F250

If you have a battery charger, just connect it to the cables and have it set on the lowest amperage "trickle charge" and you'll be fine. Alternatively, get an inexpensive battery tender and use that. Just make sure that you don't overcharge at anything greater than 5 amps.

Ybeardsley

What is the life span of the battery on a 2012 RX450H and if it has to be replaced, what would the cost be?

F250

First, I assume you're asking about the 12v battery, and not the hybrid batteries, right? Making that assumption, if you read through the entire thread, you'll find multiple answers to both questions.

Just as a quick gimme, though... my 2010 OEM battery is original and not showing any signs of weakness.

jerryray

Is the 2011 RX450H 12 volt battery special with a vent hole and temp sensor?

Dealer wants $500

It's not bad yet, but my 2013 battery just failed, figure I should change it. It's 3-4 years old.
Dealer changed it around 3rd or fourth year.

vlad_a

In reality, it's just a 12V battery. Nothing special about it, other than it sitting in the trunk.
2013+ have a full size battery, while 2010-2012 is the smaller unit.
Any one without a tube vent should work, as it is located in the boot.
Here's a big battery thread you may want to go through:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/hyb...us-rx450h.html

F250

Well... I've been lagging and postponing the battery purchase ever since we bought the RXh back last August. Yesterday, my wife was sitting in the vehicle for about an hour, waiting for my daughter to finish an appointment, and my wife unwittingly drained the battery by having the windows open and the car in Auxiliary mode. Now I'm on the battery warpath. A quick jump start resolved yesterday's event, but I'm getting ready to invest in a portable battery pack-based jump starter and will go ahead and replace the original 7-year old battery. I've decided to go with either the X2 Power or the Bosch Platinum battery instead of the Costco Interstate options. I want a higher mAh rating and excellent warranty, and that points to the X2 Power option called out in the chart in Post #87 (by Kovani). However, the higher cost of that option makes me really tempted to go with the Bosch Platinum in the same chart for a savings of about $140.

Once I finalize my choice, I'll post up with fitment success and track the performance over time.

F250

Well... I bit the bigger bullet yesterday evening. I went with the X2 Power battery. Delivered, it will be about $280 which is almost exactly what my local dealer wanted for the replacement Panasonic. So why did I go with X2? Higher capacity (longer times between draw downs, and a longer operating time before hitting the "no start" condition), reportedly faster/easier recharge times, 5 year free replacement warranty. Some will call me foolish for going against my initial advice of just getting a Costco Interstate replacement, and perhaps I am. I'll be more foolish for my wife, though, than I will for myself.

F250

Shipping update. If you decide to order a similar X2 Power SLI35AGMDP battery from Batteries Plus, be prepared to have to wait as much as two weeks to get it. No stores carry it in stock, so it has to be ordered from a warehouse. If you order it after Thursday, it will be 13 days before it gets delivered. At least, that's the story from my local Batteries Plus store, as well as the Corporate Office. Get this, too... Corporate has NO say in expediting an order... or so they told me this morning... UNLESS you want to pay an ADDITIONAL $50 expediting fee. Irritating, but at least my current battery is not giving any trouble at all, so I should be A-OK.... just more patient than I want to be. I've been waiting 8 months to finalize my plan, and now that I have, I want to finish it this past weekend!

Kopavi

Glad to hear you went with the X2. If you can take a few photos of your install and post them in the forum I would appreciate it. I was concerned that the X2 may be too long to fit in the existing battery tray and I also wasn't sure about the orientation of the terminals or the existence of a port.

I'll be very interested in your follow-up. The model number SLI35AGMDP you provided, did you need to specify which side the positive and negative terminals were on and if they were on the front or back or does it only come in one version? Again these questions seek to clarify the fit.

You were right in straying from the Interstates at Costco. At least in my area they do not sell any AGM type of battery that would fit the RX 450H and they encouraged me to look for an AGM specific battery from another source. The Costco option is great for 350 owners but the 450's really need an AGM type of battery.

F250

I'll be happy to post up some pictures. I took a good while examining the "hole" where the battery sits, and there are a few potential complications. I'm not yet sure, though, if it's going to be a simple plug-n-play direct bolt in replacement, but nothing insurmountable in terms of the battery length. The first potential issue is the tray on which the battery sits... it has an upward turned lip around the entire perimeter, and that may end up creating a "rise effect" for "too long" of a battery. It appears that the tray can host a battery with as much as 1/4" extra length with no trouble. Otherwise, the tray may cause the battery to sit 1/4" higher. As for ultimate battery length, the hole in the floor bottom appears it would hold something as much as maybe a full 1" longer than stock. Regardless, if the length of the battery makes it sit too high, then the ends of those tray lips can always be cut or ground down to eliminate the rise effect. I did not examine the tray with the battery out because I didn't want to go through the hassle of digging out the charger to keep the memory on the electronics. My brief examination has me wondering how easy it is to simply eliminate the tray altogether. The raised lip around the tray is probably due to wanting to create a small reservoir in the event of a battery leak, but the battery is already in a heavy gauge plastic bag, so I'm not sure how much it is really necessary.

Post configuration matches OEM.

Vent ports... interesting situation here. The ones on the X2 are oblong, and not round, and there are actually two ports... one on each side of the battery. Not too difficult to manage as I can easily get a flexible tube to reshape over the oblong ports, and I can also add a second vent tube to connect both sides together before splicing in the stock vent tube for venting outside the cab.


Since the post configuration matches our OEM batteries, I did not check if it was available i a reverse polarity configuration.


It was the AGM issue which drove that decision for me. In reality, we can get away without the AGM battery type, and a number of folks have done so. I do see, however, a number of comments indicating an reduced overall battery life by making that choice.

salimshah

The tray underneath is a spillover tray usually with drain.

Very useful if and when the battery shell develops a leak/crack. It also acts a protection (sacrifice) section ... just look at trays from a old vehicle.

I would try to get a larger tray or a battery that fits in the tray with room on all four sides.

Another bad thing that happens when you put the new battery on the turned up edge, the weight is no longer distributed.

Salim

F250

Understood, and that is exactly what I sort of intuitively knew.


Excellent point, and I'm glad that you brought up that detail. It had occurred to me, but I neglected to mention it specifically.

No doubt, just setting a heavy battery on two thin tray edges for its support would be a very bad idea because of how the weight from the battery gets concentrated on those thin edges... stress-concentrations like that will certainly lead to cracks in the battery housing, and I would either do nor recommend ever taking that approach. The battery needs to have a solid and smooth "platform" on which it can sit to avoid this. If the battery is too tall to allow for the extra height, that's why I would consider grinding of cutting down the end lips for a longer battery, though it is not ideal. Alternatively, if there is room, you might just be able to flip the tray upside down, but you then lose it's ability to capture leaking battery acid! An aftermarket battery tray can probably be found, or you may be able to cut down the sides on one of those plastic battery boxes and just use the bottom as a tray.

Once I get the battery out, I'll take detailed measurements so we can at least define what the dimensional limits really are for whichever route someone wants to take.

F250

I'm picking up the battery this afternoon and will be completing this replacement before the weekend is over. I'll post up my discoveries with some pictures afterwards.

F250

I got the battery Friday afternoon and put it on the charger to ensure 100% charge before installing in the RXh. It registered at 95% when I hooked it up to the charger, and only took about 15 minutes to hit 100% while on a 40 amp charge rate.

Installation was a breeze, and fitment in the rear deck hole was virtually perfect. Only one modification is required, but I'll make one more which is described below. One note I'll add, though, is that the rear deck plastic trim sill (under the edge of the rear hatch) really needs to be removed in order to remove the rearmost bolt/nut on the hold down bracket (connection point closest to the ear bumper). This is easily done once the battery cover has been removed by lifting on the left end of the trim with what I'll call "loving insistance". The trim piece simply unsnaps upwards and you can move it out of the way to get full access to that particular bolt/nut.

A minor modification is required to address the difference in the new battery's vent tube design and arrangement. I made a "temporary" modification for the vent tubing while I'm waiting on a new "permanent" battery vent tube harness to arrive. You see, the X2 Power SLI35AGMDP battery has two rectangular vent tube connections, one on each side of the battery, and the OEM vent tube is a single round connector on the passenger side of the battery (negative terminal side). Connecting back up to the new two rectangular ports required some quick troubleshooting. I know I could have left off the tubes for a while, but I wanted to give this closure right away (literally). My short term solution was a 12" long piece of clear vinyl tubing with a plastic vacuum TEE, and the third leg of the TEE was connected to the OEM vent tube after removing the OEM round tube connector. The second page in the attached PDF shows this arrangement.

The only other thing I'm going to do to improve fit and security is to make a spacer for the hold down clamp. The X2 is not as wide as the OEM battery, so there is a small gap between the fixed angle on the rear of the bracket (side facing the front bumper). I'm still mulling ove rthe final design for this spacer, and will post a picture of the final solution once it is complete.

Additional comments and observations:
- the battery tray is plastic and can be cut/ground/trimmed as necessary to fit longer batteries.
- the battery tray has two "bumped out" square protrusions on the bottom which seem to actually cause the battery to sit higher than it might otherwise need to. That said. re,moving the tray altogether would allow for a battery which is as much as 1/2" taller than the stock OEM battery without causing any interference with the plastic battery cover fitment.
- with the battery tray removed altogether, you not only gain as much as 1/2" vertical clearance, but also a good 1" extra space lengthwise.
- using a battery which is wider than the OEM dimensions will requite either a different type of battery hold down bracket or modification to the existing one.

Meanwhile, I took some pictures and have compiled all the pertinent information in the attached PDF.

Kopavi

Excellent informative post Pete! Thanks for the detailed write-up and photos. Who would have thought we would be adding a 2002 LeSabre vent tube if we go with the X2.