Facebook marketplace Lexus RX400h SE-L, what could go wrong?
Discussion
nav2014 said:
You woke me from my lurky slumber! As you may have noticed I don't really do forums, but really want to know if these things are as comfy and refined as people say?
I've been looking for one for the last few weeks, just after a comfy butt-cossetting barge to tool around in with my wife and two little dogs, maybe to southern Europe so needs to be reliable.
Apparently the Citreon C5 "exclusive" of 2008ish vintage is also amazingly comfortable, but I was in a C5 taxi recently and it drove like an old French car...
Yes, certainly a very comfortable place to be, a smidge of engine noise but I'm sensitive to that after driving an electric car for two an a bit year. Make sure you get a decent set of boots on it as that will make a lot of difference to motorway comfort. I can't speak to reliability as I've only had it just under a month but I am not receiving any warning signs so far.I've been looking for one for the last few weeks, just after a comfy butt-cossetting barge to tool around in with my wife and two little dogs, maybe to southern Europe so needs to be reliable.
Apparently the Citreon C5 "exclusive" of 2008ish vintage is also amazingly comfortable, but I was in a C5 taxi recently and it drove like an old French car...
So the rear dvd system, the car came with the unit and headphones but the DVD player wasn’t installed in the car. “Just four screws” the previous owner said “it’ll bolt back in easy”.
How hard could four screws be? Well the short answer is bloody hard! The access is poor, the space worse and the screws seem to be too short, although the unit itself states to use 6mm screws only. A few hours later and I had only succeeded in the two right hand side screws.
I thought about unbolting the houseing from the chair:
But I did not have a deep enough socket to reach it. And even with ratchet spanners the pace was glacial so I gave up.
Necessity is the mother of all inventions right?
Sticklebricks are hold the other side up for now until I figure out how to properly install it.
With the unit “installed” I proceeded to test the headphones, they are wireless units that use infrared. As you can guess this is not ideal as you need line of sight. Even with fresh batteries you need to be pretty close to the IR emitters to get a clean audio signal.
Unfortunately I don’t have the DVD remote to mess around with the IR frequencies. A replacement would likely be £70-100 and so I am considering connecting the audio out from the DVD player to a Bluetooth bridge and getting new headsets instead.
How hard could four screws be? Well the short answer is bloody hard! The access is poor, the space worse and the screws seem to be too short, although the unit itself states to use 6mm screws only. A few hours later and I had only succeeded in the two right hand side screws.
I thought about unbolting the houseing from the chair:
But I did not have a deep enough socket to reach it. And even with ratchet spanners the pace was glacial so I gave up.
Necessity is the mother of all inventions right?
Sticklebricks are hold the other side up for now until I figure out how to properly install it.
With the unit “installed” I proceeded to test the headphones, they are wireless units that use infrared. As you can guess this is not ideal as you need line of sight. Even with fresh batteries you need to be pretty close to the IR emitters to get a clean audio signal.
Unfortunately I don’t have the DVD remote to mess around with the IR frequencies. A replacement would likely be £70-100 and so I am considering connecting the audio out from the DVD player to a Bluetooth bridge and getting new headsets instead.
Edited by LincolnLovin on Monday 28th January 13:18
Service kit arrived today:
I’m leaving the oil and filter for another day. But the others didn’t take too long to sort, this was taken after I had removed the front trim. I decided that it was better to remove the filter housing cover properly rather than bend the neck and force it open:
The air box has a secondary mesh filter in it which is handy:
The existing filter had been changed in the last year or so but might as well refresh it anyway:
The pollen filter was another story:
Grim!
I also took the time to replace some missing clips for the engine bay trim. All back together and I took it for a quick spin when I was hit with a warning light that make be worried for a second until I read the message:
Seriously Lexus, a red warning sign for that?
I’m leaving the oil and filter for another day. But the others didn’t take too long to sort, this was taken after I had removed the front trim. I decided that it was better to remove the filter housing cover properly rather than bend the neck and force it open:
The air box has a secondary mesh filter in it which is handy:
The existing filter had been changed in the last year or so but might as well refresh it anyway:
The pollen filter was another story:
Grim!
I also took the time to replace some missing clips for the engine bay trim. All back together and I took it for a quick spin when I was hit with a warning light that make be worried for a second until I read the message:
Seriously Lexus, a red warning sign for that?
Edited by LincolnLovin on Monday 28th January 18:51
They are all CVTs I think.
I do like this car, we’ve just returned from a 226 mile round trip to get a subwoofer and the car ate up the miles with aplomb. I think the shifter cable is beginning to fray as the car does not register drive initially in some situations (whacking it into B mode does not exhibit the same problem).
The car itself parks/drives/reverses with no issue at all so I am not overly concerned that the gearbox is about to explode, looking online it seems to be a fairly common issue.
I’ve also found a work around for the headset issue that will test tomorrow.
I do like this car, we’ve just returned from a 226 mile round trip to get a subwoofer and the car ate up the miles with aplomb. I think the shifter cable is beginning to fray as the car does not register drive initially in some situations (whacking it into B mode does not exhibit the same problem).
The car itself parks/drives/reverses with no issue at all so I am not overly concerned that the gearbox is about to explode, looking online it seems to be a fairly common issue.
I’ve also found a work around for the headset issue that will test tomorrow.
Technology has moved on from 2007, especially in the wireless space. The Lexus came with IR headsets for the rear DVD player, which must have felt like the future a decade previously but from my experience of IR controllers on my various games consoles it was going to be rubbish.
Low and behold the line of sight flaw of IR raised its head as soon as I tested the DVD player. You had to have your head at a particular angle to hear anything. That angle was also taller than the intended recipient of the sound (my daughter).
So I put my thinking cap on, the obvious candidate was a bluetooth amp but as Bluetooth is a 1:1 pairing model it wouldn’t be suitable for when my son is older. A few hours searching and happened upon a usb powered dual Bluetooth transmitter. This was perfect as t could be powered off the cigarette port and would allow two headsets to be connected simultaneously!
It even came with a phone to mini jack adaptor to hook directly into the DVD player. It’s a tiny wee thing as well, so easy to hide away:
There are some foibles connecting to it, it appears to forget headsets after switching off so you need to pair each time. Other than that it’s perfect!
Low and behold the line of sight flaw of IR raised its head as soon as I tested the DVD player. You had to have your head at a particular angle to hear anything. That angle was also taller than the intended recipient of the sound (my daughter).
So I put my thinking cap on, the obvious candidate was a bluetooth amp but as Bluetooth is a 1:1 pairing model it wouldn’t be suitable for when my son is older. A few hours searching and happened upon a usb powered dual Bluetooth transmitter. This was perfect as t could be powered off the cigarette port and would allow two headsets to be connected simultaneously!
It even came with a phone to mini jack adaptor to hook directly into the DVD player. It’s a tiny wee thing as well, so easy to hide away:
There are some foibles connecting to it, it appears to forget headsets after switching off so you need to pair each time. Other than that it’s perfect!
Edited by LincolnLovin on Sunday 10th March 12:13
A long distance drive to the Zoo on Saturday was a great opportunity to test the Bluetooth adaptor and I’m happy to report that it worked amazingly. It was the quietest trip featuring my five year old ever.
Blissful silence! This set up bodes well for some family road trips in the summer. I just need to find a way to attach the DVD to the mounting points.
We’ve done just over 1000 miles in the car now and it still feels solid, the acceleration is very punchy although dull sounding thanks to that CVT gearbox.
I took my brave pills and connected a WiFi ODB II dongle to see if there was anything amiss but all is looking fine so far.
The car is booked in to get the bumper repaired at the end of April, £200 all in which isn’t too bad.
Blissful silence! This set up bodes well for some family road trips in the summer. I just need to find a way to attach the DVD to the mounting points.
We’ve done just over 1000 miles in the car now and it still feels solid, the acceleration is very punchy although dull sounding thanks to that CVT gearbox.
I took my brave pills and connected a WiFi ODB II dongle to see if there was anything amiss but all is looking fine so far.
The car is booked in to get the bumper repaired at the end of April, £200 all in which isn’t too bad.
There are many reasons to own a Lexus, build quality, reliability to name but two. However Lexus PR should really consider adding self-healing to the list.
As I was washing the car I took a look at the front bumper and noticed a distinct lack of dent!
I can only assume the sun has popped it back out, however I wasn’t aware it had been that warm over the last few days?
As I was washing the car I took a look at the front bumper and noticed a distinct lack of dent!
I can only assume the sun has popped it back out, however I wasn’t aware it had been that warm over the last few days?
Not much exciting to report over the last few months, however as we’re doing a weekend away in Devon in the next month or so I’ve booked the car in for an oil change and to check the brakes as it seems to be a lot of brake dust on the O/S wheel compared to the rest.
I had not driven the car for a few weeks, there’s a common issue with this era of RX400h that the battery will drain and when I tried to start the car it was well and truly dead.
Luckily I had wanted to replace the battery anyway as it was clearly the wrong size:
The copper rings to make it fit the battery terminals is something I have not seen before.
A quick trip to Eurocaparts and a new Bosch silver battery was acquired for just £80. Here’s it in comparison to the old battery:
Quite the difference!
The new battery fitted perfectly, the space allocated to the battery is small and requires that any replacement battery does not have a wide base:
Finally, I tracked down the missing bit of engine tray trim which finishes up the engine bay nicely:
Now it needs a good clean!
I had not driven the car for a few weeks, there’s a common issue with this era of RX400h that the battery will drain and when I tried to start the car it was well and truly dead.
Luckily I had wanted to replace the battery anyway as it was clearly the wrong size:
The copper rings to make it fit the battery terminals is something I have not seen before.
A quick trip to Eurocaparts and a new Bosch silver battery was acquired for just £80. Here’s it in comparison to the old battery:
Quite the difference!
The new battery fitted perfectly, the space allocated to the battery is small and requires that any replacement battery does not have a wide base:
Finally, I tracked down the missing bit of engine tray trim which finishes up the engine bay nicely:
Now it needs a good clean!
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