Herbie

My biggest worry for you would be that the 12V battery may let you down unless you have it on a permanent trickle charge. Note that it's perfectly alright to charge the battery in situ; it doesn't need to be taken out of the car and put on the bench. If your 20-30 miles per week is all in one go, that may be enough to keep the battery charged, but equally so, it may not. Some of us have taken to carrying around a small jump start battery pack like this one or something similar, just in case. Lexus decided that because it doesn't take a lot of current to start a hybrid, they could save on both money and weight by only installing small batteries. A conventional car may have a 75Ah battery or perhaps even 100Ah, but if I remember correctly my 2013 RX was about 45-50Ah, certainly no more than that. The 12V battery boots the computers and does one or two other things to get the car into READY mode. That's basically the equivalent of a conventional car sat idling with the alternator spinning. There is no traditional starter motor or alternator. When the hybrid system wants the petrol engine to run it energises MG1 (Motor/Generator 1) and uses that to spin up the engine to 1,000rpm before applying fuel and a spark to fire it. Although there's a big 288V traction battery sat under the back seat, nothing can happen without the 12V battery and it's important to realise that it can go flat quite quickly (within 3 to 4 weeks) if the car isn't used enough or if the battery isn't trickle charged. Other than that, excellent cars. Oh, and stay away from the SE-L or Premier variants. These are top of the range and have all the toys but also have air suspension, which can be about £600 per corner if a strut needs replacing.

Under normal circumstances there would be power on the system so it seems to act differently without power.

PANIC OVER! My wife is disabled and has one of these 'grabber' thingies, so I used that to lever up the back seat 'drop down lever' and then used it to grab the bag with my things in. The jump start battery pack hasn't been recharged for about 6 months but was showing 99% charge on the LCD screen and it worked like a charm. Seconds after connecting it I pressed the power button and the engine burst into life. It's currently on the driveway with the steering wheel crooklock on and charging the battery up while I now find a new battery

Nope. Pulling the release lever (door opener) makes the lock indicator pop up but it goes down again as soon as you let the lever go. And gripping it with pliers to stop it going down again doesn't work. Yes, it keeps it up but it doesn't unlock. Thanks for the reply though Peter.

2018 4RX with a flat 12V battery. I have jump leads and even my trusty 12V jump start battery pack in the 'boot' but can't get in there to get them! The mechanical key only unlocks the drivers door and there is no keyhole (as far as I can see) anywhere in/on the tailgate. The stuff I need is at the back of the boot so if I could drop the back seats down I would have easy access. Unfortunately, the internal locks on this model are the small, thin, cylinder-type that disappear down a hole when in the lock position. So, I can unlock and get into the drivers seat but no access to the back seats and no way of opening the tailgate - unless I'm missing something. Any bright ideas anyone?

Yuasa are a well respected brand and yes, it's a very easy DIY job. I'm not sure what model number you'll need but just look on the old battery for that info.

If the battery light comes on at any time that the engine is running, that's usually an indication that the rectifier pack is faulty.

Auto locking was a feature then it was abandoned due to safety reasons (people couldn't get out if there was a crash), then it was reinstated later on, presumably after the safety aspect had been addressed. I don't know if this applies to all models and variants or not, but the point is that there was a period of time when this facility wasn't available - maybe your car is from that time and it's just not available to you.

We'd still love to see some photos Matthew, both of the car in general and also the engine bay to see the LPG installation. It's always nice to see a good installer's work and then we can recommend them in the future

Both the Grom Vline and the Lsailt interface allow the use of the factory screen. The Lsailt can come with a screen if it's required but you don't have to have one, and the Grom Vline doesn't come with a screen anyway as the whole point is to integrate into the car system.

To be honest, you're not going to fix this by just looking around and poking about. It needs some logical, methodical, diagnostic work and for that, you'll need (at the very least) a multimeter or 12V test lamp, and most importantly, the knowledge to use them and understand what they're telling you. I think it may be best to take it to an auto electrician (not a mechanic) and get them to sort it.

There are a few things out there but most of them have problems, some worse than others. Initially I bought a Carlinkit 2.0 Interface from AliExpress and paid just under £200 for it. It turned out to be a complete nightmare and I eventually gave up and took it out. I know a couple of people who've had success with https://www.lsailt.com/product/android-interface but I decided on a Grom Vline 2 It's expensive but it's worth it. It's not 100% stable and it does have one or two little foibles, but it's so close and I have every confidence that it'll get there. Two really good things about it are (a) the fact that both the UK distributor and the development team in the USA really do want it to work for you so the support is both really good and also in English, so no language barrier to overcome; and (b) it's expensive but it's so much more than just a 'mirroring' device. It's a full-blown, stand-alone, Android tablet that does everything that any Android tablet does. You don't need to use Android Auto or Apple CarPlay if you don't want to. They actually restrict what you can download and what you can do. Instead, you just download any app from the Google Play Store directly to the Vline and run it directly from there. Have a look at this (admittedly poor attempt) little write-up and demo I did a while back:

I'm not sure just exactly what is happening but I think you're becoming bogged down in the "which fuse" thing. Fuses are rated for the current they will carry all day long. So a 7.5A fuse will carry 7.5A all day long and never break into a sweat. It would take about 10A or even more to make it blow. The power requirements for the Nextbase 622GW are 5V @ 1.5A. I don't know what the requirements are for your satnav but I'd be very surprised if it took the fuse to breaking point. I hate to say it but I think you have a fault somewhere rather than just using the wrong fuse.

Undoubtedly yes. As has been said above, it discharges the battery if it's in Neutral and also it's very bad for the paint. Surely you should be able to find a hand wash in your area? If so, that's the one to go for.

First page of this RX forum - there's a sticky post of the different variants and the equipment they have.

I have a TomTom GO Live 1005 but I've not used it for years. Google Maps and/or Waze are just SO good in every way, they beat everything else hands down. I had to go over to Manchester a few days ago so I got in the car, fired up Waze, clicked on the microphone icon and just spoke the postcode. I didn't even say, "Navigate to..." or anything else, just said, "M33 4AA" and Waze immediately answered with, "Right. M33 4AA. Let's go". And that was it - I was being directed within seconds. You really should persevere but maybe try Waze instead of Google Maps?

First thing I would have done would be to pull over and reboot both phone and car. It could have just been a transitory thing that a reboot would sort out. If not, I'd be more likely to blame the phone rather than Google Maps. It's well known and publicly admitted by Apple that they intentionally cripple their devices when they reach a certain age, in order to get you to buy a new one. A third possibility and perhaps the most likely scenario is that I'm sure I remember reading something a few months ago about a problem between iPhones and Google Maps, but I can't remember any details. If I find the article I'll post it. In the meantime, give Waze a try - it's brilliant.

2015 was the change from Gen 3 to Gen 4 cars. Having had a 3RX (2013 Advance) and now a 4RX (2018 Luxury) I would say that if your budget allows, go for a Gen 4. I have to say that I haven't really felt much difference mechanically or in daily driving but the 4RX is a much nicer and much more refined interior space, plus you get a 12.3" screen that's much easier to see. The only downside I've found is that my 4RX has 20" wheels and the tyre choice in that size is very limited. My favourite tyres have been Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen 2 or Michelin Cross Climates, neither of which are available for the 20" 4RX.

Hmm... I don't think there is a flex plate in the CVT gearbox so I'd maybe give that "Lexus specialist" a wide berth. Could be loose or degraded engine mounts maybe?

It seems that Chrome and Bitdefender are complaining about the web address above. All it is, is that the certificate has run out and the domain host hasn't renewed it, but I can vouch for the guy at LPGC and I trust him implicitly. Try Firefox, which still complains about the out of date certificate but lets you carry on to http://lpgc.co.uk/

Wow, I can't believe you asked that When we asked for photos of your car you flatly refused and would not change your mind for love nor money.

It is possible. One of the forum members on here has done it - or it may have been one from the American forums, I can't remember. It's possible to find the components needed via breakers yards, but the end result isn't perfect unless you also replace the windscreen with the special HUD version. If you don't replace the windscreen the readout looks blurred, like you've got double-vision, which is due to the reflection/refraction of the light. The photo below is from an American forum where the windscreen from a HUD car had been replaced with a standard one rather than a HUD-compatible one.

Wow, that's expensive. Someone on here got something like this one for a tenner and swapped out the electronics if I remember correctly, and it worked great.

I wouldn't let Halfords fit a teabag in a cup, let alone have them do anything on my pride and joy. Absolutely nothing whatsoever in the context of fitting a dashcam. Probably that they have no internal training course specific to hybrids so they think it's witchcraft.

That is appalling behaviour from someone who should know much better.