wharfhouse

I had that noise and it was one of my rear brake calipers sticking - check if one wheel is warmer than the others after driving around for a while - if so that's the wheel with the sticking caliper. It may be possible to get it working again or may need replacing (I had mine replaced along with discs and pads). My IS 300h is 2014 reg with 152k miles and rear discs and pads were still original before the sticking caliper.

If you have any further issues such as not being able to start the car after a few days or what seem like spurious electrical faults change the 12V battery straight away as given what happened it may now be damaged and never fully recover. As an example, though it was on my yacht rather than a car, we had a flat starter battery (for our diesel engine) after leaving it for a couple of months. We tried to trickle charge the battery for a while but it didn't put much charge into it. We have a second battery and so started the engine from that and then allowed the alternator to recharge the starter battery as usual for an hour or so. However we found that the battery wasn't holding charge for very long so planned to replace it. We had to motor for a couple of hours though and so the alternator was charging the battery during that time. We suddenly started smelling something and when we looked at the starter battery it was smoking - literally boiling the acid inside and very hot to touch. Luckily we were minutes from our destination so arrived there and switched everything off and then got the battery out and off the yacht. It took quite a few hours to cool down. Before discharging fully the battery had been working OK and so something during it's complete discharge had gone very wrong inside it.

If you can get down on the ground with a torch and check all the plastic undertrays - they run the length of the car and something there could be loose?

Worth having a good look around and underneath somewhere easier to see and hear what's going on than the side of the road - hopefully something straight forward.

Was it actually driven down or brought by car transporter - I would have expected a service to pick up on any brake issues though including sticking calipers - worth a good look though and check for warm wheels. Otherwise anything caught under the car? I had a small branch once caught under mine and it made some off noises before in worked out what it was and pulled it out...

Difficult to tell what the noise might be amidst the background noise - maybe go to a quiet spot and do the video again and it may be easier to hear what's going on. I wonder if it might be a brake caliper sticking and the noise is it releasing? Drive for half an hour and feel all the wheels and see if any are warmer than the others - of so there's a sticking caliper.

No issue with my 12v battery either. Original from 2014 and my IS 300h has now done 152k miles. I've left it for a couple of weeks recently and started just fine. I simply keep one of the lithium jumps packs to hand just in case, but the 12v battery has never let me down yet. Equally my wife's 2019 Toyota Yaris hybrid (which we've had from new) which does very little mileage, has always started even after being left a few weeks. One thing we both do though is always have the car in Ready whenever we are in the car - never use any accessories like radio or lights etc without the car in Ready mode.

Probably only thing you can do then is try and work some cleaning stuff onto the edge of the strip with maybe a nail brush and see if you can remove some of it. If that doesn't work it will mean removing it and either leaving off or replace with a new piece. As others have said it's a common issue so at least nothing to worry about regards the car.

Here's mine - all original - you can see the dirt that's got ingrained around the edges of the plastic protection film. Like I said not so noticeable on grey though.

If the plastic film is still in place then you can feel the edge of it - if it is then it's difficult to clean the dirt out of the edge - maybe a nail brush might get some of it out?

I thought the plastic was still in place from the photo but if it's not then as you say it's the remains of the dirt that would have collected around it and so will need cleaning and polishing out.

It's dirt that gets behind the anti chip stick on plastic - difficult to get out. I have some behind mine but being a grey car not so noticeable. It can be peeled off (probably with some warm air) and either left off or replaced.

Lexus Roadside Assistance is provided through the AA. The Lexus price is good value If you utilise the whole package (so two cars - the Lexus and any other and two drivers, full UK and and European cover for the Lexus) as it's all included - but you can't delete it and save money. If you need less cover then going directly to AA or another will allow flexibility to choose the cover and price needed.

It doesn't really matter as they alternate between intermediate and full at a fixed price regardless of what work is done. So if you do less than 10k miles per annum on the basis of treating the years as mileage then potentially you get more done sooner (like spark plugs).

It's not uncommon for service intervals to get out of sync with mileage if less than 10k miles are done per annum and so items on the service schedule will be done based on the age or at the closest mileage. If you have the car serviced by Lexus they will do what is needed when so you will have no cause for concern regards the warranty so long as you take it in within the 10k miles / 12 months whichever comes first each time.

The service activated warranty lasts for 10k miles or 12 months whichever comes first following the service. So if it was done at 44k miles the car is covered until 54k miles unless 12 months come up first before the mileage reaches 54k. The car should also have a Used Car warranty on it as well.

I used to be more like that but as I've got older I tend to be more selective in what I need rather than what I think I might want. Having courtesy cars now and again tends to reinforce the decision I made - I have a play with the tech but in general still don't find much that I particularly need.

I find it interesting why people want so many gadgets in cars. Of course it's a personal choice and everyone is free to spend their money as they want. But as an alternative view when I bought my IS 300h I looked at the various trim levels available and selected the Executive trim as having the features I felt I would use. The cost wasn't an issue as such as I was buying used and wanted a two to three year old car but the higher trim levels I couldn't see the value for me in many of the additional features. I hadn't planned on keeping the car as long as I have, but in hindsight I'm actually pleased I have less gadgets as there is less to go wrong as the car ages - especially given the cost of Lexus parts and repairs (even meaning the car could be written off for what is a minor issue due to the cost of parts / repair when some of the technology is involved). Everyone has different needs and desires so not trying to say there is right and wrong - I've spent enough on cars on the past myself - but it's something to bear in mind especially when buying older used cars.

Like a lot of things in life it's what we are accustomed to. If the world had cvt before manual gearboxes then then the concept of swapping cogs in a gearbox would have been seen as ridiculous - less efficient, less smooth and incredibly complex. In the marine world there are no multiple gear ratios in a marine engine - you open the throttle and the prop spins at whatever speed is dictated by the engine revs selected and the boat accelerates until it matches prop speed - not dissimilar to how an cvt feels and there has never been any thought to having multiple fixed gear ratios in a boat. I was used to marine engines long before getting my Lexus with cvt and so that's perhaps why it always felt "right" to me. But everyone to their own opinions and desires - when the world is all boring one gear silent EV drive trains we will miss the variety that used to be on offer...

I used to phone my dealer to book but have now started doing it online and all seems to work OK. I add any notes for anything I want looking at and when I take the car in the dealer has those notes and I explain it in more detail face to face. A service plan simply adds together the costs of a number of services and then lets you pay the total up front or pay monthly - if you are disciplined saving money you could do that yourself. However the service plan does fix the price of the services when it's taken out and so one benefit is that you are protected from and inflation. I've had service plans for 8 years - I schedule 3 services over 2 years each plan and pay monthly. . It's worth noting that if you haven't paid enough into the service plan (if paying monthly) to cover when a service is due (maybe you have done more miles than was planned) you may need to pay a top up for that service. You won't pay anything more overall for the designated number of services but you can't run a debit (only a credit).

I always leave my car for the whole day. Sometimes I book a courtesy car (but need to book at least a month ahead for that) and sometimes my wife picks me up and drops me off. Or I get the bus/train if I haven't arranged either! You often can request a service while you wait depending on the dealer (though they only have limited slots for those). Personally I prefer to leave the car for the day rather than feel I am rushing them by waiting for it. Booking early gives you options - if you leave booking until a couple of weeks before the service is due your options will be more limited - usually meaning leaving it there for the day and making your own way from and to the dealer.

The service will cover the items listed in the service schedule which can be found in the service book (the one that gets stamped Each service) that you should have with the car. What is done each service changes according to age and mileage. Each service some items are replaced and others checked but these will vary depending on the age/mileage the service is done. However Lexus just have two prices - one for the intermediate service and one for the full service - these alternate each 12 months or 10K miles (which ever comes first). Maintenance items such as tyres, brake discs/pads are not included in the service pricing. And of course any other items not listed in the service schedule (though they may be covered by the warranty).

Technically the CVT is the most efficient way for a car to accelerate - hence why when it was tested in F1 it proved faster than a traditional gearbox but was then immediately banned (more to do with the noise not sounding like a racing car IIRC...)

Yes that's what I thought and why I thought it may have something to do with the pop up head mechanism especially after it went down by pressing on it

That's where the pistons are for the lifting in the bonnet near the windscreen in case of an impact with a pedestrian - I wonder if there is an issue with those not being down correctly? There is certainly no problem there with my car.