Thackeray

That's easy to visualise. Nothing happens! That's to say nothing mechanical happens. In fact nothing happens in the transmission when you select any gear except Park. That's because the planetary gearset has permanently engaged cog wheels that are never disengaged. I don't know what the RX gear selector is like but if it's a substantial chunky one, like in the IS, that's just for show and to make it seem like a conventional automatic gear selector. If you've seen the Prius gear selector, you'll have seen how insubstantial it is and this performs exactly the same function. When you select Park, the transmission is locked with a parking pawl and this might be operated mechanically by the gear selector or it might be engaged electronically as on some Toyotas. I don't know which it is. But the other gear position selections do nothing mechanically. Normally, when you put the selector in Reverse, MG2 which drives the road wheels is put into reverse. I suppose this is by reversing the electric current but maybe someone who knows about electrics will correct me if that's wrong. But nothing happens mechanically. But if the 12v battery is dead, the high voltage battery remains isolated and doesn't provide any power to the electric motors. So what happens if you push the car backwards? You do need to take it out of Park to release the parking pawl otherwise the car won't move but if there's no electricity I can't imagine that it makes any diffference which "gear" you select. My instinct would be to select Neutral but I don't suppose it makes any difference if there's no power. Then after taking it out of Park, when you start to push the car backwards, MG2 rotates backwards. In the planetary gearset MG2 is attached to the outer ring gear which tries to push round the planets, which are attached to the engine. But the resistance of the engine will probably be enough for the engine not to turn. So the turning force will be passed on to the inner sun gear, which is attached to MG1. This motor-generator is free to spin because there's no electric power being fed to it or drawn from it. So if you don't push the car too fast, the engine will probably not spin backwards and all the turning motion will be passed on to MG1 which will spin freely. But personally I wouldn't risk doing this at any speed. There might come a point where the engine could start to turn backwards (and maybe that isn't a problem - I don't know). And spinning MG1 too fast for any length of time might not do it any good. This is all hypothetical, of course, because in practice you probably aren't going to push the car backwards for more than a few feet very slowly.

Bear in mind that some leaf blowers are so noisy that they are really annoying for neighbours! Particularly if they're used every week. For £20 I don't suppose this is a very powerful one but some are so noisy you can hear them from the other end of the street.

Here are some Adobe Reader shortcuts: Ctrl+Shift N - go to a page number Alt+left arrow - go back to previous viewed page And the shortcut I like in graphical displays: Spacebar+mouse - a hand appears and allows you to drag the display. As for the manual, it seems to have the problem that applies to many manuals - namely it hasn't been tested on real people. Products are generally tested thoroughly before being launched but it's easy to tell in many cases that the manual hasn't been tested. What I mean by that is that people who don't know the product should be given the manual and watched while they try to achieve various tasks. If they can't find what they want, it's the manual that's the problem, not the user.

It may have changed on the later models but on my car I use the up and down arrows on the right side of the steering wheel to step through the different displays available in between the rev counter and the speedometer. I don't think it changes if the rev counter is showing but I haven't recently tried changing it permanently so I'm not sure. I just switch to Sport if I want to see the rev counter. On my car there are four displays: three have information on mpg, range etc, the energy monitor graphic, and the fourth is blank. Two of these displays can be changed to show different statistics, like the current mpg bar. (Press the right and left arrows to go to settings.) But I think it's a pity that all these statistics aren't available all the time. Instead you have to stop the car, go into Settings, and then change the choice of statistics you want to see. Maybe they think it's too much of a distraction from driving to have all these statistics available to scroll through at any time so they deliberately made it more difficult. I think it could have been made easier to use. Incidentally, royoftherovers has a macro on his computer that writes "Have you read the handbook?", which you will see all over the forum and unfortunately it looks as though last Wednesday his cat stepped on the keyboard and initiated the macro. Royoftherovers himself, out in his garden at the time working with his cloches, is the most charming and friendly of forum participants and had he been present at the time and noticed that this was your first post would have given you a warm welcome. But what can you do? Cats, eh?! But welcome anyway. Do let us know how you get on.

Great that it worked out ok. The tyres look as though they're painted with that treatment dealers put on tyres to make them look nice and clean. Or is it something else you've noticed?

What about this new feature?

Absolutely! I've never seen what the transmission actually looked like before but I've done the Googling for you and here's a video of the pulleys changing shape and size to change the ratios. Definitely quite basic. By contrast, the Toyota/Lexus hybrid drive is pretty complicated from the electronics point of view. It wouldn't be possible without computers. But mechanically it's very simple. Here's one of the earliest Prius transmissions.

A lot of CVTs use exactly the same principle as the DAF 55, except that nowadays they don't have rubber band drives. Instead the drive band is made up of small steel links, so that the band is flexible but stronger than rubber. The Mercedes A-class uses one of these and Toyota make them too, for the American market, at least. Another thing I remember about the DAF is that if the car was cold and you had to use the choke to start the engine, you had to put it in gear first before starting the car. This was because it used an automatic centrifugal clutch and if the engine was going too fast because of the choke, you couldn't engage gear because the clutch was already locked up. But the Toyota/Lexus doesn't use this type of CVT with a drive band on pulleys. Instead it uses a simple and elegant planetary gearset with permanently meshed cogs. There's no drive band to break. There's no engaging and disengaging of ratios to cause wear. It's so simple there's hardly anything to go wrong or wear out. This is called a power split device and the only other company I know of using this type of so-called "eCVT" is Ford. The key point is that the drive ratios are varied by the use of two electric motors incorporated into the planetary gearset. So you have three sources of power - an internal combustion engine (ICE) and two electric motors. I've already posted this video a couple of times but here it is again to show how there are no rubber (or steel-link) drive bands in the Lexus transmission.

Yes, that's the one that came up. It's the same capacity, 45Ah, as the Toyota replacement (28800-YZZQX) and it looks a similar size. But the positive is on the left, looking at the front, rather than on the right in the Toyota one. It might be difficult to connect the terminals even if it was possible to put it in back to front.

You probably already know this but you don't need a Start/Stop battery. Basic batteries are designed to be powerful enough to crank the engine once. Start/Stop batteries have to crank the engine repeatedly during a journey in stop/start traffic. So they need more power. The hybrid system is the opposite. The 12v battery never has to crank the engine and as you say it only has to start the computers. The high-voltage battery does the starting of the engine. I mention this because although hybrid owners generally know this, I'm not confident that all Halfords staff do. So they may think you need a start/stop battery for a hybrid car. Incidentally, I did a search on the Varta website and they recommended a battery for the IS300h which actually had the terminals the wrong way round for the car!

Maybe they didn't notice that the battery they were installing had the polarity of the terminals reversed. I believe this can cause major issues - not just "it won't start". The problem can happen because although the layout of the terminals looks the same, when you look closely the position of positive and negative is reversed. I think there was a thread on here where someone describes connecting up to a new battery like this. I think the car needed a lot of repairing afterwards. As long as the positive cable is connected to the positive terminal and negative (earth) cable to negative terminal it should be ok. (I didn't notice initially but looking back, I think this is what Herbie meant when he said "the terminals are in the correct orientation". I don't think he meant "make sure they're pointing upwards"!)

This is completely off-topic from this thread about children's TV programmes but your post prompted me to check on the internet and I was surprised to find that Datsun goes back to 1914. I always thought it was a made-up name for the western market. They took over Nissan in 1934 and dropped the Datsun name around the 1980s. But what I was going to say was that I had read that after World War II Datsun made cars in collaboration with Austin. But what I'm now surprised to find is that they actually made cars not just based on but actually identical to the Austin models, down to the name on the front. See the picture at this link.

I think it does. They all do except the SE

Oh I know! The shame of it...

Oh no! What a disaster! If someone else drives the car you might have to press a lever instead of a button! I don't know how people cope with this sort of deprivation. And if no-one else drives the car you'll still have the indignity of parents hiding their small children's eyes from seeing you as you drive by, and telling them "Don't look darling! That man's car hasn't got electric seats." Not only that but the seats are made of leather. If this was California no-one would even consider buying a car with leather seats. At least the more expensive options have fabric seats so you don't have to suffer the leather seats if you can afford to pay the extra. And they're heated, too, which makes them even more uncomfortable. How true. Some people just won't be told!

Just to temper expectations, I'm not sure the Mark Levinson system was available even as an option on the executive model in 2014, or in fact on any of the other models except F Sport (optional) or Premier where it was standard. But apart from that, if you're used to automatics I'm sure you'll find the car great. If you're not used to automatics then the driving experience will be different from driving a manual. I think it's better. But for some people who like the involvement of constantly pressing and releasing the pedals and the jolting as you change gear it can be difficult to get used to. Let us know how you get on.

In defence of Linas... ! I got the impression that he was responding to the first post about multiple jump starts. He then goes on to talk about electricity consumption which is also in the first post. Unfortunately, his reply comes after the next post which advises against using a hybrid to jump start a conventional car. So it looks as though he's saying there's no problem with this. Maybe I'm wrong and he'll come back and say he was responding to the second post! As for the multiple jump starts - correct me if I'm wrong - but you were just about to say that 12 volts is 12 volts and the car doesn't know where it's coming from. So it's fine. As for the hybrid battery, I believe it's completely isolated until the car is in Ready mode.

I hadn't heard of this either. I always used to find it irritating putting those big GB car stickers on the back of the car when travelling in Europe. Some people left them on permanently; I always took them off when I got home. It seems from this website that what has changed is that you can't have new number plates made since the start of this year with the EU flag on, which makes sense. Existing plates aren't affected while driving in the UK. When driving in the EU, (except possibly Spain!?) you don't need one of the big GB stickers if your number plates have a union flag above the letters GB. But you can't have any of the other UK country flags which would be legal if driving in the UK. And you also must have GB, rather than UK, ENG, SCO, CYM or one of the other options that are legal in the UK. So a neater option (unless you want to buy new number plates) would be a small union jack sticker to cover the EU flag. Much less obtrusive and legal (I think) in both the UK and in the EU. Here's a link where you can buy them for 99p. My only slight doubt is whether it might be illegal to put any kind of sticker on your number plate. Anyone know?

Check the 60,000 mile service has been done as it's one of the expensive ones because the spark plugs are changed.

I agree vis a vis mileage but I wasn't aware about regular runs for hybrids? I shall look into that, thanks This sounds more worrying than it is. As Herbie describes above, the 12v battery is not used as much as on conventional cars - it doesn't start the engine, only the computers. This means that Lexus have installed a smaller 12v battery. Just like any other car, if you leave it unused for too long it will go flat from keeping the alarm and the clock etc running. A quick glance around the forum shows multiple threads where the 12v battery has gone flat because no-one has been driving their car much over the last year. So whereas a conventional car with a battery capable of starting the engine might stand at an airport unused for maybe two or three months, the smaller 12v battery in Lexus hybrids might go flat within two or three weeks. This is irritating but not a major problem. If this ever happens and you have breakdown service they will come and jump start the car. If you don't want to risk having to wait for them to come and help, you could keep a portable jump starter (about the size of a mobile phone) in the glove box. I got one about three years ago but I've never had to use it. Or if you know you're not going to be using the car regularly, you could trickle charge the battery if you have somewhere to plug in a charger. So I think this warning about being "problematic" is just referring to the size of the 12v battery. The main high-voltage battery appears to stay charged for several months without attention. When the car is turned off this battery is completely isolated so it's not draining power while the car is unused apart from its inherent natural loss of power. Incidentally, the high-voltage battery is kept in the range 40-80% charged. The bars on the meter don't represent 0-100% charged. Two bars is around 40%. It can slip below this but the engine will start to get it back up to 50%. Eight bars might be as high as 80% but the normal range is around 50-60%, represented by three to six bars.

I've read news reports of more pronounced side-effects on the second jab with the Pfizer vaccine but less pronounced with Astra-Zeneca. The US isn't yet using Astra-Zeneca so they mostly have reports of more marked side-effects. Couldn't find the story I read but here's another one from a website I've never heard of that says the same thing and seems to quote reputable sources. I had Astra-Zeneca, felt nothing at the time, but a bit queasy the next day. No effect on my arm at all. So I'm hoping there will be little effect from the second jab.

Interesting to compare the first table where the accelerator is at 100% (foot to the floor), with the one where the accelerator is at 22%. MG2 is showing high levels of positive torque in the first (maximum acceleration) but negative torque in the other. I'm guessing this is the so-called "heretical mode" that baffled some Prius forums in the early days of the Prius. This is when MG2 changes from a motor, driving the road wheels, to a generator. The electricity produced is transferred to MG1 to run as a motor instead of a generator and this allows the petrol engine to run more slowly when cruising on a motorway. A sort of overdrive.

Exactly! This is what I meant when I said that the car can't move on engine power alone. For the engine power to reach the road wheels the sun gear (centre cog) has to stop turning. But unlike a conventional automatic gearbox that has clutches to lock or unlock cogs in the planetary gearsets the Lexus power split device has no clutches. Instead it has electric motors that can go forwards or backwards or be fixed in a stationary position. But all these options require electricity. Turn off the electricity and the cog wheels will spin freely. So without electricity, the sun wheel can't be locked and the planets (attached to the engine) will also spin freely and won't move the car. That's what I meant when I said the engine can't propel the car on its own. It needs the electric motors to create resistance which will transfer the torque to the road wheels.

Well that's very gratifying! That's almost exactly the guess I made in my first post above. Thanks for doing the research to find out the details. As regards the power split device, here's a useful animation. I posted this a month or two ago in a different thread but if you haven't seen it before it's an interesting representation of the Toyota/Lexus transmission.

I can see why Lexus might say this as they're wanting to emphasise that the planetary gearset allows all three power sources to contribute motion. But I'm not sure it's true to say that the petrol engine "can power the car on (its) own". The setup of the planetary gearset means that if neither motor/generator is operating the engine will simply spin to little effect. This is what happens when the car is stationary and the engine has just started from cold. The engine is not directly connected to the road wheels, though it drives cog wheels that are meshed with the road wheels. So the car doesn't move even though the engine is running. On the other hand, MG2 is directly connected to the road wheels - not just meshed to them. So MG2 can move the car without the petrol engine running. Its power comes from the battery for as long as the battery can supply it. It's not a pure series hybrid because around 3/4 of the engine's torque goes to the road wheels in normal operation. But the remaining 1/4 of the torque acts like a series hybrid, generating electricity from MG1 which is fed to MG2 to drive the road wheels, like in a series hybrid, or feeding it to the battery if it's surplus to the current requirement. If instead of this scenario, you feed battery power to the two motor/generators simultaneously and this adds to the torque from the petrol engine, then the electric motors' power of around 200 bhp would be equivalent to around 150 kilowatts. If the battery is 288 volts, this would create a current of 520 amps. I have no idea of the design capacity but I wonder if the electrical system and battery as installed are designed to cope with this size of load.