About a month ago my wife's new RX350 had a dead battery after sitting for one week. I figured she must've left a light on. It just happened again and this time I was the one driving so we know men don't leave lights on. She had the dealer check out the car after the first time and they said the computer checked out fine. I wondered why they didn't check out how many milliamps were being drawn when the car was at rest, but didn't worry too much because as I said I thought she had left a light on.

She called the dealership today and they told her it was normal for a battery to be dead after a week. They told her she should get a battery buddy. Or put it on a charger or disconnect the battery. All of these options will work, but make no sense. It seems hard to believe that it is normal for a battery to drain in one week.

Anyone know what the normal amount of drainage is (milliamps/hour)? Her car is fully loaded, navigation, dvd, blue tooth.

TIA,

Ted

 

Duh! So you should not ever take your car to the airport when you fly somewhere for a week? Your dealer is full of crap. Talk to the dealership's owner or Lexus Customer Relations. Your dealer is blowing you off.

It is not normal for the battery to drain in a week. I've had my car at the airport on numerous occasions for a couple weeks at a time in the dead of winter with no issues.

That said, Lexus recommends that your turn your headlights to the off position and not auto for extended periods of time. Something I have never done BTW.

 

Welcome to CL, Ted! Sadly you have one of those dealers who, rather than investigate the problem, and check the current drain on the battery with the keys out, finds it easier to blame you.

Certainly there are plenty of ways you can accidentally run down your battery. I left the inverter on with several large camera batteries charging for about three hours while I took a nap in the driver's seat. Killed my battery completely. I had a passenger turn a rear dome light to the "on" position and would have been stranded again, had I not noticed the light burning an hour or so later.

Yes, we can make dumb mistakes - but it only takes a few seconds to pull a battery cable and put an ammeter between the clamp and the terminal and verify there is not a malfunction somewhere. Your service people should know better.

DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS YOURSELF WITH A MILLIAMMETER . . . UNLESS YOU LIKE DIY FIREWORKS.

 

There is something wrong with your RX. Take it to different dealer and ask them to investigate the problem. I have 07 RX and it has been sitting in my garage for extended of time and i did not have this problem. Good luck!

 

Does your state have a Lemon Law? If so, that 1st time has already counted towards the 3 times allowed. Take it back again stating the same problem. Then ask to speak to the service manager and explain what happened the last time.

I had a similar problem with my GSh. My battery was dead after 2 days. Roadside Assistance jumped it, it started. Took it into Lexus and was told nothing wrong. As soon as I brought it home, waited 6 hrs and it was dead again. Called service and explained what happened, this time I was told that I had to wait 2 weeks for a loaner. Called my sales guy, had the service manager call me, and I was back at Lexus with a loaner waiting for me. They found it was a defective battery (luckily not the hybrid). I wish it happens again because the 3rd time gets me a new car!

 

I know that some of the new Corvettes claim a couple of weeks will draw the battery down but I have a difficult time believing that your Lexus is normal. I would call the Service Manager and ask him to email or fax you his statement that this is normal. Then, I would ask him if they did a draw check to see what was pulling amps and a battery load check to see if the battery was up to snuff. Finally, I would ask him for the number for Lexus USA complaint department.

 

Go try another Lexus dealer...stay away from the one you used!

 

Thanks for all the good advice. They are supposed to come to the house tomorrow to do a paracitic draw passage test. I'm guessing this a draw test. I checked and there is a .3 A draw with nothing on. That seems like a lot to me, but I don't know the math. Will call my buddy Otto (the mechanical genius) to see how long the battery should last with this amount of draw.

 

Dealer said Normal for Batt to be dead after a week---that Moron needs to be fired!! I have left our RX for 3 weeks and she started up in 2 seconds--I leave my lights on Auto if that matters.

Take it to another dealer--you just need a new battery more than likely, there are bad batts out there....

 

lazy dealers.........

 

3/10 amp is a pretty large load, considering the need to retain memory in everything from the ECM to your radio presets should only be a tiny fraction of that. Something's on that shouldn't be - or something is drawing current somewhere.

 

Relying on memory here (so don't trust it) but I seem to recall that most auot computers, digital radios, etc draw no more than a hundred milliamps or so.

Waiting to see what the Lexus tech guy says.

 

They sent out a kid for roadside assistance and he claimed the same thing as the dealer, i.e., it's normal for a battery to be dead in a week. He didn't do a parasitic draw test like they said he would, but hooked up some contraption to the battery and proclaimed the battery to be bad. My buddy, Otto (the mechanical genius) told me I should have waited and looked at my amp meter after @ 5 or 10 minutes when the electronics would go into sleep mode. Given that, the 300 milliamp draw that I saw may not have been accurate. I haven't retested. We may just let the car sit for a week and see what happens with this new battery.

 

Be sure to drive the vehicle around for a while to insure the new battery is fully charged first. New batteries are seldom delivered fully charged.

 

Not to give you the idiot treatment but, did you charge up the new battery. Batteries are charged at the factory and often don't get recharged in transit. My new BMW has a sheet showing that the battery had periodic recharging while in transit from Germany. Doubt your replacement was tested or recharged. As I am sure you know, cars alternators are not designed to bring a battery from a very low state of charge up to full charge. That is what battery chargers are for. I usually hook up a battery charger for 6-8 hours once I install a new one.

Let us know what happens.