Herbie

You're right Geoff, you do need to input details into your phone so depending on the situation, if you're already stationary (traffic jam) you could do it or if not, then it's either stop to do it yourself, get a passenger to do it, or don't bother. As with a lot of things in life, the system is only as good as its users, but even with its drawbacks it's still a gazillion times better than the Lexus nav in my opinion.

First of all, is it a DVD-based or hard drive-based system? Sounds like hard drive, hence why it has to go to Lexus, otherwise if it was just changing a DVD it obviously wouldn't take so long and could be done by you. The bad news is that even with an update it will still be clunky, old, slow and counter-intuitive to use. I never use mine, just can't be doing with it. I used to use a TomTom but although I still have it, I much prefer to use Waze on my phone.

I might be wrong but as long as the exhaust isn't actually missing, aren't you allowed to drive it to a garage for a pre-booked appointment to get the repair done, or is that only to a pre-booked MOT station for the retest?

I have no idea because I haven't got an IS200 BUT.... The info as to which fuse controls which circuits is usually printed on or inside the lid of each fusebox. Have you looked?

Not having a go Keith, but if you had linked to eBay properly then our friend would see the item without any problem. There's a 'chain link' icon in the toolbar above the text box when you're typing a post. If you click on it, it opens a window with two empty fields. You can copy and paste the website URL into the top field and leave the bottom one blank, which will give the following result: https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=223267087284&_sacat=0 Or, to make it neater and easier to read, you can still do that but then write something in the bottom field, which will give this result: 223267087284 or even this result: Link to eBay item or Link to dome light unit on eBay The difference is that the ones I've done are clickable links that take you straight to whatever you're expecting to see, rather than just a string of numbers that didn't do anything. The reason why @Alfalfa can't see anything when he tries to look is that he's not in the UK. I don't know where he's based but item code 223267087284 is obviously not in the database of whichever country's eBay he's looking at - a problem that wouldn't have arisen if it was a clickable hyperlink instead of just a number.

On your first point, I have no idea. On your second point, I have no idea because I don't use any Apple devices. I hate them with a vengeance and wouldn't give them house room BUT... This is just a guess but isn't the iPod an actual player - maybe it has to be in storage mode so that the car system can access the music files to play rather than the iPod playing them? Maybe I'm talking complete rubbish, I don't know. I just have a USB flash drive plugged into that USB socket in the centre armrest and the car audio system sees the music files on it and plays them, simple as.

You did not mention eBay did you?

Yes, just look for companies close to you who custom make stainless steel exhausts. I used to have a Nissan Maxima QX and couldn't get an exhaust from anywhere except main dealers for somewhere between £800 and £900. Found a company about 3 miles from where I live who measured every length, bend, flange, everything, and then replicated that in stainless steel. They gave a guarantee which was transferable to any new owners for the lifetime of the car and all for £349.99

I'll have a look at mine later but I don't think I changed them for that very same reason. EDIT - just confirmed that mine are the same and don't need changing anyway because they're already LEDs.

Be easy to operate, be intuitive rather than counter-intuitive and clunky. It works, but it's slow and everything you need in a satnav can be done quicker, easier and better by Waze or Google Maps on the phone. Waze users also have the facility to warn other drivers of problems on the road and the updates are pushed out very quickly - even as quickly as two minutes as you can see by the picture below. You can also integrate the What 3 Words app into Waze/Google Maps but not the Lexus satnav. This is great for finding places where a postcode covers too large an area or is vague. W3W has broken down the whole world into 3m x 3m squares, which means that it's so accurate that the back door of your house has a different 3 word reference to the front door.

Wow, I have no idea what's going on there! At the very least you'll need a multimeter and a wiring diagram to sort it out. However, I would be inclined to take it to a proper auto-electrician and get him to do it because whoever did that is obviously a right cowboy and may have made other dangerous modifications to the wiring somewhere else.

The built-in nav is absolutely abysmal so I never use it. Much prefer Waze on my phone.

That's exactly why I started my post with the phrase "I'm not saying that you shouldn't get it replaced because they obviously do an important job" 😉 I just meant that if your MOT was imminent and you may struggle to get it done before the test, then there was no need to worry as it won't be tested anyway. I don't know if your MOT station are being too strict or mine too lax but mine don't test hybrids for emissions. In fact, I didn't know anything about it until they themselves told me that. Just double-checked with a different source and it looks like the former because hybrids are exempt from emissions tests: And this brings up a whole new question now. If your MOT station does test for emissions even though they don't need to, what happens if it fails? Would you just be able to say that the garage shouldn't have done it anyway, so the failure means nothing and the MOT as a whole is a pass? Or, will the failure stand and cause the whole MOT to fail, even though they didn't need to test in the first place? And how is it even possible to test a hybrid for emissions when the running and revving of the petrol engine is not within their control?

As far as I know, but may be wrong, it's 10 years or 100k miles. However, I think I've seen people say that if you go in at 9yrs 11months you can take out another warranty? Probably completely wrong but I'm sure someone will correct me. One thing I do know for sure is that the hybrid battery is now covered up to 15 years as long as it's had an annual hybrid health check done.

How would that work then, given the info above?

As my dear departed Granny would say, "He's having you on a butty" This is from the MOT Inspection Manual (the 'Tester's Bible') and I can't see any mention of that:

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I agree, I cannot abide the inbuilt nav in my car. However, don't you think you're sort of throwing the baby out with the bath water? As long as the rest of the car meets your expectations and you like it, finding a workaround for the nav is very easy. I simply use Waze on my phone instead - problem solved and I can enjoy the rest of the car as I like.

Nobody could really say for certain and I didn't want to disconnect my battery (then have to reset stuff) just to find out, so it'll be fun finding out if I ever need to 🙂 The good thing is that the battery pack is small enough to keep in the glove compartment so even if the tailgate won't open I should be able to reach the socket from the back seat and jump start from inside the car. Thinking about it I may have jumped the gun a bit by putting the socket there. It should really be easy enough to install a socket just under the rear passenger's air vent in the centre console and then I could perform a jump start from the comfort of the driver's seat. Techstream is the diagnostic software used by Toyota/Lexus technicians in the dealer workshops. If you like to DIY and ever need to bleed the brakes, you'll need Techstream to help with that. It'll also do 'trivial' stuff like allow you to customise the amount of time the interior lights stay on; change the sensitivity of the auto wipers and lights and lots of other stuff to. There's plenty of Youtube videos on how to use Techstream so it may be worth having a look if you intend to use it. You can officially and legitimately download Techstream from Toy/Lex websites free of charge and buy a block of time to use it, such as 1 hour, 4 hours, 1 day etc. If you do intend to use it you'll need to buy a miniVCI cable from eBay or Amazon and almost always, these will come with a pirated copy of Techstream, so it's a matter for your own conscience as to how you run and use the software but either way, you'll definitely need the cable to connect your laptop to the car. This is the one that I bought and I can confirm that it works well.

Hi and welcome to the club Jeegnesh. Let's see some photos of your new motor when you can! 1. I've never needed a towbar but from what I've read in this forum, I think it's a dealer-only supply and fit but I may be wrong so hopefully someone else will be able to clarify. 2. Yes, they can quickly go flat because they aren't very big and don't have a huge capacity. It's perfectly alright to accept a jump start from someone but don't ever use your hybrid to give a jump start. Some people use solar panels as a trickle charger if the car is parked outside for a while. I may even invest in one myself one day but for now, I always carry around a small jump start battery pack. It may be useful for you to have a read of a topic I started a while ago, about just this very thing: 3. Tyres. I have Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen 2 all round on mine and they're absolutely excellent in every way. Other people will recommend the Michelin Cross Climates. Technically, point for point and item for item, they are equally as good as each other but you may be able to get a better deal on the Michelins price-wise. For me it's Goodyear, Michelin, and a third choice would be Avon ZX7. 4. They aren't designed to be an electric car. If you try to run on batteries only, you'll only manage a couple of miles and then they'd be flat. Even if you manually select EV mode and do a standing start when, say, moving off from traffic lights, you'll only have to breathe on the accelerator pedal and you'll get a message that "EV mode is cancelled due to excessive acceleration" and you'll be thinking 'but I haven't even reached 5mph yet!' The trick is to accelerate briskly up to speed and then just ever so lightly lift your foot off a bit so that you're just maintaining that momentum - that's when you can get the electric motors driving the car at 30 or 40mph. Anticipate stops so that you can do long, slow, braking which will help to keep the traction battery charged up because when you press the brake pedal the motors turn in the opposite direction to become generators. As you come to a stop at traffic lights or junctions you're probably used to putting the handbrake on and the car in Neutral, but don't do that anymore. Leave the car in 'D' and keep your foot on the brake. The hybrid system gets a signal from the brake pedal and won't charge the battery if the car is in Neutral. If you park up somewhere for any length of time but you like to listen to the radio, always keep the car in the READY state, which is the equivalent of having the ignition on. This is because the 12V battery is only small and hasn't got much capacity and, believe it or not, just having the radio on for 30 minutes without being in READY (the equivalent of having the key in the ACC position instead of IGN) can flatten the battery to such a degree that the car won't start. However, as long as the car is in READY, the petrol engine will fire up as and when necessary to keep the 12V battery charged. And finally, the most important bit - enjoy!

I haven't got the same car as you so I don't know for sure but, some cars have the entertainment DVD in the front and the navigation DVD in a unit in the boot, so it may be woth a look in there 'just in case' before you can definitively say that you have a hard drive system.

Probably to switch off the ultrasonic transducers in the car for movement detection for the theft alarm.

That's because it's not really a 'problem' as such or something that can be fixed or repaired. It's a design flaw and should really have been spotted and changed at the drawing board stage, before the cars ever went into production. The only thing we can do is to put in a higher capacity battery. I've never looked at doing this myself but as long as it physically fits in the battery tray and has the right terminals that are the correct way round, there's nothing wrong with doing it. Although we don't need the higher capacity for cranking the engine, if you did put one in it should last longer before going flat. What a beautiful place! My wife and I first visited Prague when the country was still called Czechoslovakia, back in 1991, and we've been back on holiday almost every year since, although only three times in Prague itself. We've stayed in various places around the country, including Český Krumlov and the Lake Lipno area, Liberec (a few nights in the town itself and also a few nights in Hotel Ještěd, the hotel in the television tower), Karlovy Vary, Cesky Budejovice (including a tour round the Budvar Brewery 😊) Olomouc, Hradec Kralove and Ostrava, plus many more over the years.

If he's only given you a month warranty then that's wrong too. I can't remember the specific topic to search for it but I'm sure that @royoftherovers had some good legal advice about warranties. May be worth sending him a message.

Usually a warranty becomes void on anything you touch but stays active on other things. In other words, if you ever needed warranty work done on your gearbox then changing your exhaust has no bearing on that so the warranty should be honoured, but they wouldn't honour a claim on your exhaust. Similarly, if your windscreen started leaking then Lexus would cover that because again, it's not affected by work done on the exhaust.