Couple days ago I noticed my parking lights were on, on my 2004 LS430 (156k miles) which had been parked in the garage for a few hours. So I shut them off, no big deal.

Next morning (it was sub-zero temps those few days outside, but inside my garage where the car was parked got down into the 20's) car battery was dead. I used a battery powered jump unit, and the car jumped right to life. Let it idle for 10 mins, drove it to autozone to have battery, starter, alternator checked. All checked out fine.

Parked it overnight. Next morning these multiple electrical issues:

- Nave says "Check System" as startup
- Nav screen says "external system not connected" after startup
- Radio wont work.
- Nav wont work
- "Menu" button is responseless
- Screen turns black unless I hit "Audio" or "climate", which brings it to life for a few minutes, then back to black
- Cannot pop truck with button next to steering wheel
- Cannot pop fuel door with button
- Gas Gauge stuck on "empty" (tank is full)
- Dashboard menus are zeroed out, like "miles to emtpy", "avg consumption" etc.

Would the battery depleting, subsequently getting jumped, and/or the cold temps have brought any of this on? Are these issues related to one another with same root cause, or are they separate and just coincidentally occurring at the same time?

Any suggestions anyone may have is so greatly appreciated. I'm no good at diagnosing or fixing anything on cars.... That's why I bought this one, i'd heard how reliable they are!

Best Regards,
BK

 

I would start with properly charging your battery, fully. Clean Positive and Negative terminals, Inspect and clean any ground connections that are readily accessible and take it from there. Then re-evaluate your situation!

 

I have had a bad battery cause my tilt wheel to not auto-retract on exit reliably (even after a battery recharge: dealer caught a bad cell, and they were right for once), indirectly mess up my ignition interlock (I could turn my 2005 keyless ignition with no key near the car. Car cranked but would not start, probably secondary theft prevention from the fuel pump). I have successfully recharged a newer battery that died seemingly randomly about 2 years ago, but the car is very sensitive to a bad battery, and it can cause more damage -- I recently hurt my starter from after trying to start the car as described above. Expensive, dumb mistake but at 150k I now have a nice new Lexus-installed starter. Yeah, me...

This is going to sound like overkill, but... on my LS430 if I keep the battery more than 2.5 years I am asking for trouble. That's what happened this time. I have owned my car nearly 14 years and bought it CPO but needing a battery with the issues shown above within 4 months of purchasing it under 4 years of page/35k miles in 2009. When it goes, there is no obvious prior warning. My alternator was replaced 6 months ago an the battery / charging system checked out 100%. It still died (fail to start) suddenly around 3 weeks ago. Others will differ, but next to adequate oil changes and perhaps tire rotations if you do those, changing battery preemptively is best thing to avoid strandings and bigger issues, in my experience. In 14 year I have had a dead battery or issues at least 3 times. Chrome wheel leaks left me stranded once with a flat and 1 bad alternator are only other things that ever left me stranded... Even when water pump leaked after a supposed replacement with timing belt at 90k, I caught it, cooled car down before it got very hot, the drove 2 miles to the repair shop. Change your battery on this machine. My Buick I changed every 6 years, no issues ever with it. Not my LS430! Good luck

 

When I bought mine. Had a few of the same issues. Ended up replacing the fuse box in the trunk. Bought off eBay for 190$ Canadian. The trunk, fuel door and gas gauge all worked after that was replaced. My nav never came back though. I just disabled it.

 

Get a Northstar battery. I don’t think your situation is normal at all but if it manages to kill a Northstar in 2 years, there’s something extremely weird going on with an electronic gremlin.

 

Often these cars need a reset after the battery goes flat and is recharged in situ.
To do that, disconnect the battery -ve and leave disconnected for at least 15 minutes before reconnecting.
It's Ctrl-Alt-Del for the car

 

Thx for the advice. Too late for now, but if I plan to keep car a long time in 2.5 years (when I should look for a battery), I will definitely look it. (They seem to be called Odyssey now.). Do these batteries survive a deep discharge better or worse than others? Lights don't shut off automatically on LS (interior light, or if a door is left ajar)... And lots of local driving? They are expensive so just making sure no gotchas. But I would consider these, as the hassle of a dead battery is not good. I don't think I have electrical problems, but I do primarily local driving. Still, 5-6k miles a year with some real highway trips there. Used to do 10k / year as my wife's primary car.