Thackeray

It would be interesting to know what the 70% referred to. Does it mean it has 70% of its life remaining? Here's an app that tests hybrid battery health but it doesn't refer to a percentage figure for health, so it would be useful to understand what this refers to.

It scarcely matters, as long as you stay away from the big cities. For example, you might not want to attempt the Étoile roundabout in Paris on your first trip. But France has thousands of kilometres of quiet and picturesque roads throughout the country. I'm always struck by how busy it is in the UK when I come off the ferry after crossing from Normandy. Probably the main advice is to take seriously the "priorité à droite" rule (priority to the right). You might think that when you're ambling through a small town or village and you're on the main road and someone is approaching from a side road that they'll wait for you to pass. But no. They have priority. And they will use it. Be prepared to stop and let them out from the side road. This mostly doesn't apply on main country roads but the yellow diamond sign confirms that the basic rule (priority to the right) is suspended when you're on these roads. The rule is also mostly suspended at roundabouts where they have gradually adopted over the years the UK system where you give way to the people on the roundabout. (Except at the Étoile roundabout in Paris!) But again there is a sign saying you must give way to the people on the roundabout, rather than the old system of the people on the roundabout giving way to those entering (a recipe for gridlock!).

I seem to have read somewhere that the issue is not the setup of the lights (ie whether you'll pass the MOT) but whether you, as a driver, dazzle other drivers. I know in Germany they require you to fit new headlights that meet German standards, in order to get a UK car to pass their MOT equivalent. But I don't know if the French have the same requirements beyond the law not to dazzle other drivers when you drive.

I would think you should be getting around 6.5 l/100km (44 miles/UKgallon) over the long term. Is there anything that leads you to think it's the battery that's at fault? Much of the time the battery isn't used very much. Except around town, I would think that the majority of the time the engine drives motor generator 1 (MG1) which produces electricity that drives MG2 (connected to the road wheels), without much input from the battery. In addition, the resistance of MG1 pushes torque from the engine to the road wheels. That being the case, if you're using too much petrol, I'd be inclined to think that the first place you might look is the engine. This is an engine which when it was launched (around 2013) was claimed to be the most efficient production engine at 39.5% efficiency. If you're cruising on motorways and not getting 5.6 l/100km (50 mpg) I'd be inclined to think that the engine is taking in too much fuel rather than the traction battery not having sufficient charge. I'm not sure how much help the battery can give on long-distance cruising at speeds of, say, 110-120 kph. But I'm no expert. Since you've caught ColinBarber's attention maybe he can make some suggestions. (Or correct what I've said above!) I'd also be interested to know what the 70% health means. If it means 70% charge, that's well within the normal range of 40-80% charge. If it means something else, it would be interesting to have this clarified.

I would have thought it was very unlikely to overheat. We are in Britain in the autumn, after all! I've left my IS300h in the Ready state while stationary for an hour or more during the lockdown, as advised by Lexus to keep the 12volt battery fully charged. I didn't see any ill effects. In any case on the IS model (yours may be different) I found the engine would run initially for about a minute and then shut down for up to around 20 minutes. It would then start again, run for four minutes and then shut down for another 20 minutes. So in an hour the engine is only running for perhaps around 10-15 minutes in four minute bursts. Here's a graph of the engine temperature while it's in the Ready state for about 15 minutes. The red line is the engine temperature. It starts at around 20C and rises to around 35C and then the engine stops. About four minutes later it starts again and rises to around 55C after running for about four minutes. It then stops again. Over the next seven minutes the temperature falls to around 45C and then the graph stops. Normal operating temperature is around 80-85C, so I shouldn't think there's much danger of it overheating. Sorry the graph is so small. But if you click on it, you should be able to see it full size. Incidentally, if you leave the heater/climate control turned on while the weather is cool, the engine will keep running until it has warmed up the cabin. Turn off the climate control if you don't want the engine to start so often.

I think you can use engine braking while you're in Drive too, by just using the steering wheel paddles. (This is how it works on the IS300h anyway). You don't need to select Sport for this to work. But if you do select Sport, you can also select lower ratios for acceleration as well as engine braking. Whereas in Drive you can use the paddles to select a lower ratio for engine braking but as soon as you accelerate the car takes over choosing the right ratio. On conventional cars, I have always used engine braking going down hills to help save wearing the brakes. But I've realised on a hybrid car I should use the brakes going down hills for as much regenerated power as possible (checking the power meter.) As you say, if you use engine braking you might be just throwing away energy as heat and noise.

Just a thought: 259 plus 106 is 365. Maybe they mean 106 days are wet (not dry) but nobody noticed that the figures didn't make sense before they issued the press release.

I really hesitate to ask but there is a very obvious question here. Did they not come with a manual? If not, I expect PCM is right - I'd guess it's a plant cloche.

I'd read about the different stages the engine goes through as it warms up but have only now been able to see when this happens. That's one of the reasons I found this app interesting. In the graphic above the engine has recently started and is in stage S1a. This will continue for about a minute and it may stop after that. In this colder weather maybe it wouldn't stop. In this initial stage the engine is low powered with late ignition timing and uses a relatively large amount of fuel - presumably to heat the engine and catalytic converter. (Is that right?) It spins MG1 and produces a small amount of electricity that goes into the battery. (This is shown with a narrow red band at the bottom of the engine column and a narrow green band at the top of the battery column. The numbers show power in kilowatts produced by the engine and stored in the battery.) I have seen forums where some keen fuel-maximising Prius owners don't drive the car during this stage. This is because the engine isn't used to move the car in this stage. Instead, all power to move the car during S1a comes from the traction battery. And so, since the battery is discharging it can't be charged at the same time. So this small amount of power produced during S1a is thrown away instead of being stored in the battery as happens when the car is stationary. Interesting but I'm not really bothered about such small fuel savings. You can't select EV mode during S1a. I think this stage ends when the engine temperature reaches 40C. Before S1a, there's S0 when the car is in Ready mode but the engine hasn't yet started. After S1a there's S1b, then S2, S3 and for normal long distance driving S4.

Did you try the Hybrid Assistant app? It generates a lot of interesting information - really far more than you can follow while driving. But it taught me a lot about how the car is working. The website has links to a lot of useful videos on youtube.

Nice to see the post bus got through. Or maybe this one is stuck - can't really tell from the picture.

And am I right in thinking that by 4am the snow plough had gone through at high speed and the main roads were all clear so that the Post Bus could get through? (I know, you were still asleep and didn't notice.) (Passing Swiss yokel, attempting Yorkshire accent, says, "Snow? You call this snow? When I were a lad we would have snow up t't roof. Brought cows into't kitchen to keep house warm. T't doors and windows were blocked by snow so we had to climb out of skylight to get hay for the cows. Younger generation wouldn't believe you if you told them." Passing Swiss yokel closes window of his Lamborghini and drives off looking disgusted.)

Nice analogy!

Really useful documents from NemesisUK. Thanks for those. As usual, Herbie has come to the rescue with some clarification about how the electrical side of the car works. I have just a couple of other comments. First of all, the traction battery never runs down in normal everyday use. Its lower limit of charge (on my IS300h at least) is 40%. If the battery declines to 40% while in Ready mode the engine starts. This usually shows as two bars on the dashboard energy meter. The engine runs until the battery has 50% (three bars) and then it stops and the process repeats ad infinitum (or until the petrol runs out). So the car designers have built in this 40% reserve that will always be there if the car is not faulty. This means there will always be power for MG1 to start the engine, even if it declines a bit further to 37-38%. There's no need for a further backup from the 12v battery. When starting the car, MG1 uses a 650 volt supply. No doubt that might be possible from a 12 volt battery but it sounds like a big demand on even a big 12 volt battery. A typical starter motor of 2 kw or so draws around 300 amps of power for a few seconds. But in the hybrid system the 12v circuit is limited to around 100 amps, which could give you a.maximum of 1.2 kw - unlikely to be enough to turn the engine slowly let alone at the higher speeds the hybrid system uses. Conventional cars can get started with just a few slow turns of the engine and just a few initial sparks. By contrast the hybrid engine is set up not to spark until it's turning at around 1,000 rpm. This means you get a smooth unstressed start, unlike the typical jerky start in a conventional car. MG1 has around 40 or so kw of power and spins at around 4,000 rpm to turn the engine at 1,000 rpm - I might be wrong but it doesn't seem likely that 1.2kw of power from the 12v circuit would be enough to do that. Not quite true, I think, as when the engine is not running you need the battery either to start the car moving by supplying power to MG2 (which is linked directly to the road wheels) or to provide power to MG1 to start the engine when needed either before or after you start moving. Nonetheless, it was interesting to see in the circuit diagram from NemesisUK that MG1 feeds MG2 directly. This is what I thought was the case (and mentioned in another recent thread). It means that the battery is not necessary to keep the car going once it's moving. Purely hypothetically, (as I said in the other thread!) this means the car is entirely self-sufficient as regards electricity once it's moving and not dependent on the battery except to get started. But in practical terms, you can't use the car unless it has the traction battery as it can't get moving without it.

Glad you got it working. As far as I know there's no problem leaving it plugged in while driving or indeed while stationary. But I have a couple of queries myself. The link in Mincey's last post raises the question of power drain. I had the impression that it has power whether the ignition is on or not. If that's right, over long periods it might help to run down the 12v battery. Whether that's a minimal effect or not I don't know. I also wonder if there's a security risk. If the OBD device is always powered, then it would be fairly straightforward for a thief to connect to it by bluetooth from outside the car. I don't know what could then be done - reprogram keys? unlock the doors? Maybe someone else with more experience of the OBD facilities can give guidance.

The Hybrid Assistant website says the Carista connector doesn't work with the fourth generation of Hybrid Synergy Drive (HSD4). But the IS300h is third generation and I don't think the facelift version changed that. I hope someone will correct this if I'm wrong.

I didn't notice it disconnecting. It seemed to be connected for as long as I wanted to look at it. The app does say it will shut down if you drive the car. I assume you were stationary and the app didn't shut down. Instead, I assume the app said it had lost the connection - this would suggest the OBD device had lost the bluetooth connection. I don't think you actually need a subscription - as far as I understand it the subscription is just for the Carista app. The device I used is borrowed so I didn't know anything about the subscription. I've just borrowed it to test the Hybrid Assistant and Tire Assistant apps. Both worked for me without problems and they are both free. If you buy one from Amazon you could always return it if it doesn't work for you.

The Hybrid Assistant website has a page on which OBD connectors work with which cars and which don't. I've just read the corresponding page on the associated Tire Assistant OBD page and they say they have only tested the OBDLink LX. I hadn't read this page until now but my Carista OBD connector worked fine. I didn't notice anything that didn't work properly but it's a very simple app with few functions. On the Hybrid Assistant page they do list a cable connected device but whether that means it would work with Tire Assistant app, I don't know.

I've just come across an app called Tire Assistant which shows the individual pressure readings for each of the wheels on the IS300h. It's always been a slight irritation that the TPMS system on the IS300h is only partly helpful. The TPMS warning light tells you there might be a problem with one or more of your tyres but it doesn't tell you which tyre. When it's dark and raining it wouldn't be the best time to have to try and find out which tyre is losing air. This is especially irritating because, as far as I can tell, the car knows which sensor is reporting low pressure. It just doesn't display this information on this car. So I thought I would try the Tire Assistant app and it seems to work fine. It needs an OBD device and an Android phone. You start the car and then start the app and it looks like this: The pressure display is initially in bars but it can be changed to psi. Initially, the app doesn't know which sensor is on which wheel but as the pressures are adjusted at a garage you can identify each sensor by the change in pressure reading. Then each wheel image can be dragged to its correct location and renamed with its location as shown in the video above. It looks quite useful and saves having to get your hands dirty checking the pressure manually. Here's the webpage for Tire Assistant.

In that case, what was the point of him looking up the manufacturer's recommended figures in the alignment machine's database? (It looks from the heading of the printout as though he found the right model, though I don't know what "UE" refers to.) You could ask him why he fed in the manufacturer's numbers based on the car designers' calculations if he was just going to ignore them and make a guess based on how he was feeling that day! Incidentally, did you have a problem before the first adjustment, either with the suspension or anything else to do with the wheels or alignment?

As you said and as far as I can see the initial numbers are within acceptable tolerance while the revised numbers are outside the acceptable tolerance on the rear. (They're in the red for the benefit of Malc who perhaps has a computer that isn't showing the red properly. Click the pictures to enlarge them and show the colours.) I had the same experience once with a tyre fitting chain. They adjusted the tracking and then the steering wheel was off centre and the car pulled to the left. They tried to fix it and made it worse. Later it was an MOT tester who advised me to find a garage with a Hunter machine. I found one and they made the car perfectly poised - it felt solidly planted and the steering wheel pointed straight. So my advice would be avoid national tyre fitting chains. If you can find a small garage with a Hunter machine that might solve the problem. The one recommended by LexIS200Sport seems to use a Hunter machine from the pictures on their website. If it's close enough that might be an option.

I wonder if 15 minutes is long enough to recharge the battery by the amount it has used to get the car to Ready state plus replenish the amount lost since the car was last run. At the start of the lockdown Lexus recommended putting the car in Ready state for an hour once a week. So that's only one startup to Ready mode each week instead of two; and 60 mins charging in total instead of 30. I don't know what any of the figures are for draining or recharging the battery in these examples but maybe the longer but less frequent charge might be worth a try. That's what I've been doing and haven't had a problem starting the car.

You're right John, the article doesn't say this is the leather for all models - just the CT. Though I don't suppose they use cheaper leather on more expensive model ranges. (Incidentally, when I display the page I don't see an advert for the LC500 - I only see a link to the previous blog page which is an article about the LC500. If you're seeing an advert, that will be the fault of cookies on your computer! Maybe you've been checking out LC500s for sale and the cookies have generated adverts! )

Lexus call the imitation leather "Tahara" and it tends to be used for the bolsters with a fabric seat base. They call leather "Leather" as far as I know. Some Californians like to avoid leather for environmental reasons and apparently the Japanese don't like the smell. But for those who do like leather, in the earlier cars the leather seats have fewer rows of stitching across the base of the seat, three rows including a parallel double row in the middle of the three.The Tahara versions have about seven rows of stitching across the whole surface of the seat. I think I've read somewhere that Lexus keep their own cows so that they can keep them away from barbed wire - it damages the appearance of the hides. Here's a link to a novel use for what Lexus call Leather. If there's any evidence that this isn't leather I'm sure someone can find it on the internet.

If the engine is running, I'd assumed that MG1 will always be supplying enough electricity to power all the accessories as well as providing some power to MG2. In practice the battery can go sufficiently low that it can no longer add any current to that produced by MG1 (the computer doesn't allow it to go completely flat). Here's one example where the car uses the battery for as long as it can to add speed but the car slows down (but doesn't stop) when the battery has no more power. Of course, a faulty battery is a different matter and the computers would probably not allow the car to run if there was no battery power because of faults rather than because of minimum permitted charge.