Herbie

Well I don't know for sure and I suppose the only people who do know are the warranty people, so you really need to ask them. I was just going off the fact that anything going rusty after 12 years can't really be said to be faulty.

Somehow I doubt it but if it doesn't, just take it to any good and reputable garage to get it done. I'll bet it's half the price of the dealers.

Service plans are not designed to be cheaper; their benefit lies in the fact that you can lock in today's price and pay for it monthly, interest free.

Anything here (eBay) that helps you?

Braver man than me! I didn't mind pulling the dash apart but cutting it would be a step too far for me. I have to say that the Grom Vline 2 seems to be the best of the aftermarket devices. A lot of people seem to be happy with it and they say that it works well, which is why I intend to persevere with it, but it is expensive at just over £500.

The garage should have been able to reset it but it'll go out on its own anyway after three driving cycles, assuming there really isn't a fault.

I apologise for doubting you Tom and it's never our intention to laugh at anyone - the only silly questions are the ones never asked, so you'll hopefully find us a helpful bunch. Any impatience on my part stems from the fact that, generally speaking, a car is a car is a car. However, a hybrid is so different from any other car one might have had before, you really need to read the manual from cover to cover. This is both for your own benefit to get the most out of the car and also learning what you can and cannot do so that you don't damage it. Anyway, welcome to the club

I thought the same thing to be honest, but over the time I've been a member on these forums I've often been left shaking my head in bewilderment about the lack of knowledge of their cars that some people display. They buy a hybrid with absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of what that even means. They go out to buy 'a car' and come back with 'a car' without knowing what they have. Some people have had their cars for six months or more and don't even know that it doesn't have a starter motor or alternator, and they haven't got a clue how to drive a hybrid or how to get the best out of it. Having said that though, not knowing what READY mode is does seem to take the biscuit.

Agreed - but not impossible. We've all passed the driving test, or at least I hope we have

Did the Green Flag guy tell you what the OBD error code was? If I remember correctly there are two 12V control relays that prevent current from flowing from the high voltage battery if certain conditions aren't met, but I can't remember what they are, so the OBD code will help me to look it up.

But the DC/DC converter in the hybrid will have an upper limit to the current it can supply, so if all those things are on then there's obviously less available to recharge the 12V battery, just as in the case of the alternator at idle. This is the reason why a hybrid car must never be used to jump start a conventional car, because the DC/DC converter can't supply as much current as an alternator can.

That's true but it can also be said for any car, hybrid or not. In a conventional car the alternator meets the 12V demands, in a hybrid the traction battery meets the demands - but it still happens. Any battery, of any capacity, in any car, will eventually go flat if not used regularly or trickle charged; it's just a matter of time.

Have you been using it for short runs and leaving it parked up for days between them or have you used it regularly and/or for decent runs? The battery takes much more of a hammering during the winter months when it goes dark early and the heater, the headlights and heated rear screen are used more, so unless it gets a good blast on a regular basis the battery will go flat sooner than is otherwise normal. If this is your scenario it may be best to leave the battery on a trickle charger when not in use. It would be a good idea to fully charge the battery and then go to a car accessory shop and ask them to check the battery for you. They should have a battery tester that simulates a load, rather than just checking the battery 'standing' voltage with a multimeter. If you've been using the car regularly and/or the battery is load tested and found to be good, then it's possible that you may have a fault that's causing a parasitic drain on the battery. This video may help find the problem if this is the case:

It's really all very messy and nothing is guaranteed to be as good as they look. I spent about £200 on a Carlinkit from Aliexpress but I just couldn't get it to work. I then decided to get a Grom Vline 2 which, as it turns out, was faulty so I'm waiting for a new replacement to be sent out, but I do have to say that I'm more confident about getting the Vline working than I was with the Carlinkit. Other options are to use Waze, Google Maps or Sygic on your phone, or to get a stand-alone sat nav such as a TomTom.

Well, yes, but I thought that went without saying.

If you're not happy with what Lexus are doing you could always take it to some other place. Being as you kerbed it, it can't be a warranty claim so any place that's good and does tracking will be able to do it.

Just a word of warning about that chart. I've posted it myself many times because there's no doubt that it's very useful but be aware that it only shows battery 'standing' voltage, i.e., off load. If you put a load on it by, say, switching on the headlights, the heated seats, heated rear screen etc., the voltage may drop like a stone if the battery is faulty. The biggest problem is that a lot of these things will only come on with the ignition. This is OK for the OP because he has a conventional car but for us hybrid owners we'd have to have the car in READY mode and because that activates the charging circuits it would show about 14.5V. It's best to go to a car accessory shop (and I hate to say this but even Halfords) to ask them to check the battery for you. They have special testers that simulate a load so you get a truer and more accurate reading.

I don't wish to personally attack anyone or cause offence to anyone but come on, the RX isn't THAT big! Do delivery vans, bin wagons, BT vans, milk tankers and suchlike manage on these narrow lanes? If the answer to that is yes then it's not the RX at fault is it? And yes, I do live in a town but having holidayed (is that even a word?) in Devon and Cornwall many times I'm no stranger to those narrow lanes by any means.

Because the factory satnav/infotainment system has long been the Achilles Heel of Lexus and is abysmal., which is why a lot of people, myself included, look for alternatives. As a quick and dirty fix to get your wife home she could use Waze or Google Maps on her phone. I suspect that she won't have a phone cradle or holder of any sort but the phone could just sit in the cup holder as the voice instructions are excellent and either of those maps will give advanced warning of problems and workarounds for them. Longer term, either a phone in a holder or a dedicated satnav like a TomTom, or a way of getting Android Auto/Apple Carplay in the system because they would then control screen brightness. It may sound daft to use a third-party solution but as I said earlier, the factory nav is terrible, being slow, clunky, counter-intuitive and just does not work well. I can be two miles down the road and into my journey using Waze, Google Maps or Sygic, before I've even finished inputting my destination in the Lexus system.

Unlikely to be a fuse because if it was then the lights wouldn't work when the passenger door was opened. There's usually only two or three locations for fuse boxes - engine bay, passenger's and/or driver's footwell - and the fuse box lids usually have fuse number and circuit description on them. Most likely culprit in this case is the door switch, which is often a plunger that moves in and out as the door is opened/closed. You may find that the plunger has seized.

I've only had one email from them about that but I think it was only about 3 months ago that I renewed - so I'm peed off for a different reason

And posting that (without explanation or context) achieves what exactly Russell? I'm assuming you're attempting to back up your theory that there's a problem with the RX400h 12V battery? I suppose there are two possibilities: There is a real, actual, parasitic drain on the system. Have you investigated this? The only thing wrong is actually a design problem in that Toyota/Lexus specified a low capacity 12V battery Given that the RX400h ceased production in about 2008 (latest I've seen registered is 2009 with the RX450h taking over from then), good luck with getting Toyota/Lexus to do anything about it now. The only options now are to either put up with it and plan for when it goes flat or you change the car because it doesn't fit your usage pattern. I suppose a third option would be to try to find a higher capacity battery that physically fits in the battery tray. So you did 70 miles on Monday 22nd then didn't use the car again until Sunday 28th. How many miles did you do in the previous week, i.e., 15th to 22nd? All batteries in all cars will go flat if not used, it's simply a matter of how long that takes.

The factory navigation has always been the Achilles Heel of Lexus. I believe it's getting better now but it'll be a long time before I can afford a 2021 car so the most useful apps are the map/nav ones such as Waze, Sygic, What 3 Words and others that are all much better than the Lexus offering, especially as most of them are free, updates are both free and frequent and they are all easier to use. I believe (maybe wrongly) that both Android Auto and Apple Carplay will not allow you to load apps such as Netflix and live TV for the legal reasons you already know about. However, third-party devices such as Carlinkit, Grom Vline 2 and Lexion do allow it and must just rely on the common sense of the driver not to use it in motion.

I would imagine that the red bar with white lines is the icon for "STOP NOW!!" and I would hazard a guess that the sensors at the front either need cleaning or maybe even replacing, because they seem to think you're almost up against an object. Once you've got those sorted then you'll be able to activate Park Assist and just leave it on to come into play automatically when needed.

Excellent job and write-up Ollie, I eagerly await the next instalment