arthurj

Be careful with replacing the reflectors as you need to make sure you still have working reflectors to pass the MOT! My Vellfire has one of the reversing lights replaced with a rear fog light, as you only need one reversing light.

Not the same issue, but my ATH20 with the same engine did have a piston rebuild in Japan due to recall. I haven’t heard of any others that have gone through this process though, it think it may have only affected a small number of cars. The hybrid works in quite a different way to the standard petrol. Similar engine but it uses a different cycle and pressure build up due to engine braking is not an issue because hybrids simply don’t do it.

I still have mine, mainly because the kids love watching dvds in the back and it’s great for that.

I think those 4 are for Japanese TV, either an aerial or decoder box.

As it happens…

Let me know if you find one. I can’t find anyone nearby who will look at the hybrid stuff. I’ve been looking for over a year now.

Britax Romer fit the middle row fine.

Absolutely no problem so far. We’ll see what happens over winter but I’ve had none of the symptoms I was getting before. The hybrids need an AGM battery, they provide a solid 12-14V even when partially drained, unlike lead-acid batteries, which can drop much lower. The hybrid computer needs a minimum of 12V to boot up.

Well, sort of. The Alphard is closer to the size and weight as a T4 or T5, so it’s not fair to compare to a Golf or Passat. A T4 diesel gets around 35mpg in real life, and I hear a T5 averages around 40mpg, maybe slightly better on a long run. My Yeti diesel doesn’t get close to 70mpg on a long run, ever. The brochure said it does, but I get at most 50 if I turn the air con off and have the wind behind me. I don’t even have a heavy foot. The way to think about the hybrid in the Alphard is as a turbocharger with 4WD. Combined power puts it closer to the 3.5 than the 2.4 and fuel efficiency is better than both, certainly better than the 4WD model. Is it cost-efficient though? No.

You can’t change the language on that model, sorry.

I did a long drive in my hybrid recently and got 630km to a tank, which is 55l. So that’s about 33mpg on average.

Getting mine done tomorrow. Quoted over £800 by Toyota, £500 by a local garage that deal with imports.

20-series hybrid original is a Panasonic S55D23L AGM. The Yuasa HJ-S55D23L is a perfect replacement. Not sure if the same battery is used for non-hybrids.

I think ULEZ in cities requires Euro 4 status for petrol vehicles, and my 20-series hybrid is classed as Euro 5 in section D2 of the V5C, so it passes.

Well, I took it to the Toyota garage, showed them the squeak. They said that since they can’t connect their computer to the Japanese systems it’ll cost £120 of an engineer’s time to diagnose!

I got the Lockwood dials fitted. Very happy with them. Clock remains in km.

That was it! My wife lost her house keys a couple of days ago. I just found them under the passenger seat with her fob attached, so mystery solved! Actually two mysteries solved.

Recently the keyless entry on my key fob has stopped working. The car doesn’t unlock when I slip my hand behind the door handle and pressing the lock button results in a long ‘beep’ that sounds like an error. The courtesy light no longer comes on when I approach the car. Weirdly I can use the buttons on the fob to unlock the car no problem, and the car starts when I sit in the drivers’ seat. I thought it might be a flat battery in the fob so I switched it out, but the same problem happens. Does anyone know what could be the problem?

It seems to work the same as other Toyota hybrids. It adjusts the throttle control response to make it easier to stay in the “Eco” range and puts the air conditioning into a low power mode. The AC is very noticeable on a hot day. With Eco mode on, you need to push the accelerator quite some way in to start the engine, it tries to accelerate on battery power alone, and there’s a noticeable delay if you stamp on it. With Eco mode off it starts the engine almost immediately so you get full power.

Thanks. I’ll see if I can convert it to a different format.

Did you find it an easy job? I want to try replacing the bushing, or at least seeing if it’s the problem, but I don’t know if it’s something that should be attempted by someone who isn’t a qualified engineer. I’m pretty handy, have some experience with motors and electrics and can do normal car maintenance, but I wouldn’t call myself a mechanic.

This is the squeak. Excuse the dirt, I’ve just come back from a trip. IMG_5130.mov

So I think this might be the coolant pump based on this post on a Prius forum. https://priuschat.com/threads/attention-if-you-have-a-squeaky-chs-water-pump-new-tsb.48722/ Can anyone with more knowledge than me tell me if that seems like the right diagnosis? There are no warnings on the dash, just that squeak noise when the engine shuts off, especially when cold. I can't find anyone in the North-East who will touch the hybrid systems on my Vellfire. The Toyota garage refuses because their computer system can't diagnose it. Is replacing the pump the sort of thing that any garage could do?

I have the same issue. Almost completely certain this is the issue. Mine sounds like it’s just starting, only just noticeable so it’s a job for next year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU3IeGh8kMw Those little bushings can be found on Aliexpress for £10. Way cheaper than replacing the whole motor, but beyond what I’m comfortable doing myself.

An eye-watering £890 this year from Advance for my 20 series hybrid. This was literally the only quote I could get and it took Advance 2 days to find an insurer to do it. Annoyingly this model is not on anyone’s system, so many won’t touch it, and the company that covered mine last year has stopped covering imports.