Herbie

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.

This is usually a sign that the 12V battery is failing. If you have a multimeter, measure the standing voltage of the battery and check against the chart below. Then start the car (put it into the READY state) and check voltage at the battery terminals again - this time it should read about 14.2 - 14.5 if the DC/DC converter is working correctly. If you haven't got a multimeter, I suggest you go and buy one as they are very handy things and have lots of uses so they're a good thing to have. You can get them from below a tenner at places like B&Q, Screwfix et al locally, or Amazon and eBay online.

No it doesn't. The Gracenote CD Database (CDDB) is what allows you to see the artist name and album/track title when you're playing a CD.

I'm speechless

Good luck with that. Seriously though, there's nothing you can do. Even catloc devices will only slow them down for a couple of minutes so it's not worth losing sleep over. You've just got to hope that it doesn't happen.

I haven't got air suspension so I don't know, but a quick googling found this image showing AHC (Adjustable Height Control) parameters. It means nothing to me but may help you if you know what you're looking for:

John, I'm shocked! I'm assuming that as it's meant for plumbers to freeze pipes, there won't be any lubricating oil in there so at least you're not mixing PAG in with ND11. However, every top-up you do is diluting the amount of oil in the system, so are you not worried about the effect of that?

Because you simply can't do anything about it so why even let it enter your head, let alone write paragraphs about it? I've heard about the thefts, I've assessed the situation, I've concluded that nothing can currently be done about it so that's it. Carry on with life and don't think about it again unless or until it either happens to me or someone comes up with a viable solution.

True, but try Toyota dealers rather than Lexus - that's where I got mine from.

The very fact that you've taken time to type out such a lengthy post about it tells me the exact opposite 😉 The simple fact is that you can do very little to prevent it, so just put it right out of your mind and get on with life. There are plenty videos on Youtube here to see how it's done and also ideas for prevention but just how effective those ideas are is anyone's guess. I would say that the only sure way of prevention is to make a box from titanium or some other very-difficult-to-cut metal, place it over the cat, drill holes through the floorpan of the car and bolt the box on to the underside, securing the bolts from the inside, so that it completely covers the cat.

I'd stick to Toyota Type IV. As we know, Toy/Lex don't make things like brakes, wipers, batteries and suchlike so I have no qualms about buying aftermarket parts from local motor factors or such places. However, auto transmission fluid is chemically very complex and contains all sorts of things to do all sorts of jobs, amongst them being friction modifiers and lubricants. Inside the transmission are various rubber seals and things and the fluid and seals have been designed to be compatable with each other. If an aftermarket equivalent ATF has just one chemical or just one aspect of it that's slightly different it may wreck the transmission, which would be a very expensive mistake. IMHO, it's just not worth trying to save a few quid on this, plus it's not that expensive anyway. I think I got 10L for about £70 from my local Toyota main dealer.

Just search the forum as there are about four different threads with various suggestions, like the one below. I have to say that with so many thefts happening I'm changing my mind about it being irresponsible to not replace it and now favour a dummy cat replacement.

Lots of people on here like the Cross Climates and you may be able to find good deals on the price. Personally I've got Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen 2 all round and they're equally as good as the CCs.

I suppose it depends on how much you want to spend and how long you're keeping the car, but my suggestion would be to get a custom stainless system made. I had a Nissan Maxima QX SE+ at one time and it was quite a rare car - no one could supply an exhaust except Nissan and they wanted about £900. I found a guy making custom stainless systems and he measured and copied every bend, every length etc., etc., to make an exact replica, which was guaranteed for the life of the car and guarantee even transferrable to new owner if I sold the car, all for £395.

That 'jump point' is only for convenience because a lot of the hybrid cars have the 12V battery under the boot floor, which would be difficult to access with a full load in there, but it definitely isn't an 'absolutely must use this and you must never connect directly to the battery' sort of situation. It's perfectly acceptable to connect directly to the battery if you want to. All you're doing is supplementing a dodgy 12V source by piggy-backing a good 12V source onto it.

That's correct John. Jump starting a hybrid is actually one step less than jumping a standard car, ie, the donor car's engine doesn't need to be running - so if you can jump start a standard car you can jump start a hybrid.

Oh I agree wholeheartedly John. I like to help people if I can but I won't spoon-feed them. I expect them to have done some Googling themselves first and if they still haven't got the answer then fair enough, I'll be the first to help if I can. My beef with that particular post from Wass is that he's saying that even some breakdown guys don't know how to jump start a hybrid, when in reality it's no different to jump starting any other car - you either know how to jump start or you don't.

Sorry, no idea, but you'd be better off using a stand-alone sat nav like a TomTom or using Waze or Google Maps on your phone. The Lexus nav is clunky, slow, counter-intuitive, can't do full postcodes and because it's a DVD you can't install your own POIs.

Not to upset Wass in any way but, it's a lot of text that says absolutely nothing more than what we already know, ie, connect up a known good 12V source (be that a spare battery, a set of jump leads with a 'donor' car, a jump start battery pack or whatever) and start your car.

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Actually there is, but it's not really valid. The thieves seem to think that because a hybrid's engine doesn't run all the time, the precious metals will be less worn or less corroded than those in a cat on a standard car. I'm no chemist, but I remember from chemistry lessons at school more than 45 years ago that a catalyst speeds up a chemical reaction but is not itself changed in any way by that reaction, ergo, hybrid or not, brand new or 20 years old, the precious metals shouldn't be any different.

I may be wrong (I often am) but I don't know of any dash cams that are 12V. As far as I know they all operate on 5V with mini USB power connectors, which is why you don't have to change cabling if you change brand of camera. Plus the reading lights are probably permanently live as opposed to being ignition switched.

Not really practical and certainly not a problem of Toy/Lex making. All petrol cars have cats, no matter who manufactures them, be that Toy/Lex, Vauxhall, Ford, Kia, Audi etc., etc., most of which are accessible from under the car. The only reason the RXs are being targeted more is because the higher ground clearance of an SUV allows better access for the n'er-do-wells.

But it's 12V up there and the camera works on 5V. Maybe there wasn't enough room to put the converter up there?