Herbie

Why go all the way to the US when you could just have your own alternator remanufactured here? This company are local to me but I'm sure there'll be someone closer to you although if not, I do know that you can send/they will pick up https://www.ribblesdale.co.uk/ EDIT: - they have a delivery van that goes into deepest, darkest Yorkshire twice a week. EDIT 2 - I don't know if this place will only deal with the full power steering pump or if they will sell you a seal kit but it's got to be worth a phone call to find out https://www.carparts-direct.co.uk/power-steering-pumps

Is it not still covered by the 3-year manufacturers warranty? If it is within the time period I'd get it to the dealer to let them sort it.

Can you record it and upload the file to here so that we can hear it? Knocking? Banging? Clicking? Whirring? Whining? "A noise" is just a bit vague to work with

The 12V battery won't last very long at all unless the car is in READY mode, when the petrol engine will kick in as and when needed to keep it topped up. If you just leave the car in ACC mode it'll either flatten the 12V battery or switch things off to prevent that happening. A conventional car has a starter motor to crank the engine and an alternator to run the 12V systems and keep the battery charged when it's running. The hybrid doesn't have either of those. The 12V battery boots the computers and gets the hybrid system up and running in READY mode, which is our equivalent of the engine running. A DC/DC converter takes power from the high voltage traction battery and converts it to about 14.5V to run all the 12V systems and keep the 12V battery charged up. If they hybrid system sees that the 12V battery or the traction battery is getting low, it will energise MG1 and use that to spin up the petrol engine to 1,000rpm before applying fuel and a spark to fire it, and it will run the engine until the batteries have reached a certain charge level, then stop it, and then repeat the cycle ad infinitum.

Well expensive and doesn't work brilliantly from what I can gather, which is why I thought I'd rather waste £200 instead of £600 if it came to that.

I suppose it could be a fuse integral to the head unit maybe but the fact that it powers up shows that it isn't a 'simple' fuse problem. The fact that you can adjust the volume but not the other parameters you mention would suggest a fault with the head unit, which should probably be replaced.

Don't worry guys, just wait until you get older when your frequencies drop out and other things happen to your hearing - you'll be happy to just hear anything then I suppose it depends on how much you like the car itself. After all, that makes up about 99% of the product you've bought, the sound system 1%, and Lexus make cars not sound systems, so if you don't like what it left the factory with audio-wise, you could have a third-party system fitted by a car audio system specialist maybe?

Any progress on this Barry? Did you go for it or not? Did you find something else or not?

I think the only ones with rot were the ones that had lived near the seaside. My 2005 RX300 certainly didn't suffer from it.

I agree with Steve. If it was me I'd go for it but, of course, it's not me, it's you, so you have to be happy with it.

I have no idea what retracts them back to the 'home' position but it can only be a spring or some other mechanism. Maybe the spring has become detached, or more likely is that whatever sort of mechanism it is, needs to be lubricated.

I've never had to replace a manifold in more than 40 years driving either. Of course, manifolds do crack sometimes, but I think you've got to be extremely unlucky for it to happen.

Not really sure what you'd do with such info anyway? If it's had a cat stolen, what does that prove? Lots of hybrids have had cats stolen and lots more will no doubt fall foul of this in the future.

Regarding the first question, I forgot to say that yes, you can turn off the smart entry system but it doesn't really save much at all. The battery still has to supply the clock, the radio presets, the alarm and maybe even other systems too.

a) No, there's no 'issue' with it other than a design problem that all our hybrids suffer from. Toy/Lex should really have fitted larger 12V batteries but they didn't so we have to live with it and just be aware that if we don't use the car on a regular basis, we have to use other measures such as keeping a trickle charger attached to the battery or having a small jump start battery pack similar to this one in the boot or glove box. b) No, you don't need to disconnect the battery, just like Mark said above.

Just bought some One Shot myself yesterday for the same thing.

I don't know of any car/system that turns off the brake lights and whilst I agree with what the Highway Code says (as a matter of courtesy), it only says should and not must. I've been driving for over 40 years and can honestly say that I've never been dazzled by brake lights when in a queue or stood at traffic lights, not even the modern LED ones.

Most of my working life was spent as a telephone engineer with BT, so driving a van around all day that had no rear window or reversing camera I quickly became comfortable with using just the side mirrors for reversing and to this day I still do that in the car, even though I do occasionally glance at the camera display. The easiest way to get used to the camera is simply to put something on your driveway (traffic cone, plastic bucket, etc) and use the camera to reverse up to it. Once the red line on the display is 'touching' the object, get out and have a look at the back and you'll see you still have a safety margin. On my RX I still have 14-15 inches before actual contact would be made. Lovely car!

I'm a big music lover and never do any journey, no matter how long/short, without the radio on or other media playing music. I tend to find that classic rock bands such as Led Zeppelin, Free, The Who, AC/DC, Deep Purple and so on make me drive 'enthusiastically', whilst the Mediaeval Baebes and other mediaeval-type music, along with Gregorian Chants make me drive more sedately.

Yes, everything is easily reversible and no cutting of wires necessary at all.

For the 'big cleans' twice a year I use Dodo Juice Supernatural Leather cleaner and then the sealant/conditioner or whatever it is and I spend quite some time on it. What can I use for a weekly or fortnightly ' quick freshen up' sort of thing?

You were right Peter. After you said it I thought that logically, that's all it could be so I looked again with an LED torch this time and saw the edge of a coin staring back at me. A little prodding with a cocktail stick and it was out, cheers

That was my first thought too, Peter, but I can't see anything.

We've had the car a number of weeks now and I've opened and closed this little 'cubby hole' many times, but for some strange reason, this time it won't go back down. Any ideas folks?