scdroptop

iTrader: (1)

Something must be wrong...

My battery (new Lexus OEM bought April of this year) lasts about two days then completely dies and I have to jump it. I got a new one in April because my previous battery was doing the same thing...would sit for no more than 2-3 days and die.

Since earlier in the year, I've added coilovers, injen intake and now the luxlink. This winter was brutal on the car because we had such a harsh string of sub freezing days in Dallas that I admittedly didn't drive or start the car for sometimes a week at a time and would have to jump it. I think that slowly killed the battery I just replaced.

I've owned the car for two years now and used to go as long as a week in between drives and have no problem. Just came back from a trip to Miami this weekend (actually started the car and drove it saturday morning) and Ebony barely turned over tonight! That's 2.5 days and it's almost dead????

The dealers says to get an Optima or a trickle charger, which I'm not crazy about the fit of the optima (and cost either, considering I just bought THIS battery) and where my outlet is in my garage for the battery tender. I'd have to climb over it to get to my trash can and get around the car in the front.

I've been playing around with the Luxlink wondering if there is an install issue because I still can barely get the darn thing to work consistently, including today which it just dropped the top and didn't start after I PERFECTLY executed the sequence before exiting.

I'm starting to wonder if the Luxlink is slowly draining the battery? I've tried not engaging the luxlink anymore when I exit the car and leave it in the garage unlocked, with key out so very minimal battery is used...YES, I make sure iPod is off, etc. Maybe I need to unplug it too?

Either way, is anyone ELSE experiencing much shorter battery life after LL install?

I took to the dealer after I had to jump it last week and they ran the meter on the charging system and said it was, "fine" and I just needed to start and drive it more. If the car cannot sit for more than two days without dying, something is definitely wrong....

I get the classic low lights, click, etc. of a drained battery after two days of sitting. Doesn't matter if I lock the car with or without engaging luxlink and doesn't matter if I remove the key and keep it unlocked. Basically, I think I have a battery drain somewhere...

Alternator??? Not charging the battery enough while it is running?

Solman

Droptop-what strange timing! I haven't driven my SC in a week and a half and a friend came over yesterday and I went to show him how the LL works. I go thru the sequence and the back 2 windows go up (top and windows were down)ONLY!-HUH!!! I then start the car just to put the roof up with the dash button and thought all was ok. I still did not drive it. Today, I went to drive it and went thru the sequence to start the car and drop the top. No start and the front windows dropped a couple of inches-I then got in her and noticed no interior lights came on. My battery is a 2 year old diehard and I did notice the cable connection is caked pretty good. I had already chalked this up to the SC sitting for a week and a half, but now you got me wondering. I have her on the quick charger right now-I'll let you know further when I figure out whats going on.

John

VVTiBob

Do you have an outlet on the ceiling for the garage door opener? If so, you could mount the BT up there and drop a line right down to the car.

Personally, I have not had had any problems with battery life, before or after the install of the Luxlink and my car sits in the garage usually three or four days a week. One big difference is our weather, very temperate and mild here is southern most southern California....

Regarding the alternator....you can pick up a car chip and it will log several pieces of data, here's a link http://www.carchip.com/Business/index.asp

Bon

Drptop, I can't speak directly to your problem but I have had the original LL for a couple of years. I also have an Optima red top. Yes, if I leave my SC sitting for several weeks (not days) I may have a problem starting it. That said, and my Optima hasn't been exactly flawless. My smart charger always complains that the Optima has calcification. The charger claims to be able to recondition the battery but never does or can't. But it still gives me "reasonable" charging intervals.

You said the dealer checked out the charging system but you still have doubts. Did they load test the battery? You can also easily measure the amperage drain on your battery. I'm sure that if you do this under several conditions such as doors locked and unlocked etc. that others will do the same for comparison. I know I will.

huy33

Hmmm... no problem on my part but then again I might go 1-2 days on the weekend without driving it.

If you want, we can switch remote this weekend at the meet and see if there's any difference in the luxlink operation between our two cars.

AusTexLex

This is crazy obvious and mostly likely not the issue, but check the connections on the battery closely, perhaps even clean the battery post and clamp with a small wire brush to ensure a fresh, clean connection. Even if the alternator is operating correctly, battery charging can be compromised by bad connections. Also meter the ground connection (if you have a VOM) set to "ohms" from the battery to the chassis. It should read zero or very close to it.

JohnnyCake

The root question from the OP is whether the LL draws current when the car is off. I don't know the answer to that, but I bet someone here does.

MrVancey

I've not had this problem with my SC, but I had a similar problem with a Pontiac Grand Prix many years ago. If I did not use the car for 2 or more days, the battery died. After about the 3rd time the car had to be towed in the dealer finally discovered the audio amplifier was on when it should have been off and was causing a draw on the battery all the time.

You might want to have the dealer or an auto electrical shop hook up a device which will show what functions are being drawn on the battery when everything is supposedly off. I was told by the Pontiac dealer that the clock is the only draw that should be showing. That's how they finally found the problem.

scdroptop

iTrader: (1)

Spoke to installer last night and I'm going to try some self diagnosis myself:

1) Need to drive the car more (duh). He said that my 10 minute drive up the street to starbucks and the gym 3x per week (less than 5 miles) is not enough and I need to put some more time/miles and at highway speeds on my car so that the alternator has a change to charge the battery.

2) The dealer tested the charging system and claimed that it was drawing 100 milliamps on the car, which according to the installer (who is a former master tech at Lexus) is crazy high and no wonder why my car is dying in two days. I purposely drove it more today to see. According to installer, our cars in "sleep" mode should draw about 5-10 milliamps. He said a car with a/c on, stereo, lights and LL being used should draw no more than 50 milliamps and if mine had 100 with none of that on but just running then we definitely have a problem. He said ballpark the LL should draw about 10-15 on it's own. He also mentioned if you don't "re-test" with the ampmeter/load tester you can get these ridiculously high readings and recommended I go back to dealer and tell them I'm still having a problem and re-test.

Another interesting note, (again this guy was a master tech at Lexus) said that the Optima batteries are great for these cars because after you add the Vais Tech, LuxLink, etc. you are drawing a considerable amount of amps more than stock batteries can sometimes handle. He wasn't convinced that is my problem though as he really wants me to drive it more and ensure my Vais unit is off, lights are "off" and a/c is off when I start.

What sucks is that this is a third car. I got LuxLink to enjoy it when I start/turn off the car and put the top down. If doing that causes the car to not start, then I need to rethink this. He offered if I'm still having problems, take it to the dealer and they still say nothing is wrong with my charging system or battery that perhaps the LL is drawing way too many amps and we should switch out with my other LL. (process of elimination, I guess)

Weather-it's 82 today in Dallas. It was warm all weekend too. I definitely agree that weather plays a part, but not in this case with the brand new battery and only a couple of days. I am seriously considering getting a battery tender now and plugging it in above my car where the garage door opener is at. Good idea! Yes we get some cold weather in the wintertime and even my new cars have problems starting in the dead of winter (sub zero for a week last year...Superbowl Week) if they are not started/driven in a week or so, but not a couple of days. God forbid I would have to drive this car to the airport for a business trip of 2-3 days...I'd be SOL.

So, I'll be driving the car more looks like. Looks like I may be getting a tender. Also looks like I'm going to test the waters and see if it dies in two days again and go back to dealer and have them do a load test to see if it's still that high---and it if is, get a new battery and then test the LL again with a different unit.

One final note-for those of you with OEM Lexus batteries...he said that due to the 5-6 cells in these batteries potentially going bad after a dead battery and jump start series, you can have a partially dead battery pretty quickly if you don't watch it. I've had to jump twice since I've bought this new battery since April....mmmmmmmm.

I will keep you all posted. Thanks for your input/suggestions as always!

mandyfig

Have you tried checking or thought about parasitic discharge? Maybe the LL is drawing a load?

When the car is off, there should not be a load on the car battery.

I forgot on how to check it with a multimeter. Time to google it.

kjcole

Sounds like something is staying energized that shouldn't. Seen it happen with radios/cb's in touring motorcycles. Check draw with an ammeter in series with the battery (ignition off, external and interior lights off, obviously). You should see that 100 ma draw. Then, one-by-one unplug the suspects (aftermarket items first, then radio, nav, I'd say) looking for a big drop in the draw. When that happens, there's you faulty component. Unless there is current draw, a car in good repair with a good battery and the proper oil should be able to start after a few weeks in teens (F) with evening dips well below 0. Mine always have in Wisconsin and Iowa winters. I understand these SC's are drawing a little with the ignition off so I'll be curious to see how mine fares during its first winter with me.

BNR34

iTrader: (1)

My SC430 usually sit from Monday to Thursday when I drive my LS430 to work...........so it sit 3-4 days every week, no issue with battery life.

My LuxLink was installed by Steve a few months ago.

Bon

Our group 48 batteries have around 75 amp hours of capacity. With a 100 milliamp continuous load the battery will last about one month until it's discharged. Infrequent fully discharging a battery and recharging it does no harm if the battery isn't left in the discharged state for an extended time. This would be a month or longer in my opinion. If you frequently deep discharge a battery then you'd be better off with a deep cycle battery.

Scdroptop, I don't agree with your installer at all. A single, lowly, 12 volt, 6 watt, bulb draws 1/2 amp which is 500 milliamps. (Current = watts / volts)

To measure your own SC's parasitic load just disconnect either the negative or positive lead from the battery and then connect a multimeter between the battery terminal post and the battery cable. The multimeter and its leads must be set for DC amps setting. Usually there is a 10-amp setting. This setting will give you sufficient accuracy for most situations. Remember to turn off all interior lights etc, of course. You can then pull fuses until you find an offending load sucker if you have one.

I measured my SC (with the previous generation LL) I see about 800 milliamps draw for the first 10-20 seconds and then it drops to around 160 milliamps. I'd say two to three weeks garage time is about what I get if I don't charge my battery by driving or otherwise.

One last thing, alternators provide a decent charge rate even at city driving speeds so don't feel like you need to blast down a freeway to get it done. It does take time though, no matter what speed you go. Generators, from yesteryear, where really bad in the city and that's why the industry went to alternators.

Solman

I must say that being an active user of LL for 3 1/2 years, I've never had a battery problem except for this oddity this week. After having it on a quickcharge, I drove it without an issue. I did replace the original battery 2 years ago and have not had any further problems. I would think if LL is the culprit, it is probably an installation issue. I doubt that is the cause either. My daily drive is 3 miles to and from work and that does not seem to run down the battery. I think you have a draw elsewhere.

John

mrblister

I must chime in with my opinion. I cant see how the LL is drawingf that much power to be a problem . I have the LL installed for 3 almost 4 years. My car is a BIG TIME Garage queen. I have a battery tender on it full time and never have had a problem starting car and more importantly when I do drive it summer witth lots of accessories in it runs fine. The only time i had a problem was when I left the trunk open ajar and the trunks light drained the battery. I have since switched to LED 'S where ever I can so I am not concerned with any of these lights left accidently on. I dont think your problem is with the LL.