I went to the gas station to fill up my tank. When I pressed the brake and the ON button, my IS350 made a bunch of rapid click sounds for 5 or 10 seconds, and then stopped. No engine sounds, just clicking.

I then pressed the gas and tried starting the car again, and it started normally. Has anyone had this happen before? Does this mean my starter is approaching the end of its life?

 

A few other people reported your symptoms when their battery went bad.

 

sometimes people report this problem but from what I heard it had nothing to do with the battery

since the problem never really repeated everyone who encountered it decided to ignore it

 

I had this happen to me but I have a lot of mods so I don't know where it could be from. I'm just going to get an Optima.

 

Does Optima make the right sized battery for us?

 

Optima sucks! I've seen those batteries go bad numerous times. I would look into Odyssey batteries. They're compact light weight and can be mounted on it's side.

 

Never heard of anything bad about optima, don't they have a warranty of some sort?

 

My battery is about to go dead too. What would be a good choice if I have an audio system? Optima redtop?

 

i believe this happens everytime you unplug the battery to reset your ECU. the first time you start up the car it just clicks, second time is a go. then it'll always start up the first time. but obviously u didn't because u just stopped for gas...

 

Same here. Most of the guys in the VW crew I hang with have all gone through multiple Optima batteries. Granted, their cars sit more than they drive so that might be a driving factor.

I wouldn't get anything fancy. Just a good OEM or similar replacement.

The clicking noise is definitely a symptom of insufficient battery current. Could be caused by a variety of things like corroded terminals... but it usually means a bad or weak battery.