Les Lex 2018

Sounds like you picked a 4 Year old commuter car that was parked in a parking lot every day. Traded Fair condition vs. Excellent... I would expect that the paint is covered under WYSIWYG... With the new generation 16s, you have a lot more functionality than the previous gen. My advice would be to test as much of that new functionality as you can during warranty to make sure it all works correctly, vs. what the paint looks like. Those plastic inserts snap in really tight so can’t imagine what is going on there, and the seals coming loose almost sounds like it’s been handled in a body shop vs. factory. I assume that you got and have a copy of the car fax or equivalent and have some idea of the accident and maintenance history of this vehicle. That’s a freebee from the dealer so I presume you did or can get one. Eyeball that report carefully for your own understanding of the vehicle. Read your warranty carefully. My opinions are simply past experience and should only be treated as such.

I tested the 18 RX when I got it to see how much time it took to charge the battery after 2 days in the garage and a short trip, and came to the conclusion that the charging system is a bit on the stingy side. Like it ain’t fully charged when I get it back in the hanger. But that’s with short trips, so to be fair: I would not go more three days without driving it or put in at least 5 miles city or 10 miles highway each time you drive. The airport thing sounds silly, but I’ve actually heard more laughable explanations that turned out to be true, like I can’t have 2 different security system near each other because it causes one of them to crash, and when I take their advise, the problem went away, hahaha... Minders are a real pain and I have one but geeez... Gas is cheap, so get out there and enjoy your transport and go with the flow.

The call list is filled automatically with the calls I send and receive. So, can’t recall every having to key in a phone number, since it can be found in the list.

Interesting because my 18 RX with no hitch will lock up the brakes at about 12 inches from a post or grocery cart. You can’t be towing a trailer that close to the rear bumper. So you must have some hardware that is sitting up high enough for the radar to catch the reflection. Check setting to see if you can disable that feature. RX Manual should help with that.

The 19 Fed Econ Guide claims you have a 288 Volt Ni Metal Hydride battery. So you have a bunch of low volt cells daisy chained to build up 288 volts. If one opens in the chain, you have no voltage. Same as your standard 12 volt car battery. I am very surprised to see that Lexus went to a Lithium Ion battery instead in the 2020. That is a big step forward. Toyota started putting it in the Camry. I had the 15 Camry Hybrid with the NMHi and it was awesome=40mpg in city traffic. Had to sell to get out of the sedan market into an Suv. Hated to do that. Looking at the 2021 in 450h...

I want to trade up to the F sport but the build fails if I try to avoid the panorama roof. Does anyone from south TX to So Cal know how much heat gets radiated down on the passengers in the blazing sun, due to the black glass that covers the roof?

This got my attention because I’d am interested in a 2021 400H Sport. Let us know what they find. The Lexus computers should be able to figure all that out. Your concern about an engine stall on the road would be very rare, and it is considered a dangerous condition if not fixed, and soon enters assessment under the lemon law and makes it a candidate as a crusher. So nothing to be worried about there. Lemon law is on your side. Your system computer should never go off into the wild blue yonder like that, except for maybe a virus, program error, or a memory chip failure, but again, the Lexus guys are pretty smart, or at least they have the right equipment to track down just about anything. Regards, Lex Les

I presume that you got this new and not a used car. So you know it’s not been in a wreck or had glass replaced previously.

I went from a Camry XLE w/sunroom to the RX 350 w/sunroof, and I can’t tell the difference. Both seem a bit too noisy for being high-end models. Your sound system should have automatic volume increase set for speed increments some place in your settings menu.

That is a bummer to find out that your Lexus was driven for a couple of years in the rust belt and you weren’t told. All cars are now treated to go many years in the salt and rust belt states, but sure, it does look a bit ugly. If you avoid the salt Latitudes, you should have no further problems, as long as you stay in the waiting room when it’s on the rack for service.

You do realize that your 12 volt cig lighter is not connected to power when the the vehicle is turned off so it is impossible for anything plugged into it to draw power. There are other devices connected to the same fuse that draw power 24/7. But none off them are designed to kill a battery in 4 days. My 18 RX is a juice sucker but it’s never left me stranded so far. I had a Camry Hybrid that you really had to drive a lot too or it would suck down the battery pretty low. Toyota had the same line that Lexus used on you. Drive it more.

I did challenge the option, thinking I had it disable somehow, and they proved to themselves that it was working fine, but here is my conclusion: The seats do have a fan and they say it was working, but I understand that the seat covering is porous but NOT openly vented. Therefore, the seat is cooled indirectly by cooling the material, but does not really push air thru the seat. After two summers using this feature, I can’t say that I’ve ever noticed that the seat was warm. when getting out. Most cars are now coming out with the heated/cooled option. You might check out the cooling method Toyota and Honda are using... Bet it’s the same!

I still would caution you that a lease can be abused for all sort of reasons that don’t show up at the lease surrender, like the reasons given and driving at higher speeds over speed bumps. Maybe the lessor checks alignment and charged if its out, but I don’t know. Same for excessive brake wear. Typically you have 5 Lexus dealer within a 200 mile area/radius, as we do in Huntsville, being Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville, and Memphis. Hope someone has the RX you like. The 17s should start showing up more and more but your better bet is the 16s if you are particular.

I’ve been fortunate to not have any of those expenses, due to trading every 3 years, But you could just ask Toy and Lex what they charge for a certain repair. As to why I stay way from used leases. One bad experience on a lease Toyota that had front end problems that model never should have had. I feel like: If you don’t own it and you know you will turn it in in 3 years, some would be more likely to buy cheap grocery store gas, drive it harder, and leave it out on the street in all the element - Sun, Ice, heavy due/condensation, etc. The big prize when buying used, is finding the original owner to have garage kept it and used a top rated hi-detergent fuel. In other words, they loved their RX as much as I do. Nice having a discussion with you on my favorite subject, John.

There are many way to look at replacement cost for parts. I usually settle on the “Cost vs. Value” philosophy. I had an 18 Rav4 and have an 18 RX350. Both with basically the same package including Blind Spot mirror and radar cruise. Rav4 was 28K and the RX was 51K, called their Bread and Butter package. Therefore, if it costs me twice as much to replace a part on the RX vs. the Rav4, then, I would have no problem paying twice the price to repair the RX. If you have to replace a windshield in any of the new cars, cheap or expensive, that have the not-so-optional window cameras, you may want to check the deductible on your insurance first. When I tried to do what you want to do, there just wasn’t anything out there that met all my milage, no lease, color, condition, options and owner history. What ever you do, make sure you get radar cruise and set it to lock in at the max of one-football field to avoid them flying rocks from the trucks in front of you. Just kidding about the rocks, John.

It (what ever they use to create tension) isn’t visible from the outside. Probably accessible when they pop off the rear left inside panel. Door is attached to an arm that is connected to something not visible from the outside.

Checked my 16 RX. The door has some form of spring action holding it open. If it will not stay open, the spring (regardless of what it is) is sprung or broken.

Under Settings Display (gear wheel icon). Under Meter Setting - Select Units. Change the units of measure. This is covered in my 18 RX manual. Page 102 of Instrument cluster.

Said to be fuel system pressure relief system. Not a problem.

Anyone know why my 18 RX is whistling at me every 25 seconds? I hear it near the rear, but not when I am in the vehicle. No notifications on the monitor when I get in. All doors, hood and roof were closed when it make the sound...

Break Hold has become one of those features on the 18 RX-350 that I got hooked on because of a lot of town driving. Locks one second after you come to a stop if you keep the foot on the brake. Release with a light touch of the gas pedal. But the switch is located on the console recessed under the dash a bit. Sure would be nice to have that on the steering wheel because it turns off the option everytime the engine is truned off. Have to be wearing the seatbelt before activating or it will not work. I tested the feature on a very steep hill and the break pressure is enough to hold the RX from moving forward. Not tested for holding while facing upward on a very steep hill. Lots of warning in the book. Feature not to be confused with the emergency break - two different mechanisms. They realize that in extreme slope condition, the BH will NOT hold and you would have to use the break pedal or emergency brake.

Great, Bob! Sounds like you are on you way to figuring that one out. What you see on the scope, as you know, is measured as “Ripple” by the electronic designers and they have to be able to filter that out per the specs they are required to meet.

Your battery charger produce either true 14.7 volt DC but most likely it is pulsating DC which is not considered to be an AC component. Your battery loves DC and PDC for charging purposes. The car eletronics is designed to take pulsating DC and filter it out with a filter capacitor (called and RC network) so that the electronics sees only pure DC Direct current. I have an old charger that is nothing more than a transformer voltage reducer and a bridge rectifier which produces unfiltered pulsating DC current. It will not harm your electronic system. Lexus, I’m sure, takes great pride in being able to pass only DC coming from any make of charger, so long as it is not devective. But you do want to make sure your charger has an overvoltage (crowbar) that will trip off the charger on an overvoltage conditon resulting from a malfunction in the charger. Waiting to hear how the VSC trouble could be connected to charging the battery. But you are right to get a new one just to be safe, no doubt at all.

I am concerned about the electronics that is running 24/7 in this and newer cars so I did a test on the 18 after I got it. It will take an hour charge after 3 days in the hanger. Thee years ago, I had an insurance device put on a Camry with a new battery. This to get lower rates for not using the vehicle that much. It killed the battery after a week. Reason being that some of the cell phone equipped devices use just enough power to drain the battery in a week. So knowing that Lexus has the same concept for managing lost or stolen vehicle tracking, I needed to know what that does to vehicle battery discharge. Based on my tests, I would not leave the vehicle for more than 4 days in the hangar if I do not drive very far for local trips. All lead-acid batterys will discharge over time due to internal resistance features, but when it takes an hour to charge it back up after 3 or 4 days, you know you have a system that requires a lot more battery capacity than the older cars. I got a battery minder for the camry / with the tracker, and did not like it. So I make sure I drive the RX more often. It’s fun to drive, and - Technology has it’s pros and cons...

I found it interesting that when I open the door and hit the lock button on the door, the side mirroes will not retract, but they do if I use the keyless FOB instead after leaving the vehicle.