lemon

I like the interior better than my 400h. To each his own.

1. Condensate from the A/C system.

When the ignition is on, do you hear a whining noise coming from the general area of the inverter? The ICE has to be off for you to hear it. I just had my inverter replaced, and the whine seems louder with the new inverter. I do recall my old one making a whine, but much more subtle. I did ask the dealer, who said it was normal and also pointed out that it would be louder when it was colder out (which it is now, where I am). Thanks.

I'm guessing you're talking about the coolant reservoir for the inverter. This is the one on the driver's side of the vehicle. The coolant reservoir for the engine radiator is attached to the back side of the radiator itself. Anyway, if you're talking about the inverter reservoir, it's totally normal for it to bubble like that. If in fact you are talking about the engine coolant reservoir (back of the rad), then no it's not normal for it to bubble.

Now you're getting too picky.. :P I admit, you can't really tell if it's OFF or AUTO, but if it's raining and the wipers aren't working, then I realize it's OFF and flick it to AUTO.

Whoever is having an inverter replaced, I hope you're still within the 'hybrid' warranty. These suckers are about $7000. Mine was leaking coolant and was just replaced under the hyrbid part of the warranty.

Nice stuff cduluk, but I really have to wonder if you have too much time on your hands...between this and the steering wheel/interior work...

My God, man!!! What if that was the self destruct and/or the passenger seat ejection button? Kudos on changing your cabin filter though - a lot of people probably don't even know it's there and needs to be changed.

An easy fix for both of you, but I have to wonder - doesn't anyone own/read their owner's manuals?

I saw one LS600h in a parking lot and attempted to chat with the owners but I was treated like a commoner without my grey poupon so I gained little knowledge of ownership. Tom Likely, the owner just bought it because it was more expensive than a regular LS so he could tell his country club friends that he bought the best (for some people, most expensive must mean the best) but really he has no idea of the hybrid Tao and wouldn't be able to tell you the first thing about hypermiling, or the pulse and glide method. Mind you, he probably didn't buy it to save money on gas - see previous sentence. Anyway, my point is he probably wouldn't be able to tell you anything about ownership of a hyrid, except he paid X dollars and the car gets him from A to B.

After you turn off the key you can still use the windows or sunroof for 30s or so. Perhaps this is a customer preference setting, but it works that way on my 2006Rx. The trick for me is to not open the door before I turn off the key. In that event the function is not there. You're absolutely right - I guess I've been waiting too long. My wife's car (a GM) has retained power for 10mins, or until a door is opened. So I guess I guess I can change my gripe to retained accessory power time is too short.

Few things that irk me - (on a 2006, don't know if later years changed) -No distance to empty calculation -No retained accessory power (once I shut the car off, everything is off - I can't do up a window that was left down for example) -No tire pressure monitoring It's a very short list. Everything else about the vehicle I like. Haven't had it for a winter yet - we'll see how it does compared to the Outback I had (no denying the AWD system in the Subaru is superior). The Nokian Hakkapeliitta winters will help though.

The all weather tires that spring to mind other than the Triple Tred are the Nokian WRG2, the Yokohama W Drive, and the Continental ExtremeContact DWS. These tires have the 'mountain and snowflake' symbol indicating they "meet specific winter traction performance requirements and have been designed specifically for use in severe winter conditions". However, unlike a dedicated winter tire, these can be left on all year. Without actually having used any of the aforementioned tires, the impression I get is that they are not as good as a dedicated winter tire in the winter, but are much better than an all season. In the non winter months, they are not as good as a dedicated 'summer' tire, but are comparable to an all season.

I don't think this is the case, UNLESS you have directional tread on your tires in which case they need to stay on the same side. Check some of the tire manufacturer websites - Michelin for example - http://michelinman.ca/care/rotation.html Unfortunately, this only shows a four tire rotation, but it DOES show the tires changing sides of the vehicle.

Do you have directional tires? Just wondering why you have to rotate them on the same side? The problem I see with waiting, is depending on how long (time) it takes you to wear out your front tires, the spare might be pushing the end of it's lifespan. Even without use, I think tire manufacturers recommend around five years for a tire lifespan. Even though you're not using it, it's still aging.

Umm..dunno. I'm at work now so I can't access the site where I normally grab the full TSBs and can't remember where I found the partial TSBs either. **edit** Just checked nhtsa.dot.gov for 2006, 2007 and 2008 and it looks like the first TSB (for the freezing relay) applies to all years, but the TSB for the ignition coil is only for 2006.

Looks like Lexus put them out around April/May this year... I have the short forms only - when I track down a copy of the full TSB I'll post it in my TSB sticky at the top of this forum. SERVICE BULLETIN:LSB-0057-09 NHTSA ITEM NUMBER:10030352 LEXUS: IG1 RELAY FREEZING. SOME VEHICLES MAY EXPERIENCE MULTIPLE WARNING LIGHTS ILLUMINATED, VEHICLE NOT SHIFTING FROM PARK TO DRIVE, AND OTHER ACCESSORIES BECOMING INOPERATIVE AFTER THE VEHICLE HAS COLD SOAKED IN SUB FREEZING (BELOW 14 %F [-10%C]) AMBIENT AIR TEMPERATURES. A NEW RELAY AND WIRE HARNESS HAS BEEN MADE AVAILABLE TO IMPROVE THIS CONDITION. *PE _______________________________ SERVICE BULLETIN:LSB-0043-09 NHTSA ITEM NUMBER:10030326 LEXUS: SOME VEHICLES MAY EXHIBIT A M.I.L. ON CONDITION WITH ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING DIAGNOSTIC TROUBLE CODES (DTC) STORED AS A RESULT OF AN IGNITION COIL MALFUNCTION: P0351-P0356 IGNITION COIL A-F PRIMARY/SECONDARY CIRCUIT. THE ENGINE MAY NOT START. *PE

I know if you register your vehicle at lexus.com you can then access an owner's page that has the owner's manual available for download. Maybe the France site has the same thing? http://www.lexus.fr/ Actually, just checked the lexus.com site and I got the manual without registering... Try here... https://secure.drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrive...anual-search.do Alternatively, you can look at the link posted at the top of the hybrid section and download sections of the owner's manual individually. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=26453 although I find the lexus.com easier to view.

Look at my pictures. Remove the plastic engine covers on the driver's side and behold your inverter. Yours will likely not be leaking (my dealership says they've never seen one leak). If it is leaking, it may or may not be in the same place as mine. Initially I noticed the low coolant level in the inverter coolant reservoir, which led me to delve deeper.

The owner's manual for your vehicle has this information. You should read it from front to back (passes the time while you're on the toilet). Anyway, here's how you reset your sunroof. Shamelessly copied from one of my own posts... "Also if you disconnect the battery (or run it down like I did), the sunroof will have to be normalized. You can tell if it needs to be normalized if the sunroof doesn't close properly when you use the tilt switch. If you have to kind of guess where closed should be you need to normalize it."

The battery is only about $2500 to $3000. Still not pocket change, but not $6000. The inverter however, is between $6500 and $7000. The dealer did advise me that they'd never seen one leak, and had only replaced a handful inverters (don't know what for).

I have lots of Torx bits, which work in a 'screw' with a hole in the head to insert the bit. However, this screw was a bit different, requiring a socket as I mentioned The socket in the picture is a regular 5mm socket. The one I actually used is similar to the ones in the link in the post above.

No, those are torx bits (I have lots of those) - what I actually needed was a 'female torx SOCKET'. http://www.toolsnow.com/external-female-torx-socket-set.html Part number for the block heater is C0140-00644