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Herbie

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Everything posted by Herbie

  1. Do you have a built-in satnav? If so, you should have a camera.
  2. That's correct Barry. They're LEDs so will take very little current, so little as to be negligible in this context.
  3. OBD2 is an industry standard, so no matter what car you have you can be sure it's the same as this pinout. There are some manufacturer-specific codes and connections but the basics will all be the same.
  4. Yes it is, but you may find that the solar panel doesn't do much good. It really depends on which one you went for but some of them just can't output enough power.
  5. I doubt it would work in that sort of way like a switch, ie, either wet or AGM. Irrespective of chemistry and construction, as a battery ages it will present different characteristics to the charging circuits (or I would think so anyway) so I would expect the electronics of the DC/DC converter to be intelligent enough see what it's dealing with and to act accordingly, automatically.
  6. Take a look here at Lexus Parts Direct where you'll get the correct one at £117.76
  7. We tend to take the lights a bit for granted and sometimes forget the actual purpose of them. The whole reason for the battery light to exist is to indicate that the battery is not being charged. Any time that light comes on, the battery is not being charged It's also worth noting that once the engine has fired and is running, the alternator takes the job of supplying the entire electrical demand of the car and also charging the battery and keeping it topped up. The fact that the battery light is on and the wipers are slower than normal is telling you that the alternator is failing. It could be as simple as the brushes need replacing or it could be more involved, but it's definitely not a happy little alternator.
  8. @steveledzep I know it sounds counter-intuitive because the battery was disconnected while you changed it over, but it might just help to disconnect it again for a few minutes. It's not guaranteed but I have seen it work before.
  9. If it's not charging but it's not the brushes, why not just have your own alternator refurbished? It's got to be cheaper and it'll be like brand new again. I live local to these guys and I know you can send it to them. They do an excellent job but I'm sure there should be someone local to you if you didn't want to send it.
  10. If you get the code up again in Techstream you should be able to click on 'List' and it'll give you a subcode that should narrow the cause down.
  11. You don't need it anyway because the fuse box has a lid so nothing can touch the terminal with the lid in place. Also, there is usually another terminal in close proximity that also has a permanent positive feed on it but has no red cover, just like the one in the photo below that I tapped into:
  12. Best I've ever had was a 50 mile round trip and managed 41.8mpg but never managed as high as that either before or since:
  13. You can use any fuse that only has power on it when the car is in READY mode (ignition on).
  14. It just wouldn't work. The physical size would just be too small to produce anywhere near the power needed.
  15. It would be very unusual for the fuse to blow in this situation. If you connected the charger the wrong way round (+ charger lead to - battery post) then probably a big bang and something would indeed blow. However, you say that it charged up alright and that you've driven it since, so I doubt very much it's anything serious. First of all, there's a tailgate isolator switch behind the flap of the glove box; not actually in the glove box itself, but if you just open the door it'll be visible on the right-hand side. Make sure that's switched on. If that doesn't work then you need to do some diagnostic testing. Do you hear any clicking or whirring when you press the button? It could be that the latch is getting power but not releasing. It could even be as simple as being too cold. I know it sounds daft but two or three people have posted recently that their tailgates have problems opening when it's very cold.
  16. Brilliant Job Jason, well done and thanks for posting the video. Just goes to show that as long as you're mindful of the electrical safety aspect, it's really no different from any other remove/replace operation on any other component of the car. Thanks again mate and I'll raise a glass to your next 180k miles
  17. I'd almost guarantee the 12V battery is the problem. As Mark said above it's likely to be the original so it's not surprising if it's 'tired' and the cold is finishing it off - the detrimental effect of cold weather on car batteries is well documented.
  18. Well first of all, Jason hadn't highlighted the process when my post went up, but it is much as I thought. I agree that "new" should mean "new" but I suppose the crux of the matter is partly in the semantics and partly in the pricing. I would expect a totally 'new' pack to be much more expensive than a reconditioned one. After all, as Jason says, the wiring looms, the carcass and plastic cell casings can all be reused as long as they aren't damaged. I reckon that if you're paying about two grand you can say it's a recon, with a genuinely brand new one being double that but that's only my opinion; I have no idea about pricing of these things at all.
  19. Absolutely the right thing to do. When water gets in it needs a way to drain out before it becomes a lake. Good luck with the rest of it.
  20. I'm not sure it makes a difference really. I would think that being responsible companies the exchange programme is more to do with safe (both environmentally and electrically) dismantling and disposal. Batteries work via chemical reactions. Once the chemistry ceases to work, how would you 'recondition' a battery other than by replacing the chemicals and once you've done that, don't you have a 'brand new' battery anyway?
  21. Disconnect/unbolt any earth connectors you can see and give them a good clean before you bolt them back up tightly. Because the whole body is the earth, if one earth path fails or goes high resistance then you can get backfeeds through other systems. I remember being in the garage at the factory where I served my apprenticeship and one of the skip truck drivers came in to see the auto electrician and said, "Watch this". Every time he pressed the footbrake the windscreen wipers did one wipe cycle and it was traced back to a faulty earth connection.
  22. Why would someone do that???
  23. Of course, you are correct - I made a right schoolboy error there didn't I That's what happens when you try to rush out answers between doing other things. I'm off to bed, tomorrow can only be better
  24. I've never actually tried the 8 AA cells so I don't know if it would work in reality or not. However, 5 seconds is far too long. From pressing the Power button to getting the green READY light on the dash takes approximately two seconds - counting one-one thousand, two-one thousand, I don't even get to start saying three-one thousand before it lights up. This is what makes me think that it would actually work. Eight cells providing 2500mA = 20A, but it's only needed for about 2 seconds. Unless they just explode almost immediately they should be capable of doing it...I think Below are two photos I took a while ago. Not very scientific but gives an insight. I apologise that one of my rapidly diminishing hairs seems to have escaped from my scalp! The first one shows that with the doors open, internal courtesy lights on, radio on and maybe something else, I can't remember, the car is drawing 2.63A. I then got my wife to sit in the driver's seat, put her foot on the brake pedal and press the power button. The current draw shot up but it was too fast to see. I can say that to the best of my knowledge it didn't go above 20A because I don't remember seeing anything above a 2 as the first digit, but it happened so fast that I didn't even have time to press the yellow 'HOLD' button on the meter to grab the highest reading before the current flow changed polarity (shown by that black line under the 'DC') and the DC/DC converter started squirting 9.6A from the car back into the battery.
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