m4rkw

Slightly off topic but what the hell it's sunday. My wife has a 2008 rav-4 with a partial four-wheel drive system. I understand that on permanent four-wheel drive systems it's strongly advised to keep all four tyres the same in terms of brand and tread pattern and reasonably close in tread depth. Does this also matter for these partial all-wheel drive systems? Most of the time the rav is in 2wd mode, it can enable 4wd under certain conditions but it isn't quite explained fully in the owners manual what these are. Additionally there is a button on the dash that locks 4wd mode on, this only works under 25mph and the manual says not to use it unless driving on loose surfaces. I'm trying to work out if I should be keeping the same brand of tyres on both axles or if it's less of a concern with a partial system. Cheers, Mark

Welcome to the forum! I bet that's lovely in the sunshine.

https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

This should only be the case if he was using a very old or very poor quality router, or was some distance from it causing signal degradation. Even the previous standard 802.11n can easily max out an 80Mbit FTTC connection and most routers these days support 802.11ac which can easily support 800+Mbit and often much higher.

That'll be sensors thinking someone is sitting on the back seats then. It'd be worth testing if you need to plug in both to make it go away or just one side. Then you'll know which sensor is likely duff. Might also be worth figuring out where the sensors are and jiggling the connector around a bit, on BMWs these commonly fail because the seats get moved around a lot and it ends up damaging the wiring.

Not car-specific but I'm a huge fan of the Oso products: https://www.amazon.co.uk/OsoMount-360-Grip-Mount-Smartphones/dp/B00BFWQQEG/ They work well.

Windows itself is capable of high speed internet. Your issue is likely one of: 1) Poor wifi signal, I noticed that my work-provided surface laptop struggles with 2.4GHz wifi but works really well with 5GHz. This is counter-intuitive as normally 2.4GHz has better range. You should see if your wifi router provides a 5GHz SSID and try connecting to that instead of the 2.4GHz one. 2) Was the machine erased before you started using it? If not it may be full of junk software using up all the bandwidth. Try reinstalling windows from scratch. 3) Some kind of hardware issue, faulty wifi card for example. The above two are more likely though. If it's happening on two windows machines then I would strongly suspect an issue with your wireless network rather than the windows machines themselves. Try plugging them into the router with an ethernet cable, if everything is suddenly very fast then you know the issue is the wireless network. HTH Mark

Also let us know how you get on, it's nice to hear back from people when they get things fixed 🙂

Looking around online it seems like 3 years is about the most you ever get on a rebuilt transmission warranty and 2 is much more common.

On the surface that sounds like a good deal, the service they're proposing is about half what I normally pay. I am curious as to why it would need another service so soon though, maybe ask why that is and what they're doing for the money? Your original transmission went 214k before giving up and presumably wasn't serviced any more frequently than 50k intervals. If the rebuilt unit will be truly "like new" then why does it need a service after only a year?

Make sure wherever you go is trustworthy. A transmission place might be keen to sell you a rebuild rather than fix the problem with a simple fluid service.

On a car that old I would suggest maybe taking it to a trusted independent Lexus specialist rather than the dealer, you may get better service. I don't know where you are in the world though, maybe that's not the case in your region.

They'll tell you it's "sealed for life". This is technically true, because when that fluid's burnt up the transmission is done. But most of us would like our transmissions to last longer than 80k miles. Sadly most car manufacturers would prefer to sell you a new car than have you drive your existing car to 300k miles. Ideally it should have been changed every 50k, 80k might not be too late. I got my car at 77k with no history at all and changed the transmission fluid immediately and it's been fine since (about 101k now). Years may also be a factor for transmission fluid, I don't know how much of a factor, mine's a few years younger than yours.

They were all me haha. 80k isn't a huge number of miles but if it's never been done then you've got 17 years on the original fluid so I'd say it's definitely overdue. Hopefully that's all you need, just make sure it's done properly by someone who knows lexus cars and uses the correct fluid from Lexus. Do not use anything else. Make sure they replace the filter assembly too if it's replaceable.

If it were my car I would stop driving it until the service could be done, or at the very least use S-mode to limit it to 3rd to avoid hammer the torque converter any futher. A fluid change is a few hundred quid, a new gearbox or a rebuild could be easy 3 grand. Fingers crossed for you that that's all it needs.

If the transmission hasn't been serviced recently or ever now would be a good time to do that as it may solve the problem. If anyone uses the word "flush", walk away. Make sure they're going to drop the pan, drain the fluid out and replace the filter assembly if it has a replaceable one. The procedure may be slightly different if the filter isn't replaceable, in that case there may be a more involved process to replace as much of the fluid as possible.

More info about it here: http://www.agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/203 does sound a lot like your description. It'll happen around 45mph just as the transmission shifts into lockup.

Possibly torque converter shudder, I have heard this is common with some toyota transmissions. How many miles are on it and when (if ever) have the fluid and filter been changed?

Ok so I did the math. I guess my mostly-urban mpg is around 27. If my spare wheel weighed 15kg and the owners manual is correct then my mpg would go up to 27.11mpg Less than half a percent, but I guess when you're making manufacturing decisions it's about the aggregate across all cars than just one.

Interesting point. My owners manual says that for every 10kg weight reduction I would save approximately 15cc of gasoline every 50km. I'm guessing it's maybe 1% difference to mpg at best.

For head unit I highly recommend the Kenwood DPX-7100DAB but it depends what you want really.

I’ve never owned an IS but I’ve owned two E46s and you’re right they do start falling apart at higher miles. A Lexus should be a lot more durable if it’s been taken care of. Look for the usual stuff, evidence of regular (not extended) oil changes and evidence of transmission fluid and filter change, ideally it should be done about every 50k. Suspension components may start to wear out at that mileage so make sure it’s all nice and tight, check MOT history and look for evidence of rectification of any noted advisories. Check all around and underneath for rust. Check AC blows ice cold at the max cold setting and that any fans at the front spin when it’s on (my RX has two, not sure if the IS does, they should both spin). Check for cambelt change if it has one. Check the tyres, premium brands are a sign it’s been treated well, budget tyres mean it’s been run on a shoe-string. Check DOT codes on the sidewalls, tyres older than 6 years are generally considered unsafe and will need replacing. Check all electrics work, windows etc. Make sure the transmission shifts properly, doesn’t slip, no delayed engagement, reverse works and that it goes into lockup at high speed. Check the brake pad wear if you can, brake firmly from 70mph and make sure there’s no movement in the steering wheel. Its probably well worth paying someone to do a pre-purchase inspection but you can filters cars a fair bit yourself in advance. Better to spend £100 on a car you don’t buy than 5 grand on one you buy that has an expensive repair looming. Mark

Thanks for the replies. I don't buy cars new enough to have TPS sensors so that's not a worry 🙂 Ill go with the goo for now just because that's what the car came with, hopefully we'll never need to actually use it.

What happens if it's out of petrol? Does it run?

I'm not convinced they've quite got the hang of this marketing lark. Every time I see one of the UX billboards I just see "Lexus Sux" lol