So this morning I drove to work without any issues. Car has been acting fine and I hadn't notice anything weird lately besides what I experienced today. After I got to work my gf stayed in the car to chill before she had to take off. I think she left something on and killed the battery. Here's the thing that's throwing me off.. During my lunch break I went to the car, unlocked it with the physical key and sat down. When I was sitting down I heard a wear noise coming from behind the cluster. I then tried starting the car but wasn't able to, none of the lights came off, steering wheel in lock position, and no clicking noise except the weird buzzing that I was hearing from the car. Anyone has any idea what this could be? I'm starting to think it's not the battery and could be the starter or alternator? I don't have jumper cables so I'm waiting to get out of work so I can walk to the store and buy some. So I haven't had a chance to jump start it and see if it's the battery or not but wanted to see if this was normal and I'm just tripping or if it could be something more serious? Any advice or suggestions is much appreciated, thanks.

 

Get the cables and give it a jump.
There are tons of things on the car that will start to make funny noises when they aren't getting enough juice from the battery.
Even when the car is fine and you shut it off it makes funny noises.
You're probably correct that the battery is dead...until you boost it and get it running I wouldn't worry about anything else.

 

Hey, thanks for the response Sasnuke! I tried jumping it with my friends car and no luck. I connected the cables, started up the other car and let it run for a few minutes. My car kept making the weird noise I mentioned the whole time. I tried multiple times to start the car but nothing happened. None of the lights came on, everything was completely off. I'm starting to think it might be an issue with the starter since I keep hearing that weird nose even when I'm not doing anything?

 

Without a video of the noise we cant really help much further. The car will make all kinds of different noises even when having no issues so with issues we wouldn’t know unless we had a video or something.

 

haha thanks for your help guys..I feel like an idiot. So I tried it again and this time instead of doing it for 15 mins I ended up leaving the jumper cables for about 30 mins. Finally after reving the engine of the other car for a while, I was able to start my car. I guess my battery was really dead or I have a ****ty battery that needs replacing. Thanks for your answers, it made me keep trying instead of just giving up and taking it to a shop. Good night!

 

I was going to say, that clicking noise when your battery is dead is normal and it’s happened to me in other cars. I was assuming it was that, but wanted a sound clip or something to confirm. Good to hear you got it worked out.

 

We're at about the 5 year mark for the first ISs. About the time a small underhood battery will start needing replacement. On any car. So we'll start seeing a lot of these posts. That new car invincibility on the 3IS is starting to wear off so we'll expect the typical problem posts as you would see on any car. But check the simple stuff first.

good thing these batteries are small, cheap, and easy to get to.

some of the lumps in german cars are massive and massively expensive.. but they also last 10-12 years too..

 

Man I'd love to go 5 years between batteries. My car is 5 1/2 years old and I'm on my 3rd battery. This AZ heat kills batteries.

 

I wouldn't worry about the noise at all.

The small gauge jumper cables work on the smallest most economy car, if that.

Totally normal if you had cheapo wires and tried to jump with a smaller battery it would do literally nothing.

 

Wow that’s annoying. Im in CA and it gets really hot here too but I'm still on my original battery from 3 years ago. I’ve left the dome lights on overnight a few times too lol.

 

you might be in the same boat as me. when you tried to start it it made a crazy clicking noise? same with me i had to charge my battery for a good 20-30 mins then it started. but the issue i found out was certain 2014 if yours is a 2014 have an ECU gateway issue where it does not turn off and it kills your battery. ive had to replace the battery once already. It was covered under warranty but it expired already which i didnt know I called lexus friday and got a case # to see if they will cover my car due to they did not send any notice about the issue.
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...86305-5448.pdf

 

FYI, when the battery is going bad and there's ongoing low voltage you see a lot of weird error messages when trying to start the vehicle. When you see something out of the norm get the battery checked. I had a lot of battery issues with my car for the first few years due to the 14 battery drain issue. The original battery that came with the car was terrible, and the Lexus dealership replacement batteries are awful too. My costco one hasn't given me any issues so far.

 

>>> FYI, when the battery is going bad and there's ongoing low voltage you see a lot of weird error messages when trying to start the vehicle. When you see something out of the norm get the battery checked. I had a lot of battery issues with my car for the first few years due to the '14 battery drain issue......

Agreed, 1,000%.
Most cars built since 2000 are multiple computers on wheels. Low voltage plays hob with them.
A 2002 convertible I had was notable for electrical issues, which showed up day 2 of ownership.
Replaced the battery and an oddball shape blown fuse, then pulled and cleaned off the oxidation on legs of every fuse & relay.
Thereafter, I had Zero electrical problems for the 5 years I owned it.
Batteries are fairly cheap, if it's over age 4 and certainly by age 5, it's time to change it.

 

Discovered that last year when changing battery on our other car, and looked up the Lexus OEM while I was at it.
Disappointing how bad the OEM batters are.

I got a battery twice as good for about 50% less $ on a no name battery from a battery only shop.