F Monster

I was heading home last night from work and I started up my car, it didn't start but the lights on the dashes were going in and out. It took 4-7 cranks for it to finally start up. I was able to drive home and then record more multiple sessions of it not starting up. So I thought it was the battery so I went to O'Reilly to get it tested as that was where the original owner purchased the battery. Before arriving I recorded another video on a cold start and it had th same issues. Then when I arrived at O'Reilly's, the problem went away. The employee there said the battery, starter, and altnerator checked out. So I left O'Reilly and went home. Tested it a coiple more times and it still was fine then an hour later I had to head to work and boom the symptom came back. Do you guys have any ideas on what could be causing this? I read some threads on it but seems like the videos that were being posted was a dead battery, no symptoms like mine.

Below is the attached video, sorry couldn't rotate the video, just got an iPhone 7 Plus and it sucks.

https://youtu.be/N3FiWYz4M_E

ATXChris

Spend 15 bucks on a basic voltmeter, and test the battery yourself with the car off, while starting, and idling. Looks like a low battery to me on every other car I've owned. Cold batteries have less power, so it may have warmed up enough to not be exhibiting the problem by the time you got to O'Reilly. Same behavior a few years back in my Cayman. Voltage came back in the high 12s with the car off, replaced the battery before it failed and the tired start went away.

Check your connectors, too. Could have some corrosion in the way.

revolut1on

I would spend the money and try a new battery. I was having some weird issues where my sat nav screen would restart randomly, RPM needle would do the reset sweep and power steering cut out for a second all whilst driving. Put in a new battery and all issues went away.

tas02

iTrader: (2)

^^^^^+1 on what revolut1on said.

I recently had a shop 20 mi. from my home install coilovers. Drove car home without incident, then when I went to drive it the next day, the nav screen was blank (but car started fine). Spent the next few days reading threads on the diy repair & driving w/no nav screen. After about a week, the battery failed to start the vehicle.

Then swapped out the Isf battery (dated 1/15) with the same sized one in my '87 Hilux. Car fired right up and the nav screen works great.

ISFMichael

I agree, sounds like a battery issue to me as well. It's probably coming to the end of it's life.
On the drive over to get it tested, the alternator may have charged it up a bit, so that could be why when they tested it it appeared to be ok.

F Monster

I forgot to mention the battery is only 1 year old. Previous owner purchased it on July of 2015. Scary to think the battery would drain that fast. And surprisingly the employee at O'Reilly said the battery was fine. I'll go to AutoZone tomorrow and get it tested again and see if they say anything different. I'm suspecting it might be the wrong battery or something.

ATXChris

Buy your own tester, don't rely on someone else.

kiryu

hmmm if the battery is only 1 year old...it might just be low charge.
Get a ctek battery tender and recondition the battery, often times it might be able to rejuvenate the battery back to life and pays for itself
with winter coming, lower temps and more power requirements, the battery might slowly lose its charge
if it still loses charge then check if there's any electrical mod in the car that might be draining the power

ISF4life

iTrader: (30)

Time to drive it across the border and get a new f boy lolz

fathorsejr

iTrader: (6)

You're in Arizona papi. Batteries may last up to a year or 2. I had the the same symptoms and it was the battery. Holla if you hear me!

jlam86

iTrader: (1)

I also experience this with my 2012. It is weather dependent for ,e. Seems like it happens more so in the summer i believe. My buddy with a 2012 also seems to experience it at the same times of the year as me also. I have mentioned it to lexus and they tested the battery and said it was good. I am still running with the same battery now and haven't had much issues. It seems to be a hit and miss for me, but the weather does play an effect.

knshro13

iTrader: (4)

Sounds like abattery issue. I had the same problem, even with the voltage checking out fine. I swapped the original battery with a Bosch, and the issue never came back. Starter cell motor turns faster than ever.

F Monster

Yeah it is indeed the battery, thanks for the tip guys. I went to get a second opinion from Autozone since I don't have the tools to check it, and they said it's shot for sure. I bought a Duralast Gold Plus from Autozone and ended up not even fitting.. the battery was half an inch taller than my previous one and caused the support bracket to not fit.. I'm going to return it and going to pick up a RedTop Optima tomorrow, spent the whole day searching for one all over Arizona and just found out Pepboys were the only ones offering them. Also going to invest into a battery tender as well.

F Monster

Honestly replacing a battery shouldn't be this difficult, it's not rocket science but it was so difficult for me. The battery I purchased from Autozone was too tall so the securing bracket wouldn't sit on top. Then I called just about almost every store in Arizona to get a RedTop Optima 25 battery since most ISF guys run these and they say it fits. Almost every store I called said they would have to special order it or didn't have it in stock. I finally found a Pepboys store that carried it and they had one in stock so I opted for it. Took two days to track this battery down, then when I finally got home from work, I found out the RedTop battery was too small for the bracket... I spent another hour or so trying to create a 'booster' seat for the battery so it would secure correctly. Ending up making this wooden booster seat that worked, but all in all, I spent a total of 3-4 days tracking down a battery that would work with the brackets and it was just so much more difficult than it had to be. If Lexus created a better adjustable securing bracket then it would have made life so much simpler. I'm glad it's over and now that I think about it, sometimes when I parked my car before, I literally had to press my key fob 10+ times in order to get it to lock, I thought it was the keyfob that was defective since the previous battery was only one year old.

First Battery: Autozone Duralast Gold: Didn't fit, was too tall.


Second Battery: RedTop Optima 25: Also didn't fit.. was too short.


Booster Seat:



Finished Product:


Hopefully my struggle benefited some owners lol.

revolut1on

I had a yellow top previously and it came with plastic brackets to boost it up. Basically what you tried to do with the block of wood. I remember reading that some guys didn't get that bracket and had to call Optima to send them out one.