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The other side of it looks like it's attached with a rivet of some kind, not sure if epoxy will hold it or if I should get the garage to rivet it back on properly.

Not sure why I didn't think to look underneath it since we got home but you're bang on. The heat shield has a hole in it where it was mounted to the frame and is hanging down on the exhaust. Can I just get some metal epoxy from halfords to stick it back where it was or should i take it into the garage and have the shield replaced?

I noticed my exhaust rattling today. At a stop with the car in gear I hear it, goes away when moving. I got out and moved the exhaust a bit and it rattles more, sounds like maybe a tiny stone went inside it. Other than accelerating hard up a steep hill does anyone have any ideas?

That's a good thing for two reasons. It will be easier to prove the issue to them and as they made it worse they're now fully on the hook for fixing it.

Ah yes, you're right. Somehow I ended up thinking the pollen filter was different last night and apparently ordered the wrong one but I've just checked the mann catalog again and you're right they're the same.

My local garage misunderstood my request and only changed my oil, didn't replace the air or pollen filters. It looks easy enough to change them myself and I've looked up the part numbers but it's a bit of a minefield with a Harrier as euro detects my reg as a 3.0 RX-300 which it clearly isn't and the filters have different part numbers. Are mann filters good or should I stick with OEM? The mann filters from amazon are £17 for the air filter and £26.50 for the pollen filter. Toyota OEM are £25 for the air filter and £40 for the pollen filter. Are they worth the extra?

@stringbender good luck tomorrow Alan. I would suggest when you go in asking them explicitly if they are *sure* that replacing the exhaust is going to fix the problem. If they yes - great, you can hold them to it and pursue further if it doesn't. If they say anything other than yes I would insist on the problem being correctly diagnosed first, and if they aren't able to do that then have someone else do it and then go back to them and demand they reimburse you.

I once had a B5 passat diesel that had an annoying issue from a cold start. At first it would run fine but as soon as you drove a few feet it would start stumbling every few seconds, the rev needle would dip every 2-3 seconds and occasionally it would just cut out. Once warmed up it ran fine and my local VW specialist couldn't figure it out. I bought a VCDS cable and graphed a ton of data from the ECU trying to work out what it was but despite handing all of that over to a technician on paper they couldn't figure it out. So eventually I decided to take it to a diesel specialist and by that point I was convinced it was a problem with one of the injectors. I asked the diesel specialist (who specialise in refurbishing injectors) to remove and test the injectors. Of course they told me all four injectors needed refurbishing (which they may well have needed at that kind of mileage) so I asked them to go ahead, and of course it didn't fix the problem. Over £1000 spent and still had the same issue, car ran exactly as before, and I had no recourse at all because I'd asked them to test and refurbish the injectors and *not* to diagnose the issue for me. I ended up selling it without ever knowing what the problem was. An expensive lesson but hopefully @stringbender can benefit from my mistake and not do the same thing!

Nope, exactly why a diagnosis from a qualified technician is necessary. If you go to a garage and ask them to replace something they will do exactly as you ask and if it doesn’t fix a problem you didn’t tell them about then that’s your problem. I know this because I’ve made this mistake myself and wasted a lot of money!

I’ve no idea what you mean!

Just make sure you explain that you want the vibration fixed, not that you specifically want them to replace the exhaust. Make them take ownership of what the solution is and commit to fixing the vibration.

@stringbender I would advise caution here. If you've gone to them and explicitly asked them to replace the exhaust system, and they've agreed to do it in order to resolve your issue then as far as they are concerned that is the deal that makes this problem go away. Because you asked for a specific solution you may have no recourse if the specific resolution you've asked for doesn't fix the problem. You should never do this when taking your car to garages - always make them diagnose the car first so that if whatever they do to fix it doesn't work you have recourse. Really your position to Lexus should be "the car is doing something it shouldn't, i want it fixed". Since they are apparently not able to diagnose it, perhaps you should start by having it diagnosed somewhere else. If the vibration is as noticeable as you said it is today then it should be no trouble for a competent technician to figure out what's causing it. You shouldn't settle with them over a guess, you're giving too much away. It's their responsibility (legally, under consumer law) to fix it or take it back.

@black-on-black Consumer Rights Law applies, you have the right to reject the vehicle within 30 days and make him take it back and give you your money back. I would offer him a choice between that and fixing the car with a new part and giving you appropriate paperwork for it.

I think you're misunderstanding me. The article above, and the author of it with whom I talk to from time to time and who is a technician with many decades of experience, argues that a "flush" is a different thing from a proper drain+fill service. A proper drain+fill service including a new filter absolutely should be done regularly, but a "flush" using a machine or other means is not good for the transmission.

There is no wet braking test required for tyres to be sold in the UK. The above video is perhaps biased to promote Continental but I think it would be foolish to assume that budget tyres will perform the same as premium brands. Not worth the risk imo and since the premium brands are likely cheaper in the long run anyway it seems like a no brainer.

If that's even partly true then they're a much better deal than the competitors if price is your motivator. I've seen some reports of cheap tyres only lasting 8000-10000 miles which actually makes them far more expensive then the premium tyres. I buy Goodyears as they have the lowest noise rating and are still very good tyres, maybe they don't last as long as the michelins but I'd rather have less road noise.

Not true. Stopping distance varies significantly, as does wet grip. A good tyre can be the difference between crashing and not crashing, a good tyre might even save your life. There are many things you can get away with scrimping on when driving a car but imho tyres should not be one of them.

I was under the impression that flushing in this manner wasn't a good idea and that a drain+fill service was the way to go. http://agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/168

I'm pretty sure that's what mine has, I haven't ever looked at the open roof from the outside but I'll check tonight and take a photo for you. 2006 harrier, the roof is definitely panoramic and opens like in that photo, just not sure if it has two slanted bits at the rear or one.

My bad! @stringbender whatever happens please let us know the outcome. There's nothing more frustrating than finding a thread talking about an issue you have, with several ideas and suggestions mentioned, that then just goes dead at some point with the OP never going back to it. You could end up helping someone else years from now.

@stringbender i wonder if it could be torque converter shudder. http://www.agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/203 seems unlikely in a vehicle this new but you never know. try the brake test suggested in that article, ie while accelerating when the shudder occurs, touch the brake pedal at the same time. only touch it, don’t actually apply the brake, see if the shudder goes away.

No. They cannot ignore a report from a qualified technician.

FWIW I'm currently insured through AF and have used them in the past on previous cars. I had one not-at-fault accident while insured with them and I would not rate their handling of the process. The claims are handled by a completely separate business entity with very little awareness of the original insurance terms. As an example I had breakdown cover on my policy through them and after having an accident that wrote the car off they wanted to charge me £50 to recover the car even though the breakdown service I had through them could easily have done it. In the stress of the moment I couldn't be bothered to argue and just paid it, which I've no doubt they count on, but it stuck in my mind and coloured my perception of them. I think they're great if you don't ever claim - great prices, easy to deal with etc but I wouldn't want to have to go through another claim with them. That said such events are likely just as painful with most other insurance providers.

Maybe this is where you should start, drive as normal and when the vibration happens take an assessment of as many variables as you can. Speed, throttle position, are you going up or down a hill, engine speed, gear if indicated. Try keeping the car in lower gears with S mode to see if that improves or worsens the occurrence. How often does it happen? Is it every time you drive? Once a day? Twice a week?