Herbie

Hi Mike, I don't know if you got the message I sent you but everything is OK this end. I included a couple of screengrabs so have a look and compare to what's happening for you.

But your Audi didn't have a 3.5 litre V6 petrol engine and weigh 2 tons did it? The absolute most I've ever had out of a tankful in mine has been 390 miles, which is very good for a car of this size and weight.

Happy new motor Phil, and welcome to the club. Let's have some photos of the beast when you can

Oh, sorry about that my friend. I'll have a look later and see if there's anything I can do at my end to sort it.

Is the info not in the workshop manual Mike?

Don't worry about the traction battery, they're great. If the car has been serviced at Lexus then it will have had a 'Hybrid Health Check' every year as part of the service routine. Even if it hasn't been serviced at Lexus, you can have a hybrid health check done as a stand-alone item for about £60 and it's well worth it. As long as it passes all the tests they cover it for a year. Get it done every year and they cover it right up to it being 15 years old.

We have a 63-plate RX450h Advance and my average is 32mpg according to the onboard computer. That's dropping my wife at work and picking her up later, plus a couple of local journeys for me as I pick up/drop off work during the day. You've got to remember that it's a 3.5 litre V6 petrol engine and the car weighs about 2 tons, so that's actually a very good figure for what you're driving around in.

I have no idea who or what 'Motorline' is, but the pricing that I showed above is from Lexus Teeside. That just happened to be where the car was for sale when we bought it and that's where I decided to take it for servicing because at the time there was no Lexus dealer in Preston.

How do you get a cost of £750? Forget about the mileages because they got them wrong - the important bit is the 6 year/60k mile service when the spark plugs are done:

I have no idea except to say that I think you should take it to a proper auto electrician rather than a mechanics garage.

It's actually 5V from a USB socket Roger.

Maybe not IMHO. The OBD socket has power to it permanently - those solar panel trickle chargers that plug into it wouldn't work otherwise. Better choice would be the Cig lighter or IGN I think.

I honestly don't know, but pull it and test it anyway, see what results you get.

Radio yes, satnav no - just use a TomTom or your phone. Let's see some photos of your new beast 🙂

Maybe the mechanic had to disconnect something for easier access and missed reconnecting it? Fuse blown? I think there's a 'fail-safe' that stops the aircon working if there's no gas in there so I know you said that it was only regassed 3 months ago, but again, if something has been knocked or disturbed while the other work has been going on it could have leaked out - what does your sight glass tell you? Just found this handy chart too: AIRCON_SYSTEM_DIAGNOSIS_CHART.pdf

Why? If someone is capable of doing it themselves then why not do so? I was an avid 'hobbyist' car mechanic for many years before a back injury put the kibosh on that. Over the years I've saved myself literally thousands of pounds in labour charges; I've learned a hell of a lot; I've enjoyed every minute of it and I got a nice warm fuzzy feeling knowing that I've done a good job and I got a sense of achievement.

This is what the workshop manual says:

This is the list given in the workshop manual:

It would be very difficult to say with certainty, but the probability is high. The problem is that the windings of the motor are actually immersed in the oil for cooling purposes (as you'll see in this article here) so even if Jeegnesh doesn't use the aircon at all until it's sorted, the damage is still happening even as we sit here and type these posts. Below are two photos of electric motor windings (just random motor failures, not actual Lexus aircon motors) and you'll see that they look just like bare copper wires. Of course, they aren't bare - they're insulated with a lacquer coating and the oil in there now will be attacking and destroying that lacquer insulation, eventually breaking it down to the point where it fails. If an electrician were to rewire your house, one of the tests he would have to do to complete the job would be an insulation resistance test. In essence, this squirts 1000V down the wires for a set time period, the theory being that if the cables can handle that without shorting out somewhere, then they're definitely OK to handle our 240V mains supply. It would be possible to do the same sort of test on the compressor motor once you've got it out of the car but I don't know how long you would have to run the test to be certain that it hadn't suffered any damage. Like I said earlier though, you really do need some legal advice at this point Jeegnesh. If I remember correctly, you took the car back to the dealer and it was him who sent it off to Halfords. If he asked Halfords to sort out the aircon and he paid the bill directly to them, then I would imagine that the contract is between him and Halfords. Your contract is with the dealer and he sub-contracted the work out to Halfords, so he should be sorting this mess out. I must stress that I am not a lawyer and what I've just said may be complete rubbish, I don't know - that's just my personal take on it. Anyway, good luck and I hope you get a speedy solution to the problem.

The petrol engine doesn't run all the time in a hybrid so it can't be belt-driven, this is why the aircon and the power steering pumps are electric.

Wow, that's bad news Jeegnesh! I sincerely hope that a proper aircon specialist can do something for you but the damage may already be done. I'd say that you now need to go to the Halfords branch and get the manager to put it in writing that they acknowledge that they've used the wrong thing because, as I've already said previously, the symptoms of insulation breakdown can take months to appear. If the worst does happen, 4, 5, or 6 months down the line, you need proof that they accepted liability, otherwise it's just your word against his/theirs - the person you spoke to may even have moved on and be working somewhere else. And as if it wasn't bad enough already, it also says on the can that it "seals leaks", which is not a good thing. Anything that can seal a genuine leak can also seal non-leaky pipes too. Hope all goes well for you mate. EDIT: I would seriously get some legal advice now because it was the dealer you bought the car from who sent it to Halfords in the first place, so I'm not sure if the responsibility would rest with them or Halfords!

Here's a previous topic on the subject:

As these cars can't be 'bump' started (put into 1st gear, clutch down, someone pushing you to a fast walking or running speed and then clutch up) I'm assuming you meant 'jump' started? If so, there is absolutely no problem whatsoever in jump starting a hybrid. You should never use a hybrid to give a jump start but as long as you observe the correct polarity then it's perfectly safe to accept a jump start.

According to this, the answer is no. Taken from https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/cars/reviews/lexus/rx/suv-2006/350/34654/

All petrol cars have cats so I don't see why an RX450h should be targeted any more than any other. Just get the car and enjoy it