Fenton House

Hi everyone//

     I need to install some sort of a backing/avoidance system on my 08 RX400h.  Long story.  The kits are relatively inexpensive ($20.).  Pulling the cable does not seem to be a big deal.  The question I have is where do you mount the LED display?  There's not a lot of landscape available on the dash.  

Thanks, 

Bob

Hi - I've been using K&N filters on my 08 RX 400h for a long time.  They make a reusable and cleanable engine air filter and cabin air filter.  They're a bit pricey, but you only pay once.  I was using HEPA filters purchased from Home Depot cut to the proper dimensions for the cabin air filter.  Worked fairly well.  

Hello, folks//

     We have an 08 RX 400h with the towing package.  Have towed a 12 foot UHaul from Seattle to Phoenix and back through the mountains of Utah.  Them RX performed flawlessly.  Trailer had surge brakes.  Now I want to install a seven pin plug so I can rent a camping trailer.  Purchased a Tekonsha P3 and an install kit from ETrailer.com.  The car has a four pin connector so most of the wiring installation is fairly straightforward.  However, I have to pull three ten-gauge wires from the engine compartment into the passenger area.  Have a few questions:

     1.  Has anyone done this?  There's not a whole lot of room on the firewall, so where did the wires come in?  Where were the circuit breakers installed?

     2.  Also, where was the controller installed?  Some of the installation videos show it installed just above the emergency brake pedal.  This is a poor location because it's difficult to see the display.  I'd prefer to install it just below the shift lever.  That way it would be readily visible and easy to reach the manual brake lever.  Just don't want to drill holes in the trim.

Any help will be appreciated.  

Bob Holliday

Bainbridge Island, WA

Yepp, only need a 10mm socket wrench and a flat head screwdriver.

Put the console in the "all the way back" position, and put both front seats all the way forward.

You'll notice a maybe 4" x 12" panel on the bottom of each side of the console. Pry it off using the flathead screwdriver as it's just held on with clips. After this is removed, you'll be able to see 3 10mm bolts on each side- remove them.

Now the console should be free to remove. Hppefully this should give you room to clean. If not, there are more steps to get the console fully out; Lift it a few inches and you'll notice on the pass side, there'll be a metal cable coming from the floor to the console. Find the end of the cable where there'll be a little ball. Remove the cable/ball from its holding place (this cable controls the movement of the console from the handle). Also you'll notice a wire and plug coming from the floor to the console. Unplug it (this gives power to the blue and amber lights inside the console).

Now the console should be totally free.

To re-install, do everything in reverse order. Remember to re-plug the wire and re-place the cable with the ball on the end.

Good luck! <_<

Thanks for the assist -- now I can go treasure hunting....

Hi folks//

Have an 08 RX 400h. The rear console, between the front seats, is keeping me from properly cleaning the front area and is probably a black hole for all kinds of detritus. Does anyone know how to remove this thing and reinstall it??

regards,

Fenton

Thanks for your advice. I think that will really help.

Hi//

Just wanted to add some thoughts. We have an 08 400h -- has about 25, 000 miles on it. We live in the Seattle, WA area and are happily wintering over (read Snowbirding) in the Phoenix area. While we were in Seattle the mileage varied between 25 - 27. Winter and summer - mixed driving. Did much better on hills. Changed to Mobil One 5-20 oil at 15,000 miles. Pulled a fairly heavy trailer to Phoenix through Idaho and Utah. Some significant hills. The car had no issues with the load. It's a very strong machine. We also had a Thule roof rack carrier on top. The worst mileage on the trip did not go below 22. So, now we're down in Phoenix (since Thanksgiving) and the mileage has changed considerably.

For some reason the car loves the area. I use the high octane COSTCO gas. When we're on the local highways we have to drive at 65 or risk being run over. Most of the traffic lights are not sync-ed. So, you end up getting up to speed and then braking and stopping. Not a very efficient way of driving. However, the car is averaging 30+ per gallon. Don't know why - maybe it's the oil, maybe it's the warmer weather. Whatever. I'm not complaining. Should mention that I avoid rapid acceleration.

Should also mention that the car has Michelin MXV4-S8 tires. I insisted on them after reading this forum. I kept them at 36 psi, but checked recently and found that the dealer (I think) had raised that to 38 psi. Maybe that has something to do with the mileage. Anyone have any input on tire pressure?

regards,

Fenton House

Hi Folks//

Getting ready to take a snowbird trip from Seattle to Phoenix. Have a Draw Tite trailer hitch for the bicycle rack (works fine) and now need to install the wiring harness so I can tow a trailer.

There are several post about the harness installation, but none of them actually includes an installation guide.

Can anyone point me towards an illustrated installation procedure/guide.

thanks,

Fenton House

First, does your car have a "towing prep" package? If so, just buy the harness from a Lexus dealer (around $80) and see this post about how to install it. You can skip the part about bolting the hitch to the frame.

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...mp;#entry254728

If it doesn't have the towing package then the post above has the part number of the converter that is needed to make the trailer lights work on 12 V. I haven't installed a converter but the disassembly directions should lead to the attachment point and the converter should come with instructions on where in the harness to plug it in.

GDixon//

Thanks -- it looks like everything I'll need. Yes, the car does have the towing prep package - I get it on every car, primarily for the larger AT cooler. Ordered the harness from Park Place Lexus - about $50 delivered.

regards,

Fenton House

Hi Folks//

Getting ready to take a snowbird trip from Seattle to Phoenix. Have a Draw Tite trailer hitch for the bicycle rack (works fine) and now need to install the wiring harness so I can tow a trailer.

There are several post about the harness installation, but none of them actually includes an installation guide.

Can anyone point me towards an illustrated installation procedure/guide.

thanks,

Fenton House

Hello 400h friends,

My husband finished installing a new hitch this weekend on my 2008 400h. My car has the towing prep package and everything was a snap. The wiring harness fit the pigtail tightly and the instructions were easy to follow. The problem is the trailer lights won't work - no blinkers, brakes - nothing. Everything seems fine otherwise and we can find no reason the lights won't work. We even connected the trailer to my husband's truck to ensure that the lights on the trailer are not the problem. The trailer lights worked fine with his truck. We've hauled boats, flatbeds, horse trailers... you name it and my husband has always done the trailer wiring himself. Needless to say, he's particularly frustrated at this point, especially since this is our first hybrid.

This hitch is a new Toyota product that I bought direct from lexuspartsonline.com, based on the recommendations of others in another forum. It fits beautifully and we are very happy with the hitch itself. The wiring harness that came with the hitch seems straighforward and is identical to photos others have included in the forum... We just finished reassembling the parts that we removed to install the harness. We left the harness attached inside. I'll take my car to the dealer in the next day or so to see if they can get the lights working but I am not at all happy about having to take my car to the dealer for something like this. Especially if it's something minor. Plus, besides taking it to the dealer, I hesitate to take my someplace where the workers may be unfamiliar with hybrids. So, here I am, asking for help from you. Any ideas???

Thanks in advance for any help,

Vanessa

Vanessa//

Where did you find the trailer hitch wiring harness installation guide? Can you please share?

thanks,

Fenton House

Another response to myself....

I haven't been online in a while (except for at work), but I've done a bit of work on my 400h. Last weekend the VaisTech SL2i I ordered arrived, and I returned the Peripheral Electronics adapter to BestBuy and installed the SL2i. My verdict is: It sucks less.

The SL2i, when used with a Gen5 nav system, lets you pretend that your iPod is a CD/MP3 changer. The 6 different "CDs" let you pick different modes: #1 lets you browse playlists, #2 browses artists, etc. The browsing is fairly reasonable: you see a bunch (10?) on the screen at a time and can use the up and down arrows to jump to the next batch. If you're browsing artists, then pressing that artist's name on the touchscreen shows you all the songs by that artist. If you're browsing playlists, then pressing the playlist shows you all the songs in that playlist.

The common them here is "songs", which is why I'm still not 100% happy with the VaisTech interface. Ideally, what I'd want when browsing all the artists on my iPod is to touch the artist's name and see all of their albums. Then I'd touch the album's name and see all of the songs on that album. For some artists it doesn't matter too much, but for artists where I have 10+ albums (e.g. The Beatles), it's a pain. And for later, more album-oriented rock music (think Pink Floyd or Yes) or classical music, I really want to be able to play a whole album, not just individual tracks. This is why I say the VaisTech unit still "sucks" a bit.

Another downside of the SL2i's interface is that the nanny software in the Lexus nav screen doesn't let you browse MP3s while the car is moving. If an album or playlist finishes playing, I have to stop before I can select another one to play. This is going to be seriously annoying on long road-trips, which is when I use the iPod the most because of the lack of good radio stations out in the middle of nowhere. I may try one of the Coastal Technology "lockpick" kits to see if they fix this, but I don't know if they unlock the audio system screens or just the nav and bluetooth ones. If anyone has tried this and knows whether it works, please let me know! I'm going on a long road trip in a week or two and am thinking of installing one of these gizmos real soon now.

The display from the SL2i is much better than from the other unit, though. You can see the entire Artist, Album, and Track name on the Audio screen, not just the first 6 or 10 characters. I'm pretty sure it displays that even while the car is in motion, unlike the radio, which hides the info on the "message" screen while the car is moving.

The SL2i is good enough that I'm going to stop experimenting and stick with it. Hopefully the VaisTech people will eventually upgrade its firmware again to allow multi-level browsing of Artists -> Albums -> Tracks. (I'll ask about this on their forum.) Since it's fairly easy to control the iPod with this unit, I decided to put the iPod in my glove box. I put the SL2i down by the passenger-side kick panel under the dash. Fishing the iPod cable from there up to the back of the glove box was a bit tricky because you have to go around a corner. I ended using electrician's "fish tape" that I've used for home wiring and networking projects in the past. Then I drilled a 3/16 hole in the back of the glove box, up near the top left, cut a slit down to it with a utility knife, and used that to thread the iPod cable through the hole. That way it doesn't have to bend over the top of the glove box and there's no danger of it floping around in the glove box or falling back behind there and getting lost.

Still, if anyone has info on the real Lexus iPod adapter, let me know. My dealer claims not to have any cars that have it installed and says there's no manual for it, but says that since it's made by Lexus "it must be good". Right. I'm certainly wasn't going to buy it with that little info, so I ended up with the VaisTech unit instead.

The other thing I did to the Lexus last weekend was install a tow hitch. My dealer wanted $600 (parts + labor) to install one, but they sold me the part for $275 plus tax. Installing it took maybe 2 hours, part of which involved learning how to use the new torque wrench I bought. (50 ft-lbs is a lot less torque than I thought it was.) The install was pretty easy, except for getting the first bolt holding the hitch in place on each side. The friend who was helping me had to leave just before that point, so I struggled a bit trying to hold one side in place with my feet while bolting the other side in place with one hand while holding it with the other. That didn't work so well, though it was a great upper-body workout. Eventually I figured out I could prop one side in place with a milk create, put in a couple of bolts on the other side, and then take out the milk crate and bolt that side. Then I put in the rest of the bolts and torqued them all down. If I'd known what I was doing, all this would have been very easy, so the ~$300 that the dealer wanted for installing it was way too much.

Installing the wiring for the hitch was fairly easy too, though you have to disassemble half of the interior of the back of the car to get to the socket where it just plugs in. There are excellent photographs and instructions for this elsewhere on this forum. If you're thinking of installing a hitch, spend a bit extra for the Toyota/Lexus part: the wiring is very easy to hook up and has pre-attached clips and grommets to keep it in the right places.

-- Laura

Laura//

Can you pass along the link to the wiring harness installation?

thanks,

Fenton House

Thats a big improvement from my older Vais system and its interface to the older menu system...

Got my VAIS iPod interface from Christian at Enfig (http://enfigcarstereo.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/lexus_ipod.html). He has good prices and knows his stuff. If you want to play with the interface while driving get the unlocking kit.

I'd like to find out if the NAV OS can be hacked. There are a lot of neat things that could be displayed with some crafty work.

Fenton House

Also if you do a lot of hard braking, [racing on the track or long descents down high steep mountain roads] the fluid temp can get very high, the water can boil and turn to steam. When that happens you can lose most if not all of the ability to brake.

Hugh? Brake fluid turn to steam? Brake fluid is oil ... so, no steam

What he was saying is, the brake fluid can attract moisture (water) if any is present. So, if the system has managed to attract water, high temperatures can turn the water to steam. Not something you want. This has been a major concern with the newer brake fluids.

I'm looking ahead to the 30k service and want to be prepared for any dealer 'games.' What are dealers charging for the brake fluid flush? Might make sense to rent the appropriate tool and do it myself...

Fenton House

That's it! It IS a monster, both in size and power (....not to mention weight.) The manual shows that the spare is included in the rotation pattern, but now that my spare doesn't match the Bridgestones, I rotate front to back with no criss-crossing. Essentially, that's what the book shows if you remove the spare from the picture.

Dave

Hi//

Did an oil change and rotation today. Had access to a hydraulic lift so it wasn't to bad. The car has 10k on it. Found out that the dealer didn't bother to rotate the spare at 5k. I did and will continue to do so. Used a torque wrench to loosen and tighten the lug nuts -- was really no hassle at all. Manual recommends 76 ft-lbs. Used that.

Bob

Hi//

Got the same one with the black interior. Wife and Sister-in-law chose the color combination. They definitely had it right. Also got the VAIS iPod interface. Very nice.

Might want to take a look at rubber floor mats. Got the Weather Tech mats. Since we're in the Seattle area I have not regretted it. The factory mats are sitting on a shelf in the garage. Next addition will be a trailer hitch receiver. Saw one a while back for $165 delivered (I think). Will let you know when I get it.

regards,

Fenton House.

my friend told me that i could customize the navigation if i went to the lexus dealer. any1 know if this is true?

Hi -- I'd like to know also. A friend has a Nissan SUV and the Nav system allows him to set what's called a 'birds'eye view.' It's basically a perspective view of the display. Very nice. Can this be done on the 08 400h??

Also, does anyone know what operating system is used on the 400h?? When the system is upgraded for the next model year, is the software backwardly compatible??

regards,

Fenton House

We've had the 400h for 8,000 miles. It's fine - I'd do it again. Reading Consumer Reports about the reliability issues of German cars pointed me toward Lexus. Have since spoken with several owners who have confirmed this. Believe that the best cars are made by Toyota and Honda; Toyotas are typically quieter running.

Have to agree about the sound system, though. A $50k car should have an absolutely primo sound system.

Seats are very comfortable. I had an Explorer that had Recaro front seats. You could drive in these things for eight hours, then get out and stretch and you'd feel fine. The seats in the 08 400h are just as good. No gripes.

The instrument panel and other user interface stuff could be reworked. It's not a major issue. Would really like to see a glass cockpit concept.

We get about 25 mpg (actually got 31.8 driving from Page, AZ to Phoenix and around Phoenix for a bit). For the kind of car this is that's OK. Would like to see the interaction of the electric drive and gas engine system optimized - or at least have some more visibility vis-a-vis the powering algorithm.

Would also like to see a proactive effort by Lexus to develop user/focus groups to ensure future models reflect current owners' concerns.

regards,

Fenton House

Back Again/

We have about 8,000 on the 400h. Very nice machine. Drove it from Seattle to Phoenix for Thanksgiving - we hit every kind of weather. Even had to detour around a nasty wind storm in southeastern Utah. Truly a joy to drive. My only gripe was that, because it runs so quietly, I found myself driving sorta fast in some situations I probably should not have been. The good news is that the car didn't seem to care - so I guess I don't. Have an issue with the backup lights I'd like to share.

For some reason the backup lights are next to useless. Initially, I thought that the LEDs were just not bright enough, but they are. After some checking it became apparent that the lights point up rather than down. So, the backup lights light the trees - not the ground. I'll bring it to the attention of the dealer the next time I'm in. Would like to know whether anyone else is experiencing the same problem.

regards,

Fenton House

Hi//

If you're in the northwest and are looking for a good price check out Peterson Lexus in boise, ID. Kevin Phithak does Internet sales. (208) 866-1713. Easy to deal with and very reasonable. Picked up my 400h the end of October. Totally satisfied with the dealership.

Fenton House

Hi//

Just picked up my 08 400h a few weeks ago. Amazing machine. Had the dealer install a VAIS iPod adapter. Works perfectly. Everything is displayed and can be controlled from the navigation Display. Got it from Enfig Car Stereo on the Internet.

http://enfigcarstereo.com/shopsite_sc/stor...SL2I_LEXUS.html

$225. This is the second iPod interface I've bought from them. Good folks. Christian really knows his stuff. Said that VAIS only makes gear for Lexus.

Fenton House

Only customer service people can extend a simple "yes" into 160 words. :)

Tom

Ain't it the truth. Wonder if there's any real difference between the Levison system and the standard package?? Having a some time in the back of 'hooks probably means I don't care...

Fenton house

Just heard that Lexus is no longer offering the Levinson sound package in new RX 400h vehicles. Can anyone confirm this or tell me that I have things upside down??

Fenton House

Hi Folks//

I'm a new member and have been following this forum for the past several months. Used the topics to negotiate for a new RX 400h. Very good info! Saved me big bucks and got me better tires. thanks. Anyway, we're looking for a Levinson-equipped Smoky Granite Mica exterior/black interior 400h.

Does anyone know if one is available that can be shipped to a Northwest Lexus dealer??

Fenton House