Ray-X

On 13.04.2016 at 3:27 AM, 1990LS400 said:

The U.K. company my German friend found that provides metric instrument faces for U.S. specification cars is www.lockwoodinternational.co.uk

I looked at the owners manual for the 2008 ES350 and I do not see a way to switch the display between Fahrenheit an Celsius.

You could probably learn quickly to mentally convert Fahrenheit to Celsius instead of changing your car's instruments.  I have been switching between metric and U.S. standard measurements all my life and doing so has become automatic.  I "think" in metric measurements when I am in Canada and Europe and in U.S. standard measurements when I am home. 

 

Thank you very much for the assistance. Unfortunately Lockwood does not have dial face for my model. But your hint about OBD2 bluetooth adaptor is really useful.

2 hours ago, 1990LS400 said:

The only vehicles made by Toyota that I've seen where both  miles can be changed to kilometers and Fahrenheit to Celsius are those with completely digital instrument displays like in  the Prius.  I once changed miles to kilometers in my wife's Prius as a joke to see how long it took her to notice.  Have you looked in the owners manual to see if there is a way to change Fahrenheit to Celsius?  I cannot change miles to kilometers in my Sienna but it is easy to change Fahrenheit to Celsius through a setup procedure in the multi-function display. 

A friend in Germany found a company in the U.K. that makes instrument cluster overlays for North American vehicles imported to Europe  but I don't have their name handy.  What country are you in?

I am in Belarus, Eastern Europe. Actually, you are right, miles to km is not that important as the temperature scale. But unfortunately there is no such option neither in the manual, nor on the digital panel. There are people here making conversion by firmware changing. For this purpose they solder out the RAM chip, then reprogram it, then solder again. It seems to be uncivilized method. That is why I am interested to find any other solution. It would be interesting to look at that UK company and what are they offering.

On 10.04.2016 at 5:30 PM, 1990LS400 said:

The seat belt alarm on your 2008 ES350 can be turned off by using an appropriate tool through the diagnostic port under the dashboard. 

Some people swear by the Carista phone app which requires a Bluetooth OBD adapter.  Here is a list of what Carista can do on your car:  http://www.caristaapp.com/customizations/?car=lexus_es350_2008

Very interesting, worth to try it. By the way it would be nice if any similar device to convert miles to km and F to C exists. Do you know any of this kind?

So is there any button combination, which allows to switch off this alarm or not? Actually other Lexus/Toyota models do have it, and most likely only our ES 350 does not have.

Really pity that it is necessary to go to a dealer every time after the battery is disconnected. I purchased a used car with the alarm switched off, and after some repairs with disconnecting the battery it appeared.