Herbie

Your photos are too small to see what's written on the boxes Jack, so unless Brian knows off the top of his head, we may need better photos to advise you.

Roger, I'm assuming that Colin was referring to the original question about quantity of compressor oil, not refrigerant gas. I think the main problem is that HellRider (the OP) seems to be saying that he somehow did his own AC service, presumably at home. That's how it comes across to me anyway because if it was carried out at a proper AC specialist, or at least by using the proper equipment, surely the machine would have recovered the existing oil into a graduated receiver, which would have negated the need to ask how much should go back in.

Absolutely! I never turn my AC off at all.

The engine bay is indeed a more hostile environment but as far as I'm aware the refrigerant gas and oil don't degrade or change their composition or structure in any way because of that environment. I've never had a routine AC service done on any of my cars and I've never had an AC problem. I had my previous car for over 10 years and the AC got as icy cold on the day I sold it as it was on the day I bought it, as all my cars have. Again, as far as I'm aware, I don't think there is any filter within the sealed system but I may be wrong. I would imagine that statistically you'll cause more problems by opening a sealed system to do routine servicing than occur naturally without interference.

These quotes are from different parts of a post going on in our sister group on Facebook and may be of interest to you: Aircon servicing is basically snake oil, designed to make money for the companies who carry it out. I cannot find any advice that is impartial, only advice by companies who actually carry out aircon servicing and, of course, they are going to say that you should have it done every two years or so aren't they? The aircon system is sealed. Nothing can get in and nothing can get out unless there is a fault or problem of some kind and that will usually manifest itself by the system beginning to make noises or not getting as cold as it used to do. That's when you take it somewhere to have it investigated, regassed, or whatever, but the idea of taking it for a 'routine service' every couple of years is an absolute con designed to relieve you of your money. Adverts will often say that part of the service is to "take out the "old" refrigerant and replace it with "new"" - but refrigerant doesn't degrade or 'wear out' - it just 'is'. As an aside, my granny's fridge is 30 years old and the refirgerant still makes it cold as ice in there! The system seals are lubricated by the compressor oil and again, they don't wear out or degrade unless there's a leak and the system loses oil - but again, that would show in not getting as cold as it used to. Anecdotal evidence from friends and family shows that not a single one of them has ever had a 'routine aircon service' and not a single one of them has ever had aircon problems. The other chap had come back with a reply comparing AC servicing to "sealed for life" gearboxes. Some say yes, some say no, so the topic went on from there: Physical gears meshing in the transmission will always shed metal particles, which over time will gather into a metallic sludge and could cause problems. Also, the transmission fluid itself gets contaminated and the friction modifiers lose efficacy, so common sense says that it should be changed and there should be no such thing as a "sealed for life" gearbox. However, and this is crucial, the manufacturers class "sealed for life" as being the life of the car so it is a finite parameter. Refrigerant gas - unless something is wrong - does not pick up metallic sludge and does not degrade and if it was opened up in a hundred years that refrigerant gas would be the same as the day it went in. Once that system is charged and sealed, there just isn't anything to service.

Probably not that, but for this reason: Aircon servicing is basically snake oil, designed to make money for the companies who carry it out. I cannot find any advice that is impartial, only advice by companies who actually carry out aircon servicing and, of course, they are going to say that you should have it done every two years or so aren't they? The aircon system is sealed. Nothing can get in and nothing can get out unless there is a fault or problem of some kind and that will usually manifest itself by the system beginning to make noises or not getting as cold as it used to do. That's when you take it somewhere to have it investigated, regassed, or whatever, but the idea of taking it for a 'routine service' every couple of years is an absolute con designed to relieve you of your money. Adverts will often say that part of the service is to "take out the "old" refrigerant and replace it with "new"" - but refrigerant doesn't degrade or 'wear out' - it just 'is'. As an aside, my granny's fridge is 30 years old and the refirgerant still makes it cold as ice in there! The system seals are lubricated by the compressor oil and again, they don't wear out or degrade unless there's a leak and the system loses oil - but again, that would show in not getting as cold as it used to. Anecdotal evidence from friends and family shows that not a single one of them has ever had a 'routine aircon service' and not a single one of them has ever had aircon problems.

I don't know for sure but probably dealer fitted rather than factory, so can be considered to be retrofitted as Steve says and I think the only thing you could do would be his suggestion of tracing the wiring back to the emulator - but not necessarily by pulling unnecessary things apart if you're lucky. Do you know anyone who works for BT/Openreach? I used to be a faultsman jointer, doing maintenance on the underground cables. Since a telephone line is a pair of wires, our cables are sized by how many pairs they contain, with the smallest being 5-pair and the largest being 4,800 pairs. To clear a fault on any given line we have to be able to pick out one individual pair of wires from the rest of them, so we use a signal generator to inject a signal onto the pair of wires and then go looking for it using an amplifier. The pair of wires where the tone can be heard the loudest is the pair that you're looking for. I have no idea whatsoever if this method would work on cars, which is why I asked if you knew anyone on BT/Openreach so that you could borrow theirs before spending any money, but I've just found this one for just under £15 so not too much money wasted if you have to buy it and the experiment fails. EDIT Doh! Forget it. I've just realised after typing all this out that it won't really help you. Yes, if it works it'll show you the cable route, but it still won't show you exactly where the emulator is located. I suppose the best it'll do would be to show you the route and then if you see any obvious 'patches' or places where the carpet/covering has been disturbed you could look there.

The Hikvision ColorVu are indeed amazing. We have a two-camera system, teamed up with a Hikvision DS-7604NI-K1/4P network video recorder (the camera model No. is DS-2CD2347G1-LU). The system uses PoE or Power Over Ethernet, which is great because you only have to run one Cat 5 (or above) cable out to each camera location and it handles power, video and audio. I don't know if the ColorVu cameras would integrate with your existing system but I've included the quote we got so that you have an idea of prices.

First of all, it's a DVD+R, meaning a recordable disc, meaning not a genuine 'pressed' Toy/Lex disc but a copy. Secondly, I read it as the operating system/satellite tech is licenced from 1993 to 2015 by SeniTech, and the actual navigational map data is 2016/2017 and for south and west europe.

Really depends on what your current system is, how long you've had it and possible upgrade? For instance, I used to have a basic setup which was great and full colour during the day but at night was just black and white with Infrared 'bounceback' that made faces just appear as white blobs. We now have a Hikvision system using Hikvision ColorVu cameras and it's full colour 24/7: This shot is the back of our house: and this shot is from the 'completed installations' gallery of the company who installed them:

Some sort of black magic or witchcraft is used by the car to work out what it thinks fuel consumption and/or available range on what's in the tank will be, based on various parameters such as previous driving style, temperature and so on. Fuel consumption always goes down in warmer weather, so more miles there. If you've been gentler on the loud pedal, more miles there. If the battery has recently gone flat or been disconnected it will have reset the driving style that it had previously learned, so may be more miles there. And of course, fuel consumption being such a fickle beast it could be that green socks give you more miles than red ones, blue Y-fronts give you more miles than red boxers and so on.

I fully agree with what Colin says here but make sure to use another dealer group. If one dealership in the group is trying to charge more then no doubt the others will too - it may be a group-wide policy.

Sorry, no idea about which one to use but I've just looked at the workshop manual and yes, looks a very time-consuming job. Given that, have you tested the sensors to make sure that they are the problem? The error codes are really only an indication of where to start looking, not an absolute guarantee that the sensors really are faulty and replacing them will cure the fault.

That's how all LPG works, whether factory-fitted as in Vauxhall or Dacia above, or whether it's an aftermarket conversion. I just hope they get it right. The Vauxhalls were never brilliant and it gave LPG a bad name, whereas I, and many thousands of others, know it's a brilliant fuel that's better on the environmant, better on the engine and better on the wallet.

The advice on Toyota's website is to just put the car into READY mode for about 60 minutes once a week, with the car in P(ark) if you can't do anything else, so that may be your best bet Michael. Just sit in the car, reading the newspaper or otherwise contemplating your navel, and just let the world roll on by. The petrol engine will fire up as and when necessary to keep the battery topped up and you'll just have a leisurely time in a comfy seat

The hybrid battery will take at least a couple of months, most probably longer, to go flat. In fact, it holds its charge so well that there are hardly any cases of a hybrid battery being flat. However, if it were to ever happen you would have to call out the dealer or some other high voltage specialist who has the correct equipment and knowledge to deal with it because, at around 288-300v, it's not something that the RAC, AA or other breakdown service could deal with. The 12v battery, on the other hand, is a completely different kettle of fish to deal with but is much easier, as you'll see from the posts above.

It's just a fact of owning a Toyota or Lexus hybrid that we have to live with. Because hybrids take very little current to 'start' them, the designers thought they could save some money by only fitting small 12v batteries. I can see their point to a degree, but the downside is that the smaller 12v batteries go flat sooner than larger ones will. The only ways round this fact are to either use the car more or to keep it on a trickle charger of some kind if you can't or don't want to use the car more.

This is for an RX450h but it may help if you want to try it:

Everything John says above is accurate but for a moving car. If the traction battery were to go flat due to lack of use or something else you wouldn't even be able to start the car. The 12v battery boots the computers to get the hybrid system up and running and the hybrid system then energises MG1 which spins the engine up to about 1,000rpm before the system then applies fuel and a spark to fire it. Also, if the traction battery was ever flat, then at 288V it's not something the RAC, AA or whoever could deal with; you'd need to get the dealer out or someone else with the necessary gear and knowledge to do it. Oh, and if you run out of petrol then the most you'll get on battery alone is about a couple of miles. It needs 12v battery, HV traction battery and petrol engine to be a functional car.

I'll not shoot you down in flames for that John, but I still think there must be something wrong with any system that needs to be topped up so an investigation by a specialist would be money well spent.

I didn't know that, I thought they all had oil in. Mind you, if it needs topping up then something must be wrong somewhere so it may be as well to go to a specialist anyway. We had a Nissan Maxima QX for best part of 10 years and the system ran just as cold (very cold) as the day we got it, so no top-ups or any other work needed doing at all.

STOP! Cease and desist! Step away from the compressor! You're right, it's driven by an electric motor but the main concern is that the motor windings are immersed in the oil for cooling purposes so it has to be a special oil that is not electrically conductive. If I remember right it's ND11 oil instead of the normal PAG oil but I'm sure someone else will confirm that. If you search the forum you'll find a right tale of woe from one of our fellow members. He'd only had the car a couple of weeks and the aircon wasn't getting as cold as it should, so he went back to the trader he got it from. They said something along the lines of, "Our guy is on leave so just take it to Halfords and we'll pay the bill". Unfortunately, instead of doing a full aircon service, ie, refrigerant out, pull a vaccuum to test for leaks etc., etc., with a proper aircon machine, the Halfords drone just grabbed a DIY top-up can off the shelf and squirted said gas into the system. Even the slightest drop of PAG oil in an ND11 system can cause electrical problems and if I recall correctly it ended up with compressor, dryer and a couple of other components being replaced - although I may not have that correct as I've drunk far too many beers during lockdown to be sure it's accurate! If it's not getting cold enough or there's some other reason why you think it needs regassing, my advice would be to take it to a proper aircon specialist and let them sort it.

I know what you're saying but I fear it may already be too late. We've had the car about two and a half years and never opened the sunroof, so I'm more than just a bit apprehensive to try it now in case something bad happens. As the saying goes 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'.

Not at all. There are companies out there who manufacture joint boxes purely for the purpose of extending battery cables, although I do agree that replacing is better than jointing. Ah well, that's the whole crux of the matter isn't it? These forums seem to have many people struggling for one reason or other to get a correct battery for whichever car and this is just a workaround for the problem of reversed terminals if their search is proving fruitless. Of course, if you have more than one car available to you then it may not be a problem but if, like me, you only have one car and the search for a battery is keeping it off the road then this is a viable alternative.

I suppose there's various ways of doing it Steve. You could either just buy ready-made longer cables and replace the existing ones, or you could buy a couple of lengths of cable and solder lugs to make up your own cables to replace the existing ones, or you could add in a new piece and joint it with a joint box something like this one or maybe use Anderson Connectors. I suppose that the flaw in my suggestion is that I'm an electrician by trade so I have the required tools and something like this is second nature to me, but I do concede that 'Joe Bloggs' may consider it a step too far, although there are plenty of Youtube videos to refer to if someone wasn't completely confident. Some people may think that it's a lot of faffing about and maybe it is, but it depends on how elusive the 'correct' battery with correct terminal orientation proves to be and at what cost.