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Over Christmas, I was away visiting family and give the motorway miles involved I took my Lexus. Then, of course, the snow arrived (although it wasn't really forecast before I set out). My dad's house is at the bottom on a long gradient which has defeated the Lexus in previous winters, but fortunately, I escaped OK yesterday afternoon and had no problems (other than the volume of traffic on the M1!) getting back to my place, although I was driving very gingerly for the last mile or so as the roads were pretty treacherous. Powerful RWD cars are not good in those conditions. Today, the Lexus is safe in its garage and I took the IQ to Asda, through the hard packed snow/ice combination which is covering the side roads here in Derbyshire. With winter tyres on (Toyo Snowprox), it's got oodles of grip and even managed a hill start with almost zero wheelspin when I deliberately picked somewhere stupid to stop "just to see what happens". I keep being more and more impressed by this little car and I reckon the winter tyres on steel wheels will prove to be a great investment.

I was doing a service on my iQ3 a few weeks ago and while I was in there I noticed the drive belt to the alternator looked a bit worse for wear. I spoke to my local main dealer and got both the air conditioning compressor drive belt and the alternator drive belt for only £30 and last weekend I had a go at fitting them. Not a difficult job really, jack the car up, remove the right hand wheel, remove the plastic panel from the back of the wheel arch and work from there. Once the belts are off remember to clean the pulleys and make sure they are not damaged. The damage to the belt was interesting though. The air con belt was fine really but as it has to be removed before the alternator belt can be removed it made sense to just change them both. What had caused the problems with the alternator belt was small stones in the pulley grooves and embedded in the belt itself. The belts are very low on the engine and sit just a few inches behind the front wheel so I guess some debris getting into the belt isn't a surprise but it's well worth opening the bonnet occasionally and taking a glance at them to see what they look like. A stone stuck in the belt can be clearly seen in one of the photos below and a hole right through the belt made by a stone can be seen in another image. The part numbers on the bags are for my iQ3 but there is a different belts for different models so check with the dealer first if you plan to order some. Craig.

Hi all I bought some Redex fuel system cleaner and put it in the tank over 4 full tanks of fuel. I have to say the results are outstanding!!! The car feels like it has twice the power and at idle is very smooth no obvious 3cyl vibration. Cant believe the difference David

You're not far from me but I suspect you might have had the worst of it where you are. Like you I took my iQ out on icy roads for the first time today, and was impressed with the handling (though I'm no boy racer) even with standard tyres.

Great to hear that, as I use Redex on the occasions I haven't filled up with Shell V-Power Nitro+. What type of petrol did you fill up with after adding Redex? Chris 2012 iQ² with red leather upholstery ☆ upgraded interior lighting ☆ white backlit dashboard/switches ☆ auto-folding mirrors ☆ smart entry ☆ auto-locking doors ☆ chrome exhaust ☆

I'm assuming these are the original belts from when the car was built back in 2010 so they did quite well and I must be around 40k miles too now. I'll be closely watching them from now on. :) Craig.

I hav changed mine twice in 3years. First ones completely shredded the second set went hard and squeeled David

Mine is booked in for MOT and 40,000 mile service on the 7th of Jan. I will give the belts a visual before it goes in ;)

It is fair to say the plastic guards that are in place are minimal at best. :) Craig.

With the wiper on, turn off the ignition when the wiper is in the vertical position.

I loved my old iQ, but one of the things I didn't like is that they didn't put covers in place to stop the tyres from flinging things into the engine bay, especially when the wheels are at full lock.