So I was down in the car messing with things with the engine off for 10 minutes or so, trying to figure out how to send my phone book from the iphone... and then the radio started going on/off by itself, then the touch display kept rebooting over and over again (lexus logo, normal display, reboot...).

I started the car, and it seemed to have a bit of trouble cranking (just a bit more than usual), but started fine and the display was fine after that.

Does the display/radio "reboot" like that if the battery is getting weak? The car is an 06 and just got it last week, the "eye" on the battery seems to be blue which "supposedly" means it's ok (but I figure that probably means nothing). Does it sound like the battery is on it's last legs and I should take it back to the dealer and demand a new one? It seems like 10 minutes or so of accessory with engine off should not drain a battery down to the point that the electronics in the car start freaking out to me.

I'm going to assume even if they do replace the battery they will not know to reinitialize all of the crap that needs initialization after the battery is removed. There doesn't seem to be a single place in the manual to refer to to make sure I get everything, what generally needs to be done?

Off topic, but I'm also wondering about the "steering wheel light" mentioned in the manual, it appears that what they mean are those lights underneath the sun visors -- the diagram is not clear. Anyway neither of those lights under the visors turn on when I approach the car.

 

Nevermind about the steering lights... stupid me, I didn't notice that little LED in front of the sun visor. Those LEDs are so dim in these cars, even with the lighting set to max.

Still wondering about the rebooting of the dash, though... I'm starting to wonder if it was doing that because of pairing to the iPhone (which I read some lexus' don't like?) or the battery, the cranking might have been my imagination? I'm almost afraid to try to replicate the problem by sitting there with the engine off and the BT settings erased because I don't want to get stranded!

 

Probably the battery. Might want to check it out.

Vern

 

Yeah, sounds like a battery to me too.

Also, you can't send your iPhone phone book. The iPhone doesn't support that feature. I guess it's too advance of a function or something (sarcasm). Pretty annoying, I know. It does so many other things but can't push the phone book? I used an old Blackberry and transferred the phone book.

 

So, this hasn't happened to anybody before?

I haven't seen it happen again since I removed the iPhone from pairing with the car -- but I also haven't had the guts to sit there and mess around with the engine off again because I'm afraid of getting stranded.

Car has been cranking normally since I first saw the problem.