maseace

Common issue - when the battery is disconnected, you have to manually run each of the 3 other windows all the way down and up, then the driver door controls will work again. It's designed this way.

Here you go. 400hMirrorRemoval.pdf

Oops - I forgot they allow non-hybrids in this forum now. We need our own hybrid forum back!

Register your VIN on My Lexus and check which recalls are outstanding: https://secure.drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrivers/my-lexus/home.do Sudden loss of power and entering a fail-safe "limp home" mode is a symptom, which is why it was a safety recall. http://www.lexus.com/recall/#rxRecallSection TORRANCE, CA September 3, 2013 – Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. today announced that it will conduct two voluntary safety recalls. One involves approximately 133,000 MY 2006-2010 Highlander Hybrid and MY 2006-2008 Lexus RX 400h vehicles. The other involves approximately 102,000 MY 2006-2011 Lexus IS 350, IS 350C, and GS 350 vehicles. In the involved Toyota Highlander Hybrid and Lexus RX 400h vehicles, transistors within the hybrid system's inverter assembly can experience heat damage due to variations in characteristics of the transistors' parallel circuits. Should this occur, various warning lights on the instrument panel will illuminate, and in most cases the vehicle will enter "limp home mode." In limited instances, the hybrid system will shut down and resulting in the vehicle stopping while the vehicle is being driven. Owners of vehicles subject to these recalls will receive a notification by first class mail. Detailed information is available to customers at www.lexus.com/recall and by calling the Toyota Customer Experience Center at 1-800-331-4331.

If you have power seat memory (the 1 & 2 position buttons on the door), then you have memory mirrors. The mirror is not difficult to remove after you remove the door panel. I removed both of mine to install LED turn signal mirror covers. I painted my own mirror covers on a previous car, and it came out pretty good, but not perfect. Make sure to get the OEM color and a separate clear coat in spray cans.

Just curious - did you already have the inverter IPM recall performed before this incident?

Tips for better MPG in the RX400h: - Keep your tire pressure at 38-40 PSI. - Get low rolling resistance tires (LRR) if you don't have them. The OEM Michelin S8 tires are LRR (Green-X). These will add about 3 MPG to non-LRR tires. - Turn off the A/C if possible (summer AND winter, in AUTO mode the AC is on by default at any set temp). Go to the climate screen and disable AC, and you can still keep it in AUTO without running the A/C compressor. - Use the heat sparingly in winter. Having a high set temp will make the engine run longer, especially until the engine is warmed up (157° F and up). The heated seats can compensate for a lower cabin temp. - Keep it under 42 mph to allow longer gliding on battery only. Feather the gas to keep it around 40 mph. Works great when the speed limit is 35 or 40. I can sometimes get up to 1-2 miles on battery only. - A highway speed of 50-60 mph will get you MUCH better MPG than 60-80 mph. My experience in summer: 55 mph - 32 mpg, 75 mph - 26 mpg. - Don't accelerate hard, coast as much as possible, and brake lightly to use regenerative braking instead of the friction brakes. - Buy a ScanGauge computer so you can see the engine RPM and engine temp, so you can practice keeping it in battery only stealth mode at 0 rpm. - Make sure to perform the ISC reset any time the 12V battery is disconnected for service or gets low on charge. The effectiveness of this is debatable but it can't hurt.

Smog inspections are required unless your vehicle is: Hybrid Gasoline powered 1975 year model or older Diesel powered 1997 year model and older or with a Gross Vehicle Weight rating (GVWR) of more than 14,000 lbs Electric Natural gas powered with a GVWR rating of more than 14,000 lbs. Motorcycle Trailer

It's called a Homelink Repeater, and I recently got one for just a $7 shipping price from Homelink for my '07 400h. It doesn't work very well, however, and I end up using the supplied remote instead of the Homelink buttons most of the time.

In my experience, it's probably the spare tire rubbing under the vehicle because it's loose (crank the screw that lowers it tightly into the up position), or it could be the tonneau cover locking latches are in the wrong position. They are the little levers at the back of the tonneau cover slots- snap them in the forward position (away from the rear door) or they will creak when driving. Let us know if this fixes it!

My 400h never had guide lines on the backup camera screen, only a safety message on the bottom.

It has two electric water pumps (heater water pump and inverter coolant pump), AND the standard engine water pump run by the timing belt.

You should really only use it on steep downhill drives where you want to reduce your dependency on the brakes to avoid overheating them (it's probably not as likely with regenerative braking though). It's designed to be used as engine braking. It can actually decrease your gas mileage if you forget it's on and use the gas pedal, since you're fighting the braking with the throttle. If I were you I would use it sparingly. Not sure if it uses the transmission or just locks in the regenerative braking to slow the car down, or both.

I found this info in the service manual: - A compact, lightweight, and highly efficient electrical water pump is used in order to ensure the proper heater performance while the engine is stopped. - A compact, lightweight, and highly efficient straight flow (full-path flow) aluminum heater core is used. I could not find anything about electric heat, so I think it is all traditional heating except for the electric water pump that keeps the heat flowing through the heater core when the engine stops. This will not help until the coolant is warmed up, so there's still no immediate heat when first powering up.

I don't have any hard info, but it's supposed to be both heat from the engine coolant and heat from electric heating elements. The electric heating is not enough to provide all the heat so they kept the traditional heater core.

Tips for better MPG in the RX400h: - Keep your tire pressure at 38-40 PSI. - Get low rolling resistance tires (LRR) if you don't have them. The OEM Michelin S8 tires are LRR (Green-X). These will add about 3 MPG to non-LRR tires. - Turn off the A/C if possible (summer AND winter, in AUTO mode the AC is on by default at any set temp). Go to the climate screen and disable AC, and you can still keep it in AUTO without running the A/C compressor. - Use the heat sparingly in winter. Having a high set temp will make the engine run longer, especially until the engine is warmed up (157° F and up). The heated seats can compensate for a lower cabin temp. - Keep it under 42 mph to allow longer gliding on battery only. Feather the gas to keep it around 40 mph. Works great when the speed limit is 35 or 40. I can sometimes get up to 1-2 miles on battery only. - A highway speed of 50-60 mph will get you MUCH better MPG than 60-80 mph. My experience in summer: 55 mph - 32 mpg, 75 mph - 26 mpg. - Don't accelerate hard, coast as much as possible, and brake lightly to use regenerative braking instead of the friction brakes. - Buy a ScanGauge computer so you can see the engine RPM and engine temp, so you can practice keeping it in battery only stealth mode at 0 rpm. - Make sure to perform the ISC reset any time the 12V battery is disconnected for service or gets low on charge. The effectiveness of this is debatable but it can't hurt.

Keep in mind the hybrid system (inverter) has a separate coolant loop from the gas engine. The one in the center behind the radiator is for the engine, and the one on the driver side under the plastic cover is for the inverter. So there are 2 systems to drain and refill. The gas engine uses 10.9 qts, and the inverter uses 3.6 qts. You should use the specified Toyota Super Long Life Coolant (SLLC) that is pre-diluted to 50/50.

Make sure they did the ISC reset (idle speed control). Many places forget to do this after disconnecting the battery.

Or just spray some water up the vent port before going to the dealer! Maybe even fill it up and add a goldfish for effect.

This happens when the battery is disconnected or discharged (the light on the affected door window switches should be out as well). The auto power windows need to be initialized by running each one all the way down and up from each individual switch, then the driver switches will work again. Same for the moonroof. Not sure what you mean by hibernate?

It could be as simple as the parking brake light switch is loose, faulty, or needs to be adjusted. It's right behind the foot pedal.

If you don't use it, just pull it off completely. Or maybe check for a broken hinge and glue it back together.

With the Lexus diagnostic tool ($28 for a generic one on eBay), you can disable the rain sensor electronically, among many other things. eBay link

For a cheap and easy option, you can use a cassette tape audio adapter with a 3.5mm plug for your phone. It's not the prettiest, but it works. At least the tape player can be good for something!

The way it worked on my RX400h, before I disabled it, was the setting knob only adjusted the sensitivity of the rain sensor - there was no full manual intermittent mode at any switch position. All four switch positions were auto rain-sensing. It didn't work well with misty rain at any position.