theanimala

What an F'n day. I was down in Tampa for work and was flying back to NJ today. Long story short, big blizzard in NE, had to fly to Boston, then sit there, finally get to NJ. Long *** day. Get my car and start driving home. Stuck big time in traffic, getting 1/4 mile in a hour. Then, as I'm on the on ramp from one highway (1&9) to my next highway (78w), my nav screen shuts off and reboots. I'm like WTF? It does it again. Then the trac, VSC and ABS lights come on. I'm like oh crap, I need those to get me through this snow. Then the battery light comes on, the heat starts going nuts, and my HID's start flickering. I'm like crap, turn the well and am for the shoulder. My car stalls out 10 feet later. Try to start the car and all I get is a rapid clicking sound.

After an hour on hold I finally get to AAA (my car is off warranty, no Lexus roadside any more), and they say it will be another hour. I am freezing since I have no heat, and in the middle of two huge highways with no place to go.

I finally get my car towed, but because of the weather they wouldn't tow me home. Had to get it dropped off half way home and get picked up from there. I parked at some hotel, and I'm praying it doesn't get towed from there.

I'm guessing it's my alternator. I know things go, but why today? And why there? I just had my 90K service done 2 months ago and I asked them to search the car for anything that might go wrong. Not sure if you can tell about a part like this or not.

Well, now my car will be sitting in this lot for the next couple days because the remaining blizzard to come. I guess I can no longer say my GS has been flawless. Oh well.

babyGS3

it's a ghost...

did ya check the battery cables or battery? if it's ok, it might as well be the alternator. the extreme cold may be f'in with ur car...

btw, where've u been ? havnt seen ya post in a while....

~manny

HI98GS

I noticed the same thing with my car. I did notice that when I got the RPM's up, the radio was fine. I think you were draining the battery too much when you were in traffic and the car was idling with all the accessories (heater, radio, lights etc.) on. I think if you just charge the battery, you should be fine. Next time when you are in traffic going that slowly, you may want to put the car in neutral and rev it up to 1500 for a little bit. The alternator will charge the battery better.

just my .02

aloha and hope you have a safe christmas
HI98GS

clivej

Hi Guys, Its definatly the battery.Same thing happened to on wednesday. I'm in NY and had not driven the car since thanks giving. The engine turned over just enouge to start. let it idle for app 10 mins. went to the gas station and stupid me , shut it down, of course it did'nt restart . Got a jump and drove away. Two miles into my trip while stopped at a traffic light, the Nav starts acting up and the screen goes gray, the radio still worked just blank screen, battery light flickers but goes away when i got green. The battery was the original (6 years). Now i have a new yellow top . Change the battery , you'll be fine.
Clive.

ripe911

I dont think the car should shut off while you're driving if its the battery. The battery is only used for starting. I remember with my old ES300 the mechanic took out the whole battery and the car was still running. Now if you shut the car off then try to start it again it wouldn't start then its the battery.

Once the car is started its all alternator power.

jucee187

could be either one.. but the fast clicking sound is similar to my situation when my battery died. It doesnt help running a 1000WRMS system in winter... so i turn down the volume now and upgraded to a yellow top battery. The car starts effortlessly now.

koreanpers

it could be a problem w/ both. It could be an older batt that isnt holding a good charge anymore, and also a bad alternator. When the car is running, the alt should be charging the batt, but if the alt goes bad, then its not going to charge the batt, and then when the bat goes dead, so does the car...

PHML

iTrader: (33)

Wow....what bad timing...huh? Well, I hope it'll be ok sitting there.

I agree with koreanpers....it was probably the alt that went bad first....and in order to operate your nav, radio, headlights, and heat....it put a strain on your battery.

Keep warm.

Pete

theanimala

Man, you guys know your stuff.

I finally got back to where I had my car towed today to dig it out. Man, I was very nervous that the hotel it was parked at would tow it away since I wasn't staying there. Not only was it there, but they dug it out totally. All I had to do was remove the snow and ice off the car.

Tried to jump it to no avail, then had it towed to my local Lexus dealer. They said it was two things, mainly the alternator. They said it was putting out voltage but on the very low end. It would be fine while driving, but sitting in traffic with everything on (like I had it, heat, front and rear defog, radio, nav, seat heater, car speaker phone) would cause it to happen again. They also said the battery I had placed in there was not very good. It was a cheap battery.

Well, after a grueling $720 both are replaced. I was going to take it to my local garage, but they are the ones who sold me the crap battery in the first place. Not only that, I need my car for work tomorrow and they would have taken days.

Thanks for noticing. I started a new job that has really been keeping me busy. That and having a new baby has left me less time for car stuff. I need to keep in touch though. Thanks again everyone!

MDlexus

The same thing happened to me several trimes in May. The dealer replaced the battery and everything was just fine...... So I thought.

I too was in traffic on 280 in Jersey Friday for nearly 4 hours. Guess what. My car stalled twice in traffic. How embarrassing and frustrating. Luckily, I learned my lesson in May and put jumper cables in my trunk. I asked someone to jumpstart the car and it started immediately. Then it happened a few minutes later and I had to ask someone else to do the same. Anyway, I finally made it home. But I tell you I was really pissed off. I never had any other issues before. It has to be the alternator, right? I'm going to drop off the car Wednesday. They better not just replace the freakin battery!

Navaz

I sometimes worry about my altornator it;s the original that came with my car new, Now it's got 320000 km on it and it 's still fine ( Knock on wood). I don't get it. and winters up here lately sitting for 10 hours at -25 C not pluged in and it starts right away. I am however on my third battery.

Hameed

I had the exact same problem this past summer and sure enough, it turned out the original battery had died. I have a 99 GS400 with 68K km (42K miles).

looknow12

My 2000 GS400 (I turned it in on lease last June) was struggling to get through last winter. It did the same thing at lights with heater, rear defroster, and HID lights *they draw a lot of current), Nav Screen.

Because I made it out of the winter, I just turned the vehicle in as it was running fine once it started to get warmer.

Also be very conscious of locking the car twice at night when it is cold to turn off the headlights. Normally the headlights stay on for about 30 seconds, but these HID lights will drain a batter in no time. If your battery is marginal, then don't let the lights stay on when you walk away from the car. You're definitely asking for trouble.

Threxx

Yup... once a car is started, it runs entirely on the alternator. So the eletrical cuts out while it's running then it has be the alternator. The only other possibility is that maybe one of the terminals connected to your battery is a bit loose.

Electrical failures are most common in the winter, as cold weather tends to make voltage spike and therefore gives the voltage regulator on the alternator and the eletrical equipment running off that power a hard time. In other words, it's not like it's your fault for having all of your electrical accessories turned on at once... Lexus builds their cars to take that kind of load without you having to be at anything above idle. It's more like the straw that breaks the camel's back.

What kind of alternator did they install? OEM? The GS4 from the factory (I think) uses Denso/Nippon alternators which are generally very reliable and consistant.

But that leads to the question 'how was my battery dead too?'... well, when an alternator dies, the car begins to rely entirely on the battery and basically discharges it VERY quickly and to the point where it's as dry as dry can be. Back in the old day this kind of torture commonly made batteries actually burst. Today most high-quality batteries can take an extremely deep cycle such as the dead alternator presents, but some of the cheaper ones don't.

Oh, and FWIW there are only 3-4 car battery manufacturers that sell in the US. I know there's something like 12 different brands, but what's interesting is that almost all brands have 2, 3, or even 4 competing batteries that if you removed the sticker and the outer plastic housing, would be identical. Same assembly lines, same factories, different style to the case and different sticker on the outside.

Some brands even switch around... like DieHard for example was using a very sub-par company for a while despite the fact that they've got a good reputation for reliability (and a higher price)... after they lose a bunch of customers for life, they switched back and now use a company that makes good batteries.

Personally from what I've seen, DieHards currently present the best quality for the dollar, while Optimas (remember there is an Optima made specifically for everyday people- those without a massive system) present the best quality and reliability overall.