Herbie

Cliff, you say that when you pull fuse No. 20, the Dome fuse, rated at 15A (which should only be 10A), it stops the battery drain. That's good as it gives something to work with. However, you also say that it stops everything in the driver's footwell fusebox from working. That's bad because fuse 20 has got nothing to do with the fusebox in the drivers footwell. None of the items listed above from the pdf document you uploaded, tally with the items listed on the fusebox cover from the drivers footwell below, so the Dome fuse can't have a bearing on them: Something is wrong somewhere and if pulling the Dome fuse really does stop everything in that fusebox working then it's going to be difficult to sort out.

They don't do green cards or international permits any more and haven't done for at least three years now. I've been with three different insurance companies over the last three years (to play the game and get the "new customers only" discounts) and when I applied for them, all three companies responded by saying that they don't use them any more. Maybe the situation is changing due to the dreaded 'B' word?

Post No. 3 in the topic below answers your question:

Yes, any sort of device offering a way to defeat speed cams has been illegal in France for many years I believe.

No, inappropriate speed kills.

I may be wrong and I sincerely hope I am, but I think at this stage the only thing left is to either get an auto-locksmith out who may be able to sort it or get it recovered to your local Lexus dealership.

Are you having problems that makes you think the battery needs to be replaced? The biggest clue is slow and labourious cranking of the engine and if it's even worse than that, you'll usually hear 'solenoid chatter' This is where there's enough charge in the battery to operate the starter solenoid but once it pulls in and makes contact, there isn't enough to spin the starter motor and the solenoid drops out again.

I was at my Saab garage the other day and there was a 9-3 on the ramp and one of the guys was working under it. But every second or two the rear number plate lights flashed on and off. They said he'd fitted some "daft LEDs". I've a feeling the ignition wasn't even on. Is that what you mean? No, I was talking about the indicators because that's what the OP mentioned. Indicator bulbs are 21W so front and back makes 42W, plus about 5W for the side repeaters and a little for the dash telltale, so for ease of explanation we'll say 50W in total, which would equate to a current draw of 4.17A. A 'traditional' flasher unit uses a bimetallic strip to flash the indicator lights by way of the fact that current flowing in a circuit creates heat. The bimetallic strip is designed such that a current flow of 4.17A will make it get hot and bend, thereby cutting off the supply to the bulbs. As there is then no current flowing the strip cools down and bends back to make contact again, thereby restoring the current flow, which is how we get the flashing sequence, and to pass an MOT they must flash between 60 and 120 times per minute. As I said, a normal indicator bulb is 21W but an LED is rated much, much less and draws only a fraction of the current, so the bimetallic strip never gets hot because there isn't enough current draw. The CANBUS system sees this as a fault and makes the indicators flash at a much higher rate - known as 'hyperflashing' - to draw our attention to the supposed 'fault'. This is the reason why you have to put load resistors in the circuit - to make the circuit draw the correct amount of current to make the bimetallic strip do its job. Or you could change to a proper LED flasher unit that uses electronics rather than a bimetallic strip. As to the other lights, such as number plate, side and tail etc., they should work perfectly well as long as you replace them with LEDs that are specifically described as 'CANBUS aware' or 'No CANBUS errors'.

You can either fit load resistors to ensure they don't hyperflash or you can buy a proper LED flasher unit so that you don't need the load resistors. Have a look at this topic where switchback LEDs have been used to provide DRL functionality as well as flashers:

I'm sure it made sense to you when you posted it Keith but I'm afraid I haven't got a clue what you're trying to say mate I've never heard of a battery problem that makes a pedal go hard. What colour was showing in the sight window?

What he said^^^^^^^^^^^^

Hi Ben, welcome to the club - we need photos of your beast

Headlight levellers are basically just a variable resistor so instead of checking for voltage you should check the unit using the multimeter on a resistance range, although I don't know what values you should be seeing.

Excellent job and a beautiful colour Steve.

According to the workshop manual yes, the radiator can be changed without disturbing the AC condenser and/or the 'other' one.

I doubt that it counts as a mod, it's just a replacement. I used to have a Nissan Maxima QX 3.0 SE+ and none of the usual suspects (Kwik-Fit et al) could supply a replacement exhaust, all quoting it as a "main dealer only" part. Just for giggles I rang Nissan and was quoted almost £900, to which I replied, "Whatever you're drinking, I'll have a pint of it" I went to a local place and got a stainless system made up, guaranteed for the life of the car, for £395, which I thought was excellent. However, the salient point here is that they used the existing exhaust as a template to make the new one. Every bend, curve, length, diameter and so on was directly copied from the factory exhaust so I don't see how that could be a modification - it's just a replacement. Having said all that, I do agree that for the sake of a simple phone call it's better to be safe than sorry, but I just don't see how that could be classed as anything other than just a straight-forward replacement.

Only one thing comes to mind - just, why would you?

I doubt it - my 2013 RX450h Advance is the smart/keyless type so it's almost certain that Mark's 2016 car won't have reverted to older tech. I'm interested in this too. We have two keys at the moment but being a clumsy character at the best of times, I'm sure to lose one at some point (he says, desperately touching wood so as to not tempt fate!).

@IYB Any further info on this?

It's easy enough to DIY - plenty of Youtube instructional videos out there but if you don't want to DIY then I'd say a proper auto-electrician is best. As for the camera(s), have a look at this video by Techmoan. He's reviewed about 50 or 60 dashcams (as well as other tech) and these are the ones he's chosen for use in his own car, so you can be assured they WILL be excellent. I didn't know about them when I installed mine, so I've got a Viofo A119S but will replace with these Aukey's when needed.

I think using spring compressors is the most frightening DIY job I've ever done. I've done it on a couple of cars over the years but each time I couldn't help thinking that if this thing lets go, it'll take my hands with it. It's satisfying when the job's done though

You do need to use Techstream to bleed the brakes so if you did it without I can understand why the car is now having a hissy fit. However, if you only changed the pads without bleeding then I don't think it's a major problem. I'd do what Paul said above but instead of just disconnecting the 12V battery for 10 minutes I'd put it on charge overnight. Once you reconnect a fully-charged battery you may well find that all the warnings have disappeared - but you may have to reset things like window operation and suchlike. Because hybrids only have small 12V batteries with small capacities, I carry one of these jump start battery packs (or similar) in the car at all times. They don't cost a lot and it's well worth it for peace of mind alone.

Which we already knew anyway 😁

That's a lot of quoting for not a lot of information and what is there seems to back up what I said anyway. Moreover, it seems to be talking about manual switching whereas modern systems have temperature sensor input and changeover when certain parameters are met, taking control out of the driver's hands. To take bits of it: Which is probably why the KME NEVO ECU changed over at 35oC and not 25o. Which is probably why the KME NEVO ECU (and almost all modern systems I would imagine) are set to fire up on petrol, irrespective of engine temperature, and change over after half a mile or so.

The guy who did mine really knew his onions and rather than just use a complete kit from a given manufacturer he chose each component as being the best for the car. It's more than three years since the conversion was done and it's over a year since we traded the car in for our current one and my memory isn't what it used to be but I do know that he chose a KME NEVO ECU, along with (I think) either Keihin or BRC injectors and possibly a KME Gold reducer - I honestly can't remember. What I do know is that it was truly superb and never gave an ounce of trouble.