Hello all,
I hadn't driven my 2007 LS460L in a few weeks and when I went to start it, it wouldn't start, meaning, that the dash would light up, but the car made no attempt to turn over. I checked the battery and discovered very low voltage reading. Bought a new battery from Lexus and installed it today, but to no avail, the car does nor attempt to start. The symptoms are: new battery is installed, terminals are super clean and cables tightly connected to the battery terminals. As soon as I connect both terminals, the all lights on the dash illuminate, and the main screen shows "A program cannot be read...". The start button is showing a green light. Foot on the brake, transmission is in park, and when I press the start button, absolutely nothing happens. I have both keyfobs and there is no difference of behavior if I hold the key fobs near the start button or not.

I believe that I've read through all of the previous posts related to this type of issue, such as:https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...ease-help.html

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...eck-vsc-3.html

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...w-battery.html

The last post listed there contained this advice:

“try closing an locking all doors,trunk,hood... arm the oem alarm.. (keeping all fobs at least 15 ft from the car) then wait 30secs.. unlock the car get in an attempt the start again.. once running leave running for 5 mins for the cpu to reset.”

However, in my case, pressing the lock and unlock buttons does not lock or unlock the car. While the red light on the keyfobs light up when the lock and unlock buttons are pressed, the doors do not lock or unlock, so I feel unable to follow the instructions above.

Any advice on how to get my car started again? For now, I've disconnected the negative battery cable in the hopes of preserving the battery until I get some advice.

Thanks in advance

 

Well, when you get all the lights coming on when you connect the battery cable, that means that the ignition is on. You can't turn the ignition off unless the battery is connected. So, the first thing you need to do get the ignition off. With the battery connected, and your foot off the brake pedal, operate the START button until all dash lights are extinguished. It would be a good idea to turn the headlights off with the lights control stem. Now you have to be concerned if the battery has enough energy to start the car. When the battery is connected and the ignition is on, without the engine running, it rapidly depletes the battery. Now you need to disconnect the neg connection from the battery for a few minutes. Reconnect the battery and see it the car will start. If it won't start then you need to charge the battery. Be sure the ignition is off while you are charging the battery. After the battery is charged, disconnect the neg connection for a few minutes, reconnect it and you should be all set.

 

Oh, and the reason there is no response to the lock and unlock from the remote electronic key is because the car doesn't respond when the ignition is on.

 

sounds like the starter went out. also the hard drive for the navigation too.

 

Many thanks to jmcraney as your explanation is exactly what was correct. In order to help others and to remind myself the next time I change the battery, here's the issue and the solution:

When I put the new battery into the car and connected both the positive and negative terminals, all of the lights on the dash immediately turned on. Pressing the start ignition button had no effect.

The solution was:
1) Remove the negative cable from the battery
2) Keep the ignition key far away from the car
3) Hook up the negative cable to the battery (the positive cable was already hooked up)
4) All of the lights come on the dash again
5) Press the start ignition button. This turned off the ignition and the steering wheel moves away from the driver seat as you would expect when shutting off the car
6) Charged the battery with my battery charger; waited until it was 100% charged
7) Retrieved the ignition key from the house, placed it close to the start button and pressed the start button. The car started immediately. Starting problem solved.

As jmcraney explained above, the problem seemed to be that when connecting the battery the first time, the car seemed to have the ignition on, but the engine off. Once I was able to get the car into the ignition "off" status, I could then start the car with a fully charged battery.

 

NoVaLS,

Thank you for sharing the news of your success. I’ve been worrying about you - now I can worry about something else.

Your feedback will be helpful to others who have a similar problem.

Regards,

Jeff