Begno

A few months back, I got into my LS and pressed the start button and nothing happened, had it towed to dealership and while the battery wasnt bad, they suggested I change it just as a precaution. They found no reason as to why it would not start and could never get it to duplicate problem. I drove off. As it would, I go to start car yesterday, same exact thing happened. I jumped car, drove to a local shop, had battery tested (which is fine) and now car starts fine but the ABS light, brake light, and VCS Light are staying on. I called dealership and of course wants me to come in.

Any ideas or thoughts??

jmcraney

These sorts of events can shatter our confidence in our cars and there are lots of possibilities as to the cause. I think the best thing to do is to divided some of the possibilities into categories for more thought.

It seems, from what you have told us, that the battery was discharged. There are three things that come to mind about that.

First, the battery may have been discharged because of some defect with the car's battery charging system or defect in the car that leaves a load on the battery when the car is not running. It is certainly possible for that to be an intermittent problem but typically those sorts of problems are hard failures and cause an indication on the car's dash that the charging system has failed and those types of failures usually require some sort of repair action.

Second, it is possible that the battery is defective. It could be defective in a manner that is not easily detected by a tester or it could have an intermittent defect. Typical battery failures are hard failures, so, an intermittent problem, although rare, would have to be considered. The easiest way to eliminate the battery as a suspect is to replace the battery.

Third, is the possibility that the battery is being discharged because of some operational error. There are a wide range of things that you could go wrong that would cause the battery to discharge. One thing that comes to mind is leaving the "Ignition" on when you leave the car and that sort of problem can have several subtle aspects. It could be some member of your family is going out to listen to that great sound system or watch a video and forgot to turn the ignition off when they finished or were interrupted (the car protects itself automatically from leaving the "Accessory" power on). Another possibility is the "Auto Off" headlight feature which requires all doors and trunk to be closed to automatically turn the headlights off. Turning the IGNITION on by reaching through the window will cause headlights to stay on and discharge the battery. I know some are going to wonder why anyone would do that but there are some reasonable explanations for such actions.

Begno

Thank your for your insightful reply. To clarify, the battery on both occasions was not bad or dead (the first time the lexus dealer just recommended replacing but made to tell me it was still at least 60-70% good).

yesterday when this happened, I put a charger on it and when the charger would cycle on, the running lights, dash lights, etc would flicker but I could not start it (no clicking sound or anything), when the charger would go off of its charging cycle, the car was completely dead. I left the charger on all night and tried to start this am and nothing still. Thats when I jumped it, which it did eventually start. Once running the brake, ABS, and VCS lights stayed on. I even disconnect the battery for a few minutes but once connected back, they stayed on. I also did have battery checked and it was fine (with and without a load).

jmcraney

What you are describing sounds very much like what happens when the IGNITION is left on.

You should look at this thread and especially at Posts #9 and #14: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...ery-issue.html

JFNash

You may want to check out this post: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/6547133-post12.html

Begno

This might be it!!! i just left msg for service writer!! Thanks so much!!

jmcraney

Well, let's see now?

You told us that you started your car by the old "jump start" method. It would be pretty hard to argue the reason that it was failing to start was not due to a discharged battery. You probably had difficulty doing that because the battery was deeply discharged and the load of the ignition being on. It is not uncommon when jump starting a car with a deeply discharged battery to have to run the charging car for several minutes with the cables attached before the car with the discharged battery will start.

You told us that the lights flickered when you were trying your battery charger. That was probably because the ignition was on and the charger was cycling because it was overloaded. The lights would not come on when a charger is attached and the ignition was off.

305Busa

Are you getting a message on your center display as well? Mines started everytime but I would get those lights on and then it would read "brake malfunction" "abs malfunction" "check vsc" on the display between the tach and speedo. Car went back and forth to the dealer for 3 months until they finally replaced the wiring on the car. Everything short of replacing the engine and tranny was swapped out. All computers, braking system, battery and then wiring. I spoke to a tech from another dealer and he stated that its a wiring issue that he's seen numerous times. They know how to fix it but wont do it since it a long and extensive job.

305Busa

Here's my original thread

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...n-message.html

madlad

Had a similar problem. Replaced battery. Problem seems to stem from "auto-on" switch for headlights. When parked in garage, the headlights remain on. Can't seem to get a charger to work either. AAA needed two batteries just to jump start. Dealer had no answers other than buy a battery. Now I don't use "auto-on", rather manually turn off headlights when I exit if parked in garage. Didn't seem to be a problem when parked outdoors. It's a weird symptom that no one seems to have an answer for.

JFNash

You know that you're on the watch list of those aliens who use ultraviolet beams to track your movements. So my guess is that it's their surveillance apparatus that is causing your car to act up.