Steven Lockey

May also be several other factors for this like it been colder out than normal so having to run longer to heat the oil up to temp, the 12V battery been a bit below charge or just been a bit funky cos its cold. It doesn't sound like anything that unusual to be honest.

However much you pay and whatever the service history, your biggy is gonna be when is the hybrid battery going to die. Fairly sure its 15 years max some lexus, so when it dies, that'll cost £2kish to get a replacement or £700 for refurb (approx). Dealer sold me my GS 450h for £1900 (2007, practically all the optional extras, 165k miles, slightly dodgy wrap on it) but repaid me £700 after I threatened to return it when it turned out the hybrid battery was faulty. Don't think I did too bad in the end as I replaced the battery and it drives like an absolute dream and came to just under £4k all in including completely new uprated battery with fresh 3 year warranty (non lexus), 4 new really expensive tyres (I spent far more than I needed to, but I don't like crappy handling. Car seems a lot happier high end tyres), replaced mid-exhaust section, full service and a few other really minor bits. Its at 180k now and smooth as anything. So do bear in mind there might be a big upcoming cost in that department but otherwise I'd thoroughly recommend the car. Maybe you can even use that info to negotiate a bit of a discount 😉

That changes the way the traction engine is used, so it will use it more when you put your foot down and less for cruising. I keep it in power assist mode, seems to make little difference to fuel economy and makes the accelerator a bit more responsive.

Ha, my only two other cars were a Rover 25 1.4l (78hp?) and a Citreon Saxo 1l (50hp) Its such a big difference, particularly when at speed. First time I drove it, nearly went into the back of a truck on the dual carriage-way when I put my foot down to overtake quickly and didn't realise quite how quickly it accelerated compared to my past cars! 😉 When I'm in sports mode, its incredibly responsive the the gas pedal. Might be due to the fact I also keep the hybrid in power-assist mode which means the electric gives it a boost off from low speed. Automatics also naturally are slightly more laggy on acceleration than manuals so that might be what you are noticing. One of the reasons I really like the 450h is cos the traction engine seems to compensate for that completely in power assist mode.

Yes, had errors on the battery and codes appearing. Only time I've seen the mpg on mine go below 30 and I check it quite often. This is over the whole tank however so you might have bad patches below 30. I can't imagine the car not throwing errors if multiple misfires are detected..... Check engine light would surely be on if this problem was bad enough to cause this. Do you feel the hesitation in sports mode? I drive mine exclusively in sports mode cos it feathers the acceleration to make it feel smooth in normal mode so much it feels like it is hesitating. Turning sports mode on and that goes completely.

I do always drive with the shocks in sports mode, but get absolutely none of this. In fact it seems to absolutely ignore winds, particularly when compared to my last cars. It may be while the shocks are fine, they were misaligned and the car is riding far too high? I guess that could cause this kind of effect as the GS has quite a high weight for it's profile so should be less affected by winds than most cars.

1> 22 mpg is shockingly low. Even in this weather I get 30 mpg+ from mine and its got 170k on the clock and is a year older. Only time I saw even near 22 was when the traction battery was screwed. 2> Yeah, completely normal. I think it will always start up the engine just to check it still works before you actually start moving. Even in summer I think it was still starting every time if it hadn't been driven in x hours but would turn itself off after a few seconds until I put my foot down outside of my car-park. 3> In standby mode, everything uses the traction battery as far as I can tell. There is a guide in the manual which you can find online but basically yeah, there does seem to be quite a lot of draw. I noticed this in mine but I think its just because standby mode has a lot more active than in a lot of cars. It'll quite happily run the AC with the engine off for example. 5> Thats odd, the adaptive sensor shouldn't need cleaning as it's radar based which is really only affected by metal. If its cold enough to form ice on the sensor that could cause an issue but normal dirt shouldn't affect it too much. Normally its a parking sensors which use sonar that need cleaning.

Had the same problem on mine. 99% sure it was the valves. From what I understand its a common issue with a small leak forming around the valves. It sounds like the valve as normally if its the seal, it goes down more quickly but a very small leak in the tire seal is also possible.

@Herbie I think you are correct in normal operating conditions, but at least for certain cars, I think they can also start the engine off the normal battery if it can't draw the power from the hybrid battery. I noticed when my hybrid battery was dodgy on my GS450h, it had issues starting when the 12V battery was low which suggests it was using the 12V battery sometimes. Also been told you can drive the GS450h with no hybrid battery inside at all suggesting it must be able to start without it but I don't know how true that is 😉 I think the lights, stereo and some other low power components also draw directly from the 12V battery when the car is in standby mode as I accidentally left them running when I went for a walk in the forest, when I came back the 12V battery was flat but the hybrid battery had plenty of charge left. Just leaving the car turned off for 20 minutes seemed to charge the 12V from the hybrid battery (volt-meter readings corrected) and the power level on the hybrid had decreased afterwards. Everything worked fine since so that's the only thing that makes sense to me 😉 Seems a bit odd, but not the first odd thing I've found in Lexus world! Very nice cars but some very odd quirks!

From everything I read, if you get a good 450h, it'll go practically forever. A 12 yo 450h with 100k+ isn't going to cost more than 4k really. Just make sure it has the hybrid health check and keep that up to date and thats the major worry covered for another 3 years. Other major issue can be the shocks, but mines at 160k+ and the shocks are still good. Exhaust can be an issue but well, fixing mine cost £120. Just don't get lexus to do that bit cos they want £2k to replace the cats as well.....

Mine was just over £1k. Originally was just under 2k, but I gave them the choice of either refunding the amount of the repair or I would return the car for a full refund and claim compensation (nearly £200 in train fare to pick it up and return it + insurance cancellation charge) Thats a 2007 450h as well, it did have a lot of miles on it (160k) but all the mechanics were very sound.

I also strongly recommend hybrid battery solutions. Richard knows his stuff!

I would be very cautious. I had the same thing. Dealer told me the exact same thing. Turned out it needed the hybrid battery reconditioned, which will come to around £700. I got the dealer to pay this and got a new battery instead for £2k, which was actually more than the car cost me after the reduction. If the car is over 150k miles, that will probably be the advice you get. Still got all my old cells sitting in the box behind me atm, keep meaning to put them on Ebay for someone to recondition! Does look like only 1 was actually faulty. Still, don't let that put you off too much, it just passed it's MOT with only a few minor issues and GS450h are very solid cars. Basically I'd only take it from the dealer on the grounds if it does turn out to be an actual battery fault, they get the battery repaired.

I believe that depends on the age of car and all cars newer than a certain date require TPMS? Not certain but I remember reading it somewhere.

Note, had this one on mine. Took it to redhill classics who fixed it for £120. Basically if you buy from lexus you have to buy the CATs as well.

Thanks that helps visualise it nicely.

I got a breathable cover for mine due to my parking spot been under a tree. Damm birds! While it does help, if the cover itself gets dirty/badly shat on, then it rains heavily, the crap gets forced through the cover and spreads out over the car. Not a major problem but annoying when you take your cover off.

I'd be careful of anything more than surface rust. The outside of the wheel bits tend to look rusty after a while but I don't think thats a big deal. The 450h is a big car. Thats the biggest downside for me in Guildford and thats not as packed as london proper. If you are relying on street parking that would put me off the 450h tbh. I've had to miss more than a few spots cos its just so damm long... And in Asda, even touching the pillar, my bumper is till half an inch out the spot at the back! 😉

Hate to say this, but unless its really low mileage and in pristine condition, you'd be lucky to make £1k with a faulty battery. Even if its only 1 dodgy cell, thats still £700 minimum to get it sorted properly or possibly a lot more (£2k if it turns out it can't be reconditioned). I've called around a few that offered it cheaper and well... don't trust em. They didn't even know the basics.... You've not really given that much to go off, looks like the mileage is around 125k? which isn't bad for the age, but at the end of the day its still a 14 year old car. Got mine for just over £1k, they advertised it as working for more, when it turned out the battery was damaged, they gave me a big refund to pay for the repair, its slightly younger but got a few more miles on it. Parkers agrees that 2.2k is the top end (-700 for the battery fix so 1.5k). Bottom end is 1.6k which would leave it sub 1k, so you'd really provide a lot more details for it to be worth considering at 1.5k, such are a check over from a good mechanic and full recent MOT, internal pictures to see it's really well kept inside e.t.c. and thats not considering the extra hassle (and risk) someone has to go to getting the battery fixed. If you can provide the extra details and preferably a list of error codes that the car is throwing, someone might be more willing to take you up on it. (Hell if they find anything major wrong with mine, I'd be tempted since I could switch my new battery in 😉 )

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/911047/Lexus-Gs450h.html That looks fairly good, not sure what year. I did download a copy of the 2007 one a year or so ago, can't find it now but is available for free download.

Thanks all, had a fresh set of Bridgestone All-Season Weather Control A005 fitted at 245/40R18 as I did a lot of reading about tyres and they basically did really well on everything but snow and I'm in the south of england so no worries! Car feels much nicer when taking sharp bends now. Back end isn't slipping out at all unless I force it, even then the TCS kicks in and tells me I'm been naughty! 🙂 Between that and the mufflers actually been attached to the exhaust , feels like a different car again! I was pretty happy before but as I sort out the various minor issues with this car, I like it more and more. Set me back £550 but worth it imho. Also they are rated for been really long lasting which is another good thing. Now lets just hope the full service/MOT doesn't find anything major!

Ok, never knowingly had the options of different radius tyres on a car before and I need to replace all four tyres, so once again I come looking for wisdom! So according to the web, these sizes fit my gs450h: 235/45 R17 245/40 R18 235/45 R19 245/35 R19 245/35 R20 So, I know what he numbers mean, what I don't know is what affect that will have. As for the radius, I assume a small radius would give better acceleration but worse fuel economy particularly at high speed. Are there any other factors? I assume all 4 should be the same side for standard road use? Any specific tyre suggestions would also be appreciated. Found a few that look good for around £75 each but not sure if its worth paying a bit more for better ones or if there are cheaper ones that are just as good. Thanks in advance!

Thanks, Redhill got back to me, so going to discuss it with him next week. Looks like he can do it so all good. You guys are invaluable!

Cheers, I'll add them to my list to try.

Well he couldn't help, but he thinks hes knows a man who can 🙂 Sometimes finding someone to fix something is like a scooby doo mystery! Fairly sure the resonator is going to turn out to be Mr. Harrison in disguise! 🤣 Many thanks again