LagunaRx

My 2002 Rx300, is 11yrs this month, still have the original battery. Anybody else have such great results. I have done all maintenance, recommended by this site, Never been to a shop, the car now has 130,000. Will do the timing belt soon. Thank you for everything
P.S. Had not worked on a car for 20 years, been great fun.

code58

Congratulations and cherish every one of those years that you got out of that Panasonic battery. They indeed are a terrific battery but the only way to get one is if you buy a car built in Japan. They aren't sold here and the cars that are built here either have batteries built in Mexico or the U.S. and neither one of those battery sources build a battery that will last a fraction of the time the Japanese batteries will. Sad state of affairs but most of the American manufacturers that made high quality batteries have been bought by Johnson Controls who then produces junk batteries in the same facilities. It's ALL about the money!

CharBaby

Apon starting the engine, If you notice that your interior clock returns to...01:00 then, it will be telling you that your battery is getting weak and will soon be in need of replacement. Also, if you have to keep increasing the "Brightness" on your info screen or,,, if your "Tempuratrue" setting changes from your last setting. These are all clues that the battery is telling you something. Or the battery connection...or something!

Most digital clocks return to 12:00 when there is a slight power loss but, not in Toyota/Lexus

LagunaRx

Thanks Code58, I thought that was true, I am going with this battery till it dies, have a spare Kirkland. See how many miles I can go. Prices of all parts, seem to be going up. Where is the best, using Amazon
P.S. I only use OEM

code58

Amazon is good on some parts. There are other sources on E-bay that art also excellent. I agree with ONLY using OEM parts. Great that you can actually buy many of them from outside of dealer sources (read sane prices, rather than insane) LOL. Rememver that if you have a battery on hand it is VERY important to keep it full charged at ALL times. When a battery gets even 1/4 to 1/2 discharged it sulfates VERY quickly! You don't want a battery that when you go to use it you find it is now JUNK!
BTW, do you live in Laguna? I am in FV.
Also, BTW, I load test my batteries ever couple months or so. That way I can see the decline (sometimes up to a year or year and a half before they go) and replace when the load test tells me it's getting weak enough it may leave me stranded. With 12V batteries there is often NO warning sign from cranking speed, just sudden failure. Load test tells you when that is going to happen.

mckellyb

We received 8 years out of the OEM on Princess, my wife's 2002.

Our motorcoach, a 1999 diesel pusher...I got 11 years out of the engine starting batteries, and 10 years out of the 6V golf cart batteries I had to purchase after I learned just how clueless the PO was about flooded cells.

Keep them charged, desulfate twice a year, and to prevent terminal corrosion, put about an ounce of mineral oil, like you can get at the pharmacy, in each cell. I know, I didn't believe it, either, but somehow, the oil 'catches' the acidic vapour during charging.

Also, your 'maintenance free' battery likely has caps underneath the label on the top. Keeping them at the proper level is CRUCIAL. Distilled water, only. Don't have any? Adding tap water is worse than waiting a couple of days.

For a desulfator...mine has paid for itself a couple of times over after 10 years, check this guy's stuff out. I'm not affiliated in any way, shape, or form, just have one which has been working, in harsh conditions, mostly high temperature, since 2003, without a single problem.

http://home.comcast.net/~ddenhardt20...sulfparts2.htm

FWIW, all the batteries I've had to replace had internal damage due to age and environment, i.e. they'd been shaken so much, the plates inside broke off their mounts.

The four 6V Trojan T-105 'house' batteries in the coach I abused, regularly, on long trips. You're not supposed to run them down past like 60% of full charge. More than once, I had them in the area of 15%. Meh. Desulfation to the rescue!!!