BigNev

Absolutely cracking job!! Silent door operation would be lovely, as would the full window openi for hot days, had that on a Ford Galaxy and it was a really good useful function for hot days! If only I was close to you!

Yeah! But we live in a low speed, traffic light, junction infested town, so sadly it's going to influence it a LOT. Even her drive to work has enough town at each end to make quite a difference. My in laws live over near Driffield, and almost straight out on to the roads at 50 and 60mph, so much better for travel and economy!

Hi Gary! In our 3.5 V6, town or "fast" motorway drive to work for my wife, 20/21mpg ☹️ But - at least it's on 85p per litre lpg Or with a more restrained cruise, around 25mpg, still not great hey!

Bah humbug, I'm jealous 🤣

Hi everyone! On a legal note, if the garage has done something, they clearly have as you presumably drove it in and now it won't start, to cause this damage, then the responsibility will be on them to put you back in the position you were when you took your vehicle to them. Did they do some electric welding, without disconnecting the battery, to be able melt the ECU? Or what other manner have they managed to short out some electrical circuits, without fuses and other protection devices doing their jobs, in order to cause that level of damage - "inside the ECU had melted"!! As Picasso says, there are several ECU's on them, but I guess it must be the main one to have the problem with the immobiliser, and not be able to read anything from the OBD port, which is pretty jolly serious. Has the ECU actually melted, have you seen this? I do not know, so this is a question for anyone out there, if a new ECU is plugged in, will it know any fault codes on a "new" to it vehicle? I'm guessing now, but will it read the normal parameters from the car, and report anything "off schedule"? But would a new ECU need programming to the car? Beyond my knowledge and skill set that one! Do not be too nice about this, it can bite you on the backside, if you tow it away, and they try to wash their hands of it.

Marvellous! Nope, I'd certainly think not! Well, i wouldn't if it was mine! Ours are simply stuck on with the tape! You're most welcome, glad it helped!

Hi there! This is ours, does this help at all?

Cracking! An excellent, clear, if somewhat unfair for Hybrid owners, explanation! But it's good for us 3.0 and 3.5 owners I suppose!

As per the almost duplicated post - maybe an ignition coil breaking down under heat / load?

Ignition coil breaking down under heat / load?

You're a good man!!

No worries! Did you need help with the numbers for the rear too? (I don't have myself- yet!) I'm lucky that my local autofactors do have access to the Toyota parts system.

Hi guys! I didn't mange to look at the brakes when I hoped, the family had other ideas 😂 But I did this weekend! Free play, travel, and distance to floor under pressure are all sound. So I did a "lazy bleed" of them - put a tube on the bleed nipple and let it dribble into the jug, keeping a watch on the reservoir and topping it up. I do have a little one way hose device for one man bleeding, but I just did it that leisurely way with a cup of coffee! I let around 200ml through each front caliper. Feels a bit firmer! Also, I checked the free sliding motion of the caliper pins and pistons, very free, as are the pads in the carriers. This can cause lots of loss of brake effect if they're not lubed properly, with the correct grease. Perhaps something to check on @turnerjr to be sure that's not a thing with yours. And I have been trying to look into what part numbers the 328mm discs, calipers and carriers may be........ 🤓

Hi Joel! I have the same model same year - but it is not a guarantee they will be the same - Lee should be able to confirm this. I have only done the front, and I used Apec discs DSK2829, 296mm diameter, Toyota 43512 28190, and Apec pads PAD1580, Toyota 04465 28520, and have found them absolutely sound. They are certainly a heavy piece of kit! From those numbers - but only if Lee confirms the originals for yours are those - you can cross reference to other manufacturers.

Hiya Roger, thanks for those numbers, much appreciated! You've cajoled me into setting myself the aim of getting on it this weekend! I do agree, so much can affect the way brakes feel. I seem to remember a few VW cars I drove felt like they were very "over servo'd" - way too much brake for very little pressure. I always used to change hoses on my motorcycles, but as yet never felt it necessary on any cars, not even the Impreza we had a while ago. Yep, I've only got little legs, but strong, so I do have it far enough back to be away from the steering wheel with bent legs on the pedals. My Mrs and I have the same leg length, so never have the argument about the seat position, but in the Alphard she does have the seat higher than me. 😁

Does that company say how they can improve the braking significantly, without swapping calipers or disc size? Just disc type and pads? Yes, an improvement can be made with a softer pad material, at the expense of longevity and dust. Or a material that works really well when hot, as per track day cars and bikes, which wouldn't any good for the road.

Yes indeed they are, loving ours!

I can say ours had a jolly good testing last week away to Wales, 4 of us, loaded up, including the kitchen sink - my 3 always pack enough for the available space...... A couple of rapid haul ups gave me no thoughts at all about the brakes. Ours has a little more free play at the top of the pedal travel (but it's still not a lot) than than other stuff we've had. It's not a firm, hard feeling, (yes, I know, I need to get my act together and go out and rebleed them!) on the pedal, but with only gentle pressure on the pedal it pulls up no mither. But so what, I still might want to have a tinker with them 😀

Pretty much every car I've ever owned drops faster on the lower half of the fuel gauge, related to the same number of miles on the same full tank, when the gauge read full. Don't know the actual reason why, but had a thought about the shape of the tank at different heights of liquid in it, but I'm pretty sure I'm over thinking that one heehee! I don't suppose that really matters either! Anyway, is it a lot of town stopping and starting? Stockport's a total and utter mare for it, some days I can't go, quite literally, 2 minutes without stopping at a set of lights or junction. Getting going again slurps fuel even if it's gentle, compared to just driving along. Also - what was the price per litre? Round here it can vary 1.23 to 1.34p per litre, for normal 95 E10 unleaded. So on £50 that's 40.65 to 37.3 litres, 3.35 extra litres, or 22 miles at 30mpg! (I dream of that level of economy 🤣)

Hello there! I've been considering this after reading it suggested somewhere! My brakes are absolutely fine, I fitted new discs and pads by Apec shortly after we got it last November, no concerns at all, but I'm still tempted! Do you have any pointers? One note I did make was that the calipers ref "4533" should be the ones, from Lexus range and Toyota RAV 4. Cheers!

Hi there! We have waved to a few fellow Alphard owners, and been greeted in return! Let's start a tradition! Even to other Japanese 7 seater models, why not? Very many moons ago, us Impreza drivers did it, it raised a smile every time!

But then they would be potentially too long to allow the boot to close....

Oh yes! I've shrunk over the years, age is a wonderful thing! Down to 5ft 7½" 😁 I got them from Aliexpress.com complete with the end brackets! Around £30 the pair I think, last December.

Hi Martyn, so I can be sure in my head, your original post states you are not using the lpg, and are using high octane petrol 90% of the time - therfore 10% of the time normal 95 octane, is that correct? Any idea how long the lpg system has been on yours, how many km? Obviously sensors fail eventually. But on our lpg cars I've yet to have one go. 60,000 miles on one Grand Voyager 3.3 (80 to 140k) over 9 years. 42,000 miles on another Voyager, (66 to 108k) over 4 years. A paltry 16,000 on the Subaru Outback 3.0 (158 to 174k) And 24,000 miles, 38,000 kilometres, (not all of that by us this time, it was done by the previous owner) on this Vellfire, just over 3 years. So, if it was my car, I'd consider 2 options at this point. Firstly however - you have checked there is no "un metered" air getting in to the engine, no little air leaks on the air intake system? One - If the cleaner has improved things from where it was, perhaps try another, and when your pour it in make sure you're ready to give it a good drive up a dual carriageway, or motorway, and use the gear selector to keep the revs up, but you don't need to speed! Two - change the Lambda sensors, new ones won't be a negative thing. I don't know what cost they are, but I do know there's a certain fella on here who is mustard (ie very good!) with part numbers! @Picasso