhere in your private car to take exercise providing you take the proper precautions on distancing? It's the contact with others that is the issue, not driving.

I live near the New Forest. Yesterday we drove the few miles to a remote area and walked around for 30 minutes. There was nobody within sight for most of the time. We got back in the car and drove home. I can't see any problem with this. It's not the driving that could be an issue, it's where you go and who you contact. Regarding the petrol station or toilet, just be observant and keep your distance from others. As for the police, I think they will have higher priorities than asking drivers where they are going (at least after the show put on for the media). What can they do if you just say "to the supermarket"? I'm more worried about all the heavy breathing cyclists and runners...

Further to my post earlier, I did test drive the AMG GT and it is very good (IMO much better than the C63).

My first car was also green. It was written off by a drunk who reversed into it at speed while I was in bed asleep!

Well, from another Malcolm... I am the CEO of a small group of companies and we have already approached our bank for support under the emergency cashflow funding package. They are treating these loans like normal business finance and demand all the director's financial details to support the loan. Not user friendly! Today may make things clearer as the Chancellor's statement later is supposed to be about how the money will be provided to workers. We will see. Reverse PAYE has be talked about.

We have found that smaller local shops and the local Coops seem to have a bit of stock of useful items. The large supermarkets are picked bare.