AndyL

Thanks for the info, I also had the same observation about the voltage with the battery in my daily driven IS. Today, a few hours after car usage, I went in the car once with my key and then I checked the battery. It was 12.45V and 639CCA. I still have the original battery which is rated at 580A CCA.

So does it mean my batter is still acting normally? And for the dash cam parking mode issue -- it stopped after 3-4 hours because I set the threshold to be 12.4V? But last time when I cam back to the car after using the parking mode, the car started but you can hear it was a little struggle.

AndyL

Thanks for the info. I talked to my dealership the other day for other matters and when I asked about the 3IS battery drain, they said the ECU fix is available. At least they don't deny the problem.

LeapFrog

12.45V sounds a bit low, it should be 12.6V for a 100% SOC, perhaps a bit higher due to the surface charge mentioned above. How did you measure the battery voltage and how did you measure the CCA? - Usually CCA measurement takes tools such as a carbon pile or EIS (spectroscope), tools that most casual mechanics don't have handy.

AndyL

I am using SOLAR BA7 from Clore Automotive. It measures both CCA and the voltage. I bought this because it is handy and I store it along with a NOCO Genius battery charger in my trunk all the time. I might try with a multimeter next time and see how accurate it is .

corradoMR2

Good to know it's available. I guess they won't issue a recall but instead have it as a TSB and apply the fix if a customer points out the issue or requests it. I'll ask my dealer.

magne

Hello.
this will be a bit of a longer post, so that the lexus techs in this thread will get some info. Sorry for any poor english, I am from norway, and right now writing on a small pad with a very uncooprative touch keyboard.

First of all the car is a 2014 lexus is 300h. The european version of the is, with the hybrid engine.

The battery drain issue has happend to me twice in the last 6 monthes. Now remmember this is a hybrid car.
the small starter battery has drained itself overnight, leaving the car completly DEAD. Not any signs of life. No doors unlocking, no lights come on, nothing happens when i start the car, everyhting is completly dark.
The two times this has happend, the car has sat about 2-3 days in the garage unlocked.
other times the car has sat in the garage 7-10 days, both locked and unlocked, and the problem has not accured.
Yesterday I walked past the car with the keyfob in my pocket, when I was getting something in the garage, and the car lit up like normal. It also "went back to sleep" after about 30 seconds, like it is suupposed to.
today i come out in the garage and the car is dead. The doors have unlocked and the bootlid popped open, maybe the car does this as a safety precaution? Maybe it has done it by itself, leaving the lights on making the battery run empty? The car was not open yesterday. As I was in a bit of ahurry to get to work, I took another car to work, leaving my car dead in my garage.

Now here is the deal. I used to work as a technican at mercedes some years ago. I know a bit about searching for errors. So i will do that when i get home.
is there anything special the techs in here would like me to check?
although i'm not fammiliar with lexus, and does not have access to advanced vehichle diagnostics, i can check some basic things.

Last time this happed to me was march or april. I have a starter pack in my garage, so i just jumpstarted the car. The hybrid battery was still at 60% full, after the car was started. Also, as far as I have understood, the hybrid drivetrain does not have an alternator? It has its own unit built into the cvt gearbox, containing both alternaitor, starter motor and some more devices?
so this leaves me to believe it has nothing to do with the alternaitor.
as the car sat 7 days in the garage several times after the first inncident with battery drainage, it also leaves me to believe that it is not the battery itself. It is most likely a discharge of some sort.
I have read through the whole thread here, and the fuel preassurize check seems like a probable solution.
mostly because it accurs only in certain conditions, and does not go over exstended periods of time.
My car sat for 2 days, and was good yeasterday *** all the lights turned on after walking by it, and was completly dead about 12 hours later.
if it was the battery, it should have happend in the winter when it was cold norwegian winter outside, and the temp was about minus 20 celcius outside. Instead this happend in spring and summer, when the temp was around 10 celcius and 20 celcius outside. Forgive me for not taking the touble to convert to fahrenheit.
i absolutely suspect a discharge of some sort. And it is random and sudden. Not accuring over time.

My dealership will look at the car in about a week, but i will recharge the battery tonight when i get home from work. If my dealership tests the battery, and it turnes out to be good, this will be a good inidication of my discarge theory. The dealership here in norway takes it custumers very seriousley, and I will try to speak with the people I know at the service department there.
However, since this is already an issue dealt with by other lexus technicians at this forum, i doubt that the people in norway can do anything more than to confirm my suspisions. It will take an incredible amount of luck to find the error as you need to meassure the correct device at the correct time when this accurs.

However the technicians in here can get the following info from me. I do not use bluetooth. I have barely tried it with my car, and have maybe used it one time every 3 moths or so. And only to speak on the phone. Have never connected an apple product. Only nokia and samsung.
Also, the software on the navi was flashed when the car was serviced, and a newer version installed. The was in april or may. After first inncident with drainage, but before second time.
car has ML system with navi, and keyless function. F sport and as mentioned 2014 IS 300hybrid.

If there is something i can do to help the tecnicians in here in the right direction, please let me know.
i will have to bring my car back to life tonight so i can use it to work tomorrow. So sometime arround 7pm today, local time (cet+1) i will connect my starter pack, if I haven't heard back from anyone in here.

magne

Update. Battery was at 4,5 volt. Would not take charging.
Hybrid system would not function because of low voltage, brakes and steering would not function.
Did not help to connect power pack.

Ended with the car beeing driven away on a tow truck. Which is unheard of for a lexus here in Norway.

magne

So far, the mechanic at the dealership told me that the battery itself has short circuted internally. It has also fried almost all the fuses in the entire car.
Even the cars main fuse rated at 100amps was fried.

Looks like my case of bad battery does not compare to the other cases in here.

If there is any more faults that caused the short circut, I'll post about it. If it was just the battery that shorted internally, it is probably just one more case of bad battery.

LeapFrog

This seems very odd. I can't imagine a scenario where an internal short (cell-to-cell) would cause an external fuse to blow.

magne

Really not quite sure about what happend with my car.
The battery had an internal short circut, so that was the reason the car was dead, according to the guy at the dealership that fixed the car.

When the car was jump started by a power pack, to get the car out of the garage before loading it onto the tow truck, almost all systems were dead. The engine did however start for a short time. Brake servo, power steering, display, and many other things was not functioning.
Gear lever had to be forced into D, using the metod in the instruction book. (freeing the lever with a hidden button)
All the fuses for these systems was fried. No idea why.

Garage told me that they had not found any more faults, or anything using power while the car was parked and ignition off.

Just have to use the car some more and see if the problem occurs again.

My0gr81

He drives a Hybrid model, so not really on topic with this thread. Nevertheless, an internal cell to cell short could result in more current flowing, specially if that battery is in series with the other batteries. It would explain the drop in voltage across the circuit and the fuse to blow.

I would have thought that the batteries in the hybrids have their own internal monitoring circuits that would shut that single battery off without having the fuse blow. Would still require a tow, but at least, repairs would be a single battery replacement.

AndyL

Sorry to hear what happened to your car. Did the garage/dealership offer to replace the battery?

magne

The battery and fueses was replaced under warranty.
They tried to charge me for the fuses at first, but gave in after a short discussion, as I could show that the fuses was functioning before the battery died.
Don't quite know how the setup between the igntion\starter battery and the hybrid battery works in these cars work, but they are sepparate and only the normal 12v starter battery was shorted.

Also worth metioning that the car was towed to the nearest dealership, which is a toyota dealership, however they are not allowed to touch the car, so a lexus mechanic was brought in from the nearest lexus facilty, and reparied the car.
However I had to deal with the toyota customer service, whick is not as professional as the lexus customer service.

Planeview

Just want to report my IS250 2014 just needed another jump 3 days ago. First one was when the car was 2 months old. Just came back from a long trip so I assumed that was the problem.
Second time was 1 month later. Dealer told me they can't find anything wrong again. Told me I shouldn't open the driver door while the car was in park and then turn off the engine. Yea right, I did that all the time with my previous cars.

This last time I didn't drive it for only one day. The dealer told me they can't find anything wrong and was gong to send me on my way. I started complaining and finally they let me have a new battery. They also told me not to jump next time.

I told the dealer about this website where there are a lot of similar complaints, they said they can't depend on what the Internet is saying and declined my offer to send them the link. I think they know there is a problem but wants to keep it hush hush to avoid a recall.

My0gr81

Just call Lexus customer service directly, tell them the story and have them deal with the dealer on replacing the gate ECU as a possible fix. This has reportedly worked for some, but it may not be considered a definite fix by Lexus yet and the dealers wouldn't know about every possible complaints but corporate would.

The dealers don't try to hush hush things to "avoid a recall", it's in their interest to report all issues to Toyota/Lexus and as we've seen in past cases, they have been slammed by the regulators and in civil trials when they do try to "hush hush".