williz

Hello Williz

Nice and very nifty modification for the reverse camera lens cleaner. I could appreciate more this type of modification if the road conditions would warrant it more. For what its worth, I wash my car aften enough that during most part of the year the lens is never really dirty. None the less, the thought and execution you put into this modification is OUTSTANDING. Bravo!

As for the reverse lights, I was not aware of the difference between the European and North American version of the rear tail light.

To this day, I wish there was a modification one could perform with respect to the metric and imperial system in displaying various data. I drive alot between the US and Canada, and would appreciate things like temperature, mileage, fuel economy displayed in either the metric system or the imperial system.

Cheers,

MadloR

so have your cars the funny lamp cover right above the lamp/bulb in the reversing lights?

i do not know of any modification of the RX systems to allow you to switch between metric and imperial systems.

what i am using is the scan gauge II system (www.scangauge.com). it connects to the ODB II bus of your car and is able to display a lot of things like car speed (can be switched between miles and km/h) engine RPM, engine temp, gas consumption and much, much more.

it can be definitely set to display miles per gallon or liters per kilometer or miles per hour or kilometers per hour, engine temp in Fahrenheit or Celsius. so may be it is what you are looking for.

right now we are testing xenon lights for the high beams with US conversion kits. looks promising!

willi

Care to elaborate?

Tom

I am glad to!

We had many complains in the German speaking LOC Europe about dirty reversing video camera lenses and why a car in the price range of the RX400h is not having a system preventing this problem.

Of coarse if you live in an area like California or Arizona you may not have even noticed that driving the car on snowy roads will result in a layer of snow covering the camera lens and showing you a milky LCD screen when putting in the reverse gear.

After some brainstorming like discussion we came up with the idea to use a washing system for the camera lens like it is used for the head lights.

So I used a 2 way magnetic valve to switch the water, normally going to the rear screen nozzle, to the new nozzle installed approximately 100mm right side of the camera lens.

The magnetic valve is connected to the reversing lights. This means as soon as the reversing lights are on (you put in the reverse gear) and you switch on the water pump for the rear screen cleaning, you wash (clean) the camera lens.

So far it works very well but the real test will come during wintertime when we have a lot of de-icing/antifreeze chemicals on the roads.

Are you satisfied with the reversing lights of the RX400 when you go reverse in real full darkness?

Here in Europe many of as are switching on the fog lights or gently pushing the brake to increase the light behind the car when going reverse.

Dose the US version of the RX have this lamp cover installed in the reversing lights like the European RX version have?

If so, by taking out this lamp cover you can increase the brightness of the reversing lights dramatically!

Best regard

Willi

Ps.: sorry for my bad English, I hope you get what I am trying to explain

would you like to clean the lens of your reversing video camera of your RX 400h and stay inside your car when the weather is really bad?

then watch this

Reversing camera cleaning system

The other day for the 3rd time I hoped in my 400h and went to start it and nothing, the first time this happend was at the dealer. As I was purchasing slightly used I thought little about it they jumped it and away I went. The second time was in my driveway and really can't understand why about that one unless one of my kids left door slightly ajar which could of happend. Now this third time we had my son at swiming lessons for 45 minutes parked in spot directly next to pool with shaded bench in front of car, I must admit I left keys in car but WERE in off position, nothing was on, 45 minutes later jump in won't start againg.

So seems too me I have battery problem, I just finished my 15K service but suspect that means they just check water level in battery. So will Lexus do any for me? Is this normal? I have heard the Hrbrd battry's last short time but this seems like more of a problem than than. Input would be welcome.

Mark

you are not the only one having this kind of problems!

here in europe many RX400 users are complaining about the same "battery dead" situation. when we started to look into that we all assumed that the small 12V battery is the source of the problem.

situation is that it takes only about 45 to 60 minutes with the interior light on and you can not start the car again. this happens easily also when you leave the back door open after offloading your car in the garage.

after installing a scangage II (www.scangage.com) in my RX and observing the 12V voltage i found that the charging voltage is never higher than 13,9V. tho fully charge a 12V lead battery you need 14.5V. this means that my car (and so far i can only speak from my car only) is never fully loading his 12V battery. actually it is not charged for more than 50% of its full capacity.

i will do the 45.000km service next week and will confront the lexus service personell with this finding. looking forward to see what they will tell me.

i am very interested to see if only my car is loading with only 13,9V. have anyone measured his 12V power when the car is in "Ready" state?

regards

williz

I just looked at the scangage web page. That device uses the OBII socket.

It is possible the battery voltage AT THE BATTERY may be higher than the connector shows, depends on what the current load is at the OBII side. If you have a digital voltmeter please veriify by taking an actual reading from the battery.

13.8 is a float voltage used on many standby batteries. Since the main battery does not start the car, could be one reason they run it lower.

My battery is usually 13.8 to 13.9 volts.

i check t the voltages with a digital voltmeter today on two cars (RX400h's model 2006).

charging voltage is definetly 13,8 to 13,9V.

battery voltage without charging and internal lights on is between 11,4 and 12,4 volts. if i am right this would mean a nearly empty battery?!

you are not the only one having this kind of problems!

here in europe many RX400 users are complaining about the same "battery dead" situation. when we started to look into that we all assumed that the small 12V battery is the source of the problem.

situation is that it takes only about 45 to 60 minutes with the interior light on and you can not start the car again. this happens easily also when you leave the back door open after offloading your car in the garage.

after installing a scangage II (www.scangage.com) in my RX and observing the 12V voltage i found that the charging voltage is never higher than 13,9V. tho fully charge a 12V lead battery you need 14.5V. this means that my car (and so far i can only speak from my car only) is never fully loading his 12V battery. actually it is not charged for more than 50% of its full capacity.

i will do the 45.000km service next week and will confront the lexus service personell with this finding. looking forward to see what they will tell me.

i am very interested to see if only my car is loading with only 13,9V. have anyone measured his 12V power when the car is in "Ready" state?

regards

williz

I believe the charge system has another unique feature. Presuming you CAN get enough volts to "power up" the system, the car's hybrid batteries will supply current to recharge the car. Thus, if you merely leave the system in ready mode, power will be resupplying the 'boot-up' battery.

Edit: BTW, we've never left the rear lid open (purposely or accidentally) for any length of time where the dome light drain would be an issue, but I thought it would "time-out" after so many minutes, then turn off. Our Prius does, as do many other cars. Just like the headlights Not the case w/ Lexus dome light? Guess I'll read up on that, too.

.

yes, as soon as the car is in the "ready" mode the 12V battery gets charged but my point is that it gets charged with 13,9V and with this voltage a 12V battery never gets fully charged. to fully charge a lead acid 12V battery it needs 14,5V.

i like to find out if only my car is charging the 12V battery with 13,9V and this is the reason why i had so often to jump start it.

the doom lights turn off after about 30 minutes if you leave the back door open. the funny thing is that this sometimes is enough to bring the battery below 12V and you need to jump start your car. some day i came back to my car and the alarm system was on for some time (horn was sounding). guess what? i had to call assistance to jump start the car, battery was to low.

The other day for the 3rd time I hoped in my 400h and went to start it and nothing, the first time this happend was at the dealer. As I was purchasing slightly used I thought little about it they jumped it and away I went. The second time was in my driveway and really can't understand why about that one unless one of my kids left door slightly ajar which could of happend. Now this third time we had my son at swiming lessons for 45 minutes parked in spot directly next to pool with shaded bench in front of car, I must admit I left keys in car but WERE in off position, nothing was on, 45 minutes later jump in won't start againg.

So seems too me I have battery problem, I just finished my 15K service but suspect that means they just check water level in battery. So will Lexus do any for me? Is this normal? I have heard the Hrbrd battry's last short time but this seems like more of a problem than than. Input would be welcome.

Mark

you are not the only one having this kind of problems!

here in europe many RX400 users are complaining about the same "battery dead" situation. when we started to look into that we all assumed that the small 12V battery is the source of the problem.

situation is that it takes only about 45 to 60 minutes with the interior light on and you can not start the car again. this happens easily also when you leave the back door open after offloading your car in the garage.

after installing a scangage II (www.scangage.com) in my RX and observing the 12V voltage i found that the charging voltage is never higher than 13,9V. tho fully charge a 12V lead battery you need 14.5V. this means that my car (and so far i can only speak from my car only) is never fully loading his 12V battery. actually it is not charged for more than 50% of its full capacity.

i will do the 45.000km service next week and will confront the lexus service personell with this finding. looking forward to see what they will tell me.

i am very interested to see if only my car is loading with only 13,9V. have anyone measured his 12V power when the car is in "Ready" state?

regards

williz

I have just bought a 2007 RX440H which I am really enjoying. Has anybody found a good way of keeping their dogs in the way back? The seat backs are pretty high, but I could really use netting or a grill.

Much thanks

i did it this way:

Anyone know how to remove the panels on the RX400 rear tailgate? In the Do It Yourself portion of the manual, it doesn't specify a particular procedure, other than disconnecting the small light located in the top panel. Do I just pull? When I peel back a corner and look inside with a drop light, I can see the push connectors that are holding it on and the plastic brackets that are inserted into them which have slots in them to accept the push connectors.

Thanks

it is very simple, it is only pushed in!

i did a documentation for a change to increase the reversing lights. the first picture shows how to push. make sure that the plastic cover is warm and not to cold when removing it. plastic splinters easily if to cold.

have a look here

Removing bulb cover from reversing light

I haven't seen any numbers for 2007 diesel vehicles using the new ULSD (15 ppm sulfur or less) - have you?

I have no figures but European diesel engines are designed for 10 ppm sulphur diesel. All modern European and most Japanese diesel engine cars need the new ULSD diesel fuel to operate without modifications.

This was the reason why European car manufacturers had big problems to sell there diesels on the US market and hope now to be successful in the US.

But again, low sulphur diesel is the prerequisite for modern diesel engines and diesel catalysts and the necessary measurement and motor management. Even with all this new techniques diesel engines are polluting the environment much more than modern gasoline engines. For example the EURO 5 specification (mandatory from 2008 on for all new cars in Europe) specifies 180 mg/km NOx for diesel engines and 60 mg/km NOx for gasoline engines. Most diesel engines meeting the EURO 4 standard are emitting 25 mg/km soot particles, to meet EURO 5 in 2008 this has to be reduced to 5 mg/km soot particles (the current standard for gasoline engines is 0 emission of soot particles).

And every litre of diesel fuel is producing approximately 19% more CO2 than a litre of gasoline!

So I personally hope that Toyota stays with the current hybrid drive train concept and will optimizing battery’s and software.

RIGHT NOW, diesel aren't very clean. In the US, that's changing because ultra-low sulfer content was mandated, and super-strict diesel emission standards were put in place. The first phase of the new ones came out in 05 and 06, and anything 07 or newer is really pretty clean. Anything made before 2004 is probably not doing the environment any favors.

Yes, modern diesel engines are doing much better compared to old diesel engines but as soon as you compare modern diesel engines with modern gasoline engines you will see that even the best diesel engines equipped with all technology we have right now will have to go a long way to meet the environmental standards gasoline engines easily fulfil today.

When you look into the standards and compare numbers you will see what I mean, the environmental standards for diesel engines are much lower than the ones for the gasoline engines.

To meet the modern environmental standards diesel engines will have to fulfil in the next years the diesel engines have to be equipped with a lot of technology driving the price (purchase and maintenenace) for diesel engines upwards.

By the way, Toyota is selling very good diesel engines in Europe, technology wise head on with the best European diesel engines.

But let’s wait and see how diesel hybrids will do in day to day use. What I mean for example is the starting of a diesel engine is far more problematic than the starting of a gasoline engine where you can reduce compression during the starting procedure to smooth in the ICE.

In many parts of the country, that is the case (diesel costs more than regular unleaded). Even though, it costs more (it actually requires less, in terms of costs to refine diesel fuel vs unleaded gasoline) it is much more efficient. You can expect two comparable vehicles, one diesel engined the other gasoline, the diesel engine would be 20-35% more efficient (better fuel economy). Let's face it, the RX 400H was never "geared" to be a boy racer. When one thinks diesel, truck comes to mind, as well as better fuel economy, and torque. The diesel engine has come so far in the past 15 years, that many are now FASTER in terms of raw speed, super quiet (no more clatter clatter clatter at idle or under load), and run greener than there gasoline counter part (catalytic converter design has really helped keeping the pollution levels down).

If I had a choice between the two, it would be a no brainer. And besides, even if diesel costs were 20 cents more, I don't believe that should be an issue given the fact that the RX 400H costs an arm and a leg to start with.

Cheers,

MadloR

sorry, but i have to disagree with your arguments about diesel engines completely!

i live in a country with more than 50% of diesel powered passenger cars and we have very big problems with air pollution because of the high numbers of diesel powered cars. diesel powered cars are normally emitting 20% more CO2 than gasoline powered ones and much more NOx and extrem amounts of fine dust. of course we have now very modern diesel engines coming to the market which reduced NOx output like mercedes blue tec technology but still diesel engines will not meet the high environmental standards for gasoline engines in the near future.

the success of diesel powered passenger cars in europe are mainly driven by the fact that most european country’s are taxing gasoline much higher than diesel fuel and therefore it was much cheaper to drive diesel powered cars. more and more this is changing because diesel powered cars are polluting the environment dramatically and some city’s in europe are even considering a ban on diesel powered passenger cars ( and of coarse old gasoline engines without catalysts).

diesel engines in passenger cars are all turbo charged and everybody is comparing turbo charged diesel engines with "normal" gasoline engines and than yes the diesel engine looks very efficient in terms of horse power and fuel consumption.

as soon as you compare diesel turbo charged engines with gasoline turbocharged engines a 1,4 litre gasoline engine is producing about the same power output than a 2,5 to 2,7 litre diesel turbocharged engine and is much more environmental friendly than the diesel one.

the european car manufacturers would give there lives to have a hybrid drive train ready for the market like toyota is already selling for years now, but they have counted far to long on diesel engines. with the new european union environmental rules reducing the CO2 and the fine dust output drastically you will see a change in marketing of european car manufacturers towards turbo charged gasoline engines and hybrid drive trains like Volkswagen already announced in the last weeks.

In December, I bought an '07 RX400h with Nav (firmware version 6.1). At the time of my purchase, I was told of the operating limitations imposed on Nav / Phone system use, but my salesman explained that the Voice Command System would by-pass the touch screen restrictions and allow me to operate the system. He also told me that a software hack to get around the touch screen restrictions was available on the internet, but that he wasn't allowed to tell me any more about it.

Now, a month later, I've given up on the Voice Command System. It has yet to correctly recognize a Voice Command from me or any member of my family. For a car that costs this much, that and the lack of a "learning mode" is unexcusable. My Motorola cell phone has Voice Recognition and a learning mode, and it works fine.

I've also unsuccessfully searched for a non-destructive or non-mechanical way of by-passing the Nav / Phone operation restrictions Lexus has programmed into the system. And, I see that I am not alone in this wish.

All this leads me to ask, where is the outrage towards Toyota / Lexus that they sell customers a product that so severely limits the buyer's use of the product?

Can you imagine Boeing installing a touch screen navigation system in one of their airplanes that pilots could only use when they're parked on the ground?

Where is the outrage towards Toyota / Lexus that these restrictions have forced some into feeling they have no recourse but to cut wires under their dash? These cars cost almost $50k. Why should anyone have to do that to their car?

Doesn't Toyota / Lexus realize that their poorly crafted Voice Command System presents a greater driving distraction and potential liability? A driver trying to use the Voice Command System, without success, is going to be far more distracted and upset than someone who successfully uses the touch screen.

After the Voice Command system in-correctly interpreted my command of "Detour" and displayed all nearby POI / Italian Restaurants, I spent the next 5 minutes (while driving) struggling to delete those unwanted POIs.

I have already complained, loudly, to my dealership about this. I have no intention of stopping until Toyota / Lexus issues a FREE firmware update or fix that permits un-restricted use of the Nav / Phone system.

I also think buyers are entitled to a Voice Recognition system that actually works.

If enough of us raise a big enough stink with Toyota / Lexus about this, we might be able to get the product we want and paid for.

yes i fully agree with you. the drivetrain of this car is great but the rest of the electronics is from my point of few "outdated" and offers the functionality of the early 90'th (my first handsfree system in 92 had about the same functionality).

my experiance is that speaking to lexus about this is simply waist of time. we tried hard but no success at all.

see what we did http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind...showtopic=33666

Hi Willi,

Do you know why that 400h has twin exhausts? Is it a German version?

Regards

Billy

they like the sound and the look!

they use FOX duplex and DELTA duplex. the one on the pic's is the FOX

regards

willi

Thanks Willi

But I thought one of the attractions of a hybrid was the quietness!!!

Regards

Billy

yes billy, i agree fully. if i would find an exhaust system for my RX400 fully reducing the noise oft the engine i would install it!!

but some people cant' live withaut a sporty noise and i understand that. i had a brabus mercedes and i admit that i liked the sound very much.

but my RX400 should be as quite as possible!!!!

Hi Willi,

Do you know why that 400h has twin exhausts? Is it a German version?

Regards

Billy

they like the sound and the look!

they use FOX duplex and DELTA duplex. the one on the pic's is the FOX

regards

willi

Has anyone tried to have their RX400h lowered a wee bit? It stands so tall it seems as if it could be lowered a couple of inches and bring it down to what it seems to my eye to be a better height. I don't know much about cars so if anyone can help in answering why it might not be possible or if it would affect the ride too adversely...or just something I am not getting. It just looks too tall.

below you will find a link to a 40mm lowered RX400 from a german RX400 forum member. double click the pics to enlarge.

he used springs and parts to do this from a german company. if you would like to get more infos on this i think i can get you a link to this companys web site.

http://homepage.mac.com/kheldour/PhotoAlbum5.html

regards

willi

i would like to purchase pedals like the one you can see below. who is selling this things?

can you help?

best regards

williz

if you are interested to download this SoundLinQ SLI iPod Interface installation documentation please follow this link!

http://euro.lexusownersclub.com/forums/ind...showtopic=12482

to get your phonebook to othere handy

option one: transfere handy phonebook to SIM card phonebook, take SIM card to othere handy and transfere SIM card phonebook to handy phonebook.

option two: connect your handy via bluetooth or serial cable to your PC and backup your phonebook (using a program like BVRP mobile phone tools or others), connect handy nummber two and restore phonebook from PC.

i hate to say it, but most motorola and nokia handys are not supporting "sending entire phonebook" via bluetooth. if you look for that you are better off with sonyericsson or siemens. to find out what handys are supporting this feature have a look at the attached "pairing procedure for bluetooth handsets" from Lexus Europe. but be carefull if you are using a handy from your GSM provider it may not have the same functionality as the one from the original manufacturer.

when i try to upload the file "pairing procedures" (a pdf file with 91k) i was getting this message in retourn.

"The requested file upload failed because suitable permissions have not been enabled on the 'uploads' directory. Please contact the board administrator and inform them of this error."

can anyone help?

I spoke to the manager at "All German Auto" a couple of years ago and he told me that they have been servicing many a German vehicle with severe oil sludge damage. He went on to explain that the 15,000 mile oil change intervals are literally destroying engines at a rapid clip. The problem is that the type of driving has a tremendous amount to do with how long oil should be kept in an engine. Apparently, may owners of expensive German makes do NOT drive long distances frequently, resulting in excessive moisture in the oil - moisture that contributes to sludge.

My Corvette's oil life monitor's readout is based upon many driving factors - length of trip, oil temperature, etc. After one year and 5000 miles, my monitor displays approx. 20% oil life remaining. However, GM recommends an oil change at least every year and that is what I do. If you don't have an oil life monitor and you want to exceed Lexus' recommended oil change intervals, have your oil tested at 7000 miles and if okay, again after 9000 or more. By doing this, you are determining just how long YOU can take your oil without changing it.

yes, lexus europe says oilchange after 15.000 km or after one year, whatever comes first.

what is new to me is, that a car of that price range is not equiped with an automatic maintainance sytem calculating the service intervals out of the car usage like short distance drives, cold starts and so on.

in the last 20 years i hade no car (audi, mercedes) without such a system. i was expecting that modern high tech cars would have such a system, but on the othere hand lexus is also equiping cars with bluetooth hands free systems without voice dial. so maybe i am expecting to much!

I'd have to see it in writing to believe it. Do you have a photo or link to the European version of the Factory Scheduled Maintenance Guide? When I traveled to Australia, Brzail and Mexico I checked Toyota owners manuals and found they required slightly more frequent oil changes than USA Toyotas.

this is out of lexus UK´s web site regarding RX400 maintenance:

1. Looking after your Lexus

We trust that you will enjoy your Lexus driving experience for years to come. To ensure this, regular maintenance is required to guarantee the security and reliability of your Lexus vehicle.

Lexus have developed a maintenace scheme containing all the necessary maintenance work to keep your vehicle in the best condition.

This scheme consists of:

1. Intermediate Lexus Care at 10,000 miles or one year, whichever comes first.

2. Full Lexus care at 20.000 miles or every two years, whichever comes first.

and "intermidiate care" is mainly oil change.

williz

no, the 9500 miles are correct. lexus in europe is requesting the oil change every 15.000 km (and thats around 9.500 miles). and by the way my last mercedes had the oil change every 30.000 km!

so again, why is there such a big difference for oil change between the US and europe? is the oil quality in the US not as good?

williz

hi friend!

i am curious about the difference in milage to the first oil change between US and Europe. i always see that in the US the first oilchange has to be done around 5000 miles. here in europe we should do the first oil change around 9500 miles, at least this is what the lexus dealers tell us.

does anyone know what is the reason for this difference?

williz (from austria)

is there any idea where i can get (Fender Trim) for the RX400h? (company shown is selling it only for RX300 (not for RX330 and 400)

regards

williz

As suggested in another thread, I took pictures from the 'HELP' and then copied them into a word document and here's what you get...

From Voice Recognition Help

 

The voice commands are the non-bold words given.  The bold sections delimited with <> are from the help screens.  Now if we could only get Lexus to make us a card with the above we'd be in fat city! Print this out and carry 

←

many thanks!!!

are there no comands for other areas like air condition?

williz

does somebody have a complete lists of all voice commands for the RX400h?

i have one for the RX300 but the RX400 should have more commands

thanks in advance

regards

williz