I am in Tripoli Libya and my wife's RX 300 will not start. She says the alarm went off in the car last evening and now the car will not start. She has not yet attempted to jump it off as she is trying to find cables. Could there be another problem - i.e., alarm reset? Thank you as well as my wife

 

Please explain "will not start" .. When the the key turned to start, does the starter motor spin the engine and a good speed?

Or

the starter spins the engine at the good speed but the engine fails to catch?
In this case, does the engine catch if you depress the the gas pedal a bit and dies when you lift your foot off.

Have you tried another Key?

Also what type of Alarm? Security, clock or warning? Most likely alarm has nothing to do with failing to start.

Salim

 

the engine does not turn as if the battery is dead

 

We need to have a good battery and solid terminal clamps.

Have you tried giving it a jump with good jumper cables?

For now you can forget about the alarm.

Once you have a good battery to get it started, we need to figure out why the battery got drained. It would help if you can tell us about the age of the battery and how much does the RX get used [balance of number of starts (discharge) and run time(charge)]. Also report if your discharge warning light comes on and we can then diagnose if the culprit is the alternator.

Salim

 

I had the same problem and took it to Lexus today and they said everything is fine and no one has had this happen to them. Glad to hear it happened to you. Got to the car and the alarm was going on and unlocking the car did not stop the alarm but did unlock the car. Getting into the car it seemed like it was going to start and then it all went dead. The only recovery was to jump start the car.
Questions are: Why did the alarm go off in the first place? and then why does it go on forever seemingly leaving you stranded due to drained battery? Is this a design flaw?