Herbie

A bulb is a bulb is a bulb. The only thing to be scared of with HID bulbs is the high voltage. It takes about 20 to 25,000V to strike the arc and about 70 to 80V to maintain it. As long as you don't go poking around near the bulbs and/or ballasts while they're energised, and you wait for an hour or two after switching them off for the capacitors to drain their residual charge, you'll be fine - the mechanics of changing the bulbs is just the same as it ever was.

Any fuse that comes alive when the ignition is on is fine. I wired mine to the cig lighter fuse if I remember correctly.

There's a saying in the computer industry - GIGO, Garbage In Garbage Out. To get the best from a Mark Levinson system it needs to be fed with really good stuff from Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, The Who, AC/DC, Jethro Tull and David Bowie, to name just a few. You'll never realise its full potential otherwise

The words 'nail' and 'head' come to mind here 😉 Are there no markings on the one you took out to tell you what it is?

If the cleaning and wiping helped, have you tried lubricating the rubber? If not, this stuff is excellent and will also stop the doors/tailgate from freezing shut in icy weather.

Lovely looking car on the outside but I really don't like the two-tone door cards and centre console. I had the chance of such a car before I bought this one but although the car was perfect in every sense, this one aspect put me off. I'm sure you'll enjoy it to the full Les.

In case my earlier description made no sense, this is a cover from an RX300. The clips on the two flaps clip onto the rear headrests - why they couldn't have done the same with the 450h is beyond me:

It's a great idea John and one that we may have to consider in the future, but we're putting it off as long as possible because the RX doesn't really have as much luggage space as people would think. The scooter itself takes up about two thirds of the room so having the hoist as well would make it difficult to get much else in.

Now you're telling me something - I had no idea. Then again, there's only my wife and I so neither of us have ever sat in the rear. My 2005 RX300 had the retractable cover as normal but on the 'seat side' of that there was a length of material with clips on the end that clipped around the headrest posts, thereby covering the gap. I'm just amazed that they didn't carry that idea forward into the more modern variants. Just goes to show that 'progress' isn't always for the better. We've actually got some 'leatherette-type' material that's quite a good colour match to the interior and my wife is going to try to make something like the RX300 used to have, but I still think it's poor that Lexus removed it.

The only thing that I don't like about our RX450h is why Lexus, in their infinite wisdom, did not provide a proper cover for the luggage area. My wife needs to use her mobility scooter on a daily basis and I've got a bad back injury, so to minimise the stress on my injury we leave the scooter in the boot all the time rather than keep swapping it between the house and the car. In the photo below the seats are back as far as they will go but that leaves a hell of a gap for some scrote to look in and think "Ooh, there's something in here". What do people do to try to improve security?

I thought Lexus Assist was just breakdown cover but maybe I'm wrong.

Sorry it's happened to you Jacs but as Lee says, it's a problem that's reached epidemic proportions. There are plenty of posts about it in the proper RX forum so have a look over there.

That certainly gives the impression that you don't take the time to clear the screen of ice or snow before you drive off.

You're welcome mate, I like to help when I can.

Exactly what I was thinking John!

Mark - I've just sent you a PM regarding this. Herbie

If she has the will to do so, she will. I repair computers for a living and also do some basic computer tuition. One of my customers is a lady of 83 and she's as bright as a button and really looks forward to our tuition sessions. She's a quick learner and loves it. The flip side is a guy of about 45 who really has no interest in computers but thinks he should learn as "everything seems to be on the Internet these days". Consequently he really struggles with the most basic of things. Your friend's fate and future with the car is in her own hands.

RX all day long, but it's your choice.

Putting diesel into a petrol car doesn't usually do much apart from making lots of smoke as it burns. Doing it the other way, petrol into diesel can be quite catastrophic for the diesel engine. Given the above I'm quite surprised that the car actually broke down in the first place, although I suppose it depends on how much petrol was in the tank when she put the diesel in.

I keep the steering lock on and go back in the house while it defrosts and gets nice and warm

Borrow or hire a smoke machine and put it inside the car, then see where the smoke emerges from.

Yes - how to drive a hybrid 😀 First of all, a 58 400h and a 62 450h are very different beasts so I'm not sure you can compare the two. Secondly, the whole idea of a hybrid is to anticipate the road ahead and use gentle braking, so that most of the stopping is done regeneratively and you keep the traction battery charged. The 'normal' hydraulic brakes are really only used in three situations: In an emergency where you have to 'slam on' and brake heavily the system goes straight to hydraulic When slowing down to a stop the system changes from regen to hydraulic at about 3mph if I remember correctly If the traction battery becomes fully charged and can accept no more (on a long descent for instance) the system changes from regen to hydraulic This is why brake discs and pads last much longer on hybrids than on other cars.

This should help:

It should do. When the screen is icy I leave my steering wheel lock in place but fire up the engine so that I can soon defrost the screen without having to use deicer, while I go back in the house to keep warm. I always use the 'auto' function because it's climate control. You set the cabin temp that you want and the car does whatever it has to to keep that temp for you. As the engine heats up the air will start to blast out from the footwell area because hot air rises and this is the quickest way to achieve cabin temp. As Peter said above, check the thermostat for correct operation.

Wow, that's some mileage in 6 years I apologise for doubting you Alex. Ouch!