ThumperPup

over the past 4 months that I have been keeping the 07 es350 stores will Lexus has me in a rental car until they can get the airbag recall completed every 2 weeks I go to the car start it up let it run for about 20 minutes and then turn it off just to make sure the battery doesn't go bad, and the fluids get warmed up and don't just sit around.

Sunday I went out to the car it wouldn't start I heard it try and crank but not try and turn over there wasn;t enough juice in the battery to do more than light cranks but not turning.
I hooked up my batter pack and jumped it it started up right way was fine. Let it run for 20 minutes then shut it off was able to turn it back on the right after fine.
Now tonight two days latter I go back to it because I just wanted to make sure that the battery hadn't died again. And again there was not turning over there was power but not enough to crank the engine and start it I had to jump it again to get it started.

This batter was just replaced 15 months ago at the Lexus Dealership the alternator was already replaced 24 months ago.

any suggestions am I probably looking at a bad battery again or is it just because it hasn't been driven in 4 months ?

jagtoes

I would put a battery charger on it (10-20 amp type) until it is fully charged. After you remove the charger let it sit over night and then take a voltage reading . It should be 12.6 volts (Each cell is 2.1 V and you have 6 cells in a battery) and if it is less then you have a battery problem. Next if you store the car you should have a "smart" charger or battery maintainer hooked up . Starting the car and running it does not completely recharge the battery. The main function of the alternator is to provide power to all of the electrical components of the car and then provide some current for battery charge.

hypervish

FYI, starting the car for 20 minutes and then shutting it off every 2 weeks is bad for the car. The fluids don't actually ever get to full operating temperature. You're better off leaving the car off until you're ready to start driving it again.

ThumperPup

is it better to discounect the battery then letting it sit plugged in ?
the thing im wondering is how come for 4 months it was fine and then all off a sudden it just starts doing this a 3 days ago now

Clutchless

You wore out the battery and are possibly damaging your engine with all the water/condensation build up from letting it idle for only 20 minutes and not driving it. Get a battery maintainer and never start it again until the airbag recall is done (maybe sometime in 2019?) or take it for a half hour highway drive every 2 weeks. It needs to get good and hot to burn the water out of the oil and exhaust system. Also the brakes and transmission need a little exercise too or your brakes may freeze up from lack of use.

Blue Moose Engineering

All of this is good advice. Even with the car off there is a small draw on the battery for the ECM/PCM keep-alive, and this is enough to kill a battery over the course of weeks or months.

Get a battery tender and keep it juiced, or disconnect it.

And yes, I would take the car out and drive it for an entire day...sitting around is just the worst thing for a car.

ThumperPup

Cool thanks for the info guy i appreciate it
i called my guy at the dealership today he said that if the battery is that bad that i could bring it in he would not charge me to do a deep overnight cycle charge on it and then just keep it disconnected from the car is what he said to do when im ready to use it again connect it and he also said he was going to check with his Manager and find out if its ok for me to take it on a good drive once every few weeks or month i don't want the mile sto be on it and them not to pay for the rental care because of excessive miles form when it was written up for the rental care to be supplied

codejd

Some say yes, but you know the old adage about opinions.

I keep my Summer car hooked up to a $20 Schumacher trickle charger from December>April every year without incident.

ThumperPup

now do i need a speical power bank to do this the thing is its not in a garage its in my friends farm i have it out back behind two of his trailers its outside so even if i got it closer to a power outlet i don't know about having the charger outside in this winter weather so this is where i am a bit SOL and not sure im understand exactly.

like i may be cheap but i don't mind psending 20 or 50 dollars to make sure that im going to be ok and it wont cost me more money.
but the thing is with the winter weather still among us how can i let a charger sit out in this weather.

Would it be the same just to buy the charger remove the battery take it and place it inside the barn where there is power and plug it in that way ?

or do i want to have it connected to the car whyll im having it charge also ?

Blue Moose Engineering

It's best to keep the battery in the car so you can retain all your settings for the ECM/PCM/body controls. Everything resets when you take the battery out. So ideally, you have a battery tender hooked up while the car is parked, with the battery still in the car.

Perhaps you should just drive it around once a week. Is that out of the question?

ThumperPup

I would like to drive it around once or twice a month at the very least but Lexus has told me that if I drive the cars and it has miles put on it then they won't pay for the rental vehicle that they are supplying for me to have while waiting on the airbag recall to come in.

The dealership had given me permission once tow drive it down to them when I wanted to have the heater issue looked at
but that was it
they have not given me permission to drive it around
so yes kind of it is out of the questions I can ask the dealership but I don't know if they will be ok with it.
Would I have to put like 20 miles or so on it
would like putting 5 miles on it once or twice a month like taking it up to the highway and then going down one exit and back off the exit to where I am keeping it be worth it or do I need to get it out and put more like 10 or 20 miles oni t for it even to be worth it ?

like i don't want the dealer to see its had a hundred miles put on it and then tell me that i am responsible for paying the 1900 a month for the rental care and all of that

Blue Moose Engineering

Got it. So a battery tender, with the battery in the car or out, should be fine. They don't draw much power so you can just run an extension cord from the nearest available 110v outlet.

ThumperPup

now the issue sis am i going to short the hell out of it with this winter weather like yesterday, for example, the past 3 days at 4 am to about 3 pm we have been getting white-out snow storms up where ethe car is
then its fine for a week
then we get more white outs and storms with like 21 inches of snow
so I can't really like the battery tender outside in this weather its where I am worried.

just had a friend try to start the car for me where it is at he said no go its dead again.

I did call the Dealership up they said if I brought the battery in they would put it on a deep cycle charger overnight no charge for me.

I think tomorrow I'm going to call them back and see if I can get the ok to take it on a short drive but how much driving would I need to do to get it to get a good charge? Like would I have to ask them for like 20 miles a week or 50 miles a month ? or am I going to need more like 50 miles per drive?

ThumperPup

now if i do it whyll its out of the car and i keep it on a tender
am i really going to loose programming in the ECU will it not remember things when i put the battery back in the car ?
am i going to be throwing codes because its going to have forgotten programing ?

ThumperPup

so this is what i would want to get ?