Herbie

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 noticable 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

There's a more convenient jump start terminal in the engine bay fusebox. The positive lead connects to the terminal under the red cover and the negative lead would connect to any unpainted nut, bolt or screw:

The answer may just be in the second line where you mention "neutral". When you come to a stop at the lights, always keep your foot on the brake and keep it in D(rive) or if you thing you'll be a while, put it in P(ark) - the traction battery will not charge if the car is in neutral. If you've not been using it much, or only for short journeys, the traction abttery may be low on charge and what you're feeling is the generator trying to charge it, which would be more noticable with the car stationary.

Just go anyway, it doesn't matter how far it is because a) you have to be prepared to travel for the right car, and b) what else have you got to do in these days of lockdown? Just treat it as a relaxing trundle and enjoy. You don't even need to tell her where you're going, just say it's a mystery tour, look surprised when you get to the place and say, "Oh look what's here!"

There's been so many topics over the years about this subject that I confess I've lost track. Did we ever come up with a definitive alternative to going to a Lexus dealer and buying one from them? If so, we could do with it being 'stickied' or at least a topic heading something like "The definitive answer to the RX450h 12V battery dilemma." I don't know if it's just me or not but I find the 'Search' facility of this board to be abysmal, and by far the worst of any other board I'm a member of.

This is the sort of thing that Malcolm is talking about although there are cheaper ones. Takes just a couple of minutes to do, doesn't need another car to jump from, and will always be ready for future use if needed. I see that you've got a 2010 car and if it's a Panasonic battery, it's very likely to be the original so it's done very well up to now.

I don't know for sure but seriously doubt it. As far as I know, Techstream only works on Windows, not even Apple, so it's highly unlikely that they've made an Android/Chrome version available. Why not just pick up a secondhand laptop? Techstream will happily work in Windows 7 and even XP so you don't need the latest all-singing, all-dancing machine to run it.

These are the ones I bought for the reversing lights They don't throw any codes or cause any problems with the CANBUS system, literally just plug and play. You could use these in the front indicators like I did in my 2005 RX300. These pass an MOT because the actual light fitting and lamp are not testable items, only the colour (amber) and flash rate are testable. They do mess with the CANBUS system and that's what those big orange resistors are for. Without them, the indicators hyperflash but as long as you wire them in they flash at the correct rate. Only other alternative would be to replace the actual flasher unit with one designed for LEDs. This is how I did it and how they looked. As I say in the article, don't take any notice of the horrendous test run for the wiring, it was all tidied up properly

I doubt it'll be Gracenote. Gracenote is 'just' a database and is the system that allows the name of the band and the name of the album to be displayed. Other than that I'm afraid I can't help any further as I have a severe allergy to anything Apple and would never own anything of theirs.

Most likely the alternator but could be something as simple as the drive belt needing to be tightened, although if that was the case I'd expect you would have heard it squealing. Could be the alternator brushes or rectifier pack. If you're handy with the spanners it should be easy enough to get off and open up. If it's the brushes, you'll be able to tell just by looking as they'll be worn down. If they're OK then almost certainly be the rectifier pack.

Due to a back injury I had a long time ago I find normal saloon cars difficult and painful to get in/out, which was my main reason for going to an SUV. The RX is brilliant in this respect and is SO comfortable that I'd even sleep in it if I could.

First of all, leave your HIDs as they are, as it's now an MOT fail if incorrect bulbs are fitted. That means that halogen fittings should have halogen lamps, HID fittings should have HID lamps and so on. The pic below is taken from the MOT Inspection Manual: The reversing lamps can easily be replaced with LEDs because they aren't tested. If you search the forum you'll find info about how to remove the reversing lamp 'shroud' which also improves light output. If I can find it for you I'll post it up.

I don't know why that would be. I had a Nextbase 402G for about 3 years and never formatted the card, and my current Viofo A119S has been in there well over a year and never formatted. Given that the camera overwrites the data, starting with the earliest files first, I really cannot see any reason to manually format at all.

The blue one is a 59 plate but the silver is 09, so maybe 6 months older than the blue. The blue one also has a much nicer interior colour scheme too. There's a tendancy to think 'Oh I'm in no rush so I'll wait to see if something else comes along' and sometimes that's not a bad thing. However, even if the money is in the bank and there's no rush, if the right one comes along then there's just no point in waiting any longer because just maybe, nothing better will come along. If I was in the market for an RX450h of that sort of age, mileage and condition, I'd have the blue one tomorrow.

That does indeed look very nice.

Was it really worth it Stan? You could have converted to all coils - full set of four can be had for just under £800.

I've never driven on air but been a passenger and my honest opinion is that I really can't tell much difference at all. Certainly not a 'justifiable' difference from a future repair bill point of view anyway. I would have loved to go for the Premier variant and the extra toys it has but specifically avoided it for that very reason.

There's no denying that it's a time-consuming job but you don't want to be paying Lexus labour charges of around £130+VAT per hour, which is what the dealer would be charging, so I'd say buy the car and pay a good reputable garage to do the plugs.

I've never heard of 'pedestrian sensors' before. You don't mean the parking sensors, do you? The only clear pipe I can think of is the water pipe to the headlight washers. I'm genuinely intrigued by this, so I hope someone can help.

How long have you had the car? Are you new to Toyota/Lexus hybrids or have you driven one before? If you're new to it, what you're describing could be the eCVT in operation and if so, it's nothing to worry about, it's just the way they work. The eCVT (Electronic Continuously Variable Transmission) uses just one continuously-meshed gear so you don't get the 'steps' of a standard transmission. There's also the 'drive-by-wire' throttle, which means that the accelerator pedal is an electronic device instead of operating a physical steel cable that pulls on a lever or whatever. All in all, it combines to make a system where the engine speed bears no relationship to the actual road speed and under certain conditions the engine can sound like it's racing but in reality the car isn't moving as quickly as you would expect it to for that particular engine sound. There's a website that explains it all and even has a great animation that you can play with and adjust - I'll try to find it again and link it for you.

I've got five full episodes of Fireball XL5 on my NAS drive

Which is great for cars with a dipstick (I mean for level checking, not the driver!) but a lot of cars, especially with the "sealed for life" transmissions, don't have dipsticks so you can't see the colour/smell of the fluid.

If it was pure BS then you wouldn't have any cold air at all. First of all, if the system is meant to have 100g of R134 and 8g of oil, are you sure that you got those respective amounts out? If not, but you actually did put that amount back in, then you'll obviously have too much in there. However, while that may not be a good thing for any amount of reasons, I really don't think that that would cause the symptoms that you're seeing. The fact that you have cold air on one side but not the other would suggest a problem with a siezed servo or a stuck blending flap or something like that, not the actual AC system itself. Another possibility, if the car has dual temp/climate controls so that driver and passenger can choose their own temps, is that the temperature sensor (if it has one) on the driver's side may have gone faulty.

Glad you got it sorted Chris, well done.

That would be my first thought too.