Herbie

Had ours about 16 months and 14k miles and, like the others, never a need to top up.

Thank you Michele, she certainly is a superb car and most definitely the best car I've ever owned That's fair enough, I understand your concerns, but if I can I'd like to try to put your mind at rest. As long as you're careful to make sure you get the polarity correct (red or + to red or + and black or - to black or -) then there is absolutely no problem with jump starting a hybrid at all. And I'll just mention that I'm a qualified and time-served electrician by trade, when the factory closed down I then went to work as a telephone engineer on BT, after a back injury and medical retirement I'm now self-employed doing computer repairs, and I'm also a licenced radio ham. I only mention all that to show you that I'm someone who has been around electricity and electronics my whole working life (I'm 61 now) so I'm fairly confident in saying that there's nothing wrong with jump starting a hybrid. After all, all you're doing is providing one good 12V source to help one not-so-good 12V source. One thing I absolutely would not do is to use a hybrid to give someone else a jump start. That's an absolute no-no as far as I'm concerned and one reason why I got the battery pack, so that I wouldn't have to refuse to help a fellow motorist in distress if someone needed it. If you're still a bit apprehensive about the possibility of getting the polarity wrong, you could always do what I did in the topic below and fit a socket that is keyed so that it only goes in one way round and cannot possibly be reversed.

Toyota/Lexus don't make things like wipers, batteries, tyres and suchlike, they merely buy in from the people who do make them, add a markup and sell out again, so I have no qualms about going anywhere to buy stuff like that. However, I always, always, always use all the fluids recommended in the owners manuals/by the manufacturer because they have a specific chemistry. Use something else and if it has even just one chemical component different to what the manufacturer/manual recommends, it may destroy any seals, friction bands or whatever, causing untold damage. Just not worth taking the risk in my opinion.

Ooh, I'm really not convinced of that at all. It may not do now because there aren't many EVs but as the numbers grow, so will the demand on the grid. We all know that burning fossil fuels is bad and that we need to move to EVs, but as I said above, we haven't got the generating capacity. We seem to be increasing the numbers of wind farms and solar farms but these only generate intermittently, so coal, oil, nuclear plant has to be kept in hot rolling standby ready to pick up the load when the wind drops or the clouds cover the sun, but as we already know, a lot of these existing traditional sources are reaching end of life. Not only that, but we used to have a built-in redundancy with lots of backup plant in the transmission networks, but due to years of cutbacks and less preventative maintenance taking place, that backup plant is now in daily service. Not only is supply going to suffer but so is the means to transport it. A very interesting website to keep your eyes on is http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ which shows how much each different fuel is contributing to the supply, the current demand on the grid and lots of other interesting stuff, all updated every five minutes. Demand right at this moment is only 21.79GW but on cold winter nights I've seen that needle almost touch the red mark and I really do wonder how many EVs will it take to push it further?

First of all Michele, just to avoid confusion, the 'main' battery in a hybrid is the big traction battery (nominally 288V), not the 12V auxilliary or starter battery. Personally I've never been a fan of the solar panels. They do appear to work alright and there's nothing wrong with them but I just think that there may be times when the car may not be parked out in the open (hotel underground car park for instance) and so they are rendered useless just when you might need it. I much prefer proper jump leads or, even better because you don't have to depend on a 'donor' car, a jump start battery pack like this one here. This particular one is capable of supplying 800A peak power but, as you'll see from the photo below, my RX450h only draws 15.32A to get the car into the READY state so you could go for a smaller, cheaper unit if you wish. I've got one but decided to get the 800A one in case I ever need to use it to jump start someone else's car - you never know when someone may ask for help. I've had it in the glove compartment of the car for over a year now and never needed it yet. It does hold its charge very well, still being more than 80% charged after five months, but I suppose a small charge every three months or so will ensure that it's almost fully charged for if it's ever needed. I suppose what I'm saying is that I'd be inclined to return the solar panel and get a jump start battery pack instead, but that's just my own personal preference and not based on any technological argument.

Welcome to the club HMS. I can guarantee that you'll get faster and better replies if you just copy what you've written here and post it in the dedicated IS300h forum here: https://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/forum/175-lexus-is-300h-is-250-is-200t-club/

No, the best thing you can do is to just leave the factory satnav as a rolling screensaver because it's old, clunky, counter-intuitive and just awful and use a standalone satnav or Waze on your smartphone instead

Maybe Lexus are developing an EV but taking it slowly to make it better for when it's released? We all know that it's better for the environment and that we do need to (eventually) drop fossil fuels, but true electric transport is still many, many years away yet. My wife and I drove from Preston, Lancashire, to Czech Republic and Poland for our holidays last year. First leg of the journey was Preston to Ostend, Belgium; second leg was Ostend to Rudesheim, Germany and third night was spent in Karlovy Vary, Czech, where we started our holidays proper. Three nights and something like 1,000 miles where petrol stops, when needed, took about five minutes. Unless and until EVs can match the range and refill times of petrol cars they'll not take off in great numbers. And that's not to mention the charging infrastructure. The electrical demand has seen the lights very close to going out at points over the last few years as old generating plant comes to end of life and drops off the grid with no new power stations being built to take their place. We live in a cul-de-sac of 18 houses and if we all went EV, United Utilities would have to lay new cables to feed the street to cope with the extra demand. And what about those who live in high-rise flats? How do they charge their EVs? Overnight electricity (Economy 7 or whatever) is only cheap because there's no great demand. Once more people start charging their EVs overnight the price will rocket. Maybe Lexus are just playing the long game and will put out a 'proper' EV when these challenges are overcome.

Sorry, must have had a brain fart because I completely missed that! I can tell it'll be expensive because it says 'Price on request' but have you looked here Alternatively, looking at the screengrab from the workshop manual below, the 'Y' shaped piece has flanges at all ends so as long as the cat itself is OK you should be able to get a 'Y' piece made up at somewhere like https://www.tonybanks.co.uk/ in Leeds for a reasonable cost.

You don't need a full harness - you'd have to sell a kidney for that 😜 If you really mean that the wires have snapped off INSIDE the harness you may be able to open the harness up and get enough slack to joint the wires back together using either traditional crimp-type connectors or solder-type heatshrink sleeves. If you can't get enough slack, simply use a spare bit of wire as a strap. Info on how to use solder sleeves here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=automobile+heat+shrink+connectors If, as I suspect, you mean that the wires have come out of the plug, get some new brass inserts to crimp on the ends of the wire and push into the plug after removing original brass terminal (if it's still there). A photo of what you're looking at would help a lot.

Yep, last MOT I had done was at my local bus depot as again, they don't do the repairs.

Why are you so surprised? ALL main dealers are complete rip-offs but as Lexus is a luxury brand you get luxuriously ripped off in style. I'm only surprised at one thing - why did you even ask in the first place? Either DIY or take to a local trusted indy place.

Lexus is a luxury brand and as such, a lot of people in these forums seem to be awash with money. I'm not jealous and I don't begrudge them their money at all, but maybe not everyone is in that position - I know I'm not. Maybe 6 months ago, Brian had so much money that he could have purchased Michelin Cross Climates with gold belting instead of steel; maybe in another 6 months he could afford to buy a whole new car with Michelin Cross Climates already attached - but right at this very moment in time he's already stated that he's struggling a little bit, so has to do what he has to do.

There was a topic about this very thing recently and I can't find it now for love nor money - typical. Anyway, I think it said that, although true for 'traditional' AWD vehicles, the hybrids aren't affected in this way because they don't have traditional driveshafts and diffs to worry about. I know I'm being vague but the info is here somewhere if someone has the time to search properly, sorry.

What is this sorcery of which you speak? EDIT - Oops, just read further than that and found it

Where does "Honest John's" advice come in - unless I'm daft (which I may well be) all I can see are replies from other punters just like in here.

I didn't realise that Viofo do a dual channel system so that's good to know, thanks.

That surprises me and is rather disappointing to hear. Although in a different field of work, I too am a one-man band and the places where I advertise either have sliding scales or give substantial discounts to sole traders. Actually, thinking about it, I don't think I've seen any adverts on here so maybe it's not that advantageous anyway. Is there a special section for member's adverts that I've just never visited?

An 8 ohm speaker is an 8 ohm speaker. Of course, because it's ML it may have oxygen-free, gold and platinum wires that have been extricated from the mane of a purple unicorn that's only found on Mars, but other than that, so as long as you can find one that physically fits, you'll be fine. However, make sure that your existing one is 8 ohms or at least be sure to match whatever it is, because an impedance mismatch is where things can go horribly wrong. If you don't want to do that then just order the foam from Oz.

Have a look at this topic here and if Cybox on the Wirral is too far for you to travel, I'm sure you'll be able to find a company closer to you who'll do it

No idea how you'll determine if it's Denso, but Youtube has many dozens of videos showing how to test them, this just being one: PS - I've not watched this video so I can't be held responsible if anything is incorrect 😉

If you look at the messages above Norman, you'll see that you can't get them for the LS400

Avon ZX7 are an excellent tyre, we had them all round on our RX300. Some great deals to be had, and don't forget about things like http://topcashback.co.uk too.

Don't take any notice of the mileages as they got them wrong, but below is the actual paperwork I received from Lexus Teeside:

You're correct with respect to the manufacturer's original warranty from new, but when the car drops out of that and the owner buys an extended warranty then they can stipulate any rules they like.