Herbie

I bought one of these oscilloscopes and they're surprisingly good and accurate. I bought mine as a kit and did all the soldering myself but this one appears to be ready-built and all you have to do is assemble the case. Being small, portable and working from a 9V supply, this would seem to be ideal for work on the car and at just over £20, what's not to like?

I've got a Rewire Security DB2 installed in my RX and it works on a voltage range of 10V-30V, not 5V as would be output from a USB connection, so just confirm the voltage requirements of your chosen unit and make sure that a USB will do it.

I like the way you think Charles In case you don't upgrade the car, I fitted the Grom Vline in my 2018 RX and I'm well impressed with it but as I said above, the Lsailt device is a close second.

Well, I haven't had, or got, an NX but this is compatible and would be my first choice if the cost doesn't put you off. This would be a very close second choice.

What do you need it for? Power output from USB is 5V but the most important thing is that there's no separate fuse protecting the USB circuitry. The USB system seems to be powered and controlled via the multimedia head unit so if you try to draw too much power through it, you may end up damaging the head unit in some way. Depending on what you want to use it for, it may be an idea to use something like a hardwire kit for a dashcam, which would connect to a 12V supply (that would be fuse protected) and step it down to 5V.

You have to understand the process of what's happening in order to do a proper job. Modern headlamp lenses are made from Polycarbonate and over time, exposure to UV light from the sun can cause the polycarbonate to oxidise. How deeply the oxidation penetrates into the lens will dictate how you clean them up. If it's superficial surface oxidation, even using something like toothpaste can get rid of it, but if it's deeper then it usually needs a proper job using a cordless drill and various grades of sandpaper and cutting/polishing paste. The most important thing is that once the oxidation layer(s) have been cleaned off, you need a good quality UV-resistant clear coat to seal the polycarbonate from UV light or they'll be as bad again within a month or two. A good UV-resistant topcoat should last at least a couple of years.

My RX was booked into Lexus Preston for its annual service and MOT and they gave me a UX300e for the afternoon. No mention of money was made at all.

Excellent Pete, well done.

It must do, otherwise how does it monitor the battery during normal running? Plus, as Graham says, electricity will take the shortest path so if you connect the lead 5" away from the battery terminal, it won't decide to go to the monitor first. Maybe Mercedes have got some proprietary system that is designed to work in the way you say, I don't know.

I don't know the answer but it may be worth contacting http://www.pirtek.co.uk I know they do hydraulic and brake pipes, not sure about AC. The most important thing is to make sure that when it's refilled, make absolutely certain they use the correct oil, ND11, and not standard PAG oil. The refrigerant gas is the same but PAG oil will destroy the compressor.

In a word, no. As I said above, it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever to the electricity whether it goes directly to the negative battery terminal or to a bolt head a few inches away. As long as there is a metallic conductive path, it will get to that negative battery terminal.

These may be of help:

http://lexus.co.uk or http://google.co.uk

Nope, again Linas, that's wrong. The negative battery terminal is clamped directly to the body anyway, so in effect the whole body and every screw, nut and bolt become the negative battery terminal. What possible difference - electrically speaking - can a few inches of steel/aluminium/whatever make? The answer is, none.

Sorry Linas but that's wrong. The only reason for the advice to use any unpainted part of the body/screw/nut is purely for safety reasons, not electrical reasons. A charging/charged battery can release hydrogen gas, which can be explosive if ignited. If the negative battery terminal is used and a spark is created as you take the croc clip off it, it could* cause an explosion - this is the reason to use any nut/bolt/screw - so that it's far enough away from the gas that there's no risk of explosion. It makes not one iota of difference electrically, and it doesn't matter in the slightest where the negative croc clip is connected, from an electrical point of view. *In more than 45 years of spannering, driving, and generally messing around with cars, I have never personally experienced an explosion, nor have any of my friends, family or workmates and when asked, it was discovered that all of us just connect to the negative battery terminal. Not only does there have to be the gas and a spark, but it also has to be present in the correct proportions for an explosion to occur.

All it was, I forgot what I was going to say

U2 are a rock band and they are two songs from The Joshua Tree album. I forgot that not everyone will know who they are

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The alarm has it's own back-up battery but of course, if it's left too long then even that will go flat too.

I just don't get this. What could be more enjoyable than driving it every day? Just drive it until it dies or just gets too tired. That way, you'll have had the enjoyment., not someone else.

It's a car. Just use it as a car is meant to be used. There's only me and the wife here and she doesn't drive, so no need for a second car. Consequently our 2018 RX450h gets used daily for everything; supermarket runs, tip runs, pleasure runs and full-on road trips to Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and so on. People should be loved and things should be used. Having said that, I do love my RX and I would be sad and upset if it got pranged in a car park or whatever, but I never lose sight of it being just a car, or a tool to do things.

I have a Tacklife T8 that I got from Amazon although they now say it's currently unavailable. I think this model may have been superseded by a later model.

Probably not. You can sort of work it out approximately though. Even in the middle of the night when everyone's asleep there's still a draw on the battery for the clock, alarm, radio presets, memory seats and so on. This is roughly around 50mA or 0.05A. Have a look at the capacity of your battery - it'll be labelled as xxAh. Just as an example, we'll say that it's 50Ah, which means it can supply 50A for one hour, or 25A for two hours and so on. We'll also assume that it's brand new and fully charged (which yours almost certainly won't be). 50Ah / 0.05A = 1,000 hours or 41.66 days, or 5.9 weeks - and that is to go from brand new fully charged to fully discharged. However, remember that for the purposes of starting the car, the battery will be useless for that well before it's fully discharged, so you won't get all 1,000 hours or 5.9 weeks that a 50Ah battery would give you. You may just be lucky but....

Hopefully that'll solve the problem Colin - and don't put any more lube in there