Herbie

This can't really be the case, can it? I mean, ceramic alone won't do it so it still has to have precious metals to act as the catalyst so it must still have some value, albeit not as much. I seem to remember reading that 'real' cats (for want of a better word) have catalytic 'beads' of the precious metals, whereas the ceramic ones have a ceramic core that is covered in a 'catalytic wash' that has the catalyst suspended in it. If that's correct then they have to find a way of getting that coating off, but as the saying goes, "Where there's a will...."

Looks very much like that to me too. I'm assuming that the first photo is looking towards the rear of the car as you can see the silencer at the back. Coming forward we see the flange and what looks like the upward sweep of the tee piece that meets the two downpipes, and in between those two cut ends should be the cat.

PM sent Barry.

I'll upload mine to my Google Drive and send you a link to download them Barry. I actually bought the one that you linked to but it's only in PDF format and doesn't work very well but it may be useful as a sort of supplement to the better one I bought from Australia, which is in HTML format. I'll either do it later or possibly tomorrow.

Good point, and I have to say that I have no idea where it is on the RX300.

A very strange experience indeed Richard. The first question it begs is, if the cat really wasn't taken (and I'm not saying it's not true but just that I'm finding it very, very difficult to believe) but just "a section of exhaust", why did you go through insurance? Your premiums WILL go up at renewal time, no doubt whatsoever. I don't know how you got them to reduce your excess but even at £100, I would have just gone to a custom exhaust place and got them to fabricate the missing piece of pipe and weld it in. Even if they charged £250 to £300 I'll bet it would still have been cheaper in the long run (thinking of the increased premium when renewal comes round). Alternatively, your indy garage could have done it. The second question it begs is, if not the cat, what did they take, exactly? From the workshop manual it does look like the cat is very 'forward' of the pipe run but surely they wouldn't just take a straight section of pipe or the silencer?

Why would you think water could get in? If water could get in, tranny fluid could get out, but unless you're topping it up every week I don't think it's escaping so you'll be fine.

That's the format for the flash drive itself (can also be FAT16 too but no one would want that) but the music files themselves are different. I suppose it may depend on which car and how old, but I do know that my November 2013 RX450h Advance will only play MP3 or WMA files - it won't play FLAC, OGG or others. I have them arranged on the drive as follows: Parent folder = artist Sub folder = albums so Pink Floyd Dark side of the moon Wish you were here etc., etc. AC/DC Highway to Hell High Voltage and so on.

To what end? Did you read the article I linked to?

Welcome to the club Tariq. If you don't get anyone to show you in person, there should be Youtube videos that show the process.

Wonder how long it's been since the owner of this checked his tyre pressures and condition? Taken from this article here

Oh no! Sad news indeed. Hope you get the refund alright and that you find something else Shelley.

Ah right, okay then. In that case, just buy an earth strap and bolt it to the alternator as shown, then bolt the other side to a suitable place on the body and I think that'll sort the problem out.

I'm a bit confused here because you say that you have the cable (red arrow in your fist photo) and somewhere to put it, (yellow arrow) so what's the problem? That last schematic shows the ground cable with an eyelet connector, a stay bracket, a bolt and the alternator. If you start at the bolt and follow the dotted line, you'll see that the bolt goes through the eyelet connector and bolts to the stay bracket, which in turn is bolted to the alternator - and the picture below seems to confirm that.

Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen 2 - equally as good as Michelin Cross Climates.

Servicing is every 10k miles OR 12 months, whichever ocurrs soonest, and like Ja says above, cambelt at 100k.

I did indeed - but I've got broad shoulders and can take it

Seems to me that you've only made 10 posts in two years. Admin and mods should have gotten their fingers out, fair enough, but I would suggest that you could have reminded them about the situation rather more than you have, so it's not all their fault. Got to be honest and say that I didn't even know that 'Platinum Membership' even existed, not that I would have had it, mind.

The only part of your question I can answer with certainty is the air suspension - none of the RX400h variants have air.

Surely it can't be classed as a modification? A part is missing so you're replacing it, not modding it. Say a replacement exhaust was only available from Lexus at £1500 but you could have a custom stainless system made for £400, you'd do that wouldn't you, I know I certainly would, but I don't consider it to be a mod. Every bend, length and radius etc., is copied so I'm replacing like-for-like, just in a more durable material. However, we all know that insurance companies are the Spawn of Satan and will do anything to get out of paying a claim, so for the sake of a phone call it may be worth informing them.

I had Avon ZX7s all round on my RX300 when I had it - excellent tyres.

Should be easy enough but looks time-consuming. Are you sure that you don't just want to use your phone like a lot of us do:

I'm not sure it would unless the alarms have a tilt switch somewhere. The ultrasonic sensors inside the car work by air pressure differentiation or movement of something in the cabin, such as a fly or an animal crossing the beam. I doubt that just jacking the car up would affect either of those two parameters.

Oh they don't mind jacking the car up, they don't see that as a problem at all as you'll see below:

The only USB port that I know of is in the armrest console between the seats. There's a little coin tray there, just lift that out and you'll find the USB port and an 'AUX' jack. I don't know about updating as I don't use the Lexus nav. I find it clunky, counter-intuitive, slow and generally horrible. I much prefer to use either Waze or Google Maps on my phone.