Tacopaco

Hello everyone,

New member here and I would appreciate any suggestions.

I purchased a new 350ES in October 2013. A few months later when I went to start the car after having it sit in garage a day or two, it would not start. Called Lexis Roadside. They jumped it and all is well. I thought perhaps I had left the trunk or a door ajar. There was no evidence I had done so. The dealer gave a multitude of reasons this could have happened. I considered it a fluke and moved on.

Approximately a yr later, same thing. Dealer replaced battery and indicated they don't know why it failed again.

About nine mos. later, August 2015, same thing! They again replaced battery but were admittedly very unsure the problem was solved.

Car performed fine since then but it was driven every day. Last week, it sat in my garage exactly 36 hrs. Would not start. Lexus Roadside guy said it has a bad cell. Keep in mind this battery is now about 10 months old!

It is at the Lexus dealer now. First (believe it or not) the service guy told me this is normal and I should get a trickler (sp?) and plug it in at night. What??? When I argued with him, he back pedaled and agreed to allow it to sit on their lot for a few days and see what happens when they try to start it.

The alarming thing is that they seem stymied as to what is causing this electrical failure or how to fix it. I'll hear back from them next week but my fear is that they'll slap a new battery in it and call it fixed. This would be the fourth battery in a car less than 3yo!

My warranty runs out October 2017.

I love this car and have had no other problems with it.

Please, I need advice on how to proceed. What questions should I ask? What recourse do I have?

This Lexus dealer is great when you're buying...not so much when there is a problem. Thanks.

Mike728

Pretty common. Here's a few threads on the subject:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es-...ain-issue.html
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es-...ead-again.html
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es-...-our-cars.html

There's a long thread on the GS forum, as well. I bought a battery tender, since my car can sit for weeks at a time.

jollick

Tacopaco, my wife's 2015 ES350 usually sits for one to two weeks and has not had an issue starting. We commute to work in our 2013 ES300h and use her car on nice weekends. She had a 2006 GS300 for 10 years with use on weekends and it sometimes sat for two weeks, the battery lasted for 9 years without issue. It seems there may be a drain causing it. In the old days, we would measure the current draw against another same year/model car to see if there was a difference to look for an issue. I would assume that could still be done today with modern cars. Just use an amp clamp meter. It may be worth a try.

lesz

What you are experiencing is certainly not normal.

In some of the threads started by people with a similar issue, they ultimately found that one of the switches, such as those for adjusting the seat position, was partially stuck, which caused a continuous power drain. Checking all of the switches/buttons on the vehicle would be a good place to start with troubleshooting.

Mike728

While I agree that it's not normal, it has been more common than you would expect. Most of the failures that were actually diagnosed by a competent Lexus dealer, have pointed to the ECU. I have not taken mine in for the issue, but will at some point.

Tacopaco

Update...
Dealer called and indicated they are going to replace the ECU. Said someone from Lexus Is coming in. Said to keep loaner and he'll keep me posted on their progress. Keeping fingers crossed.

brboot

They replaced our gateway computer and we haven't had a problem since. I hope this works for you!

notabot

Thanks for the post -

I just purchased a CPO 2013 ES and on the carfax is shows that the previous owner likely had a similar issue - he had the battery replaced a year ago. Now I've only had the car for about a month, but it sits for days at a time (usually 3-7 days) in a garage and I haven't had a problem starting it...yet.

Good luck with the ECU replacement let us know how it works out.

azipod

Your vehicle is drawing electricity when it should be sleeping. This is most likely the reason why your battery is depleting over a very short amount of time. A car with a healthy battery should be able to sit several weeks in non-harsh environmental conditions without a problem.

When you turn off the car, it takes 20-30 minutes for all of the electrical components to completely shut down and "go to sleep." Your car sounds like it's not going to sleep, at least not completely. Some electrical module is continuing to draw power, albeit slowly, and your battery slowly becomes depleted through the night.

This type of symptom takes a long time to diagnose. The dealer will have to hook up a voltage meter to each electrical component, and wait 30-minutes to see if the draw continues. Once a module goes to sleep, they will continue to troubleshoot with the next module, until the culprit is found. Naturally, they would try to minimize their time by starting with the suspect modules first.

You may want to find another dealership. I think your dealership is too lazy to help you out. It's probably because Lexus will not reimburse for "troubleshooting" and your dealer doesn't want to waste their time doing so. You may also want to try Lexus Corporate to see if you can get someone to assist.

Tacopaco

Is the gateway computer the same as the ECU?

How long have you been trouble free? Another poster indicated that they never fully fix electrical issues and I should get rid of it.

BTW, it has 22k miles on it and is pristine. Has never seen ice, snow, salt.

Thanks.

Mike728

That would be the response to "throw out". I've not heard of any reoccurring failures after replacing the ECU.

Fillykonk

I've not had that problem with my 2014 and it too has sat for 2 weeks at a time occasionally. I am getting ready to leave it for a month so I hope it fairs just as well.

Tacopaco

Another update...
They have had her a week and replaced the gateway ECU. We get our baby back tomorrow. I'll keep you posted. Thanks again, everyone, for your insights.

chromedome

Any info on what part numbers needed replacing and what this gateway computer is?

notabot

It's funny because if you had posted this in May, I would've thought you were the previous owner of my car. I just checked the maintenance history on the Lexus website and it shows that they replaced the battery on my car 3x. They even kept it overnight the last time (March 2016) but were unable to find anything ("NO PARASITIC DRAIN" was the quote). So...my fingers are crossed. I've only had my car about a month and it's garaged. The last couple of weeks, it has sat for 6 days each week and started just fine. I hope that's still the case in a year or two after the battery isn't essentially brand new.

Keep us posted, Tacopaco and I'll do the same!