Herbie

It's over a year since we traded in our 2005 RX300 but I'm almost sure that it's behind the glove box if I remember correctly.

Yes that's right Michael, but the OP's car is an RX450h not a 350.

The OP does say that his car doesn't have DAB and that would tally with it being an option until the 2011 models came out, so I'm assuming that the original owner didn't opt for it.

Not sure what you mean here. My 2005 RX300 had a 3-button key, the buttons controlling the remote lock/unlock and the transponder controlling the immobiliser. However, when taking the key apart to replace the battery, there's only one electronics unit and all functions are done by that, so how can it not have a transponder in it?

DAB was an option on all variants until 2011, except for SE-L and SE-L Premier where they had it as standard. For vanilla FM, if the reception is poor you may need to look at the antenna itself (wires at the top of the rear screen) or the antenna amplifier.

No Cliff, the red wire is a disaster waiting to happen and it may already be affecting something you can't see, but hey-ho, I wish you well my friend and I hope you get it sorted soon.

Aren't you the one trying to find a parasitic drain that keeps flattening the battery? Again, aren't you the one with the electrical problems? How do you know "everything's fine"? A fuse is meant to be the weakest link in the chain and it's meant to protect the wiring by blowing and disconnecting the circuit in case of excessive current. If excess current flows and the wires upstream can't handle it, the fuse should blow to protect them. Because there's no fuse there but just a lump of wire instead, the wires upstream may have got hot, the insulation may have melted and the conductor touching an adjoining conductor could be causing the parasitic drain. The pink fuse holder below the dodgy one is showing signs of melting if I'm not mistaken.

Just sent you a PM Keith.

Welcome to the club Kristoffer. It's a lovely looking car - enjoy it to the full.

Wow Cliff, I'm sorry to say it but it looks very much like you've been sold a pig in a poke there mate. It's no wonder you're having electrical problems and I think I now understand why your auto-electrician said he couldn't help! That bit of wire instead of a fuse could have caused untold problems. You have my sympathy and my sincere best wishes, but I'm afraid all bets are off.

I would bin both of those (or keep for a different car if you have more than one in the household) and use whatever is recommended in the manual, which may possibly be Toyota Super Long Life Pink (which is what our RX300 had). I have no qualms about buying things such as batteries, wipers, exhausts, tyres etc., etc., from other sources but with any fluids I always stick to the recommended one because you just cannot be sure of the exact chemical component blends. Any system that carries fluids will also have rubber (or other material) seals and just one wrong chemical could attack these seals, causing leaks and untold damage further down the line. In my opinion it's just not worth it to save a few quid.

Forget the factory nav and just use Waze on your phone. The Waze users update in real time so if, for instance, someone gets snarled up in a traffic jam that's only just started (truck wedged under a bridge or whatever) then someone with Waze can update the system and the info is live within two minutes. Couple Waze with What Three Words and you've got an unbeatable navigation tool at your disposal.

You need to buy a multimeter for testing. You can get cheap ones for under a tenner but even a very decent on can be had for under £30. Lots available for next day delivery on Amazon, eBay or even CPC Once you know which is permanent and which is switched, you can then happily use 'add-a-fuse' piggybacks, although you'll probably find that the fusebox cover will no longer fit unless you doctor it with a Dremel or suchlike.

As always, Google is your friend.

I've no doubt that the force of the detonation would get the bag past the cable but any resistance from the cable would interfere with the bag's intended trajectory.

Nah, you'd be disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I loved our 2005 RX300 SE NAV when we had it but our late 2013 RX450h Advance is a whole order of magnitude better in every respect - more comfortable, more spacious, better ride etc., etc.

That's going to be a very big job because according to the workshop manual you need to remove the headlining to gain access - that's NINE pages-worth of stuff to remove!. The amplifier appears to be the device on the roof that the aerial rod screws into, so you unscrew the rod from outside but then have to drop the headlining to get to the fixing inside.

A good job Paul, both in doing the work and providing us with the pdf, but if I may suggest a small alternative.... I would have taken off the trim from the A-pillar and run the cable up there instead of the door rubber. The curtain airbag runs top to bottom so having the cable run 'across' the pillar like that may interfere with its deployment if its ever needed. Of course, it shouldn't interfere, but stranger things have happened and Murphy's Law could come into play.

@lazzlo amundo Cliff, I like to help people when I can. I don't have a lot of knowledge but I will openly share what I have with anyone at any time if it's helpful. Please believe me when I say that I do not wish to cause you any offence and I say this with the greatest of respect. I have a back injury that was bad enough to get me medically retired from a job I loved, so you have my sympathy with regards to your health and your ability to get down to the fuse boxes etc. However, if you can't do it, then why are we spending time guiding and directing you - why not just take it to an auto-electrician who'll get it sorted for you?

The sensor is just a variable resistor so I'd say the internal connections need cleaning. You need to get it off the car and on the bench, clean everything up inside and measure the resistances against the manual. Think of a radio with a crackly volume control. Cleaning the wiper and the carbon track stops the crackling and this sensor works on the same principal.

Yes, the hybrid part of the car is very complex and if anything should go wrong with that then maybe an 'ordinary' back-street garage would struggle, but the rest of the car is just a car. If you have a leaky radiator, if you have faulty wipers, if your central locking packs up, if a wheel bearing needs changing etc., etc., etc., none of this involves they hybrid system and any decent mechanic can do these jobs.

You may have found the circuit causing the problems but I'm not sure you've found the cause. The dome light comes on when a door is open but you said that no doors were left open and the central locking on its own should not drain the battery, especially a brand new one, over three or four days - so what's actually causing the drain from that circuit?

Mechanic leaving the door or boot open when they go home at night?

Firstly, there should be a date stamp or label on it somewhere. You really need to find that because if it turns out to be old (as in, say, more than 8 or 9 years) then I'd bin it straight away and get a new one. If it's a relatively new one then you need to give it an overnight charge so that you're starting tests from a (hopefully) good point and you'll need a multimeter to measure voltages. First, measure the 'standing voltage' and compare to this chart: If, after an overnight charge it's 50% or less, then again I'd be binning it and buying a new one. Assuming it's got a decent charge overnight and holding it, next you need to fire up the engine and measure the voltage at the battery terminals to see what the alternator is squirting out, which should be between 13.5 and 14.5V. Anything less is pointing to a suspect alternator. Assuming that the alternator is indeed squirting enough volts out you may have a parasitic drain, ie, something draining the battery that shouldn't. There are plenty of videos on Youtube demonstrating how to find a parasitic drain so I'll not try to reinvent the wheel, but instead to say have a look here.

Well first of all, as you probably already know, there's no loyalty to customers in most areas these days. Gas, electricity, insurance, television and more all give their best deals to new customers so you may well find the AA would be cheaper to a new customer too. Lexus Breakdown do actually use the AA anyway and I don't know about your existing cover but with Lexus, your wife/partner could call them out if she was in a friend's car (Lexus or not) because they cover up to two people, not the car.