Les Lex 2018

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.

I tried a tank of mid-test but noticed no difference. To most people, it’s more important to use a better hi-detergent gas (maybe 10 cents a gallon more) like Shell or Exxon than to waste money on a higher grade of gas. I keep all my receipts to show the next buyer when I trade, that the vehicle is not going to have injector or performance problems from using cheap grocery store gas, that does not claim to meet the highest standards in gasoline additives. In my Camry H I did experience ruff idle after using cheap gas for a few years, so stay away from it now.

Artificial intelligence - looks for rain drops via the windsheild camera. It knows what the temperature outside is, it may disable the feature based on outside temp by itself. I’d think the progammer would be smart enough to make sure they do not work automatically somewhere below freezing. But, it is a fact that well below freezing, the defrosters are keeping the glass warm enough to melt snow that hits it. So gussing that he relies on what he sees hitting the glass to operate the wipers. Someone in the dealership garage would know.

Yes, I have! Turns out that (for my RX) when I placed my foot on the brake, I did not depress it hard enough. After trying to figure out why, I realized much later that if the RX is left in the garage for daze, the brake had to be depressed much harder to enable the start button. Problem avoided... Mine is not to reason why.

Totally agree with your assessment. I drove an 18 Rav 4 that acted exactly the same way as the 18 RX. My own solution to the nasty braking habit is this: Whenever I resume the use / change the cruise speed, I first rest my foot on the accelerator. If the vehicle attempts to brake, a very quick application of the accelerator cause the brakeing to cease. The system goes back to normal predictive cruise. That said: I don’t recommend experimenting with any kind of corrective actions until you, the owner, fully understands the actions and re-actions of your cruise systems. You are the captain of your ship. Know your equipments behavior, actions, and reactions...

When you park your warm car in a cold place or garage, warm air rises and the vent process is reversed. Warm air rises thru the intake vent and is replaced by cold air from the rear exhaust vents. Guess where a cold rodent is going to go to get warm and set up their home? They follow the warm, not the cold. Ask your pest control guy what size hole would prevent a mouse from entry. Quarter inch may be too big. When winter conditions becoming perfect, glue a sticky trap near the windsheild vent and see what you catch. If you don’t have the money to accommodate Lexus dealers, it can be rough going with few other options. My one time experience with them was that they were friendly and spent a lot of time explaining to me why I did not have a problem with seat ventalation even though I still think I do, ha ha.

There is only one air intake and most all vehicles have it in the same place because below the windsheild is the 2nd highest pressure point for collecting positive pressure. Front grill being the first. The exhaust vents you speak of are at the rear next to the back hatch where the highest negative pressure (vacuum) point is. And the wheel wells are the perfect place to put them. Those vent holes are too small on the inside for mice to get in on my 18. Seems likely that they like to nest in the filter inside of the air intake because that is where they come in. Restricting these air intakes would likely degrade your climate control system, as defeating the designers intent never turns out great. IF his design could go with smaller holes, most likely he would have. Mods would be last resort - As it starts getting cold, inspect your filter often - real often... I have had to cut thru dry wall to extract a dead sickening mouse and I know what you went thru.

The air intake is immediately below the windshield and under the windsheild wipers which set right over the intakes which run all the way across the vehicle. No covers involved. Designers decided to hide the intake bank behind but not really under the hood. You don’t see them until you open the hood. Older designs have this bank next to the hood lid and exposed.

If you open the hood, you should see a row of air intake vents (5 0n the 2018) plus drain hole for the water coming off the windshield. I can only tell you that Ive had mice come into the house thru square holes the size of the ones in these vents. So have no doubt that there is a chance that’s where they are coming in. To patch the vents with a smaller mesh screen would not be an easy job cutting and pasting all the odd size vent intakes. Seems like it would be easier to glue down some sticky traps next to the intakes just to see what you catch. The little critters love peanut butter on their menu.

A well engineered electronics system will put a Hi wattage diode in series with the battery so that if you reverse the battery, the diode will appear as an open circuit, essentially. But w/o an electronic diagram, there is no way of knowing. I’d get it on the computer and see if that poor thing is still alive. Possible that some devices are protected up stream from the battery, like the computer, but others are not diode protected.

I have an 18 RX 350 also and have no problem with vibration. You may have some parts loose instead of a design issue.

Have it checked for peace of mind. Hay, congrats on the Hybrid. I had a 13 I-4 Camry Hybrid that got 43 mpg for three years in the suburbs. When I moved into downtown it dropped to 38. But when I replaced it with an RX 350 non-Hybrid (for some more cargo space, my MPG dropped to 18 MPG. Clearly less than half. I would not have driven the kind of miles you do to make the pay off for going H. At that kind of mile, I have to ask you: Do you use the more expensive hi-detergent gas like Exon or the cheaper grocery store gas that does not guarantee their additive contents? Your experience would be much appreciated... Thanks!

Great news that Lexus did that for you. If you look at all the work a car battery has to do on the newer vehicle, I worry about how long the OEM bat is going to last. I have never had to replace a car battery within 5 years due to low mileage under 15K miles but I wonder if that’s the case with all the added electronic. Time will tell... KE4M. 73s

Seems like you would be at the end of most any proration warrantee anyway. Can’t find any mention of Battery warrantee in my manual. Probably because the environment that a battery experiences is not under the MFGs control. Our techs that work in Texas in the Summer and leave their cars running between stops routinely destroy their batteries in one year. And Walmart shells out the proration every time. KE4M

The OM claims you can place your phone there with a path for the cord to go inside the console, hidden away to where you have a charging port. I don’t use it for that because I already have a strap-on juice bar that charges the phone should it be near dead when I pick it up. A juice bar will charge any phone continuously whereas the Lexus will only charge when the the ACC or Ignition is on. On second thought, I could put the juice bar (shaped like an IPhone) in that slot to charge it while driving instead. Normally, I bring it in the house to recharge it. With two ports in the console, I can listen to USB music and still charge a phone or juice bar if I want. Now I have to look up Apple Play to find our what I’m missing since I’ve heard of it but never tried it.

Thanks! The 350 would not even look the same with running boards. Not saying they would look bad, just change the “Lines” of this crossover. Don’t intend to do that either.

Which prompts a couple of questions... Thru Telematics running 24/7 sucking juice from my battery, Lexus knows (or has access to) where the car’s at, how fast or slow its going, how many left hand turns, what kind of braking, what time of day for commutes, etc. etc. etc., they are in a position to score my driving habits like no other insurance carrier w/o it. I don’t drink, or drink and drive, and have no accidents on my record, but for those that do, how would that factor into the rates? I’m wrapping up 6 weeks of testing the RX 350 so I have been leaving Lane Assist feature ON to see just how good it is. The car will drive itself quite a long ways using drive by camera, but in doing so, it issues a lot of warning. But Lexus owns that data, based on the hairy privacy agreement signed just to get my hands on the SUV. Can they look at my lane assist testing and judge it to be drunk driving? Iv’e used Telematics before to get an insurance rating and know how complex it actually is. Humor: I Woke up one morning, got on the computer, and asked the Telematic site where my XLE hybrid was at. It said the car was just south of Lick Skillet Alabama. Freaked me out. What’s in the hell is my car doing near Lick Skillet Al. Turns out the Toyota dealer neglected to inform me that the warrantee work they were doing overnight was being done 75 miles away in some bargain basement work/sweat shop. I warned him that they better drive it very carefully because I have access to all their driving habits. I was able to track the cars movement on its way back to the dealership and was able to get there when it arrived. So, I’ll bet the data collection algorithms for this stuff are one carefully guarded industry secret. I don’t see the more specifics jumping out at me on the browser. If this makes some people paranoid, and therefore drive safer, well, no paint off the side of my RX. If you guys ever watch all them crazy dash cam accidents on the TUBE, and I know you do, you know that half the accident involve totally innocent driver in the wrong place at exactly the wrong time. I’d almost expect Lexus connect to come over the speaker and say: That’s OK Les, if you are still alive, we have already analyzed all your data and we can see it was definitely not your fault, ha, ha.

That was wild! You knew the the Toyota Vibe is AKA for a Pontiac Matrix, AKA Pontiac Vibe, etc. Ah, Fremont, California = Toyota’s attempt to teach GM how to build good cars. It didn’t work! Pontiac is just a memory like Saturn and Olds. I really do hate TPMS. Every year on two cars, got to pull out the spare to add air, because the air valve is face down on the spare, and needs air to keep from tripping the warning. Great Idea - Super PITA! What ever happened to “Set it and forget it”?

Great information, Jim. I have upgraded to better wheels a bunch of times being a wheel geek. But Iv’e always saught out and purchases Toyota take-offs that already had the right Sender units. So I do see the trouble one can get into with aftermarket stuff. Online eBay has been a fantastic source for backup and take-off wheels that still have the TPMS devices still installed and they always worked well. I am not without fault either - I purchased my first set of wheels that were not designed for the Toyota Vibe but had a slap-on yoke conversion kit to make it fit. When I discovered this, I knew I was in trouble. NEVER EVER able to balance any of the tires/wheels on the car. STUPID them - STUPID Me.

Go the Lexus of Huntsville, search their 2018 used Toyota inventory of RAV4. There is only one white RAV4 XLE there. It’s mine. I had it for 2 months and put 750 miles on it. Toyota refused to help me with the fact that none of the warning buzzers were loud enough for me to hear. When they got rude, I told THEM to buzz off and I sold the Rav. No more Toyota Toyotas for me.