Thackeray

If it's a Lexus dealer, they probably won't want a Mercedes in their showroom. It might even be against company policy. So they will have to dispose of it. Not a major problem but they will be taking on the risk of an auction price in the recession. So they're naturally going to quote a price that will discourage you from part exchanging. Less hassle and financial risk for them. But this doesn't mean their quote is what the car is worth. It just means it's not part of their business model. As PaulWhitt20 said above, it's the cost to change that counts - it doesn't really matter what the other numbers are. You might feel you'd like a good price for your car as a kind of recognition of looking after it carefully. But the key thing is how much it will cost you overall to get the new car.

Interesting that it sounds as though the car started ok with the battery at 10.3 volts. Maybe that was after the brake pressure was already boosted and the battery had had a moment to recover. Or did you have to jump start it? I've certainly started my car without problems for several months at around 11.5 volts. And reading a Prius forum I came across a report of someone who said they had had no problem starting the car with the battery at 8 volts. This person commented that the computers run on 5 volts, so if that's correct obviously 8v would be enough to start the computers. Though it seems unlikely to be enough to boost the brakes and obviously the voltages may be different on Lexuses. There was much discussion that the boost process happened on this generation of Prius when the driver's door was opened, so by opening a different door you could avoid it happening to save the battery and have a better chance of getting the car into Ready mode. If Lexuses boost the brakes as you approach (as Britprius mentioned above), instead of when you open the door, I suppose you could avoid this happening by turning off the key, if that's an option on a particular model. So did it actually get into the Ready state at 10.3 volts without the need to jump start it?

With previous cars, servicing was always a stressful time. Waiting for the phone call where they say, "I'm afraid you'll need your ... replaced. That'll be an extra £673.48." With this IS300h, no phone call. The quoted price is what I've paid for three annual services. Nothing has gone wrong that I've noticed. The dealers have not found something wrong that I hadn't noticed. Apart from new tyres and a new 12 volt battery, nothing has needed replacing. Brakes are around one third worn after 50,000 miles. This is because a lot of the braking is done by regenerating electricity and the brake pads/discs are scarcely used. The simplicity of the transmission means there's no separate starter motor to go wrong, no clutch, no torque converter, no separate alternator, no gearbox as such. It's presented as an automatic but it doesn't have the hundreds of moving parts that can go wrong in a conventional automatic. Instead there's a permanently engaged planetary gearset, plus one additional cog wheel, all permanently engaged, so there's no inherent stress from changing gears. The dealer has replaced windscreen wipers though I didn't think that was really needed. But they didn't charge extra. That's about it. For motorway use, I like the way the engine spins at about 1200 rpm when you're cruising at 70 mph. In the future, all-electric cars may well be preferable. But we're not quite there yet. And the range is better in a petrol car. When I fill up with petrol the dashboard says the full tank is enough for 600 miles (or if driving in France, 1,000 kilometres which looks quite pleasing).

Initially I wondered if the fact that the engine was running made any difference. While it's running and the car is stationary, several kilowatts are probably being generated by MG1 (motor/generator 1) but this is all being fed into the traction battery. The power fed into the 12 volt system presumably doesn't vary a great deal. So could the 12 volt battery have supplied the 300 amps required on its own, with circuitry preventing this being drawn from the DC/DC converter and causing any damage? Personally, I wouldn't try jump starting a conventional car from my hybrid. But I'm wondering why no damage was caused. Was this just luck? Did the engine running have anything to do with it? Or is there circuitry to prevent damage and success just depends on whether the 12 volt battery can provide the power needed on its own?

The big advantage of going for a drive is that you'll be able to enjoy driving your car again and have a pleasant outing. But there isn't any extra benefit for the 12 volt battery. This is because as soon as the car is in Ready state, the 12v battery is being charged from the hybrid battery. This happens whether the engine is running or not. The car doesn't have to be moving. In conventional cars with an alternator, you may have the possible advantage that the alternator is spinning faster when you drive the car. This may charge the battery more rapidly. But I have to say that when alternators began to replace dynamos in cars, their selling point, as I remember it, was that they had higher output at lower rotation speeds. Certainly, with a dynamo you got little output when the car was idling so you definitely needed to go for a drive. I don't know whether this was the case when alternators became the norm. Anyone know the answer?

I had this on my IS. I thought it was a fault and was planning to report it at the next service as it wasn't a major problem. It turns out (and this may be different on your RX450h) that you can switch between Auto and Intermittent functioning. I didn't know this and had accidentally switched from Auto to the Intermittent operation when you switch the wipers on. There's a button on the end of the wiper stalk on the IS that you press to turn the Auto wipers on or off, and a little red light turns on and off . This much I knew. What I didn't know was that if you press and hold the button, after a couple of seconds the light will flash. After the light has stopped flashing, let go of the button and you will have switched to the non-auto Intermittent option. Do the same to switch back to Auto. This only works, though when the car is stationary and the wipers are off. After reading the manual and finally understanding what they were describing, I pressed the Auto button until it flashed and found the "fault" had disappeared. I hope this is the same fault you've got and not something needing actual repair.

Looks as though the recent year CT200h and/or the premium nav option does this differently. Does your manual say something different from the one above? There must be a reference in it to the voice button on the steering wheel. My only other thought is that the car has lost the contact list that it copies from your phone. Does the phone connect correctly so that you can see the contact list? On the internet I've also seen different instructions for the voice tags, where you go to the contact list and then there's a button labelled options which will take you to the voice tags. But there was no indication of which model/year this was for. If you find the solution, let us know how it should work.

This is what the manual says. (This is on page 486 though you may have a different version) You can register desired contacts to enable the speech command system. Up to 50 contacts per phone can be registered. Go to “Voice tags”: “MENU” button  “Setup”  “Telephone”  “Contact/call history settings”  “Voice tag”  “New” or “Edit” Select the desired contact. Move the controller to the left and then select “REC”. Say the registered voice tag. To play the registered voice, select “Play”.

If you have stations stored on presets you don't have to switch multiplexes yourself - the radio will switch to the new multiplex automatically. This is the advantage of putting favourite stations onto the presets - you then don't have to bother with all this multiplex/ensemble business. I've noticed, though, that if I switch one preset station to another preset station that's on the same ensemble, the switch is instant. But if I switch from one preset on one ensemble to another preset on a different ensemble there is a brief pause, presumably while the radio tunes into the different ensemble. The radio is fine if you have the stations you want on presets. But, no, it isn't user friendly at all if you just want to browse stations. You can also easily cycle through your presets using the steering wheel controls.

My alarm went off last weekend too. I expect it was a fly or a spider. The alarm has been silent for a year or so but last year it kept going off for no apparent reason for two or three weeks. Then it just stopped doing it. I thought I might have spotted a fly at one point but eventually it just went back to normal. I didn't think of fly killer (or a snake trap). Wish I'd thought of that at the time.

I noticed that Times Radio started broadcasting this week, supposedly targetting the Radio 4 audience. I thought it might be interesting to have a listen and see what it's like. I'm not convinced that Fox News in America, also owned by the Murdochs, has been an unequivocal force for good. But despite this, Times Radio might or might not turn out to be interesting. The problem is how do you listen to it when you have a Lexus designed DAB radio? Maybe others will be interested to hear how I managed to set it up. It turns out, after I did some research, that a likely reason early Lexus DAB radios are so hopeless is that Japan doesn't use DAB. Instead it uses some other digital standard. That being the case, when they implemented the DAB system for countries like the UK they probably didn't realise it was so hopeless, not having had any experience of how it should work for the listener. Anyway, as I discovered some months ago, the key is the “ensemble” or “multiplex”. Stations are grouped into a stream of data which is called a multiplex; each multiplex might group 10 or 15 stations. There are several multiplexes, some national, some local. A decent DAB radio hides all this technical stuff and simply displays an alphabetical list of available stations. But the Lexus set-up instead requires you to find the multiplex that carries the station you want to listen to. Knowing this, all I needed was the name of the multiplex that was carrying Times Radio. This is available on the internet but instead I used my DAB radio, switched to Times Radio and then displayed the info for the station. This told me that the multiplex is SDL National. Later, in the car, I turned on the radio and pressed the tiny button marked Radio repeatedly until the DAB screen showed. At this point you move the Audio Controller wheel to the right and select Manual, which will show the name of the current Ensemble or Multiplex. You then need to press the right or left buttons on the radio itself until you display the SDL National ensemble. Lastly move the Audio Controller to the right and select stations. Times Radio should now be listed among the stations on this multiplex. There's also a potential shortcut to save going through all the ensembles to find the one you want. If you have any of the stations broadcast on SDL National already stored on your presets you can go straight to this ensemble by selecting the preset and then select stations as above. Among stations you might already have on a preset from this ensemble are Virgin Radio, TalkSport and JazzFM. Here's a full list. I wonder if Lexus has made the DAB system easier to use in more recent cars.

Robin, Do you mean Toyotatech.co.uk in Guildford ? If not ,please give address etc. Great to see you've drawn up a list of garages. This will be really useful, particularly if it can be given a bit more prominence in the forum. Looks like you haven't added Toyotec yet. I see you didn't get a reply to your question but after checking a map I can confirm that Redhill is not the same place as Guildford! (Admittedly they're both in Surrey but assuming they're the same place is like assuming Chester is the same place as Crewe!)

It seems you can also send them a query on the website here If you send them your car details they might get back to you sooner if they're still in the office. Or maybe tomorrow!

There's also Lexus Parts Direct. Is this the battery you need? Buliztik described the battery he bought from them for an IS in this thread . He said they were very helpful and their website doesn't say the batteries are out of stock. I wondered how reputable Lexus Parts Direct might be because I hadn't heard of them. But they seem to be the online arm of a longstanding group of dealerships in Swindon called Fish Brothers. You could phone them and see if they have the battery you need. (Don't rely on the link I included above!)

This was my experience too on the IS. I gave up for about 18 months before investigating again. I hope I can help you avoid the same experience. The thing is, you were expecting voice recognition (as I was) and it doesn't have this feature. To do decent voice recognition you need a biggish computer or Google's servers. These cars don't have this, though perhaps some other Lexus models do. You may have experience with dictation software like Dragon Dictate or similar. With these, you can train it to recognise your voice and then it types what you say increasingly accurately as you correct it over time. This is also how live subtitles are done on television. The computer can't cope with the range of voices heard on the television so a subtitler trains the computer with his or her voice and then re-speaks everything that's said, using a single voice that the computer is then familiar with. But the IS and as far as I can see the CT don't do this. That's why I ignored this feature for 18 months. However, it does have a much more basic feature, which despite being limited is nonetheless quite useful. This is that you can record the names of people on your phone contact list. When you've done this, it's actually quite convenient to be able to call them just by pressing the voice button on the steering wheel and then speaking the person's name. The number will then be dialled. It's actually a nice and useful feature. But it's not voice recognition as generally understood and there's a maximum of 50 names that you can record. These recorded names are called "Voice Tags" which isn't very intuitive if you're trying to find the feature in the index of the manual and you don't know what it's called. So as so often with manuals, it's not very useful if you don't know what they call the thing that you're looking for. As I say, it took me 18 months to work it out. It would be nice if Lexus had a Documentation Testing Department but it looks as though they don't. So although the manual looks as though it ought to be able to help you, since they don't seem to have tested the manual on real customers, as often as not it doesn't.

Apparently King Boris of Borsovia was one of the characters in Rubovia. More details on this website: "King Rufus XIV and Queen Caroline presided over the decidedly madcap kingdom, aided and abetted by the put-upon Lord Chamberlain, industrious Farmer Bottle, Rubina the exasperated cat, Caroline's pampered pet dragon Pongo, ... (and) card game-loving neighbouring monarch King Boris of Borsovia..."

The design of the DAB tuning system is even worse than the mpg presets! (I don't want to put you off the car; almost everything else on the car is delightful but the DAB radio tuning is dreadful.) Here's a link to an earlier thread where someone else was struggling to make it work. The problem is that you have to choose which Ensemble or Multiplex you want to get stations from. If this Ensemble is out of range, you'll get nothing until you choose another Ensemble. I didn't know what an Ensemble or Multiplex was when I started but eventually discovered that it's a collection of stations combined into a single digital stream. Have a look at the earlier discussion linked to above if you want to read some more background. Otherwise, this is what I wrote at the time, copied and pasted to save you looking for the main instructions. This works on my car, but of course your model may be different in some way. "Using the Audio Controller (that's the one to the left of the gear selector), starting from the DAB screen, move the Controller wheel to the right and then select "Manual". Instead of the list of stations, you should now see the name of one station, preceded by the name of an "Ensemble". You may already know what an ensemble or a multiplex is - I didn't before I had to grapple with this system. More on this later. If you still see "Signal Unavailable" this means that this "Ensemble" or group of stations is out of range so you need to switch to one that is in range. On the radio itself, press the small button labelled with a right arrow (I expect left works just as well). This should take you to the next Ensemble, where you may have some reception. Give it four or five seconds to decide whether it's working or the signal is still unavailable. If it's also unavailable, press the arrow button again to try the next one until you get a working station. If none of the stations work, the problem is elsewhere but if one of them does go on to step 3. Move the Audio Controller to the right and then select Stations. A list of the stations on this Ensemble should now appear. You can select from them using the Audio Controller, the arrow buttons or the tuning knob." When you've found the stations you want (ie Radio 4!) save it on a preset. Then you can forget about selecting Ensembles.

I think this is a shortcomiing of the display. There are a number of figures you can choose to have disiplayed but you have to choose them in advance. You can't simply disiplay them when you want to see them. I think this could have been designed more helpfully so that you can always select anything you want without having to stop the car and change the settings. However, when you have stopped the car, you can use the right hand four-way controller on the steering wheel to go into settings. You can then choose to display: Current fuel consumption average fuel consumption (since reset or since start or since refuel) average speed (since reset or start) Elapsed time (time since reset or start) Range you can drive on fuel in tank Distance travelled since start It's not very intuitive but with the help of the manual you can place a selection of two (or is it three?) of these items in each of two preset displays.You can then see the preset displays while driving. But if you've chosen the wrong options, you're not allowed to see them until you've stopped the car and made a different choice of options. This is not, sadly, the best of designs but you get used to it. Bear in mind that the mpg figure displayed, like in many cars, is an over-estimate and the real fuel consumption will be 3-4 mpg lower than the figure shown.

A couple of days ago, I came across this interesting video of a hybrid being driven down a mountain road. Obviously the hybrid battery is potentially being charged continuously mile after mile. It seems to suggest that the system works to prevent the hybrid battery being charged above 80% - which I assume is eight bars on the dashboard monitor. The video uses the Hybrid Assistant app, which shows the battery charge of around 78-80% on the right hand side. Next to it is the engine rpm figure in a graphic shaped like a piston. As the car speeds up downhill and the battery gets to 79% charge the engine starts to spin around 1500 rpm to provide engine braking. But as the battery gets closer to 80% the engine speeds up to around 3500 rpm (quite noisily) to provide more engine braking. The app also shows when there's any mechanical braking in the symbol in the top left next to the speed. The brake symbol turns red when the driver applies the brakes. The commentary is in Italian but in the settings at the bottom right of the video you can set auto-translated subtitles in English.

If the CT works mostly like the IS, my one bit of advice while the car is unfamiliar is to take the time when the car beeps at you to try and work out what it's trying to tell you. When I went to fill up with petrol for the first time, I'd pulled up at the pump, got out of the car and it beeped at me. I didn't know why. I thought it might be that the headlights were on - a lot of cars beep if you leave them on. If they were on, I probably thought they'll go off in a moment like in a lot of cars. So I just ignored the beep and filled up and paid at the pump. It was only when I got back in the car and prepared to drive off that I realised that I hadn't turned the car off while filling up. The engine wasn't running so I instinctively thought it was "off". But instead it was still in the "Ready" state. The engine could have come on again at any moment while filling up. This is probably not the best way to fill up the car and it's probably safer to have it all turned off in the usual way. The car was trying to tell me that I'd got out of the car while leaving it in the Ready state. Beeps can alert you to a variety of things: eg the parking brake is still on as you drive away; someone hasn't put seat belts on etc. But on the positive side now I'm familiar with the car, I'm conditioned, like Pavlov's dogs, to shift into Drive when I hear the beep that means the Ready light is on. I no longer need to look at the dashboard to watch for the light; I know the beep means the car is ready to go. (Pavlov's dogs, of course, would have to work as a team to shift into Drive as a lone dog couldn't reach the brake pedal while shifting the gear selector.)

Thanks for this. I have a vague memory of someone suggesting that a plus sign on the negative terminal was a hangover from positive earth systems on older classic cars. But it does seem more likely that it's a mistake in the supply chain - I can't think why anyone would make a conscious decision to mislabel the terminal.

One last question. I notice in your picture that the terminal on the left, presumably the negative connector, has a big plus sign marked on it. I think I've read elsewhere that this may be an anomaly and that the left terminal, despite the plus sign, is not the positive but is actually the negative. The positive is the one on the right with the fuses and the red cover - is that right? Does anyone have any ideas why the left one which I assume is the negative has this big plus sign marked on it?

Many thanks for this explanation. That makes things clearer. I had assumed that the vent pipe was in continuous use but I now get the impression that it's mainly there for safety in extreme situations. I found the following quote from a Canadian university: "In VRLA (valve regulated lead acid) batteries (of which AGM is one type), any hydrogen and oxygen produced during charging does not escape but is converted back into water. Gas can only escape when internal pressure exceeds the rating of the pressure valve. Therefore, VRLA batteries are much less likely to release hydrogen than vented batteries. A vented battery can give off sixty times more gas than a VRLA battery in normal use." And later it says, "they release little or no gas until the battery is recharged to approximately 80% of its capacity". In fact, when I've been leaving the car in Ready state to keep the battery topped up, I've noticed that the charging voltage is adjusted according to conditions. It starts charging at 13.9v, presumably until sensors have reported the outside and battery temperatures. It then raises the voltage to 14.4v for a while. But if the outside temperature is above around 25C, it quickly reduces to 14.3v or 14.1v. This is presumably because, from what I've read, AGM batteries don't like too rapid a charge when outside temperatures are higher. And, of course, the rate of charge is reduced (as I think Britprius has mentioned elsewhere) when it reaches 80%. So it's all very cleverly designed and seems to be specifically set up for an AGM battery.

My guess would also be that the main reason for the vent is for safety, so that there isn't an accumulation of hydrogen which could catch fire or explode. But I've been puzzled to hear that the vent tube runs down to the bumper. (I haven't examined it myself). Hydrogen is lighter than air, so if the pipe is pointing downwards how does the hydrogen escape? Would it not just accumulate in the pipe as it can't rise any higher than the position of the vent? I hope there are some battery experts who can come up with the answer. The other question I had for Adam was what thoughts he had about the lower Ah rating - 45 Ah on the new battery compared with 49 Ah on the old one. As long as there are no day to day operational problems with the new battery, I suppose the only difference is that the 8% lower capacity will shorten by about 8% the length of time you can leave the car parked before the battery goes flat. So if, for example, you could park for a month on the old battery when it was in perfect condition, you could only park for around 27 days on the new one before it goes flat. I don't suppose the lower capacity would affect the number of charging cycles it could achieve so it might remain usable for around the same number of years, other things being equal. But again I'd be interested to hear an expert opinion on this.

Many thanks for posting this very useful information. I'd been looking at this battery, too, (though mine may still last the summer) so it's really useful to hear of your experience. In particular, it's useful to know that it's virtually the same size as the original Panasonic as this is one of the problems in identifying a replacement. In another thread, Britprius has given really useful details about how to replace the battery with one designed for a mobility scooter which is cheaper and more powerful. But I'm put off by the possible need to adjust the frame it's mounted in. It's much easier if it's just the same size as the original. I have a couple of questions. How does the vent hose connect - is it just a click connection? You mentioned a vent plug - was this something in the new battery to protect it in transit and to throw away when you connect the vent pipe? Some threads about battery replacement have also mentioned a separate wire for the battery temperature sensor; I think this may have been on older GS models. But I assume there must be a battery temperature sensor somewhere. Some internet websites say that in general this is in the centre of the base underneath the battery where the heat is greatest. Do you know if the IS300h has a sensor here or somewhere else? And do you have to do anything in particular about the sensor, assuming there is one? On restarting the car, did you have any issues? The handbook says you may have to start in Accessories mode before you can get into the Ready state. And windows and radio stations may have to be reset. And lastly, do you have any idea which is the main part number for the battery. You mention 28800-YZZQX as well as S42B24L (I'm guessing this is a typo! both your batteries are labelled S46B24L). Are these two numbers both acceptable or do you know if one of them is the specific ID for the battery needed? Thanks again for all the details, in particular the pictures which help to make sense of what's involved. It's a long time since I got involved in changing batteries and on a hybrid high-voltage car I'm a little more cautious than I used to be on a pre-computer age non-electric car!