Thackeray

Going back to the original question! Just wondering if the Auto button was the last button you pressed. If you manually adjust the fan speed after pressing Auto, the fan will no longer be controlled automatically, even if the Auto light stays on. But if the Auto button is the last one to be pressed the fan will speed up and slow down automatically. Having said that, I think I do get some cold air from the vents when first starting in the cold weather. I wouldn't describe it as a "blast" but for a short time it might be colder than I'd like. But within about a minute, it's no longer very cold. Obviously this cold air is coming from outside, or maybe even from the coldness of the system internally at first. Might be better if the software decreed that there was no air at all until the system had warmed. But the tubes will still be cold until you force some warm air through them. So it's probably a balancing act of having no air at all for a few minutes or start warming up the tubes as quickly as possible. It must be a dilemma for the software designer. Maybe someone else knows more about the intricacies of how the software controls the Auto climate system on startup.

As NemesisUK has said, the compressor doesn't run when it's unnecessary - only when it's necessary, to keep the cabin comfortable and the windows clear. Having said that my experience of fridge compressors is that they run forever. One fridge I know has been running without problem for 34 years. However, the air conditioning in cars has extra problems compared with a static fridge. In particular the seals drying out and loss of gas. Running the air conditioning at least once a week helps to prevent that. I had a car once whose air conditioning needed no gas topup for 11 years and that was with the air conditioning always on. Its compressor never had any problems. On conventional cars the clutch on the belt-driven compressor can seize. I imagine not using the air conditioning could cause this to happen prematurely. But the IS300h compressor has a 230v electric motor instead of being belt driven and electric motors tend to go on forever. So I keep my air conditioning on all the time.

In fairness to Rolls-Royce, I should probably add the proviso that 1930s models apparently could start themselves. It only needed the advance-retard lever to be moved, which I suppose generated one spark, for the engine to start running, even after a month of not being used! https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/may-1975/48/starting-rolls-royce https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/march-1975/36/v-e-v-miscellany

Elegant is right. I've said the same thing in another thread but I get the impression that not many people appreciate just how elegant. I think I compared the power split device in its original form with about 22 moving parts, to a typical automatic gearbox with something closer to 350 moving parts. It's nice to see someone else appreciate how impressive this device is. The elegance of the transmission was probably the number one reason I bought an IS300h. Not only does it get round the problems of auto transmissions but it also overcomes the inadequacies of the internal combustion engine. Wind back 120 years when there were steam cars, electric and internal combustion engine cars competing for market dominance and the ICE is plagued by problems: it won't start itself (steam and electric can); so the engine has to be running before you get the car moving (not necessary for electric and steam); and it has a limited torque range (electric and I assume steam have maximum torque from stationary). So to keep up with the competition, the ICE needs something to get it running - a handle will do in the early days. Once the engine is running, it needs something to engage the driving wheels - a clutch is developed that can do this. It then needs something to get over its limited torque at low and high speeds - a gearbox with two speeds in the model T Ford. But despite all these inadequacies it had one trump card to play. Its energy source was much lighter and took up less space than in the competing technologies. The electric car still has the same problem as 100 years ago - the battery is too big, too heavy and doesn't store enough energy. The steam engine still needs to carry a lot of water and fill it up at regular intervals. A whole century goes by and the picture barely changed. The engineering of the gearbox became tremendously sophisticated but at the expense of more and more complication. The starter motor and the clutch are far more sophisticated now. But how much better to dispense with them altogether. Which is why the power-split device is a truly 21st century solution to the inadequacies of the internal combustion engine. It wouldn't have been possible without the incorporation of computers. By contrast, the starter motor, the clutch and the conventional gearbox are still basically 19th century concepts. So, yes, elegant is right. And it sounds as though you've found a nice example.

On peut afficher la carte à partir de n'importe quel écran par un double-clic du bouton "Menu". Même chose après avoir manipulé la boussole - double-clic sur le bouton "Menu" et recommencer la navigation.

Est-ce que vous pouvez expliquer un peu plus? Si vous voyez la boussole vous êtes déjà sur la carte, non? Can you explain a bit more? If you can see the compass, you're already on the map - isn't that right?

How to change the map orientation. Bonjour et bienvenu! Le symbole en haut à gauche de l écran indique l'orientation de la carte. Il faut le cliquer pour changer l'orientation. Vous n'êtes pas le premier à rencontrer ce problème. Voir cette question discuté ici.

You can get back to normal auto by pulling and holding the "+" paddle. No need to operate the gear selector.

As NemesisUK said, using the paddle shifters reduces regeneration rather than increases it. As I understand it, you just use the brakes for regeneration. If you watch the Hybrid System dial, the one to the left of the speedometer, you can see the pointer go down to its maximum the harder you brake. While the pointer is still somewhere in the blue section all the braking is achieved by the motor-generators regenerating electricity. If you reach the maximum and then brake harder the brake pads will be brought into use. In gentle driving I try to keep the pointer just above the maximum point, for maximum regeneration and at the same time avoiding brake pad wear. But if you're coming down a mountain and the motor-generators aren't sufficient to keep the car's speed under control, you can use the paddles to add extra braking force from the engine. This is just the same as changing down in a manual to avoid brake fade/wear on a long downward stretch. Or you can just use the paddles for fun to get quick acceleration.

I haven't noticed that but I have noticed that after switching from recirculated to outside air, a colder, stronger air flow starts coming from the vents if the weather is cold. I might even adjust the vents to compensate. I wonder if this is happening automatically and unexpectedly causing a colder airflow in some people's cars? Although you can switch manually between the two modes, the manual says: "Outside/recirculated air mode may automatically switch depending on the temperature setting or the inside temperature." Maybe this is what is happening when colder air suddenly starts coming through the vents.

It isn't really a practical issue as you don't need it for hill-starts. (The hill-start function stops the car rolling back when you take your foot off the footbrake to press the accelerator.) It also operates more smoothly than some of the Mercedes versions of foot operated parking brakes. Coming from an automatic you won't find the e-cvt transmission hugely different. Drivers used to manual gearboxes sometimes find it difficult to get used to. But the main difference compared with a conventional automatic is that there are no pauses or lurching between gears - there are no gears as such!

Interesting to see in the poll at the top that someone had a problem with the transmission. It would be good to know what the problem was. There are so few moving parts in the transmission that I'm intrigued to know what went wrong.

Noticed Theresa May in a Lexus leaving an EU meeting in Brussels a couple of years ago, early in the negotiations. I thought at the time it might be meant as a hint to Germany that Britain buys a lot of cars from them at the moment but that could decline if 10% tariffs were added to German cars and 10% tariffs were taken off Japanese cars.

A friend had this routinely happen on their Prius. For people who use their phones all the time this could be helpful - a computer programmer would probably say, "It's not a bug, it's a feature." I tried to find some references on the internet to confirm it happens on Priuses but didn't find one. However, I did find this mobile phone forum where the problem phone is a Samsung. Maybe that's the common factor.

Don't worry! They're not thinking about you at all. Like most other people they're thinking about themselves. Probably something along the lines of, "That looks a nice car. Hope the driver doesn't notice my 14-year-old Fiesta parked over there. I'll stand casually by this Tesla and maybe the driver with the squeaky window will think it's mine."

Did they replace the VIN sticker on the lower inner section of the door? Every panel should have a VIN sticker and its absence is a sign of bodywork not being done to Lexus standards. I was told this by a Jemca bodyshop supervisor. (Another Toyota/Lexus dealer that does have its own bodyshop). The sticker is quite expensive - I think I was told it was around £100. So it's an obvious thing to skip if costs are being kept down. But if it's an insurance claim and the work is being done to Lexus standards, the sticker should be there. If you can't find it, check the inner rims of the other doors to see where it should be, as they're sometimes difficult to spot. The bonnet and boot have them too, as well as the main side body panels.

I've been reading the Boring Forum thread on the LS sub-forum. (Boring because of the lack of faults to discuss.) It made me wonder what faults owners have found on their IS300h. Any comments? I've attached a poll, too.

Whoops! Absolutely correct. Serves me right for using a conversion website rather than thinking.

This is getting a bit confusing! 13.5 km/litre is around 21 mpg (imperial - ie UK) which doesn't look right, and is a lot different from 36 mpg. Which makes me wonder if there are some other issues here? Namely, where are you getting the figures from? Are they your own calculations based on full tanks of fuel bought? I suspect not if you've only done 185 miles in a brand new car. So are you reading the numbers from the dashboard? If so, there are different options you could be seeing. Does the dashboard say "After Reset", meaning since you pressed a button to reset the start time for the consumption figure? Or does it say "After Refuel", giving the mpg since you filled up the tank? Or does it say "After Start", meaning for the current trip since you turned the car on? If you're using the "After Start" setting, you're probably seeing inconsistent figures as each trip is measured separately and starting with a cold engine is always going to increase fuel consumption (lower mpg). It's probably best to look at the "After Reset" figure to get a more realistic long-term figure. Though calculating from tanks of fuel bought will be more accurate.

This is probably obvious but discussions on this UK website are using UK gallons, which are bigger than US gallons. It might be that in Israel your car is set to show US gallons and US mpg. For example, 30 US mpg is about 36 UK mpg. You can check by changing to another measure, like km/litre or litres/100km, which I think is used in much of mainland Europe. So for example, 36 UK mpg (or 30 US mpg) is about 7.8 litres/100km. If you're not sure, it's probably best to check first whether you're on US or UK gallons.

Thanks for the explanation. It's what I assumed was the case. Are there any other concerns about using a portable jump start device instead of a second car with its engine running? I don't know very much about the details of car electrics but I would assume that a device the size of an iphone would have less capacity to harm a hybrid vehicle than connecting it to another car with a full-size 12v battery, backed up by (let's say) a five litre engine driving its alternator. (Incidentally, the yellow DBPower one recommended above, which I have bought, is reduced in price on Amazon to £16.99 for the next three and a half hours. Looks a good price for this item.)

I'm confused by the manual saying the point of running the engine of the other vehicle for five minutes is to charge the flat battery on your vehicle. I always thought that when jump starting a car you kept the engine running in the second car so that you didn't end up with its battery being flat too. Running the engine for just five minutes doesn't seem long enough to recharge the flat battery on your car. Once you'd got a conventional car running, people always used to say you shouldn't turn it off and it was best to go for a half-hour run to recharge the battery before you tried to start the car again. Why wouldn't you just connect to the second car, start its engine, and then immediately start the hybrid car? Isn't the power coming from the second car's battery sufficient to get the first car's hybrid system to the Ready state?

I suspect this is because your seats are on the timed setting. I've just done a test in my car. If I reduce the heating to level 1, turn off the car, then restart the car, the seat heating level goes back to level 3. This is because I've got the seats on the timed setting (which is probably the default if you don't change it.) The timed setting starts at level 3 whenever you restart the car and gradually reduces to level 1. As a test of your problem, I turned off the timed setting. To do this, as mentioned above, you hold down both heated seat buttons until you hear a beep. The seat heaters are now set to manual. I then set the seat to level 1 and turned off the car. When I restarted the car, the heated seat started at level 1 where I had set it when the car was running previously. So I expect that the car will now always start on level 1 until I change it. (I only tried it once.) I'll probably change it back to timed as I'm quite happy with that. But for anyone who, like you, finds it too hot initially, the setting can be changed to manual and then the seats will just stay on the setting you chose, each time you start the car. Does this work the same on your car?

No. You've just been lucky! 😁 Definitely! I stopped using plain water in my student days after getting stuck in a snowstorm on Dartmoor. The car - an original Mini - kept going. But I could't see anything because the screenwash had frozen. Using the wipers without screenwash just smeared more and more dirt across the screen. I can also vouch for the fact that pouring hot coffee from your thermos into the screenwash bottle doesn't solve the problem. Once the water has frozen in the nozzles and tubes even hot coffee won't penetrate far enough to melt it. I can't remember the solution to the problem. I think we just had to wait for a while until the snow stopped falling and we could get on our way without using the wipers. Ever since, I've used some sort of anti-freeze screenwash, using only a little in the summer and increasing the concentration as the winter arrives.

Yes, that looks good, too. In fact, it looks as though it may be the same product with cosmetic changes as the DBPower one on Amazon. The output ratings are the same, the crocodile clips are the same, the labelling is the same, though the socket positions have been changed. Maybe you get a better battery technology for the £9 higher price. It's hard to tell from the descriptions.