Herbie

What did you use to get the engine bay looking so good?

No offence meant to the OP, River, but he/she has already rejected one car purely because of the audio system, so I think it's safe to assume that he/she is an audiophile and will see/hear problems that 98% of other people won't even notice. My ears are 63 years old and have been battered by being at live gigs with some of the loudest bands in the world, such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and so on. I can almost guarantee that I could sit in the same car and think nothing is wrong at all but River's ears are obviously more sensitive than mine.

My 2018 has a 60Ah battery in it. I'm not sure of the CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) rating but it doesn't matter because, given that the car doesn't have a starter motor the battery doesn't have to crank the engine. You can basically use a golf trolley battery, or a mobility scooter battery, or even a lawn mower battery to get these cars running so I really can't see the battery being the problem. I suppose it could be a faulty battery but the chances of it being 'under spec' or not up to the job are extremely low. Good luck and don't forget to keep us informed

Never mind that - how have you gone on with the actual fault and the questions that brought you here in the first place?

I don't know the answer to your specific questions but I can say that I found wireless charging to be slow and a bit flaky so I just stay with wired.

Not on this one Barry. It's out of warranty on both age and mileage and I highly doubt that a Lexus dealer would sell one of that age and mileage anyway.

I've always believed that prevention is better than cure, which is why I use a big, bright yellow, Stoplock Pro Elite steering lock on my car. Hopefully the scrotes of the world will take one look and be persuaded that they don't need the extra hassle and will move on to an easier target. Up to now I've not bothered with a tracker for three reasons: Initial cost of the unit Ongoing cost of monitoring It only comes into play after the event Although the third reason still stands and I still place more importance in prevention and deterrence, I recently heard of something that makes the first two irrelevant (for me anyway). The Rewire Security DB2 - a real-time GPS tracking device that's an absolute doddle to fit and costs under £45 available here. It comes with a SIM card already installed and once activated you get a short trial period, after which it costs £5/month. Unfortunately, 'buying in bulk' doesn't result in a discount, with pricing being £15 for 3 months, £30 for 6 months, £45 for 9 months or £60 for 12 months. Given the low cost of the unit and the SIM you won't be surprised to learn that there is no central monitoring station or police interaction with this system, but it does give real-time tracking on your smartphone with apps for Android and also Apple, and there's also website monitoring too. All the screendumps below have been taken from the website rather than my phone, just for the sake of clarity. You can set various alerts, such as a virtual ring fence, so that if the car moves out of a predefined zone your phone will start going crazy. Other alerts can be set, such as when the ignition is switched on, when there's movement, when the car battery gets low, when the device backup battery gets low and a few others too. If you have the misfortune to have your car stolen you can watch on the map in real time and call the police to tell them where it is, where it's heading, what speed it's doing and so on. It's very, very easy to install with just two wires, a positive and a negative. The company advocate just sticking it to the top of the battery but if you feel you want to hide it somewhere more secure then you can, just as long as you give it a permanent 12V supply and you must mount it horizontally with the labels facing upwards. This is so that the GPS antenna can get a good signal. It has an internal 3A fuse for safety, which I didn't know about, so I installed a fuse carrier on the positive wire and put a 5A fuse in but you can learn from my ignorance and you don't have to do that. Ironically, since installing it I haven't used the car much so I haven't got lots of data to show you but the screendumps below will give you an idea. I have to say that I know there are much better tracking systems out there but, given the price of this unit and the monthly cost of the SIM, I am well impressed with it. N.B. If anyone does get one of these there's one thing to beware of and that is receiving alerts by text message or SMS. You can set the system to send you email alerts and you get an allowance of 150/month free of charge. The system will also send 'Push Notifications' to your phone, again free of charge. However, you have to pay for SMS messages and if you don't set up your alerts correctly you can use them at one hell of a rate of knots and they're not cheap.

Well, to answer some questions: The 12V battery will be fine. Original fit batteries are only small capacity anyway because hybrids don't have starter motors. A conventional starter motor can draw upwards of 300A when cranking the engine but the 12V battery in a hybrid only boots the computers and does a couple of other things to get the car into READY mode, which only takes about 20A. Hybrids don't have alternators (or anything else that would normally be driven by a belt from the engine* - Imagine losing power steering in the middle of a turn because the hybrid system decided to shut off the petrol engine at that moment). We have a DC/DC converter that takes power from the 288V traction battery and converts it to about 14.5V to run all the 12V systems and keep the 12V battery charged. It would be very unusual for this to be faulty. This just can't happen. Again, the aircon compressor is driven by an electric motor, not a belt. It's actually a 500V 3-Phase AC variable frequency motor, again powered by an inverter/converter and would be unlikely to cause something like this. * The only thing driven by a belt is the water pump that circulates engine coolant and provides the heat for the cabin heater.

As I mentioned above, some apps are blocked from AC/AA because they are deemed to be a distraction to the driver, which is why you can only see a selection. Waze being a map app, is of course, allowed, so if you don't already have it on your phone it should just be a matter of downloading it and away you go. One thing I noticed on mine is that some apps (like Amazon Music for instance) have to be set to Autostart or I just get a message saying "Amazon Music is unavailable at this moment". However, that could be because I'm an Android user or because mine is a third-party unit; might even be a combination of the two. You really need someone else who uses an Apple phone and the Lexus unit to advise you further.

I've got a 2018 RX450h Luxury and I didn't even know that it's got an RPM gauge! I have no idea what it could be but I will say that I never use Eco mode so try it in 'normal' mode and see if it still happens.

Strange. I had a Mk.1 and two Mk.2s and they were brilliant cars. When I couldn't get another because it became the Scorpio, I moved over to the Rover 800 series; first an 827SLi and then an 800 Sterling.

I was a big fan of the Granada back in the day. The picture below is not my actual car but I did have one of these, the Sapphire Edition. It was the last one I had because the Scorpio took over, looking like a big jelly mould.

It doesn't matter how technically or mechanically good they are, if a car is piggin' ugly no one's going to buy it, at least not in enough numbers to make it a success.

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OK, perhaps I was a bit harsh so I apologise for that. I suppose it's partly down to the fact that we have all taken the driving test and so we should be able to drive, but perhaps it's more down to the fact that I've always loved driving and never been the slightest bit nervous about it. I had my first lesson on my 17th birthday and passed first time not long after, back in 1975. I still get as much pleasure out of it now as I did then. Something else that I suppose played a part in my experience was working for BT and driving a few different vehicles. I was a cable jointer and on my first day I was asked if I could drive and when I said yes, I was immediately given the keys to one of these jointer's wagons. I'd never driven anything bigger than a Morris Marina before that day! No messing about, just get on and do it, so I did. Within a couple of days it was a doddle.

I spent many years as a telephone engineer with BT so driving my van made me very comfortable at reversing with the door mirrors alone. So much so that even to this day, 20 years since I was last in my BT van, I still reverse that way. The only time I ever glance at the camera screen is when reversing up to a wall or something similar, otherwise my RX450h can be seen reversing at quite a rate of knots down single track country lanes or wherever it needs to, by the door mirrors alone. No offence meant but I have no truck with folks who say the RX is too big or whatever. We've all passed the same driving test. My own sister in law takes the proverbial biscuit though. She just cannot parallel park and will genuinely just abandon her car and ask a complete stranger to park it for her! I would confiscate her licence if it was up to me but, thankfully for her, it isn't.

Yes indeed John, both as ugly as an ugly thing on World Ugly Day

The Renault Vel Satis and the rest of its family fell from the top of the Ugly Tree and hit every branch on the way down. Hideous things.

I don't think they'll update the Lexus maps and install AA/AC all for £80, not when map updates cost more than that on their own. But it doesn't matter that the Lexus maps are out of date because you'll be able to use whatever maps are on your phone, such as Apple Maps, Google Maps, Waze, Sygic or whatever. Apple Carplay/Android Auto are basically just an interface between your phone and the car, so that you can almost* mirror your phone screen to the bigger in-car screen. If you were just going to carry on using the Lexus mapping then it's hardly worth it. *Almost, because some apps are purposely disabled for use while the car is in motion.

Or, if the OP has somewhere like this near to him

Someone took out the tyre insurance and had to claim on it within about two weeks, due to getting a nail so close to the side wall that it was irreparable, so he almost got him moneysworth straight away. GAP insurance was quoted as £399 for 3 years cover at the dealers but I got the same cover for £175 from https://www.motoreasy.com/ and similar for paint protection.

Try again in an hour or so, may just be a transitory thing. Seems to be a server-side error.

Brilliant, thanks Colin

Parking sensors were a dealer-fit option, not factory fit, or so I believe anyway.

I know the fuse box I need is probably in the passenger footwell but I have an inner-ear problem that means if I put my head in a position to see it, I'll get vertigo and be violently sick. None of my internal lights are working so I'm assuming a fuse, probably the 'DOME' one, but can anyone confirm that that is correct and the location too? Googling brings up thousands of 3RX fuse box images but none for 4RX that I can see. When I have seen the year 2018 mentioned and I get all excited, it usually turns out to be for a Ford or some other completely random car - anything but what I'm looking for.