alright ive been working on a sound system in my car recently and this is when the battery problems started. I only get about 5 hours a week to work on the car, and so its been about 2 months since ive been working on it. Since all the chairs and everything is out i only drove it once every 3 days and for about 5 minutes. Whenever i work on the car, i remove the negative terminal. recently my battery dies to the point where the car wont start. After the 3rd time it died, I jumped it and drove it for 1 hour on the freeway. 2 days later i go to drive it and its dead again. This morning i jumped it and drove it for 5 min. Right when i parked it i ran a multimeter reading on the battery contacts and it was 12.50. 30 minutes later it was 12.39. Is this normal? Ill be running more readings every hour and see what happens..

as far as the sound system goes, the main power wire that goes to my amps and stuff hasnt even been connected to the battery yet..Ever. all ive done was put in the speakers, etc etc..but no actual electrical work concerning the battery. I checked all lights and stuff, and they are all off.

any suggestions?

thanks

 

I was working on a different car that had the same problem. What I found was the alarm was connected to the car which I thought I had disabled, this just discharged the battery. I jump started the car, but after 1 day of idle time, it will not crank anymore.

What I did to fix the problem is I filled the battery with distilled water (it was half empty) then charged it with a battery charger. After that, no more problems. The car was idle for 1 week and it is still starting with no problems. You also might want to keep the car running for a longer period time when you do your warm up.
Good luck.

 

i just had *exact* same problem on my other lexus..

it's time to change battery..

 

how would i go about checking whether I need to add distilled water or not?

I looked on the top left corner of the battery and theres a sticker that shows three pictures of how something is supposed to look if the battery is:
a) ok
b) needs distilled water
c) needs charging

but i dont understand what im supposed to match the red and blue symbol/picture with. I didnt want to mess around with it, until i know what im doing for sure..

wierd thing is I dont know what discharged the battery in the first place? my parents have an s500 and they drive it like once a week for like 5 minutes, and the batterys been good for a year now..i know what they do is bad, and i tell em, but they dont listen. i mean everytime i work on the car i remove the negative terminal. so what could have drained it? just from being idle so long? the cars 2 years old, think if i take it to lexus would they warranty it? i drive my car daily now (if the battery worked) but i still remove the negative battery once a week to work on it..think i should change the battery now, or when im done with the whole system? i dont want my new battery dieing on me also. Kinda just want to know what the problem was.

oh and, is it bad to try to turn on the car when the batteries dead..like when you get that "click click click" noise...if so i guess i should get this taken care of immediately, instead of just trying it and just jumping it when it doesnt turn on.

btw..thanks for all the quick responses..you guys are awesome.

-allen

 

fierce,

Because you still have warranty, You should bring the car to the dealer, they should cover it. All you have to say is the battery discharged for some reason.

If they do not replace it, you should try what I did on my previous post, or just purchase a new one, it sounds like you are re-doing your entire system, so you should invest on some Optima batteries.

 

ROFL. Bring the car in with no seats? I think they'll laugh him out of town.

 

I'm having the same problem...I don't drive my GS much in the winter, and I haven't been as diligent as I should in connecting my trickle charger, or disconnecting my battery terminal to avoid the discharge from my alarm/tracking system. I also had the issue where I charged it, drove for an hour and then let it sit for about 4 hours...came back...nothing, dead battery. I have looked into the Optima batteries and they are not that bad pricewise...if they are as good as they claim. I think for my car I need the Red Top Model 34, but I thought that I remeber superjoe having a yellow top..deep cycle battery, but I don't have nearly the electronics he has in his GS. I still have it charging right now, what I'll do is test it again...drive for like an hour and bring it back home...let it sit w/o the charger for a day and then see what happens...if it doesn't start it'll be Optima time.

 

For you guys that are having your batteries DEAD after a few hours or even days of not driving, sounds like more of an issue of something draining it, in addition to your existing battery just being weak; probably directly related.

I don't have heavy electronics per se either really, but I do like the idea of my newly installed Optima Yellow, since when I do drive it, I like to pump up the voulme a little , and these days, I only drive my car 2-3 days every 15 days.

How much OEM draw is there from the alarm, clock, and whatever else? Enough to fully drain a weak battery? I don't think so?

 

In case you guys were unaware of this: The factory batteries are pretty lame! I have had my factory battery replaced TWICE under warranty!!! The 2nd time was @ 2 months ago here at my house in the garage! I don't drive my car in the rain (just if I happen to get caught in it) and damn sure not when there's freezing precipitation or ice or some sh**! So after exactly 3 days of sitting waiting for the roads to clear up (my 98'Cobra sat up for over a week and cranked! :eek: ) I went to leave and 'zilch', wouldn't even turn! So anyway, I called Lexus out and he was gonna give me a jump, and I explained that the battery was less than 2 years old! He said, "Yep, I know what you mean, I get more calls for battery jumps than anything else combined even flats!!! Come on now Lexus.

 

It seems like I am not the only one dis-satisfied with the OEM battery...Had the car just over 2 years, and needed to replace the battery over the weekend. Did not even mess with warranty cause they'll replace it with crap again...

Went down to NAPA, got the $79 special, and should be good to go for at least 4-5 years. Why do car co's do this? Always trying to cut corners...but in a $50K car??? WTF?

(like busting into Ft Knox the way Lexus straps the batteries down!!)

Wally

 

LOL!!! My sentiments exactly Wally!

 

wow seems like this is a pretty common problem after all. well im going to give lexus a call now to take the car in. the guys that work at my lexus dealer are pretty cool people. i took it it once with the seats and everything stripped and they were pretty much excited to see the end result with the system. guess they get to see the system at different stages of its making now=).

after the system is in im going with a optima yellow top for sure...but since this is under warranty why not get a working one and use that till the system is ready to go..and plus im also going to use the new stock battery to run my system on low for a while with the car OFF to speed up the break in process (for the speakers and stuff)..dont want to put that strain on my new optima =).

my biggest concern was that i was doing something wrong (never really thought a battery should die in 2 years)..but since it seems so common, i guess its just the battery lexus is using.

thanks again,
allen

 

In my case I am not only getting the OEM power drain. I have an aftermarket stolen vehicle tracking unit (not Lo-Jack) and it polls the car via satellite every 30-40 minutes. My suspicion is that it drains quite heavily after 7-8 days of none use. Again my own fault for not connecting my trickle charger, but I just wanted to clarify.

 

hey how come u disconnected the neg battery part and not the postive end?

 

I am glad that i am not the only one having battery problems, i knew i wasn't crazy. But the problem is when you ask your friends or people on the street they too often want to act like there car experiences no problems because it is a "LEXUS" or BMW or Benz whatever the only way to get true info is on forums like this.

When i first bought my gs they had to replace the battery that day. On a "Certified" car. I was out riding stopped tried to crank back up, "Click, Click, Click" !@#$! i had to get a guy in a BMW to jump me off (that was embarrassing i didnt even have my tag yet) but ever since i replace a battery like once a year. At first i had Nakamachi, then i went to mobile video setup with 5 channel amp and stuff so i was having the same problems. I finally got smart about 2 months ago and got that pitiful lexus battery O.E.M. out of my car put in top aftermarket with a 3 yr free replacement. Oh and i boosted the cranking amps from 500 and something to 1000 with my new battery, no problems now. I can sit and let the radio play on the accessory position like you want to do when you put in a tight system.

Change that battery, or keep jumper cables in your car