Herbie

What's 'fun' about making your car go in circles and literally watching your money burn off the tyres? I just find it weird myself. It's like people who like a certain type of music where a 'live gig' consists of somebody playing records and messing with a laptop instead of having the skill to play real musical instruments. Still, the world would be a strange place if we all liked the same things.

Maybe it's just a generational thing but all this does for me is to make me wonder WHY?????

USB 3 is a very fast transfer protocol and really comes to the fore when transferring data to/from flash drives, external hard drives and suchlike, so it makes sense to put these ports on the front for regular and easy access. Peripherals such as keyboards, mice, and other stuff like that don't need to have fast data transfer speeds and once they are connected they tend to stay connected for years. So USB 2 ports go on the back because the rear of the computer is usually awkward to get to, maybe at the back of a cupboard somewhere, and the ports don't need to be accessed that often.

Thanks Barry. It doesn't happen on mine so I've either disabled it without knowing or the previous owner did it 🙂

None of my research shows this to be true, at least for Lexus/Toyota. Maybe other marques have different systems that are compatible with PAG but I really don't see how that could be because PAG oil is hygroscopic and has a low dielectric, meaning that it's conductive, whereas ND-11 is a high dielectric and non-conductive. All oils keep the seals lubricated, whether PAG or ND-11. Maybe the Lexus tech you spoke to was a new starter 🙂

I don't even know what TP is

It's documented that as little as one percent contamination with PAG oil can damage the motor winding insulation. If you're very, very lucky a thorough flushing of the whole system with either some sort of electrical contact cleaner and/or the correct oil may be enough to avoid a catastrophy. However, if the motor windings have been sat in PAG oil for a month as it seems they have, then that damage may already have started and may well be irreversible by now. The compressor motor is a 500V three-phase unit so you really don't want insulation breakdown to occur. Maybe get the compressor out and send the motor away for a safety inspection where they'll do insulation resistance tests? EDIT: I don't know whereabouts you live in Hampshire but a couple of motor repair/rewind places include https://www.solentrewinds.co.uk/ and also https://electricmotorrewind.co.uk/index.html so it may be worth a phone call at least. Google has a few other places listed in case these are nowhere near you.

You'll need the wiring diagrams and pinout diagrams for both existing and replacement pumps and connectors, so that you can make sure that the correct wire goes to the correct pin. For example, if the existing unit has a red wire on Pin 1, a yellow wire on Pin 2 and a blue wire on Pin 3, you need to keep that sequence. Once you know which wires go to which pins, simply cut the old connector off the wiring loom and fit a connector that matches its mate on the replacement pump; note that you may have to extend the wires a bit. Having said all that, are you really sure that the internal connections of the replacement pump are the same as the old pump? In other words, if we say, for instance, that the old pump was expecting to see 12V on Pin 2, is the replacement the same and also expecting to see 12V on Pin 2? The fact that it's meant for a newer model year than your car may just throw you a curve ball. It may not of course, but you have to be aware of these things.

Yes, but not for the reasons the 'experts' at Honest John give above. For a start, hybrids don't have an alternator and it makes no difference if the petrol engine is running or not because it has nothing to do with charging the 12V battery. And, although the CTEK CT5 is a great charger and will do the job perfectly, we don't have stop/start cars or stop/start batteries - stop/start is a different technology. Obviously, I don't know your level of knowledge regarding hybrid cars so if this sounds patronising, I apologise, but the following information from a different post I made a while ago may help: In a hybrid there are two batteries - a 12V battery that basically 'starts' the hybrid system and gets the car into READY mode (which is our equivalent of the engine running) and also a traction battery that drives the electric motors and is around 288 to 300V depending on the car. Conventional cars have a starter motor that, when you turn the key, will crank the engine to get it running. The starter motor can draw more than 300A from the battery to start the car and when the engine is running, the alternator will replace the electrical energy used and keep the 12V battery charged up but it's main job is to run all the car's electrical systems - the 12V battery is only used for starting. Our hybrids don't have a starter motor as such and they don't have an alternator either. Our 12V batteries only have to boot the hybrid computers and one or two other things and it takes less than 20A to do that job, which is a lot different to the 300A a conventional starter motor would need. Because of that, Toyota/Lexus thought they could save a bit of money by only installing small-capacity 12V batteries, which is fair enough, except that the downside is that the 12V battery goes flat quicker than a larger battery would. For instance, it's not unusual for the 12V battery to go flat if parked up for a couple of weeks at the airport while you're away on holiday. Quite a few of us carry something like this in the car just in case it happens. So, that's the 12V side. Remember I said that our cars don't have alternators? Well, it's because the petrol engine doesn't run all the time - the car sometimes switches off the engine and runs on electric motors, which are powered by the traction battery. Anything that would normally be run by a belt from the engine, such as the alternator, the aircon compressor or the power steering pump, are all driven by electric motors so that they can still be used when the petrol engine is off. In fact, once the car is READY then the traction battery feeds all of the car's electrical needs, just like the alternator does in a conventional car. Taking the alternator as an example, the 12V battery starts the car and gets it into READY mode. Once READY, some clever electronics in what's known as a DC/DC Converter (our equivalent of the alternator), steps down the 300V from the traction battery to around 14.5V to keep the 12V battery charged. Different boxes of electronics do the same (albeit at different voltages/currents) for the aircon compressor and other stuff, all run by the traction battery. The other main job of the traction battery is to provide power for the electric motors that drive the wheels when the petrol engine is off. This battery is mainly charged by regenerative braking. The regen braking system takes the kinetic energy that would normally be wasted in heat by friction of the brake pads against the discs and turns it into electricity to charge the traction battery. Every time you lift your foot off the accelerator you'll see the power meter needle drop into the 'Charge' zone of the meter, but maybe not so far. When you actively press the brake pedal the needle will drop right down to the bottom of the 'Charge' scale, indicating maximum rate of charge. If the traction battery is dropping low on charge but no braking is taking place to charge it, the hybrid system will run the petrol engne, which in turn runs one of the motor/generators (MG1 and MG2) in a backward rotation to act as a generator and charge the battery. I often get MG1 and MG2 mixed up so that may not be strictly correct but you get the idea - it's one or the other. It can be quite noticeable if the car isn't moving at the time, which is why I think that this may be what you're feeling. However, as I said above, if the car is in neutral then this won't happen, which is why you need to keep it in drive. Something else to bear in mind is that these are hybrid cars, not electric cars. If you run out of petrol, the most you'll get on battery alone is maybe a couple of miles, no more, and it also opens up a whole host of other problems. To be a fully-functional car, three things are needed as they all work together - the 12V battery, the traction battery and the petrol engine. Hope that helps, Herbie.

No harm in trying but I'd be surprised if they do sort it under warranty. The last car battery I bought came with a five-year warranty but that's very rare these days, with most battery manufacturers only covering them for up to three years.

How long have you had the car? I doubt that you'll get anywhere with Lexus unless you've only had the car for a very short time. As you'll see below, the 12V battery is not covered in either the original manufacturer's warranty or the extended warranty:

Only other thing I can think of then is to maybe drill and/or re-tap to a different size.

I would imagine it's the aircon sight glass, although I've never seen a green one.

The monitors look like they are just plonked there and bolted on as an afterthought. They look horribly out of place in a nice, refined interior. The outside arms are still just as susceptible to plenty of damage and the cost of replacements will put up insurance prices for everyone. First-world problems insofar as technology for the sake of it and solving a problem that isn't really there. A decent idea that's currently badly implemented, I'd say.

I must confess that even though I posted those two pages from the workshop manual, I've not actually looked at it in the car and so I'm still not sure what part this screw plays. What does it actually do? Does it simply hold the cover on? What I'm getting at is, could you not just forget the screw and use a bit of glue to hold the cover on instead, if that's the job of the screw? Alternatively, could it be a different thread, such as BA or something else other than metric? The text below is taken from http://www.wheels-alive.co.uk/need-to-know-series-no-4-threads-spanners-and-things/ Conceived as the age of electricity dawned to fulfil a need for small to sub-miniature nuts and bolts, BA fastener sizes are designated by a number, allocated on the basis of ‘the smaller the diameter, the higher the number.’ The series starts with 0BA – the biggest bolt diameter, at 0.236 inches (approx. 6mm). Standard diameters down to 12BA are still easily available, and the series is specified down to 25BA (0.25mm). Sizes smaller than 16BA (0.79mm) and odd numbers like 3BA, 5BA etc are rare. Extensively used in electrical and electronic equipment and fittings, over the years BA fasteners have found wide application in instrumentation and similar equipment built in Britain. Use was also widespread over many years in British motor vehicles, with BA nuts and bolts found in minor part attachments around the vehicle, and in externally sourced ancillary equipment, including fuel pumps, wiper and heater motors, dashboard instruments, and sundry auto-electrical equipment. BA nuts and bolts have their own unique spanner sizes, which, though today quite expensive, remain available. It’s also possible to obtain so called “nut spinners” (similar to a screwdriver but with a miniature socket on the end) in BA (and small metric) sizes, useful when dealing with small nuts and bolts in confined spaces. A set covering 0BA, 2BA, 4BA and 6BA should cover most classic automotive work. Since the 1970s, BA threaded components have been replaced by small metric-style fasteners, in sizes such as M2, M3, M3.5 and M4, bringing a delicious irony to what was one of the great survivors from the age of independent British engineering. The BA series dared to be dimensionally unique, but shared a 47½ degree thread angle with the small metric thread set dreamed up in 1878 by Professor Michael Thury of Geneva University and known as Systématique des vis Horlogères. The BA thread design has roots in both Joseph Whitworth’s ideas and British simplification of Thury’s complex metric thread dimensions, and survived well into the 1970s – but the Professor’s design fell by the wayside when common thread standards for metric fasteners were agreed in 1898.

I'm not quite sure if that's right but it's a bit of a confusing item. The workshop manual I have is for model year 2003 onwards so the difference may be down to that, but if the manual is correct then neither of your values are actually within spec.

To be honest, I have no idea. However, if it's just pads and not discs as well then surely it can't be that expensive? If the brakes need bleeding then you'll need Techstream to do that but if it's literally just a pad change then, like most other cars, it should be straightforward and nothing special just because it's a Lexus hybrid.

@Rxowner Adam, I've just PM'd you with some info you may find useful.

Probably directional - left one comes on when turning left, right one when turning right. I think the car has to be above a certain speed for this to happen.

Excellent Raymond, thanks for letting us know it works.

I'm glad to see that it's finally being sorted Karl, but it really makes my blood boil to see/hear people talking of the hybrid and high voltage side of things when that has nothing to do with it. For a running car, yes, but when talking of having the unit on the bench to work on it, no. And the people who said this: are complete numpties! As it turns out you've found out that there's something else wrong other than just the one corroded pin but as yet, we don't know what. I'm not saying that I could have successfully completed the whole job but if I lived closer I would have been more than happy to take on the initial problem for you. Anyway, good luck and I really hope this guy comes up trumps for you - please keep us posted won't you?

Just to throw my tuppenceworth in..... Specs look fine for what you need Geoff, so I'd say yes, go ahead. Shahpor is correct when he says that computers don't come with product keys for the Windows system, but you don't need them. As long as you run the new comuter and connect it to the internet at least once, the Windows system 'phones home' as it were, to the Microsoft licencing servers. The system looks at the hardware of your machine (motherboard, hard drive, graphics card etc) and assigns a unique value or 'key' to your machine that is then stored on the server. The operating system software is basically tied to that one machine and only that machine. If it was completely destroyed and you replaced it with a new one, you would also have to buy another copy of Windows to install on it. However, you are allowed a certain number of changes (I think it's three if I remember correctly) to the hardware, just in case something goes faulty or, as in your case, you want to install an SSD as the boot drive. After installing the new SSD and installing Windows 10 on it, the first time you connect to the internet the machine will call home to the servers again. Even though the unique value wil have changed, it will still be recognised as your machine and the licence will activate again without a problem, but with a change logged against it. In other words, don't worry about it, it's fine to change to an SSD

It's not so much what it costs, but why it needs it. All my cars from the last 30 years or so have had aircon and I've never had to regas any of them. I had a Rover 800 Series Sterling for 12 years and the AC was as cold on the day I sold it as the day I bought it, as indeed all my other cars were. If it needs regassing then there's a problem somewhere and that will obviously affect the cost.

Could be a loose connection so as a starting point I'd disconnect both positive and negative cables from the battery and clean up both the battery posts themselves and the clamps that go on them too. Then go to the other ends of those cables and disconnect and clean them, along with the engine to body earth strap and make sure all connections are good and tight when you replace them.

I'm almost sure that a 2006 car would not have factory-fitted daytime running lights so maybe these have been wired incorrectly when they were installed? DRLs are meant to be powered on with the ignition but should also either dim or go off completely when the side/tail lights come on. This is because they have to be bright enough to be seen in full sunlight, but that same level of brightness would dazzle other drivers at night when it's dark.