jstjohnz

This one has me stumped. The car is driven daily. I parked it last night, and this afternoon when I went out the battery was dead. I mean dead, dead, as not even a flicker of any lights, no sounds, just flat dead.

The first thing I checked was the headlight switch, and it was in the AUTO position. After charging the battery, the car appears to be fine, but for the life of me I can't figure out what caused the battery to go dead.

Anyone seen this?

JFNash

I once stopped at the gas station and switched off the car while I was filling up. The whole thing took like 3 minutes. When done, I tried to start the car but it wouldn't start and seemed completely dead.

I jumpstarted it and drove it to the nearest shop where I replaced the battery and the car was back to service again and has been flawless ever since.

Mine is '08 and was exactly at the 24 months/30K miles mark when the battery died. So I guess it's normal for your battery to have a fatal heart attack every 2 or 3 years max.

HSVRX350

I used to have a business partner who started the battery business which today is known as "Interstate Battery".

What I learned is that all battery that comes into US comes off of three assembly lines. It doesn't matter if you buy 80 months battery or 24 months battery. They will more likely to die around 36 months. The company will just pro rate your battery.

To answer your question. Best to get yourself a new battery before it leaves you stranded. For about $70 it is a peace of mind. Usually battery dies during the height of summer and coldest part of winter due to the high amperage needed to over come the resistance.

Dave Mac

12V batteries often die like that and I understand that they short out internally just zapping them completely. And it happens most often in the summer and on the hottest days. And to make things worse some newer cars cannot be jumped with a shorted out battery or if they do start can not be operated. I used to be responsible for a pretty large group of cars that needed to not have this happen so I ordered everyone to have their battery replaced each year at the beginning of summer. Some complained about the expense but no dead batteries. We also were advised that buying the heaviest duty battery only made things worse because the plates were closer together and more easily shorted.

Having said all of that I have had OEM Lexus batteries last in excess of five very hot Arizona summers so it's kind of like a Clint Eastwood movies - "do you feel lucky?"

Dave Mac

Dave Mac

HSVRX350's post reminds me of another battery story. I was once talking to a battery distributor at his business and he told me pretty much the same thing. He said he basically sold 3 battereis and all were guaranteed for I believe 24 months. His shelves were filled with lables that were affixed to the batteries he sold to all kind of outlets offering warranties of 24 mos. 36 mos. 60 mos. and even lifetime. He explained that the additional cost to the customer was just a form of battery insurance and had no relation to how long the battery was expected to last. 36 mos. was about average.

Dave Mac

jlawr

So after reading all this, is there a consensus on the 'best' battery to get for our LS 460?

Dave Mac

I'm afraid I don't have a recomendation because I think the best battery is the Panasonic that comes with many new Lexus and they are not available. Last I heard Lexus was using Interstate batteries with Lexus labels but that changes from time to time too. You can of course assume that you will pay much more for a battery at a Lexus dealer. And you know that changing out the battery will cause most if not all of your settings including the Lexus personalized settings to go away so having your Lexus dealer install the new battery should include resetting all of your preferences which kind of offsets the additional cost.

Dave Mac

lucasb7

If you are under warranty just take the car into the dealer. They will perform a battery load test and replace it on their dime.

They did this on my RX a couple years back without me saying anything. It was just in for routine maintenance and it failed the load test so they replaced it! Happy owner....

Nospinzone

Consumer Reports tests them periodically. Don't quote me, but I believe in their last test Interstate and Costco batteries came out the best. I know Sears Diehards have tested well over many years.

I've used Diehards (Gold) in all our cars for the last 20 years or so. I get at least 5 years out of them in cold northeast winters. Right now my wife's Jag has a Diehard I installed in Dec. 2004 (the OEM died in 30 mos.). I replaced the Diehard in my Q45a after almost 7 years just before last winter. It was still starting the car strong, but I didn't want to push it going into winter ...... I've never let my LS see the snow .

jstjohnz

Well the car seemed fine today. It just seems strange. The battery is coming up on 4 years old, but I've never had any issues with it before. And I have left the car sitting for several days without a problem. But man, this was as dead as I've ever seen a battery, no dome lights, no instrument cluster lights, no nothing.

I need to put a tester on the battery and see what it shows. I just have a nagging feeling that there's something to this that I'm not seeing.

cmasten

as a matter of course I change out my batteries in my cars every 3 years, its inexpensive insurance and I have never had a dead one.

If I was stuck just once, it would not be worth the 70.00 hassle factor. At four years it would be worth your time to swap it out for new and forget about it if your time is a factor.

The fact that it was so dead and came back though is weird, certainly worth checking that out almost like a bad connection or something.

Dave Mac

That is strange but I have a standard rule that I try to follow "it's always the battery". Having said that, your problem does sound a lot like a bad ground or connection somewhere. I did have a similar intermittent problem on a Ford many years ago and followed my rule through a couple of batteries before it was determined that the starter was the problem. The shorted out batteries that I referred to in my earlier post are not intermittent - they are just plain dead.

Dave Mac

melnick

I'm having a problem getting a battery to fit my 2007 LS460. The ones I've checked (Pep Boys, Sears, Costco) are all about 1/8 inch taller than the OEM battery and the bracket that fits into the back wall won't fit. Has anybody replace a battery in a LS460 (any year)? If so, what brand and model did you get?

chris07ls

I just replaced the 24F size battery in our 2007 Infiniti M35 and I noticed that the 24F also fits the LS 460. Like you, I could not find one at Costco, so I looked at my November 2009 Consumer Report and the EverStart MAXX was highly rated. You can purchase one at your local Walmart for $77. They make two flavors of this battery, a 24FN and a 24FS, One is for a North Climate and the other is for a South climate. Since I live in sunny California all they had was the 24FS.

It's been in the M35 for a couple of weeks and doing fine. I plan to replace the LS460 battery in the next month or two with the EverStart.

melnick

I recently bought a Group 24 Duralast Gold battery at AutoZone and it fit perfectly. Their catalog shows that the proper size is the 24F but that battery has the terminals reversed to what is needed for the LS460. The battery has a 36/96 warranty and is made by Johnson Controls. It was $90 after exchange.