Herbie

The aim with hybrids is to read the road ahead and brake gently so that all the energy that would have been wasted in friction heat is instead turned into electricity to charge the traction battery. If you need to anchor on in an emergency then the hydraulic brakes come in straight away, but under normal, gentle braking, most of the stopping is done regeneratively. Regarding the size, you've passed a driving test and you've got a driving licence so you should be able to handle it no problem. Two or three days at most and you'll be familiar with it. It's not a big car. It's only 18mm longer than a Ford Mondeo - that's less than 3/4 of an inch. I forget the exact width but I think it's only half an inch wider than the Mondeo. In other words, it's just 'family car-sized', just like millions of other family cars on the road.

And just to add to that - for even greater accuracy, a multimeter isn't really any good. It needs a proper battery tester that simulates a load. A multimeter may show, say, 12.6V but once a load is applied, that may drop like a stone if there's a bad cell or something else wrong.

I didn't know that, cheers. I'll never use it but it's good to know about it.

It doesn't do either of those. If you wander over a line without indicating first, it vibrates the steering wheel as a warning - feels similar to the vibration of a mobile phone.

1. Possibly, but not necessarily. Once you've jump started it, are you taking it for a good run (at least an hour, preferably two or more) or are you just doing short journeys and not giving it time to charge? 2. The system works this way: Let's say that you're sat in a car park waiting for someone and you want to listen to the radio. If the car is in ACC mode then you may get about 20-25 minutes of the radio before a message comes up onscreen saying that the radio has been turned off to avoid a flat battery. However if the car is in READY mode, instead of shutting the radio down, the hybrid system will fire up the engine to keep the battery charged up, and it will do this cycle as often as needed. So, when they fitted the Road Angel, was the car in READY so that the engine could fire up as and when necessary? If so, then it wouldn't have flattened the battery unless something was wrong with it anyway. If the engine was firing up then it was actually helping the battery, not killing it. 3. All you need to do is to connect another 12V source to the cables immediately before you release them from the battery posts. The little jump start battery pack would be ideal, but you could even do it with a pack of 8 AA batteries. EDIT: I have no idea what a 'Road Angel' is but are you sure it's not that that's draining the battery?

Paying for what the car already comes with.

First of all, this chart is quite useful: I don't know much about the Clarke jump starter but as Machine Mart seem to be the only place selling Clarke stuff, I'd stay away from it just on principle. I've always found Machine Mart to be way overpriced. I got the Tacklife T8, which was about £60 at the time but I believe it's been superceded by an updated model now, something like the one below: These things look small and do indeed have thin leads, but they do pack a punch and will start most cars without even breaking a sweat. This is especially true of hybrids because the system only takes around 20A to achieve READY status. I went for a fairly beefy one so that I could offer a jump start to someone with a conventional car if they needed one, because although it's perfectly safe for a hybrid to receive a jump from a conventional car, you should never use a hybrid to jump a conventional car. Regarding the -ve post in the fusebox that you mention - I'm not sure there is a -ve post in there. If you mean the bare nut that I've connected to in the photo below, that's another +ve one, not a -ve one: If your fuse box is different and it is actually a negative terminal then yes, it would be safe to use it. The advice to use an unpainted nut/screw/bolt as the negative refers to the battery posts. A charging battery can cause gassing and if there are any sparks generated by removal of the negative lead, it could cause an explosion. From an electrical perspective, it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever whether the negative lead is connected directly to the -ve battery post or to some other part of the car. Your final question opens a can of worms. Fitting a larger battery can be done but may require some modification. Electrically, a larger battery will hold charge longer, but is it worth all the faffing around? Only you can answer that one.

It does have a place and a reason to exist Piers. As soon as you drive your brand new car out of the dealers it drops in value by a few grand. If you were to write it off a few days later, the inurance will only give you the lower value so the GAP insurance makes up the difference so that you can have another brand new one again and not be out of pocket. As for not needing it... that's what we hope of all insurance policies.

Just to expand on what Dan said (because you may be back on here panicking if you don't know about this), if you slam your foot to the floor, the engine will scream its head off. This is natural and normal but some people don't like it and/or they think something's wrong. It's actually just this very clever eCVT doing its thing to keep all parameters (such as torque, power, efficiency and so on) at their best values for the given conditions. If you don't want the engine to scream, simply press the pedal firmly down in a controlled manner and don't just stamp on it.

I don't know the answer but you may get more responses if you post in either the GS forum or the Audio/Video/Security forum., rather than the engine & transmission forum

This video may help to get your head around the way these eCVTs work. This is about the Toyota RAV4 but our cars are the same:

You're a brave man Ben. I certainly wouldn't use anything that doesn't explicitly say on the can that it's safe to use it in hybrids. It's certainly not worth risking a £2000 or £3000 bill to put things right if it all goes wrong. Anyway, as long as you're happy that it's safe to use, that's all that matters. Right, you said that you don't understand the pages from the workshop manual so, if you look at the first one, it shows the code B1475 in the left column. The next column along is the condition that flagged up the code, which in this case is that the cooling water in the inverter is too high a temperature, or there's an open or short circuit in the sensor circuit. The final column shows the items that could be causing this problem and the most likely culprit is at the top of the list, working downwards in order of likelyhood. The rest of the pages are like a flowchart of how to diagnose what the problem actually is.

Unfortunately, unless I'm missing it, there's nothing on that can to say exactly which kind of oil it contains. It should specifically say either "Suitable for hybrids" or be labelled "ND11" or "PAG". The refrigerant gas doesn't matter as that's the same, but the oil needs to be the correct one. This is very important. Our hybrid aircon compressors are driven by a 500V 3-phase AC variable frequency motor and the motor windings sit in the oil for cooling purposes. ND11 oil does not conduct electricity so it's safe to use, but PAG oil does conduct electricity and it will damage the motor windings. It's been shown that as little as 1% contamination by PAG will attack the insulation on the motor windings and cause either short circuits between the windings themselves, or between a winding and the metal case of the compressor. If that is the wrong oil then the whole aircon system needs to be drained out and flushed, and may even need a new compressor and dryer. However, if it is the correct oil then we can concentrate on the code B1475, but you really need to make sure about the oil first.

The quantity doesn't matter. We just need to know that you used ND11 or equivalent oil and not the more common PAG oil used in conventional cars. If you mistakenly used PAG then you have a bigger problem.

Fair enough, we'll deal with that in a minute, but what about the oil?

I haven't got a workshop manual for the IS300h but this is what the manual for the RX450h 2009-2015 says about code B1475:

Which oil did you use? Was it ND11 and/or did it say that it definitely was suitable for hybrids?

Well, I've never heard anything like that before but it does sound sort of like an electrical buzz. Read the OBD codes and see if anything has been flagged and let us know if it has.

Indeed it is, and it will be an equally very simple fix - you've just got to find where the fault is. Assuming that it is just an air problem and that the mechs/techs who've looked at it so far have ruled out, beyond any doubt, any electronic and/or sensor problem, it can only be one (or more) of four things: The source of the air, ie, the compressor - which you've ruled out Pressure not high enough from the compressor - which you've ruled out A leak or a blockage on the way from the compressor to the struts Air is reaching the struts at the correct pressure but the struts are faulty and can't use the air to do their job I used to be a telephone engineer on BT and all of our old copper trunk and junction cables (and also the modern fibre optic cables) that go from exchange to exchange, or from exchange to the green street cabinets, are all pressurised to 9psi. The reason for this is twofold - if there's a fault then air coming out prevents water from getting in; and secondly, once the cables are pressurised there should be no flow. If air starts to flow (in what should be a sealed system) then pressure alarms ring and we can measure the approximate location of the fault. I know that chasing an air leak on the Lancaster - Manchester No.6, or the Preston - Blackpool No.2 is different to chasing a problem around a car, but the basic principles apply.

Haha, just seen that the OP replied while I was typing that out. Ignore that then

Just to add to that - it is possible that the compressor is actually working but is 'weak' and can't pressurise the pipework. I have no idea what pressure these things are meant to run at.

The laws of physics can't be defeated - it's only air from a source, travelling through a pipe to a destination. If the air is being pumped out by the source and going into the pipe, but crucially not reaching its destination, it can only be either escaping before it gets there, or its being blocked from getting there. First, get a jam jar and put some water in with a few drops of washing up liquid and then, using a brush, brush all along every pipe and every joint. Leaks will form bubbles. If there are no leaks, take each section of pipe off in turn and either try to squirt water through it or blow compressed air down it. That will show up any blockages.

You must be rich I don't know of one instance where Lexus insurance isn't hundreds of squids more than more mainstream companies. My own experience is that Lexus wanted more than double the £515 that Ageas are charging me. I've worked hard for my money and I hate just giving away more than I need to. I took out GAP insurance with MotorEasy, which gave me three years cover for half the price that the dealer was quoting. Thankfully, I've not needed to claim (and I am touching wood as I type this so as to not tempt fate). As with all insurance companies, you never know if they are good or bad until you make a claim, but reading lots of good reviews about them makes me comfortable with my choice.

Your photos are not showing Peter. I must admit, having had a black interior once, I wouldn't go back to it. Makes it far too dark and dismal, which is why I like the Ivory/Beige colours.

When going downhill there's a chance that the traction battery could reach maximum charge, so if this happens the hybrid system cuts off fuel supply to the engine and begins to rotate it using the motor MG1. This uses the excess electricity being generated and I seem to remember that it can also take some from the battery as well if needed, but I may be wrong on that. This is engine braking, so no need to use the paddles at all. The hybrid system really is engineered to perfection.