Steven Lockey

I just took it to the local exhaust specialist. Really not a problem for any of them to replace the exhaust. Its just a few pipes, a resonator and two silencers after all. Its generally only the exhaust specialists who have the welding equipment on hand.

3 main issues: Traction battery - 700 repair or 2000 replacement Shocks - 2k repair. Exhaust - Tends to rust and needs replacing. Can get a stainless steel replacement for £600. Don't go OEM, they only sell it with Cats included which takes it to over £2k. Parts haven't been a problem at all, for all but the shocks I went non-oem anyway. I'd keep these in mind when budgeting but honestly 80k miles isn't a lot for this car, if it has been well serviced, you could do another 70k on it before these problems happen. Depends on too many factors like how it was driven, how rough the roads it was on were, how it was stored e.t.c.

The GS Hybrid gearbox is pretty much rock solid as far as I understand. Worth considering if you can find one in your price range as the mpg gain makes up for a lot. I get just under 40 mpg going down the motorway which is impressive for a car this size. Suspension can be an issue on all the GSs as they get older, particularly if no mercy is given on rough roads/speed bumps. It's just due to the weight of the car. I don't think most warranties will touch it either as it kinda falls under wear and tear. 450h hasn't got the biggest boot in the world.... but not fitting a suitcase in? Yeah that's nonsense. Unless the later models have a vastly reduced boot size ofc.... but think about it, the spare is in the boot, same size as your other wheels. The spare if bigger than a suitcase so if you couldn't fit in the suitcase, it'd be impossible to get the spare out 😉 Have fit two full trollies from the supermarket in mine with zero issues.

Sounds like the shocks are starting to go. The GSs are quite heavy cars, so the shocks can go early if driven a lot on rough roads. I had to have the shocks replaced on mine although at higher mileage (150k) which costs around £2k OEM. The 300h ones may be a bit cheaper.

£100 from halfords. AGMs are overkill. If its just cos the light was left on overnight, well probably means its on it's way out soon, that wouldn't kill a fresh battery I don't think. Before mine finally died, if I left it running on battery with just electronics running, it would turn off after about 30mins.

Yep, had the same issue before Xmas. In my case the 12V battery was doing an impression of a 3V battery. I had noticed it was starting to die already given the car would die and need a jump start if it was left without the engine running on standby mode (so running from the 12V) for more than 30 mins or so. Basically the car is having troubles installing the 12V circuit and the VGRS is vulnerable to fluctuations in voltage. Since replacing the 12V (was £100 for a non-lexus equivalent) I've had zero issues since then.

I said practically impossible which is true for hydrogen due to the small size of the atom and the pressure involved. This is pretty basic engineering knowledge.... the world isn't full of these. There might be a few specifically designed to not leak but these are rare extremely high tolerance examples not your common gas tank. The fact you don't know this is your issue..... There is plenty of rare-earths actually, the issue is getting them with minimum environmental impact as they are hard to harvest. Rare-earths, despite the name aren't actually rare.... and again you ignore the point that hydrogen needs JUST AS MUCH..... Well unless you are planning to use oil/gas/coal to generate the hydrogen..... which would be stupid and defeat the point. Again you need to educate yourself on the full costs of trying to switch everything to hydrogen.... not only the far higher energy costs.... requiring more wind-farms e.t.c. (which need rare-earths), the hydrogen production plants themselves e.t.c. Things that can't be "changed back to water"....... Just cos burning hydrogen produces water doesn't make it a magical substance where all stages in the process are clean does it. I notice you've not even TRIED to answer any of the facts I gave in my previous answer which says all it needs to about how much you've actually looked into this subject.... Please stop spreading your ignorance and claiming they are facts. They aren't.

Yes and we need considerably MORE to use hydrogen. Amount lost through self-discharge is comparable to hydrogen leakage. It is basically impossible to store hydrogen without leaks which makes large scale hydrogen storage difficult... you don't want to get a potentially expensive build-up. Rare earths aren't actually reliant on china, they are found practically everywhere. China were the ones who started exploiting them in large amounts first. Most countries can set up rare-earth extraction facilities which is actually happening at the moment in the US and multiple other countries. And you still need more of these with hydrogen to product the extra power production facilities. And yet again you ignore the production facilities for that hydrogen which wear out and need to be replaced. As well as the production facilities for the extra power needed for hydrogen which wear out and need to be replaced. And good luck buying that porsche engine... even they admitted it would be much more expensive than a EV or ICE equivalent hence their statement they weren't going to put it into production. And no, emissions weren't equivalent to ambient air, it outputs a noticeable amount of NO2. Also they haven't even actually made a prototype of this engine at the moment, it's all a simulation on a computer at the moment. So yet AGAIN, you ignore all the downsides of Hydrogen while listing all the downsides of EVs. To show how much extra energy is needed for hydrogen, lets do the math shall we. So let's start with electric cars, its much simpler, for both we'll start after the common stages that apply to both: 80% (transport efficiency) -> 85% (car efficiency) = 68% efficient use of produced power Now lets try hydrogen 40% (hydrogen production efficiency) -> 70% (shipping hydrogen) -> 60% (car efficiency) = 16,8% For every produced KWh, an EV actually converts FOUR TIMES as much to useable driving energy. And I picked the numbers with CURRENT EVs vs all the BEST hydrogen tech in development and assumed it will work and scale up. It just shows how much more energy you need to produce in the first place for hydrogen cars to be remotely viable even in the best possible predictions. Trying to switch to hydrogen with the current tech would be basically impossible and even more so to actually produce the energy in a green manner. Stop ignoring the downsides of hydrogen just to try and make it look better in comparison.

Yep, several rare-earth minerals are used in the actual bit that generates electric. Neodymium is one of the main rare earths needed (far rarer than lithium or cobalt btw) and is used in practically every single wind-farm in existence today. Solar cells also use rare-earth minerals so you can't get away from them there either. Same as batteries its POSSIBLE to build them without rare-earths, however it's just not sensible to do so. You end up causing even more harm because you need twice as many wind-farms to produce the same amount of energy, which requires much more of other materials which surprise surprise.... also harm the enviroment to produce (and would be far far more expensive to produce the same amount of electric).

Yep, and that is countered by the increased energy cost of producing hydrogen as well as the massive facilities they need to build to produce said hydrogen. Every mile in a hydrogen car has over double the energy cost of a EV due to the inefficiencies in the process over and above that of an EV. Then when you take into account the extra production facilities, transport e.t.c. for that hydrogen and the fact hydrogen cars are less efficient as well as the extra power production needed..... well it brings it back into balance with EVs. Assuming you are producing all that hydrogen from green sources.... where exactly are you getting the rare earth minerals needed to build the wind/tidal farms to produce the extra energy needed? Oh right... mining.... Again, you take all the bad stuff about EVs and ignore the downsides of Hydrogen completely. Is mining an issue. 100% it is. But it's not an unsolvable one and applies to both.

When did I say that? I specifically stated hydrogen cars had a place. Sure batteries drop off over time. Current batteries lose around 1% per year. Solid state batteries look like they will lose about a quarter of that so they will far outlast the rest of the car. And then they aren't that difficult to recycle and make new batteries from. Hydrogen losses are considerably greater or requires a much more highly sealed system which is considerably heavier, larger and requires more maintenance and everything has to be manufactured to much higher tolerances. Not sure why you are so bias against EVs but your bias has absolutely zero basis in reality.

Not sure where you got this idea from. Or most of the other things you've posted which are flat out wrong. 1> In order to get any sensible fuel density out of hydrogen it has to be stored under high pressure. Not only is the pressure itself dangerous if the tank is damaged at all, but this means it dumps out a high amount of hydrogen REALLY quickly and causes it to mix with the air. If there is a spark.... well you've just got yourself what is commonly known as a fuel-air bomb.... And it means hydrogen tanks LEAK. The combination of the small size of the hydrogen atom and the pressure means it practically impossible to not have leaks. 2> You talk about advancements in hydrogen cars and how that will cause them to overtake EVs.... and completely ignore that EVs are getting many advancements as well. There are multiple new battery techs that will give the same range with 1/2 the current batteries that are going to to production now as well as vastly decreasing recharge times. 3> You efficiency equations missed out a big step. The hydrogen production which is very inefficient even with the new technologies mentioned earlier. Not only are EVs themselves more efficient, it wastes a lot less energy transmitting the power to them over the grid than it does using the same energy to produce hydrogen, pressurise said hydrogen and then transport it to the fueling station for the car. 4> Low temps? Unless it's below -20' C, EVs generally lose a max of 10% of their range. Are hydrogen cars completely useless? No of course not, they have their place certainly. It's just not a place that makes EVs useless either.

Of course technically you've committed a crime by doing this 🙂

Sounds like that guy completely ignored the error code and tried to treat it as a misfire. I believe there is a different error code if its just misfiring. May have just been attempting a quick fix without researching it as I can't see how a camshaft position error could ever happen due to faulty spark plugs. The other suggestions seem sensible, I think replacing the sensor is a sensible first step as the other possibilities are expensive.

Sounds like it might of shorted and arc-welded itself then. Not the first time I've seen high voltage inverter do that. Guess the only way to know for sure is to seal it all up and let it run!

I wish you the best of luck, I think the main issue will be there are a lot of integrated components where the only option will be to replace the whole unit which isn't cheap. I'm assuming you got it at basically scrap price as with a failed invertor, if you paid more you where ripped off lol While an electronic engineer (I used to be as well 🙂 ), if you've not had experience with mid/high voltage systems, please be very careful once the system is energised. 800v can jump a surprisingly long way in the right conditions. I think the other issue you may have is that you really need to elevate it to work on it, so I hope you have access to a ramp/car elevator of some description. I can't imagine it'd be a fun job to try if you are just putting the car on jacks. You might want to see if any scrapheaps near you have any 450h, may be your best bet for replacement parts you don't need to trade a kidney for 😉

Not sure why you wouldn't try to get a 450h unless the 300 is a lot cheaper. Its nippier and gets better mph due to it been a hybrid. Only downside is you do have the hybrid system breaking to worry about as well but they are pretty reliable. Road tax is also several hundred a year cheaper. Insurance will probably be a little more however. If you get it from a dealer you've got 6 months peace of mind either way since if it breaks in 6 months, it's the dealer's issue.

Last 5-10 minutes are the least important bit lol, they cool down fine when the car is stopped/turned off. Its when you are driving its most dangerous since hot brakes 'fade' meaning if you need to slam the brakes on in an emergency, you may not get as much braking as you should. When you press the brakes, it should (on mine at least) use the regenerative braking until the power meter reaches the bottom of the charge bar. Thats already braking rather rapidly for normal driving.

Probably salesmen wanting more commision.

When you say "use the brakes" you are aware that pressing the brake pedal at first uses the regenerative braking right? You've got to brake hard enough to be absorbing over 50KW of energy for the mechanical brakes to kick in. The way to tell in mine is that the balance of the car noticeably shifts when the mechanical brakes kick in since the regenerative braking is entirely on the rear wheels. Can easily do 70 - 10 mph in MUCH less than 100 meters just using the regenerative brakes. I completely agree there are some slip-roads short enough you do need to brake harder, these aren't that common and are the reason I did say 'regularly' not 'ever' As far as a roundabout at the end of a dual-carriageway goes however.... nope never ever a reason to use the manual brakes barring abnormal circumstances since you literally have 300m warning minimum. Literally do it all the time from higher speeds without a single issue. Unless they reduced the amount of regenerative braking available to your version compared to mine. Mine is pre-facelift so that is also a possibility. Could be they reduced it in the later models to extend the battery life or something like that. 🤷‍♂️

Eh? Amount of retardation is roughly the same unless you are going very slowly when the mechanical brakes kick in automatically. I rarely if ever use the mechanical brakes in any of those situations unless something unusual happens like someone cuts in land in front of me e.t.c. Only time you'd need the mechanical brakes in those situations is if you hammer it down all full-speed till you are practically at the end of the road and then slam the brakes on which is bad driving practice and can be dangerous. The electric braking provides more than enough braking for almost every normal driving situation.

Just cos the brakes CAN handle it doesn't mean they should handle it. And yeah it's really slamming on the brakes hard to get them to kick in at all. In normal driving the brake pads should basically never be used. Kinda the point of regenerative braking since you want to recover as much power as possible and store it in the battery rather than wasting it as heat on the brake pads. The friction brakes are literally there for emergencies and when going very slowly (which should cause very little wear) On set of pads lasts most GS450hs about 100k+ miles. Mine is at 195k miles and on it's 2nd set of pads. If you are regularly braking hard enough to hit the pads in non-emergency situations then you are driving dangerously because at those levels of braking you are extremely vulnerable to something out of your control going wrong no matter how good a driver you are. Road conditions are a killer and oil/diesel or black ice can be completely invisible as can a failing road surface.

If you are actually using the pads at all on a hybrid then you seriously need to change your driving style lol. It should be using the regenerative braking unless you are REALLY slamming on the brakes or going less than 10mph.

Ha, had the exact same issue. Was only steering 1-2' right to correct but was starting to annoy me 🙂 I think my mistake was letting Halfords do a wheel alignment after getting my tyres changed... that garage didn't seem like the most competent in the world to me!.

Well then someone is lying to you if you believe that to be true. The lights only turn on at all when the computer generates an error code. No error code, no lights. So if the guy told you there are no codes, he's either incompetent or lying to you. The only other realistic possibilities are a complete computer communications failure which would result in no display on the dash at all or everything lit up on the dash + no speedo e.t.c. or a dash failure which should have a lot of other noticeable consequences. You know what I find counter-productive and personally insulting? People twisting what other people said. Colin never said you were lying, he said it was untrue that there were no faults. He even explained WHY. Get a code reader that reads all faults instead of just engine codes and you'll have your answer.