I have a 2022 ES 350 F-Sport with 167,000kms (just over 100K miles). Today, on the way home from about 300kms away, the car started to ding intermittently and “tried” to show a warning light and message, but it would go away immediately. After driving about 20km, a warning message started showing up: “charging system malfunction…” Then, it said “warning high power consumption” and proceeded to cut back on my climate control. The nearest town was about 40kms away, I was doing 125km/hr (about 80mph), so I cut back the stereo, ventilated seats, no lights, no maps, etc. I barely made it to that town, after losing power electric steering! Anyways, a Canadian Tire is right on the border of the town, right off the highway, pulled into it and shut the car off.

The mechanic came out with a booster pack and voltmeter and said it’s the alternator right away. They have non in stock, the nearest Lexus dealer is close to my home, about 200kms away still. I called Lexus roadside assistance, and did eventually get it towed. Took a loooong time…. But Lexus said there are no alternators in all of Canada, they are back ordered and no ETA!

I paid the towing company extra to take it to my home, as otherwise the car would just sit on the dealer lot and I have a bunch of work stuff in it. My reasoning is that I could put a battery charger/maintainer on it for a few hours and start it up and perhaps drive it with the remaining charge in the 12V battery to the dealer or mechanic shop. So, after getting home, hooked it up to maintainer, wife had some supper ready and a cold beer (thankfully), after went out and my curious neighbour came over and I started the car with him holding a voltmeter on the battery terminals. It had gone from 11.8V to 12.4V after charging for a couple hours, but then after starting, a few warning lights on the dash, voltage dropped immediately to 11.9V. Turned the car off, and have the maintainer hooked on it right now and will leave it overnight.

Questions:

1. Is this the alternator, or perhaps some other aspect of the smart charging system? Or are they integrated?
2. Could this be the battery? I personally don’t think so, as it got me about 80km from what I think was a full charge… and it does appear to charge up with the maintainer outputting 1.5amps.
3. Could this be something else? Car has been flawless and meticulously maintained by myself.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Possible scenario: Alternator has been failing for some time which has not been charging the battery correctly and allowing a low state of charge. This stresses the battery and damages it. It is possible to have a partially functioning alternator which means no warning lights. But as I always say, test not guess. Have the battery load tested, free at Canadian Tire. Or test it yourself

cheaper on Aliexpress if you just want one on hand (nice to have)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007938037503.html

A super simple and easy test is check voltage at the battery with the engine running you should see 13.6+ volts. I checked around you're right no alternators anywhere this possibly indicates a high failure item or maybe just component shortages. 100,000 miles on an alternator is not impressive to be kind. Charging system in your car is "smart" meaning the alternator is controlled by the engine computer it commands charging current and adjusts based on engine temperature, RPM and other data.

After an overnight charge you should see around 13.2-13.5 volts that's typically where a charger levels off and maintains.

 

1. Pull codes from OBD port.
2. Recyclers have centralized parts search…use them to find used alternator until you can get a new one if that is the failed part.

 

There's a few on Ebay. I see they are made in Mexico this is not encouraging, nothing against the country at all but companies typically have parts made there as extreme cost cutting this means parts and labour.

 

Original OEM battery? I'd start there. It's also cheaper than an alternator.

 

This is a long shot but happened to me recently (my son's car). Short story is car was slow to start, auto parts store diagnosed a dying alternator. We replaced alternator and his car died a few days later. Towed to my mechanic and they found the battery cable/temp sensor was faulty. We replaced that connector and have been smooth sailing ever since.

 

I've personally rebuilt alternators before (it's not that fun) and many times the voltage regulator is the culprit but on MOST alternators it's not serviceable and the alternator must be rebuilt or replaced. I would just look at a reman (assuming its not under warranty).

 

This am, after the battery charged overnight, I read 12.62V, started the car. It seemed like a weird noise coming from the alternator area, but maybe that's what my brain wanted to hear... not sure. Took a brief video, but after replaying the video, it didn't capture any weird sounds. Belt looked in good condition (original @ 167,500kms), and I had actually planned to replace it this weekend at home. The voltage with the car running read 12.53V and then quickly dropped to 12.43V before I asked my wife to turn the car off - was running for about 45 sec. So, I don't think its a battery. Warning lights still on: parking assist unavailable, charging system malfunction and maybe others, I didn't get to see, cause I was mostly in the engine bay with the wife in the drivers seat.

I went to the dealership, with my car still at home and battery on charge. Their are no alternators in Can or US, back-ordered, no ETA. Its part #27060-0P440, same as for a 2019-21 Avalon and 2019-25 ES 350. No reman available either. Part cost is just over $1000 CAD, 4.5 hrs labour (@ $200 CAD/hr), plus a diagnostic fee of $200. I'm hoping they give me a break on some of this. I had purchased a serpentine belt, coolant and ATF to do these at home myself (drain & fills), but will at least get the dealer to do the new serpentine belt and they have to remove the radiator, so they are doing a coolant drain and fill anyways. Just don't know when the part will arrive, but they have been kind enough to schedule a loaner for next Wed, and I will try to drive the car to the dealer under charged battery power alone - its only about 7 kms away from my home.

 

Alternator on Ebay is $300 CAD landed at your door.

 

yup, you can figure parts at dealership to significant markup. Always search out elsewhere.

 

I would be concerned if I had the battery on a charger all night and it only came up to 12.62V...I would have expected to see quite a bit higher than that...possibly a parasitic drain that keeps dragging the battery down or a faulty cell in the battery?

 

That would be normal if the charger had a float mode and only starts charging again when drops to certain voltage. A normal charger after disconnect battery should read above 13 and after 20 minutes settle back down to 12.6.

 

Yes, mine is the 1.5A Schumacher Battery Charger/Maintainer. The light went from orange to green and just stayed in float/maintain mode. With it connected, when it was charging (orange light) it read 13.2V I believe. After disconnecting it, after a couple of min, it read 12.6V

I’m dropping it off at the dealer tomorrow morning, but they still don’t have an ETA on the alternator. Just don’t feel comfortable getting a reconditioned one….

 

Well, finally got the car back from the dealer. Drives real good again. They gave us a ‘24 ES 300h ultra luxury loaner, and to be honest, my ‘22 F-Sport seems way more solid. Had my wife drive it this evening, as she drove the loaner more than me (I took her ‘16 CX-5), and she said the same thing too. Look forward to many more km’s! They did a coolant D&F as well, as they had to remove the radiator. The bill showed 2 4L jugs of coolant. I had planned to do an D&F myself, and had bought the coolant, but maybe could wait until next year? Any thoughts?

Also, they tested the battery and said it checked out fine. I am still debating buying a new one from Costco. Any recommendations on replacing the battery? The one in right now is factory, I have 167,500kms (just over 100,000 miles) and the car will be 3 yrs old in 3 weeks.

 

Did they report on the electrical problem? Replace anything?