hs250owner

Hello All, Thanks in advance for your help.

We recently bought a 2010 HS 250 H. When we woke up yesterday the car wouldn't start. The remote opened the door and I was able to push the power on but no display or radio. Got car jump started and it then drove and powered on fine. Later that evening (of course I was at work and she called me flipping out) she was going to go out and the remote wouldn't open the door and the cars horn was making a very short and not loud honk every couple seconds (I assume that may be what killed battery in the first place). After poking around, I found the horn relay in the engine fuse box was blinking green. I jumped the car again and it powered on fine, remote worked again but the car died again very soon after. I pulled the horn relay and the honking stopped but car seems dead again.

She had left the car powered on for about 3 hours a couple weeks ago at work(not used to the push start/stop). Could this have killed the electrical.

Has this happened to anyone. I hope its just the 12v Battery going dead but I am not sure why the Horn relay would be blinking or why the horn would honk like it was.

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

corradoMR2

Hi.

Welcome to the forum in unfortunate circumstances.

The good news is, that is highly likely the 12V battery which is dead. Would not surprise me it's the original battery ~6 years old and therefore time for a new one. Had that starting issue with similar symptoms on my CT when the 12V battery died. If it was a bigger problem with the hybrid powertrain, you'd have a written message on the LCD display in the gauge cluster.

Good luck and post your results.

TheAirman

This is a fun one.

First, relays under the hood, usually do not have indication lights in them to indicate any sort of fault or operational status. So the blinking green light, I do not understand.

So I watched the video. It seems to be an indicator lamp on the dash board display flashing. Correct? Or is this actually a blinking green light on a relay you filmed under the hood of the car, in the fuse box?

Sometimes on cars with built in factory alarm systems, when the battery goes dead, strange things happen. You need 12 volts to hold alarm relays open, and you need 12 volts to hold alarm relays closed. This could account for the horn honking with a dying battery.

But that green blinking light in your dark vireo, I don't understand.

If your boss left the car on in "ready" mode for three hours, that would have no effect on the 12 volt battery as in "ready" mode the car is using the traction battery, and water temperature to start and shut down. You could turn on the car, walk away, and it will run and shut down until you run the tank dry with no ill effects. It won't overheat or run the battery down.

If she left it on in "accessory" mode, that's a different story. That will run the 12v battery down. Recharge it, and you should be good. Yours didn't hold a recharge, so I'd say you need a new battery. It's a special, remote vented, gel battery, so shop around and remember that a Toyota Camry hybrid battery might be cheaper.

hs250owner

Thanks for the responses,

corradoMR2, you really relieved a lot of stress from my shoulders by (still hopefully) confirming it is 12v issue.

TheAirman, thanks for what you said as well, same loss of stress. I want to answer your questions real quick.
I had never seen a blinking light in the relay or fuse box either but it was there, actually built into the relay. The lamp indicator flashing from my video was in the dashboard, the video with the blinking relay in engine compartment was not visible in other videos i took so i did not upload.
Again, we have an appointment with Lexus service on wednesday, if it is not solved by then, I will repost with whatever Lexus says, everything i know about cars makes me think it is to do with alarm and dead 12v.

Follow up qustion: Warranty
Only have had car for 30 days, this issue should be covered in the 90 day/3,000mi warranty that came with used car purchase, right?

Clutchless

Depends on the wording of your individual warranty.

You just need a new 12 volt battery. Always try the simple repair first, especially if a known wear item is involved, such as a battery in this case that is past its expected life expectancy. However these are expensive batteries.

At least the hybrid battery and drive train have an 8 year warranty.

TheAirman

I thought that blinking light looked like the "head lights ON" indicator light on the dash.

The only other thing that I can think of that causes weird electronic things to happen is the "Body Electronics Module", and that is super expensive, and you better hope it's covered by a warranty.

With the Lexus dealer, I'm almost sure a battery is covered. Keep us posted on what they find.

Clutchless

I bet you will find all the strange lights and noises are cured when you replace the battery. Low voltage does create a variety of symptoms on different components. They are all just symptoms of the dying battery.

hs250owner

Ok, UPDATE,

Had a mechanic friend come over with a fancy gel battery charger. Charged it to 100% last night, disconnected charger and it drained down to 8.5volts within a few hours. This morning, to make sure it was not an electrical component in the car draining the battery, I disconnected battery from car and charged it again to 100%. 2 hours later it has now drained down below 11volts. Obviously bad battery/old battery, I assume it is the 6 year old factory battery.
Wanted to stick to original parts so I called a lexus dealer and they wanted $325 for the replacement battery. Called a toyota dealer and they wanted $405. My mechanic friend works at Ferrari shop and they found the same battery for about $125-$150.
I am currently waiting for battery to arrive at shop and hook it up.

My guys agree with you CLUCHLESS that the battery can cause all kinds of funny electronic errors when it dies.
I will post an update tomorrow after batter has been in for a day and i try driving it around a bit.

Thanks again for your help and advice.

Magellan55

Hmmm, guess it's time to start shopping for a cheap source battery for my 2010...

GS300ken

Check with local Toyota dealer. I was able to get mine around $250 OEM battery.

Clutchless

The factory battery may come with the temperature sensor attached. When your Ferrari mechanic friend installs the new aftermarket battery, make sure he moves your temperature sensor over from the old battery.

corradoMR2

On Lexuspartsdirect.ca, a conventional battery is compatible too...

http://www.lexuspartsdirect.ca/p/Lex...425060550.html

hs250owner

Hey all, sorry for the delay with final details and update. So the cheap battery we found($150) which my Ferrari mechanic spent 6 hours contacting everyone he knew and was guaranteed to fit, DID NOT FIT. Not because it wasn't gel or wasn't made to work with hybrids, but because the battery tray in the Lexus HS250h is designed with indentations so that the only battery that will fit is the special Panasonic battery. The indentations make it so any square battery (essentially any battery out there) will not fit.
Any way, after that long day, finally charged the battery overnight and drove it 30mi to the dealership we bought it from. They sell the battery for $300, best price I was able to find from any of the dealers in San Jose,CA, but not the reason we went there. We went there so I could ***** about it going dead after 29 days of ownership.

After service rep telling us it was going to cost $400 with instilation, i said screw that, ill buy the battery for $300 and take it home and do it myself (12v Battery was not covered by the extended warranty or the 90 day/3000mi). I *****ed a little more, he agreed to do a free service inspection to make sure it was only the battery.

Positive stuff. They ended up replacing the battery for free during the free inspection, i guess it was very obvious it was just the battery had gone dead. They called it a "one time goodwill for a non warrant-able concern. Battery covered in the interest of customer satisfaction."

Im fine with it, car has had no issue since, and my girlfriend is happy and plans to take it back to them for any future work or maintenance.

Thanks you all for all your help and advice, I hope my story helps others out there. I guess the key to remember is that a dying 12v can cause a cars electronics to flip out in really weird ways(especially these newer cars with all the bells and whistles).

corradoMR2

Yep, a weak or dead battery makes your dash light up like a Christmas tree!

Glad it worked out. This reminds me I should check my battery too see if it's the original or not...

TheAirman

Thanks for the update. That's really good info !!

So the battery tray has some sort of indentations that only allow a certain battery to fit?

That's interesting and good to know since all of our cars are getting older now. I guess I'll have to pull off that cover and check for myself.