m4rkw

2006 RX. After having a vent replaced my dash was rattling awfully, so today I took it apart and wrapped all the loose ends with felt tape. Put it back together and the rattle is gone, but in doing so I stupidly dropped a couple of screws into the well where the gear shift lever is. They were awkward to screw back in and I didn't think to use blue-tack at first. So far they don't seem to be causing any issues or rattling but it's annoying me that they're there. I got one of those flexible tube things from Halfords with a magnet on the end and poked it down all the angles I could get but no luck, since I can't see down there it's impossible to know where the screws might be. I'm probably going to just leave it but if anyone has any suggestions they'd be most welcome. I think if I could remove one of the big panels to the left or the right of the gear shift that might allow me to retrieve them. Failing that it would probably have to be the gear shift itself which looks like a fairly involved job, probably not something I'd want to tackle. I'm guessing there's no way to retrieve them from underneath since the gearbox is probably there.

Didn't get round to digging out the techstream cable. It hasn't happened since though so I guess I'll wait until it becomes more persistent.

Ah looks like there's one on each wheel so I guess I need diagnostics, might have to dig out techstream tomorrow

Hello My trusty old harrier today threw its first CEL in 5 years, the speedo also stopped working so I'm guessing it's a speed sensor somewhere. Is there just one or do I need diagnostics to figure out what's failed? Curiously after a restart it was fine so it seems like it hasn't completely failed yet. Cheers, Mark

Louis is great. Beware cheap amazon rubbish!

Normally I'd agree but in this case they did me a huge favour with that job, it was easily £4k or more worth of work and faffing around and they only charged me £2k. I was lucky they even did the job at all really, the owner said if they'd noticed at the start that it had a panoramic roof they wouldn't have even taken it. Given that the job took an inordinate amount of time well over and above what they quoted, and they painstakingly sealed all around the panoramic roof to make sure it wasn't leaking which they really didn't have to do, and after having the car for months and doing all that extra work they didn't charge me a penny extra, I'm more than happy to forgive them for a tiny mishap like this. The car is still bulletproof in rain now too.

Hello all In the spring my car was taken apart for extensive water leak repairs and it turns out the rear middle seatbelt socket wasn't reattached, I needed to carry a middle-seat passenger the other day and discovered the socket wasn't there only to find it stuffed loose down the back of one of the seats. I've got the bolt that's needed to secure it to the floor from the dealer, was just wondering if it's an easy DIY, i.e. can I do it without removing the rear seats or would they need to come out? If it involves removing the seats I'll get a mechanic to do it as I'm not comfortable messing around to that degree Cheers, Mark

I stick with Louis Altazan's advice - if you hear the word 'flush' you can pretty confidently precede it with the word 'wallet'. https://www.agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/29 Some manufacturers, notably GM, have actually outright said in a service bulletin "don't flush our engines".

OP's car is probably worth more in parts than together, just a thought.

I swapped to coilovers on a BMW once and immediately regretted it, went back and asked them to put the original worn shocks with over 100k back on.

Make a sticker with the Ghost logo and put it near the headlight with the text "Ghost Immobiliser fitted, jog on scrotes"

I’d get a second opinion, once the unit is apart you’re all-in on either whatever he says the full repair cost is, buying a new transmission or scrapping the car. I’m fairly sure there are some transmission issues that can be diagnosed without completely disassembling the unit but I’m no expert. If another transmission specialist with a good reputation says the same thing then fair enough.

Definitely a good idea to do this.

Any reasonably competent auto locksmith will be able to clone your existing working key, i.e. make an identical copy of it, so that adding a new key to the ECU isn't necessary.

Could be sunroof drains, could also be that yours, like mine of very similar age, had the seals between the bodywork start to break down and leak due to age. Don't know if you had a chance to glance at the photos the garage took on my thread but there were lots of leak points all around the back of the car that collectively led to very wet carpets. Hope you get it sorted anyway Mark

Seems like a no-brainer to get some extra security then? What's an extra grand when you're spending that kind of money?

These cars are what, £40k or so new? I think if I were in the market I'd just budget for some decent aftermarket security as an add-on, it's not really much to drop an extra £1k when spending that much on a car. That said I would never spend that on a car anyway, my price range is like £8k max 😄

Collective pressure is often how change happens. If enough people complain to Lexus eventually it will reach a point where they feel compelled to do something.

Maybe it comes with warning stickers that can be put near the attack point?

Also FWIW the garage I used said the best thing to seal leaks with (especially around the bodywork) is windscreen sealant because it stays supple for longer.

It makes me wonder if my car isn't targeted simply because it's not worth much, are the earlier cars as easy to steal as well? If a 2020 car was easier to steal than a 2006 that would be truly shocking.

IANAL but if it can be stolen this easily could it be a Sale of Goods Act issue? I'd be pressing Lexus pretty hard for a solution.

Great advice there, if you would prefer to have it taken care of professionally I highly recommend Russell Birch at Toyotec in Redhill, see here for details of the work that was done on mine recently: They fixed several leaks, many of them in the places that @Baldguy mentioned, and the car now stays bone dry in heavy rain.

You're assuming all MOT testers are equal, this is not the case. Some testers are biased towards recording marginal issues (typically because they work for a garage that carries out repair works), other testers are biased towards not recording marginal issues because their business is focused on having a reputation for passing cars. Several aspects of MOT inspections end up falling to the subjective opinion of the tester. It's entirely possible all the issues they've raised were present when the car was MOT'd but that the MOT station for whatever reason didn't think they were issues worth raising.

Simplest thing is to change the thermostat, I had this happen over xmas 2021. I think it was about £7 from Euros, much cheaper than a diagnosis and if it doesn't help then you haven't lost much. Very easy to change yourself but be very careful tightening it, you don't want to over-torque it and strip the threads in the engine block.