skyfish400h

While the size is acceptable (within 3% of the OEM diameter), the speed rating of H is not. It is unsafe to install a lower speed rated tire or a lower load rated tire than what is provided by the OEM. Its not about how fast you drive but how the tire performs at speed and temperature. The only time it is acceptable to go with a lower speed rating is on on snow tires (and it goes without saying that you dont drive them in the summer).

Nope. No DIAGNOSTICS buttons on the secret screen. And its MENU, VOLUME, upper left, lower left, upper left, lower left to get to the screen.

A 2" wider track and 19" wheels have got to improve the handling over the 400h. That could draw me in. The 400h weakest link is the handling. But I don't see a roof rack. I would have no where to mount my cargo box.

Thanks for posting this. And thanks to Autozone for making it available. I believe you can do this on the '06 version of the NAV without needing the special equipment list. The "secret access code" to the DIAGNOSTICS screen is posted on here somewhere. I think it was INFO, VOLUME, upper left, upper right, upper left, upper right... until the secret screen comes up with OVERRIDE on it so's you can disable the nagging "I agree" button and use the NAV at any speed. But once you are in this secret screen, you should be able to find the submenus mentioned in the TSB and answer the question "is our cars learning?"... he he he. (God, I"m glad he's gone...).

I don't mean to be picky, but the one of the articles you cited clearly says that lower octane ratings can lead to knocking which will cause the engine management system to take measures resulting in a loss of fuel economy. So there is a link between octane and fuel economy. You can quibble about the chemsitry but the mechanism is clearly there.

Retro fit with factory hardware is not a viable option. Better to sell this one and find one that has the options already installed. The ML stereo is far better than the Bose and worth the upgrade if you enjoy the details in your music. Aftermarket options always involve some compromise because they were not integrated into the vehicle systems from the beginning (Nav screen size is an important one). But it is possible to successfully patch in a number of systems such as entertainment package, satellite radio, iPod support and to a lesser extent a navigation package. An aftermarket radio would be the most difficult. A note on the Lexus Nav system: I like the factory system. I like the touch screen (I'm sorry to see that go in the redesign). When entering an address, the best tip I've picked up (from this board, I believe) is to skip the address and street page and enter the city name first. Then back up and enter the street name before you enter the address. This helps the system narrow down the possibilities and can over come missing data like N, S or Ave vs St (a list of the narrowed down possibilities is always available under the List button). Also, there is an option that can be set to show the upcoming cross street that is on your route. I think it may be part of the preview window that appears when you get near a turn. But in addition to that feature, you can always get the name of a street by touching it on the screen. It will also give you the closest address to where you touched. You can use this to determine which side of the street has the even address numbers and which has the odd numbers. Very powerful and intuitive.

This is not normal, but could be simply a depleted 12V battery. If you were working on it for several hours or drained the battery with a short, then you will see this kind of behavior due to low voltage. Try to jump start it.

I'm warming up to the idea. What they said was that since the crease along where the bumper attaches is so severe that it would result in a lot of bondo work to make smooth again. And there is the issue of the fit to the rear hatch where the gap is not uniform any longer, which indicates that the entire corner is pushed in slightly (1/8" or less). Now what my insurance carrier is willing to do is another story. I expect the other shoe to drop in next couple of days. At least I can still drive the car, so I don't have that bit to contend with.

Thanks for all the help and advise, guys. I took the car to a couple of places today, one of them a Toyota Collision center and they are recommending that the qtr panel be REPLACED (cut out the dented one and weld in a new piece of sheet metal). This seems like an extreme measure for the damage that is there. Should I be worrried about the structural integrity of the body after that kind of work has been done to it? :o A highly respected local body shop did not even mention REPLACEMENT. Both estimates were within 7% of each other and clocked in just under $3K.

Sorry to hear about your little lesson, but it's good to know that that the paint matching is not a big deal. I was going to folllow the recommendation for a Certified Toyota Collision dealership, but the closest one to me is a Penske outfit. Hmm. There is Longo dealership a bit farther away that has won the President's Award in addtion to be a collision a shop... perhaps I'll go there.

Well, I'm an idiot... I backed into a tree. Now I'm concerned about how the body shop is going to match my beautiful Bamboo Pearl paint job. Anyone have any tips on what to look for (or look out for) when it comes to auto body shops? Should I take it to a Lexus dealer? Any advice woudl be appreciated.

I would get a second opinion from another shop or another dealer. My Lexus dealer has measured the pads my RX 400h on 4 separate service visits over the last 40K. At 30K I still had 8.0mm remaining on both front and rear pads. Plotting out the wear trend projects that I will not need to replace my pads (2.5mm or less remaining) until after 75K. And I am not easy on this car. My gas milage has barely stayed above 20mpg because I'm an aggressive driver. And I'm not the most fastiuous on keeping the car clean. That said, I do drive mostly on LA streets, so if you drive alot in dusty or muddy situations, your wear may be worse. BTW, I just looked at my rotors and there are no grooves or warping that would indicate they need to be resurfaced. Judgding by the nearly undetectable lip on outter edge of the rotor, I estimate that no more than .003" of wear has been put on these rotors in the last 40K mi. Resufacing will often take off ~.010" form each face and typically Toyota rotors are only good for 1 or 2 such proceedures before they are out of spec (too thin to carry away the heat).

Thanks mindmachine, Clearly there are issues with the OEM battery. I've read many other posts here on the topic, but have not seen a clear discussion of the OEM battery vs Optima battery capability (with numbers rather than opinions). The Optima is rated at 38Ah (or 41Ah, depending on what site you visit). The OEM battery rating is no where to be found, but the CCA ratings are comparable. Since the Optima battery is spiral wrapped into cylinders, rather than using square plates, there is wasted space in between the cells. So, I'm not yet convinced that the Optima really has more Ah capacity than the OEM battery even with its AGM composition. I would be interested in hearing from Optima owners who have now had some time with the battery to evaluate it's performance in everyday use. Any more non-starting issues? Did it seem to add capability to the ACC position so that items like the radio can be used for longer periods? How did you measure that?

I can't believe you are serious. That's your advise... listen to my iPod? Am I being punked here or what? :chairshot:

If you leave the car in READY mode you won't have to worry about the starter battery because you are now drawing on the main battery. Which draws down surprisingly fast with only the radio on and no other accessories. I attribute that to the added overhead of the DRL and the HSD electronics. It would much more to my satisfaction if I could have the DRL, AC and HEATED SEATS turn off by default while in the ACC position when all I want to do is listen to music for a while. I shouldn't have to engage all the other electronics and then manually power down the AC and HEATED SEATS, just so I can sit for an hour and enjoy the view. Its ridiculous.

That may be true, and may ulitmately be the answer... but I'm not satisfied with the OEM performance and all that Lexus will provide is another OEM battery. As it stands, I'm not sure how bad things need to get before the battery would be replaced under warrentee. I'm sure if they tested it, it would pass since it still starts the car as long as I don't run it down doing "non-driving" things. So what's fair. Am I allowed to enjoy my Lexus stereo for an hour or only 15 min before I need to start engine? How many times do I have to call AAA to jump start the Lexus 400h before the battery is deemed too weak? Or, do we just chalk that up to "user error", akin to running out of gas? My point is that the undersized battery is a design flaw and the warrentee is not likely to fix that.

After looking all over the internet for replacement batteries, it seems they are not easy to find. The battery group is supposed to be 51R which is a 9.4Lx5.1Wx8.8H size with the Pos terminal on the R/H side (as viewed from the "front" of the battery, which is the side closest to the termials). I measured the width in the car and that battery is indeed only 5.1W. There are two aftermarked Gel Cell batteries that claim to be 51R in size but the dimensions they provide say the battery is 5.4 or 5.5W. These will not fit into the OEM battery holder. There does appear to be room enough for it if you were to buy a universal battery holder and swap it out. Has anyone installed either the Powermaster D5100R or the SVR 50-12 battery in the RX400h? Both of these claim 55-60Ah of capacity which is better than the Optima D51R at only 41Ah. What is the OEM battery rated at? Does anyone know? AutoZone and the like only list the CCA which is pretty meaningless for the 400h. I'm interested in Ah so I can play the radio and not get stranded.

My starter battery is slowly getting worse. I used to be able to listen to the radio for an hour without issue, but now after only 15 min it will start to cut out. If I'm lucky, and I catch it quickly, there is just enough juice to start the car so the hybrid battery can take over. If I'm not lucky, I'm stuck... and it's happened. I was going to get the B&D, plug it into the 12V outlet in the back and just leave it on all the time (boost mode). But the reviews are really bad on Amazon and I've had issues with B&D products in the past. What is wrong with just hooking an 18Ah SLA battery to the 12V outlet in the cargo area. It would provide substantial added capacity for when the 12V system is in use (ACC position) and it would get charged by the 12 outlet when the hybrid battery comes on line (READY position). Am I missing something?

Well that's a whole nother thing. I just had a long conversation with my service rep about all the "extra" service that I've paid for over the last 30K that is NOT called for in the maintenance schedule which came with the car. They claim to have been (in the past) operating under a "combined" plan that "supplements" the factory recommended service with their own take on what it should be. But that NOW they just follow what is in the manual. Or perhaps that is just what he told ME when I called them on the extra stuff... no way to know. Water under the bridge. But it's interesting to note that while they felt it was important to change my engine coolant once and the transmission fluid TWICE before my 30K service, they never once simply opened the glove box and looked at that disgusting filter. Where is the love?

If you have more than 10K on your RX and you have not looked at your cabin air filter yet... do it now. Mine is at 30K and so the manual says to replace it. I waved off the dealer since this is an easy thing for anyone to tackle. I picked up my $21 NAPA filter and pulled out the old one, right there at the parts store... There are no words to discribe it. Just trust me, if you haven't doen it yet, at least take it out and shake the leaves off of it, but if its black then you will need to replace it, vacuuming will not help. Here is how to access the filter: Open the glove box Locate the plastic stop pins near the back of the glove box Rotate them while pulling toward the center of the glove box (1/4 turn should be all that is needed, but they go all they way around, so no worries there) When the keyway aligns the pin will come out of the hole Do the same on the opposite side of the glove box Lower the glove box all the way until the lanyard in the back is holding it up (no need to empty it) Locate the filter tray near the top of the space under the dash now exposed Squeez both retainer clips toward the center of the tray facia and pull the tray out of the air box .... Don't look TOO close The filter element is just retained by some small tabs and comes right out of the tray (but you will have to touch it <shudder> ) To re-install just reverse the process, the filter element will only fit into the tray one way and there is no "UP" to worry about. I would recommend this element be changed (or at least looked at) for every oil change, but I'm going to make up a bunch from HEPA paper and foam weatherstripping that I can get from Lowes (that's what it looks like they did)

I went the Eibach springs route on my 89 Supra and it changed the ride quality considerably. While they are progressive, they progress "fast" and that is what you want if you are tossing the car into turns. But on anything other than groomed freeway the soft part of the spring was overwhelmed and you got the full experience. Even with the adustable stiffness suspension the ride qualty at freeway speeds was too much for me and I sold the car. It was no longer comfortable on long trips. The lesson I learned from that is if you want to improve handling, keep the stock height and go for thicker sway bars to flatten the handing in the corners. Had I done that, I might still be driving the Supra today. Eibach kits will lower your ground clearance and since the Supra was allready pretty low, the loss of clearance had me scraping over speed bumps and in/out of drive ways far too often. Since there are a lot of expensive electronics under the RX, it would not be wise to give any of that up. This could be why they didn't offer the Air Suspension on the 400h. Keeping my eyes peeled for the thicker sway bars.

You are going to want to go 1/2 wider and with at least a 1/4" lesser "postive offset which puts the tire farther out from the car so it won't rub (zero offset would probably be taking things too far).

You are correct that when it comes down to the torque value at each wheel, I had to take some liberties to smooth over the unknowns about how the power is distribututed front to back. However, the total force value needed to move the car from 0-60 in 7.3s is not thoretical. This is an observable fact in the world, and can be verified. The physics assume constant acceleration, which is a safe assumption, since the way you feel being pushed back in the seat, feels pretty much the same thru that speed range. Oh, and I'm not retired (yet). I just needed to bone up on these kinds of calcs for work, and I figured this was a good outlet.

Dyno predict By working backward from reported data we can use physics to predict what torque and horsepower to expect on the dyno (provided the 400h will perform on a dyno). conversions courtesy of convert.exe from http://joshmadison.com/software/convert/ Given== Given Quantities in metric [uS] units: mass (m) = 1980 kg [4365 lbs] 0-60 time (t) = 7.3 s speed (v) = 26.8 m/s [60 mph] tire radius (d) = .356 m [14 in] Reference values in metric [uS] units: ref system power = 200 kW [268 hp] ref ICE torque = 288 Nm [212 ft-lbs] ref Fwd torque = 333 Nm [246 ft-lbs] ref Rear torque = 130 Nm [96 ft-lbs] ref Total torque = 751 Nm [554 ft-lbs] Physics== Impulse (J) J = mv = Ft [eq 1] where F is the force exerted by the road to propel the 400h Torque (T) T = Fd [eq 2] where d is the distance between the road and the drive shaft of the wheel (tire radius) Power (P) P = Fv [eq 3] Torque Solution== Solving [1] for F and substituting into [2] leads to the following relation in terms of T T = mvd/t [eq 4] T = (1980 kg) (26.8 m/s) (.356 m) / (7.3 s) = 2588 Nm acting thru all 4 wheels The simple breakdown per wheel is 647 Nm [477 ft-lbs] ea, but due to the greater power to the front wheels the breakdown would more accurately be determined by the following... Using ref torque values to determine breakdown ratios (ignoring gear ratios) Ratio Fwd: Front Torque / Total Torque ==> (288 + 333) / 751 = .83 Ratio Rear: Rear Torque / Total Torque ==> 130 / 751 = .17 Apply ratios for front/rear torque distribution to each wheel 2588 (.83)/2 = 1074 Nm [792 ft-lbs] per Front wheel* 2588 (.17)/2 = 220 Nm [162 ft-lbs] per Rear wheel *This Fwd wheel value highlights the need for very strong rims on the 400h (that is a lot of torque). Power Solution== Solving [1] for F again and substituting into [3] leads to the following relation in terms of P P = mv^2/t [eq 5] P = (1980 kg) (26.8 m/s)^2 / (7.3 s) = 194,810 Nm/s or Watts moving the 400h mass Thus 195 kW [261 hp] compares well with the advertised 200 kW [268 hp] reference value. Apply ratios for front/rear to power distribution 195 (.83) = 162 kW [217 hp] at the Front axel 195 (.17) = 33 kW [44 hp] at the Rear axel Conclusions== Clearly the 400h is forward bias in the power delivered to the ground. It will be interesting to see if these numbers play out if/when someone actually gets the 400h to perform on a dyno. Fun with numbers== So what would the 400h be like if we could put one of the hefty fwd electric motors into the rear of the car? Using ref torque values to determine breakdown ratio Ratio Fwd Electric: Front Elec Torque / Total Fwd Torque ==> 333 / ( 288 + 333) = .54 Apply ratio for front elec torque distribution to each wheel 1074 (.54) = 580 Nm [428 ft-lbs] per Rear wheel Now, summing up the new torque from all 4 wheels 2(1074) + 2(580) = 3308 Nm acting thru all 4 wheels Solving [4] for t t = mvd/T [eq 6] t = (1980 kg) (26.8 m/s) (.356 m) / (3308 Nm) = 5.7 s from 0-60 mph mph) I will leave it to the reader to show that this translates to a 1/4 mi time of 13 s with a top speed of 141 mph (assuming the Lexus 112 mph speed limit feature is defeated).

Yes, it seems odd to me as well, but it's the only thing I can think of. I drove the car home Thursday night and it was fine. Our driveway is pretty steep and I had backed it in with the nose pointing down, so the only thing I can think of is that the angle of the car allowed water to run down into places it wouldn't normally go if the car was level. Just speculation on my part... There was another person on this site who had experienced this condition as the result of water intrusion. You can search for it under Rear Hatch or Weather Striping... In short, there is a "brain" component mounted in the rear cargo area such that even a small instrusion of water from the rear hatch will flood and short this component. Given your "hatch up" orientation of the car in your steep driveway, and the heavy rains, I can easily envision some kind of leak past the rear hatch weatherstriping that would then run down into this compartment where the "brain" component is situated. I purchased the rear cargo liner that has the raised lip so that wet cargo will not contribute to this problem, but now I will be careful not to park nose down on a steep grade when a hard rain is expected Nor, I guess, drive backward really fast in a driving rain :chairshot: