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I don't think you're being overly fussy, I wouldn't put up with this on a new-ish car either. You're well within your rights to expect they resolve it. However it is true that reproducing such issues can be difficult and if a tech can't reproduce a problem they can't do anything about it. Hopefully you can demonstrate it to an independent tech and get a diagnosis.

Even at 12 months you still have rights, and if the car is under warranty all you need to do is prove the fault. I would do this: 1) Invest the relatively small amount of money it will cost for an independent toyota specialist to diagnose the problem for you. 2) Take their report to Lexus and demand satisfaction. Explain that you've been messed around for 12 months, you're really unhappy, and you've about had it with Lexus and will likely never buy anything from them ever again. And you'll try your damndest to make sure nobody you know does either. When presented with evidence of the fault I'm pretty sure they will back down, and you can then argue for compensation for the money you had to spend getting a diagnosis that Lexus themselves were apparently unable to provide. I doubt they'd reimburse you the actual money but you could ask them for some free servicing to compensate you for your loss and frustration.

Take it to someone who knows what they're doing and doesn't have a vested interest in you shutting up and going away. Demonstrate it to them if you can, if not leave it with them and ask them to drive it until they experience it.

Ask him to demonstrate the issue to you in another car. If they can't then you can demand that they fix it.

At that age I'd assume it's under warranty so I would take it to an independent toyota specialist and have them diagnose it, then take the report to the stealership and make them fix it. Definitely doesn't sound like something a Lexus should be doing.

@luckyduck did your rails come with the car or did you fit them yourself? i tried asking lexus for rails but they were no help at all

Oh my bad they’re actually Virtus 602. Awesome speakers, so clean sounding.

I have a Kenwood 7100DAB head unit in mine and it’s really good. Highly recommended. https://www.halfords.com/technology/car-audio/dab-car-stereos/kenwood-dpx-7100dab-digital-receiver Also have Morel Virtus 5 speakers which are excellent too but they’re probably out of your budget. Halfords had a sweet deal on the kenwood head unit fully fitted, not sure if it’s still available but would be really good value with the forum discount.

As long as the bars only rest on the bodywork and not the glass it should be ok no? I guess there may not be much space for them, the glass is pretty wide

So it looks like they just clamp inwards against the chassis. I can't see why that wouldn't work on a car with the moon roof..

https://www.roofbox.co.uk/scripts/rbvehsel3.php?emulate=roofbar&query=5209&vptype=417038 That says: "If your car doesn't have any other obvious fitting system the bars clamp around the bodywork." How exactly? And can they be used on an RX with the panoramic moon roof?

@GrahamG Also just to mention that the reason I ended up discovering that article was after I'd had a service on a previous car and been told that my tyres had signs of outer edge wear because they were under-inflated even though I'd religiously set them to the pressures on the door placard every few weeks. I asked Louis about this and he pointed me at his article and explained that the door placard is for OEM tyres but newer tyres may require more pressure.

@GrahamG Max that the tyre should never exceed. That's why Louis's article says start at 10% below the max rating, to allow for the pressure to rise when the tyre heats up. I run my RX at 40psi all around, i think the max is 51. 40 gives a nice balance between tyre wear and ride comfort.

The door placard is for the OEM tyres. Newer tyres are designed to give a comfortable ride at much higher pressure and running them at the OEM spec tyre pressures may be under-inflation. See here for more info: http://www.agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/61 TL;DR start at 10% below the maximum rated pressure on the sidewall and adjust down until the ride is comfortable enough.

If it's losing coolant and smoking that points to possible head gasket failure, does it overheat at all? A garage should be able to do a quick test for you to see if there are hydrocarbons in the coolant, or you could get a test kit from amazon and check yourself. Fingers crossed for you it's something else as I suspect that will be an expensive repair if it is blown, but if the coolant is going down then it has to be going somewhere and the smoke, especially blue smoke, is another telltale sign. See if you can see any obvious leaks near the coolant reservoir.

Hi @Scousertony is there any coolant loss? Does the smoke have a kind of sweet smell to it?

I'm probably going to do it, just waiting for my local installer to get back to me about the tank size etc. He measured the space and said it'd probably take about 60L (actual fuel capacity not the size of the tank). I also asked him to check with BRC that there aren't any specific known issues with my engine that they're aware of, although he was fairly confident it'll be fine.

I don't see why it would. My car is in very good condition and only has 90k miles on it. I'm expecting to get at least another 100k out of it.

That’s a good suggestion, thanks, I will do. I went to see my local installer today and he seemed pretty confident it’ll be fine if i use flashlube.

Yep certainly does. Maybe you didn’t have the car long enough to see the wear? I dunno. Or maybe your engine has hard valve seats. I don’t think Prins would put a document like that out without there being some basis to it.

Someone on this very forum apparently had valve wear:

@Bluesman Why would Prins release a long list of cars known to experience valve seat wear on LPG if it wasn’t so? It’s completely at odds with their core business.

More evidence that this might not be a good idea on my engine: https://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/110278-can-vvti-be-convertible-to-lpg/

It doesn't specifically list my engine code but it says that Toyota Corollas from 2004+ report valve seat wear even with flashlube.

A data sheet from Prins is linked there with a list of cars/engines that see valve seat wear: http://www.amrautos.co.uk/database_problem_cars.pdf