Rutlandlex

Perhaps owning unreliable cars is exciting for some people.

I think I would rather put some juice into the battery before starting the car because if you just connect the leads, start the car then disconnect the leads then the voltage will drop back low again which could affect the running of computer which manages the hybrid system maybe even causing it to cut out again depending on how bad it is. At least if you put some charge in from the donor car then when the leads are disconnected it should have enough voltage to carry on running as normal with no ill effects.

When the battery was changed did you keep a 12 volt source on the leads to keep the systems alive during the change or did you do a complete disconnect? If it was me then I would be tempted to disconnect the battery for half an hour or so and reconnect. I know that there are certain resets that need doing on these cars like the windows and sunroof but worth giving it a go. Which sensors were showing fault codes and do you know what the fault codes are/were?

Tesla also have a pretty ropey reliability record too whereas Lexus are at the other end of the scale. I would rather drive round in a car that is a few years behind the curve technologically that is well proven than being at the cutting edge of gizmos that is forever going wrong. I admire what Tesla is trying to achieve but to berate Lexus for not copying them is a bit unfair. Lexus make hybrids and Tesla makes fully electric cars so they're not really comparable. As for technology that can self-park, read road signs and look for parking spaces then I'm just not interested. Over the last few years more and more technology is being fitted to cars which dumbs down the role of the driver and technology like this will only make things worse.

I thought that the hybrids didn't have air suspension. No-one does hybrid servicing because the hybrid system doesn't need servicing. I would avoid Halfords like the plague because another user on here wanted a new 12 volt battery and they refused to fit it "because it's a hybrid"! Not the words I would expect from a "hybrid specialist". If you have a good relationship with your local garage then they will be fine to service it. I would also avoid taking out an extended warranty from Lexus because I've seen too many posts on here that would put me off. For starters it's almost a grand for 3 years I believe and you have to take it to them for all servicing and repairs. The servicing costs are quite reasonable but the non-warranty repairs are eye-watering and according to the T&C's you have no choice but to pay it. Well done for getting the refund. I once bought a duff car from a dealer and he was the most obnoxious, obstructive and unhelpful C word going.

Another vote for the Goodyear Ultragrips. I had a set on a BMW 1 series a few years ago and they were great.

Yes that is weird. You would have thought that all cars with sat-nav would update automatically. What I'm really puzzled about is my wife's 05 plate Honda FRV that adjusted its own clock without any sat-nav or clever tech on-board. Maybe it used old-fashioned RDS or something.

A corroded wiring loom sounds like water ingress to me which might mean other problems further down the line. £3,500 is out of this world expensive but that's main dealers for you. They will probably replace the whole loom with a brand new one which probably means dismantling half of the car hence the price. As someone has suggested it could probably be repaired quite cheaply without replacing the whole loom but dealers don't repair things they replace them. I think that given the issues highlighted then I would get a refund and let the trader do want they want with it and look out for a better one.

...compounded by then going to Kwik-Fit!

Just a thought Dave - have you actually reported this to the trader you bought the car from? I'm aware of consumer protection laws and all that but you have to give them the opportunity to put things right. They may say "Let's see what the diagnosis is from the dealer" but the longer you leave it the less likely are to believe that it happened on the journey home. You also have a limited time to reject the car if that's the best course of action.

I can't believe all of the running around that you have had to do! It's a 12v car battery for sake!! It's a simple DIY job and the so-called "professionals" at Halfords and Kwik-Fit either can't fit one or need a specialist despite the fact that the Prius was launched in the UK 18 years ago! Words escape me. Anyway to fix your windows you just need to to fully lower and fully close each window from the switch on each door panel then the driver's door panel switches will work. If you are changing your battery then if possible keep a constant 12v supply to the car while the battery is being changed or you will need to reset the windows again and sunroof. I'm going to check my battery this weekend when it's cold to see if I am likely to need a new one or not this winter.

Hi Andy, You're welcome. Glad you got it sorted. I'm very dubious about whether the dealer would have admitted to such a mistake and I don't like the concept of getting the repair done for free based purely on their honesty. They could easily have said that someone had removed the fuse after fitting so therefore not their fault oh and here's a nice big bill for us to put it right! Happy caravanning with a cold fridge 😃

Oh dear Dave. That's a rather rude welcome to Lexus ownership. Hopefully it will just be a bad connection or a bit of corrosion that needs cleaning up and won't cost too much.

Hi Andy, When you say ignition on do you mean the car is in Ready mode? Do you get 12-14V on the wire before the fuse and after the fuse inside the back of the car? If you do get a correct voltage there but not at the socket then there could be a wiring fault inside the socket or the socket could be faulty. Are you definitely checking pin 10? The reason I ask is that most pinout diagrams on the Internet are displayed from the point of view of the installer who is wiring from the back of the socket whereas you are looking at the front of the socket so therefore the pins are reversed left to right. The opposing pin to the fridge is for the brake lights so you would get zero volts on that even with the engine running unless someone had their foot on the brake pedal. This article is the best for diagnosing as it shows the pinouts from your perspective i.e. the front of the socket: https://caravanchronicles.com/guides/13-pin-socket-basic-fault-finding/

You're welcome 🙂 I recently followed an Audi A3 TDi on my way to work and out of nowhere came this huge plume of grey smoke which then stopped and there was a smaller plume a bit later on and this was on a 1 year old car!! This was under light load but interestingly there was a straight bit of road where he floored it and there was no smoke at all. Usually grey smoke is unburnt diesel and blue smoke is engine oil. Let us know how you get on.

Those wires look like they have been trapped by something or have been rubbing. I think it is likely to have damaged the lambda sensor if the wires were shorted out even if the fuse blew which it did. Check out the causes in this article: https://www.obd-codes.com/p0137 Can your garage or a specialist do any testing on the sensor to determine if there is internal damage? This article explains in great detail how to diagnose issues with these sensors although it is aimed at garages not Joe Public but interesting nevertheless. https://www.hella.com/hella-tech-world-us-en/lambda-sensor-2826.html

Noises like this tend to reverberate around the cabin making it very difficult to identify where exactly they are coming from.

Are you saying that there is no power coming out of the pin on the car since having the caravan cable changed? The 2 should be unrelated. Have you checked the socket using a multimeter and are you sure that you're checking the right pin? You can download and print out a 13-pin pin-out diagram from the Internet but just be aware that sometimes they are designed for the installers who are wiring the sockets from the back and therefore the pin-outs are sometimes the reverse of how you would look at it from the outside. The fuses are normally under the boot floor where the towbar wiring is.

I had a set of Goodyear Ultragrips on a 1 Series a few years back and they were brilliant. I understand that the Nokian's are great too but have never tried them. Hopefully you can get either in your tyre size.

I think it's to do with the new MOT rules as explained here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mot-changes-20-may-2018 Pay attention to section 1 where it says that there are 5 categories of Item Results. No need to hold off until expiry date it's just that if there are any Dangerous faults then you can't drive it away regardless of when it's tested but I wonder how this will work in the real world where some customers may threaten violence or to torch the garage if they don't get their car back.

Well they would say that wouldn't they because they want your money 🤣 A towbar fitter may be able to buy it from Lexus with trade discount and fit it for you which will reduce the cost of the kit slightly and the labour significantly so you might be able to save a few quid that way if Lexus are prepared to sell the towbar and wiring kit alone. If it's a genuine kit and fitted by a competent person then it won't invalidate the warranty.

Yes that is deeply annoying especially when you see knackered old Mondeo's/Passats or worse still BMW's that have had the DPF removed with thick black smoke belching out of the exhaust knowing that they are paying much less due to their "green" credentials.

Not necessarily. I had a breakdown policy before and I read the terms and it clearly stated that cover wouldn't be provided in the event of a flat tyre if the spare wheel was missing. At the time I had a 1 Series that didn't have a spare wheel bay never mind a wheel so I queried it with them and they said that if the car was never supplied with a wheel by the manufacturer then they would still cover you. I'm just saying that people need to check the terms with their own provider if they are thinking of leaving the spare at home. As for the insurance, some companies don't charge anything extra for LPG converted cars and when they say that the LPG equipment is "covered" what they mean is that the components are covered individually so for example if your car was rear-ended and the tank got damaged then they would cover the cost of a replacement tank. In the event of a total loss however they are not going to pay you for the value of a petrol car plus £1400 for the LPG conversion because they just pay you the market value of the whole car which is the same regardless of whether it is petrol or LPG. So if your LPG system takes 2 years to pay for itself and the car gets written off after just one year then you've lost a lot of money which is why I prefer a quicker payback time. It is a very small risk but nevertheless it does exist. It is purely down to the individual as to whether they want to take that risk as well as considering other factors such as availability. I wouldn't have an LPG car now because where I live availability is poor and the only station I drive past daily that sells it has recently bumped the price up by 10p per litre in one jump from 65.9p to 75.9p and that to my mind is too expensive. I can get it at 65.9p but that would involve taking a longer route home which is inconvenient. It is probably best to buy a car that has already been converted if possible to save on the outlay but there are no converted RX's for sale at the moment that I am aware of.

That's great news Clive thanks for letting us all know. I wonder how much that would have cost at a stealer with double labour rates and changed parts that weren't really needed. I would imagine that the fuse blew as a result of the damage to the wiring causing a short circuit either between the 2 wires or the positive wire could have touched the body of the O2 sensor which is negative. It only takes a split second of contact to blow the fuse.

So for a £1400 conversion to be paid off in 14 months means a saving of £100 per month in fuel. If you're only spending £150 per month on petrol then you can't possibly save that much so it would be more like a £50-£60 per month saving meaning that it will take over 2 years to pay for itself which in my opinion is too long. Don't forget too that if you have a prang and your car gets written off then the insurance company won't cover the cost of your conversion, they'll just give you the value of a standard petrol car so if that happens just after you've driven the car out of the LPG converters then you've just lost £1400 or after 1 year £700. I would also check the T & C's of your breakdown cover too because if your car came equipped with a spare wheel and you choose not to carry it around with you then some companies won't rescue you or will charge for doing so. LPG conversions work out great for some people but not for others. As for Euro Tunnel - stuff them and go on the ferry instead!