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Really? Damn I thought it was weird that my wife's Nissan Note didn't have a temp gauge but no rev needle is just weird.

Could be a slight vacuum leak.

I’d guess most people wouldn’t be able to make a weekday due to work commitments..

Does the rev needle move when it's "bouncing"?

Could be a worn motor mount. When I had a coil pack go out on a BMW it threw a CEL.

In my experience Adrian Flux tend to be chancers, they'll quote you a number just to see if you take it, you can tell this because they always ask what the lowest quote you've seen so far is. If you tell them you've had a really low quote somewhere else they'll tend to come down quite significantly.

I'm with Adrian Flux too as they were pretty competitive and are easier to deal with when you have modifications. They are a bit profiteering though in my humble opinion. A £30 admin fee for any changes is excessive. Also some years ago I had a BMW insured with them and took their breakdown cover, which included vehicle recovery. I had a not-at-fault accident and when I called their claims department they wanted me to pay £50 to have the car recovered. When I mentioned that I had breakdown they just fobbed me off and said it was a different department, and in the stress of the situation I just didn't want to deal with any more hassle and just paid it, which I'm sure is what they expect most people will do. They aren't really an insurance company they're a middle man, so if you have a claim don't be surprised to find yourself dealing with 5 different disconnected companies all handling parts of the claim.

I would get this into a technician as soon as possible, you may be doing damage by driving it.

2006 RX-300 (Harrier with the 2.4L 2AZ-FE). I'm at 94k, what things should I start thinking about changing pre-emptively? Plugs obviously but what else? Is it worth changing the water pump, radiator, hoses.. what else? Thanks, Mark

I would definitely try to make it, just depends if we have anything planned on the suggested weekend.

One data point is not a good basis on which to make decisions. As others have said there are a lot of potential problems. In the same way that some people can smoke and drink whiskey all their lives and live to 90 without any apparent health issues, what you really need to do is look at the aggregate of 100,000 people doing the same thing. Of course if it's cheap enough and you're willing to spend the time checking it out then sure why not, I just wouldn't risk a significant chunk of change on such a thing.

I'm very happy with my 2006 Harrier. They're fairly rare I guess so might be hard to find, but it's been very reliable, very little gadgets to break and better fuel economy than a regular RX-300. I paid 6k for mine but it was low mileage.

Oh actually you can test it - sit in the car and lock it with the key, press lock twice. Move around inside the car and see if the alarm goes off. Repeat without pressing it twice to verify the motion sensors work.

Also on some toyota/lexus if you press the lock button on the fob twice it deactivates the motion sensors. If it keeps happening you could try that one day to test and see if it still goes off. If it doesn't then at least you know the issue is something to do with the motion sensors. Maybe you have a fly trapped in the car? 😄

Scan it for codes if you can, and check the battery voltage. It could be a parasitic draw draining the battery and causing the alarm to trigger. With everything off check the draw from the battery with a multimeter.

Yeah alternator makes sense then.

I'd be wary of a car that's been sat that long. Will likely need a fair bit of work to get it back on the road and if the engine has corrosion on the cylinder walls or the valves due to lack of use that could get pretty expensive.

Is the steering hydraulic or electric on those?

It's not a good idea to drive through high water in any car. A car coming the opposite way can create a wake and drive water over the engine. A few drops in the transmission vent pipe and it's game over.

No lights with the key in position 2 I think means it's not just a crank sensor. Check the fuses?

It’s until the transmission fails. That’s all it means. When that fluids all burned up that’s the end of its life.

I would definitely change it. 50k is the ideal time but it's never too late. Take it to somewhere that knows what they're doing and get a proper service. If they use the word "flush" - walk away. And I definitely wouldn't trust any dealer's opinion - they're in the business of selling you a new car. If your transmission goes out at 150k and you're in the market for a new vehicle, that's good news for them.

People still use CDs? Wow.

My bad! Should have looked at the dates 🙂

You've probably already done something about it now but you should always diagnose the problem correctly first before replacing parts. Sure it could be the alternator but there's probably 50-100 other things that could produce the same symptoms. If you throw parts at a car without a diagnosis you'll tend to run out of money before you run out of guesses.