JaimeM

Hi to all
The first, i'm spanish and sorry for my lenguage.
I have a GS450h now, but i want to change it for a RX450h 2013. In Spain, the traction batteries life for GS450h is arround 124.000-137.000 miles.
What's the average life of the traction batteries inthe RX450h?
I'm looking for the better option and i want to know this data more or less.
In Spain there are not many RX450h and they have few miles yet.

In my GS450h, his traction batteries died to the 80.000 miles, but normally his life is higher.

I don't want to buy a RX and a few miles later, to have to change the traction batteries

Thank you so much for all

vlad_a

Traction battery (288V pack under the rear seat) is designed to last the lifetime of a vehicle. It is called "Traction" because its power is used to actually move the vehicle around.

You must be referring to the conventional 12V battery in the boot. There's nothing out of ordinary about those, except they get abused less because the hybrid has no starter.
Same battery as in any other car. Its life expectancy depends on usage type and climate. You'd be looking at 5-7 years lifespan for those.

JaimeM

I know that the traction batteries are designed to last the whole life of the car, but that is not really true, so I ask how long they tend to last here.
In Spain, there is not much information about the RX450h, but in the GS450h, life is over 125,000 miles, in my GS they lasted 80,000 miles only, so they do not last the entire life of the vehicle, the GS450h lasts much longer than the 125,000 miles which last their batteries, for example.

703

no reported failures on the rx450h yet.

Battery failure on the gs450h is very common at this age.

JaimeM

that's very good, I thought maybe there, there would be RX with more miles than here, in Spain. In Spain there are very few RX to have conclusive data.

but I think, the problem of traction batteries, should be the issue of miles made and not the age of the car, right?

Thanks and best regards

Droid13

Heat is the killer of batteries. I read somewhere the previous generation of GS450h had battery overheat issues. Since the battery tech is generally the same for all Toyota hybrids, and the replacement rate seems to be very very low in general with other models, it may be an issue with how the battery was specifically used and cooled in that generation of GS. I do believe, as vlad mentioned below, that the traction battery in the RX is a lifetime component like the engine. I hope it doesn't fail in normal life, I don't expect it to fail in normal life, but life does knock you down once in a while.
Hopefully in your area of Spain it's not too hot, I know in the southern parts it's hotter than the surface of the sun in summer.

iginoc

In my opinion GS450h hybrid system was optimized for perfomances, not for traction battery life.

In fact it is not so difficult to find GS450h samples on sale with traction battery issues, declared or hidden. Before buying my RX, I was close to buy an used GS450h with only 30000 km on its shoulder.

Incidentally, it had been pre-ownned by a former Italian President (Mr Cossiga), fact that made the car attractive to me. It was needing some bodywork and the colour was not exaclty of my taste, but the real reason for which I gave up buying it was due to the infamous "check hybrid system" message which was shown on the central display.

The RX450h apparently has no issues with the traction battery - proven by the fact that Lexus extend up to 10 years the warranty on the traction battery, provided that the owner pay visit to the Lexus dealer for maintenance check every 12 months/15000 km - but its traction battery it is not free from wear.

My RX450h has now 150000 km on its shoulders, and several times during EV low speed driving with air conditioning ON, I have seen the SOC dropping from 60% to 40% in a a minute or so. Despite this my car passes regularly the hybrid check at the dealer.. so a worn battery does not mean a faulty battery.

JaimeM

Thank you very much for the information, it is being very helpful for me. I am determined to put on sale my GS450h and buy a RX450h from 2013-2015. now my GS has new traction batteries, they changed them 15,000 km ago and that's why I hope to be lucky in the sale. Regarding the pneumatic suspension of the RX, do you advise me to buy a unit that has pneumatic suspension or has problems and better without it ???

mjeds

what year is your GS450H?

Toyota had issues with the Traction Batteries in the 2005 to 2012/2014 Hybrids, the battery didn't actually die, what occurred was the copper links between the packs in the Traction battery would corrode and then the individual "packs" couldn't communicate with each other or the ECU.

my wife's 2007 Camry had this issue at around 87K miles, there are tons of internet forum threads about the Prius, Camry, ES and GS having this issue.. In California, the state forced Toyota to extend the warranty of the battery pack from 8 years 80K to 10 years 150K as a result of the issue.. I don't know about other states, but I know here my wife's traction battery was replaced at no charge at 87K.

some more info on the issue:

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/...ot-4000-to-fix


as I understand Toyota corrected the issue in sometime between 2012 and 2014

JaimeM

It really makes a lot of sense what you say, in fact .... my GS came from Ibiza (a small island) and the car had more rust for different parts of what is considered normal, possibly due to moisture and sea salt from the environment, what I think could be the problem, because the "check hybrid system" message appeared too early in my opinion, only 125k km and 8 years old.
My GS450h is from 2008 and when I changed the batteries, at Lexus they told me that the new pack was different and updated, with a different reference number.
In my GS, I changed the batteries also without cost with 8 years.

iginoc

Mine has conventional shocks with active anti-rolling bars. I had to replace the shocks shortly after the purchase (it had run 117000 km at that time) because they were leaking and the car was uncomfortable. Beside the leakings issue I did not have the improvement I hoped for, hence, my suggestion is to go for a pneumatic suspension one.

samsonn25

07 GS450h here with 188k on original traqtion battery, and I still get 7/8 bars green.

tempestv8

Hola!

As others have stated, the traction battery should last the lifetime of the vehicle, but different circumstances exist for every owner. Just keep the vents clear under the 2nd row seats and drive it like normal, that's what I would do.

samsonn25

UPDATE 205k miles.