Car Wouldn't Start This Morning
 

So I had a little bit of a scare with this SUV this morning with it not starting. I was reading the various forums and I found some folks had issues with their traction batteries. So I was hoping this wasn't the case. Although I'm still eligible for the 100,000 mile / 8 year battery warranty.

So I went to start it this morning and it wouldn't go into READY mode. I didn't have any messages pop up or anything. All the lights came on the radio, a/c fan, headlights and heated seats. All the various warning lights came on like usual but it didn't go into the next phase of start up where you get the instrument cluster lights to glow on with the big READY light and audible chime.

The weird thing is I just had the 12 Volt battery replaced less then a month ago. So I knew that it couldn't be that.

I did notice the radio display started flashing at me. which was very strange.

After many attempts to get it turned on. I made sure the steering wheel wasn't locked (happened to me once before). I moved the shift lever from park to drive and then back to park again. At which point I did get a shift to P message (for obvious reasons).

The thing that got it to literally snap at out of its stewper was that the headlight being left in the ON position rather the AUTO which it usually sits in. After turning the headlights off completely something clicked and it started right up, go figure.

Should I be worried, any thoughts?

I have a 2008 RX 400h with 85K

I'll probably call my Lexus dealer tomorrow.

I bet it IS the 12V battery. Make sure it's connected tight and the terminals are clean. If the weather is cold, the 12V battery can run down easily. I've had mine die by forgetting to turn off a map light overnight. If you have a battery charger, try fully charging it then start it again.

wait.. so you left the headlight on, and you are thinking it can't be your 12v battery?

there's a really good chance that it was your 12v.. you might wanna just let it recharge and go from there..

Well when you leave it on it still goes off by itself right.

Now it seems like its totally fine. It was probably because I had all these auxiliary things running. I am going to get in the habit of powering off everything now before I shut down.

So I called the dealer today and they said that the car needs to be reset or "cycled" as they put it. As the people who installed the new 12V battery (tire store) didn't have the proper tools to do it.

They said that they would also check the traction battery while I wait.

Otherwise he said it should be fine.

I'll keep you posted.

Definitely a low 12v battery.

There are several settings which are lost when the 12V battery is disconnected.
Some are rather obvious, like the loss of memorized stations on the radio or the seats/steering wheel/mirrors position.
Some others are less intuitive, like the automatic function of door windows switches, but the manual describes how to fix them. Or the coloured lines shown in the rear camera, but they re-adjust themselves upon steering each side.
The only thing which I don't think is described in the manual, and in theory must be done by the dealer, is the ISC reset. But a DIY is actually feasible also for that, you can find the procedure somewhere in this forum. And it doesn't actually make a significant difference to the car behaviour, anyway.

I'm mentioning this because I also have a 2008 MY, which I often leave unused for several weeks, and in these cases I always detach the 12V battery - as a result, I'm still on the Sep '08 original battery...!
But after re-attaching the 12V battery, in many cases when I was in a hurry I didn't bother to fix all this stuff immediately: just turned the key, and off I went. Never had any problems with that, aside obviously from not having the auto switch for windows etc.

So, I'm wondering what else could your dealer mean by "cycle" the car.... :uh:
Also, I'd be interested to hear more about the checks (and their results) on traction batteries.

Thanks in advance for keeping us posted!

Just a note...The US models don't have colored lines on the backup camera.

Doh! That's weird.... Do other cars have them?
Sounds like the car maker does not want to be held responsible if anyone hits something just looking at those lines - which are actually very convenient, imho.

Yes...Other cars here have them.

So I took it to Lexus this morning It turned out that I had a bad 12v battery, it had a bad cell in it. Even though I bought less than a month ago. The cold cranking amps were 253 and it was rated at 500. I got a Optima yellow top battery and returned the green Interstate battery and got a full refund. Now she starts up real quick.

Only thing left to do is disable the seat belt warning chime.

Cheers

Good to hear that you're now good to go.
Did they tell you anything about the traction batteries control?
Just curious, because as I said mine is also a 2008....

In the service write it up it shows that they tested both batteries but that the first one was the culprit and failed. I did ask the service manager whether they tested the traction battery and they said that they did and it was fine.

Had the exact same problem yesterday, no ready light, but everything else worked. Pulled the battery and took it to Auto Zone and had them check it out. Bad cell, I replaced that battery Aug 2012 and the gold top battery I bought had a full 100% replacement within the first 3 years. So I walked out with a new one for no charge. It still has 2 more years at a prorated warranty left, so we should be OK for a while. Easy to pull and replace, I think the whole job including the drive to the parts store was about 45 minutes.