lemon

Got a hold of a metal fabricator close to where I live. Sent him the pic, and he says he can make pretty much anything. He suggested stainless steel, though, if it was a small piece. It's not small, so I'm guessing it might end up being aluminum.

Well I picked these up from Rajuthan (his 400h was written off by his insurance company - Thanks by the way Rajuthan). I gotta say, I'm impressed with these babies. Looks like they'd hold a few litres of water before overflowing - perfect for snow. They fit very well, and the rear mat even has a section that is 'sunken' for lack of a better word, that allows the center console between the front seats to still slide backward if needed. Very cool, highly recommended. http://www.weathertech.ca/store/mvproduct....7&Year=2006

Pic uploaded. The very front left corner of the shield (pretty much were most of the snow is packed) is broken off completely. Front of the vehicle is to the left.

PVC plastic can take an enormous amount of impact and will do quite a bit to protect the gas tank from dents and punctures. So I would want to replace it if I were you. If you think $500 is a lot, ask them for how much to replace the gas tank :o That said, it would be nice if all these plastic "fig leaves" could be replaced with a real skid plate under the whole car that could protect the expensive electronic equipment as well as the gas tank and withstand high centering over rocks... But I digress. The 400h will never be any good for off-road until someone figures out a way to "lock" the rear axle to make the car a real 4WD vehicle. If the rear motor is used exclusively for backing up, as has been stated here, then it should be a simple hack to fool the rear motor into thinking it's in REV when it's going FWD and just stay ON even if the HSD is telling it not be ON. I'm just spit balling. The problem as I understand it, is the rear electric motor will overheat if run for extended periods. It is only cooled by the ATF - WS that lubes the gears. The front electric motors are cooled by the ATF - WS and coolant (the same coolant that runs through the inverter). I guess if Toyota beefed up the rear motor it would be possible to have it run for longer periods? Regardless, I'm still peeved that the skid plate jammed up with snow. The entire gas tank by the way is just under $500 US.

I wonder if I even need the fuel tank protector. It 'sounds' like an important part, though, doesn't it? Being made of plastic, it's surely not to protect against a big impact, like hitting a rock sticking up out of the ground. I'm thinking it's more to protect against bouncing debris tossed up off the road. The tank itself is not plastic (I have the shop manual at home explaining what the tank is made of and how it's different from the fuel tank in the 330).

Well, it's been a fairly snow free winter where I am (southern Ontario) but yesterday we got a medium amount (~10 - 15 cm) of wet heavy snow. The RX, by the way was very sure footed (though the winter tires played a BIG part - I drove my wife's new 2010 Equinox AWD the same day, which has Michelin Latitude Tour all seasons and the difference in the two vehicles was very pronounced). Anyway, this morning as I walking up to the RX, I noticed something big and black and white hanging under the vehicle. (I have a pic which I'll upload when I get home). Turns out snow somehow packed itself between the plastic fuel tank protector and the fuel tank - enough as it turns out to bend the plastic so it was hanging down, and at some point a piece of the protector broke off. Didn't Lexus do any snow/winter testing on this damn vehicle? I took my Subaru Outback over huge drifts left by the plows last winter with no problem. With the Lexus, all I did was drive on snow covered, and plowed and unplowed roads. The snow was wet and heavy, but surprisingly, sometimes snow is like that. No driving over drifts like I did with the Suby. Anyway, I went to the Lexus dealer to price out a replacement. Now remember, it's a piece of plastic (large, mind you). $500 CDN for this thing. I searched online and found it for around $250 US. Insane.

Just had a quick look at trader.ca - Considering your mileage, I think that's a decent price, yes.

Yeah, I know there is no physical connection (when I first got my 400h I spent a lot of time under my car admiring things), but thought maybe Lexus could 'force' the rear motor to run continuously via software, thus simulating what happens with the 'lock' switch on the 350, which forces AWD instead of waiting for the wheels to slip first). The 'lock' concept I'm talking about is actually locking the centre differential, so that the front and rear axles get equal power from the transfer case. It has nothing to do with locking hubs, though in the old days, yes, you had to exit the vehicle to lock the front hubs.

Is there not a lock button on the 450h similar to the 350, where the center diff is gets locked? I know the 450h doesn't have a centre diff, but was thinking the lock button might use software to engage the rear motor instead of waiting for slip. Wonder if the original poster had his VSC turned off or something. Either that or....troll.

Yeah, it's not full time on the 400h. The rear diff (powered by the MGR (rear electric motor or 'Motor Generator Rear' in Toyota speak)) only normally (meaning regularly whether there is wheel slip or not) kicks in upon heavy acceleration and during turns. Of course when there is wheel slip, it kicks in then too. I don't consider this full time.

You are right. I hadn't realized the drastic effect of the sidewall ratio, and I was guessing at the weight difference. [Diameter and circumference are of the same effect, since the only difference is a mathematical constant (PI).] Hahaha...first time I've seen PI mentioned on a car forum. Nice one!

No, they won't. The rim size is going to increase 2" (16 - 17 - 18), but the tire profile will be reduced 3 sizes (70 - 65 - 60 -55), so the overall diameter of the wheel and tire together (which is very important) will be almost the same - 28.4 inches for the stock and 28.2 inches for the 235/55/18. This is known as 'plus' sizing and is done regularly when upgrading wheel size. The diameter difference is 0.81%, which is well within the recommended range of 3% difference or lower. This can be confirmed as you already recommended at http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html or this one http://www.1010tires.com/tiresizecalculator.asp You'll want to compare 225/70/16 to 235/55/18. By the way, the circumference (which is nowhere near as important as the diameter) is actually LESS with the 235/55/18/ (89.22 for the 16" combo vs 88.49 for the 18" combo). My suggestion to the original poster stands - keep the 18" wheels and get the 235/55/18 tires.

I'm no expert, but it doesn't look that bad to me....??? Was there damage to the axles/diffs/transmission? How many KMs on the vehicle? Usually, a vehicle is written off when the cost to repair it is too great a percentage of the current value of the vehicle. I would have thought 5 - 6 k of damage wouldn't be enough to write off the vehicle.

Lexus is not mentioned (maybe there's a similar letter at Lexus??) but it goes to show how much faith Toyota has in their own branded 0w20 synthetic oil.

See here http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=62095 I had replaced just the rubber strip, but found the wiping was still crappy (figures the arm was just worn after 5 years), so I went ahead and replaced the entire blade itself with an aftermarket.

They're probably talking about the parking brake. If water gets in the cables/mechanism, it can freeze (regular brakes have heat build up as you use them, which usually dries out the brakes.

235/55/18 is the stock tire size for the 18" wheels on the 330/400h. They are very close in overall size to your stock 225/70/16. You may find your rubbing problem goes away as well, since the 235 is a narrower tire than the 255.

I haven't had any problems in the snow either, but I have dedicated winter tires on the vehicle. Honestly, winter tires will turn ANY vehicle from mediocre to more than acceptable in the snow. I will admit, however, that my Subaru Outback felt more sure footed (wheeled?) in the snow.

Do people in Ottawa speak English? Actually a fair number speak French as a first language and English as a second language, or are quite comfortable with either. When someone who speaks Spanish (which seems to be the second language in the U.S.), posts a semi-understandable question on here (which I've seen) I bet not many Canadians ask if the original poster can speak English. What was the point to your post, since it obviously didn't answer either of the questions.

The motors don't directly drive the wheels, so the tranny is not sending information to the electric motors. The motors drive some sort of gear that is part of or connected to the tranny. However, in YOUR particular vehicle, I'm blaming the gerbils and their exercise wheel. When you put YOUR car into drive, some gerbil food falls into a tray just out of reach of the gerbils. As they run for it, the exercise wheel spins and powers the front wheels. In reverse, the food falls into a different tray, causing the gerbils to run the other way. Maybe radiation from the dilithium crystals are affecting the gerbil's sense of directions??

Well, the flux capacitor could definitely use some tweaking. Also, the Mr. Fusion power plant has, as of late, been dropping in output. Don't know if it's the cold weather, or substandard trash I've been feeding it.

Download some money at the Lexus dealership and I'm sure they'll give you a 9.1 disc.

I'm no expert on wheels, so I don't know if a +45 offset vs a +35 offset is a huge deal or not. Maybe ask at at a dedicated wheel/tire shop.

The offset on the Lexus rims is +35 (or maybe +32 - I forget). I'm no tire expert either, but I don't think I'd go with a +45 offset on those rims. I definitely (absolutely, positively) wouldn't use those tires - the difference in overall diameter is too great (3 inches).

This is a hybrid problem only. From what I understand, it's the regenerative braking being completely disabled and the regular hydraulic/caliper brakes being completely enabled to provide ABS. As stated above, it's not an acceleration, so much as it is a decrease in deceleration. Perhaps there's a split second where neither system is braking? I've experienced it the odd time on my 400h, but it didn't cause me to rear end anyone - in fact I ended up pressing the brake pedal harder and stopping more abruptly when the hydraulic system kicked in. I suppose a less experienced driver might actually let up off the brake pedal in surprise, thinking something was wrong and thus hit something??