Jumped my wife's car last night, and finally was able to get the suv going. It took the car about 20 minutes to start with cables connected to my car. The car finally started and I took the car for a short ride (probably 1 mile). Put the car back in the garage turned it off and it started no problem. Today my wife went to start it and same thing.... After charging the battery how long should I leave car on?

Is it a sure thing that I need a new battery?


The car is only 2 years old with 7,000 miles and I would think the battery would last longer than that. Than again I amin Chicago and the weather has been cold and my wife does not drive the car much!

 

You should buy a battery tender or a trickle charge battery. Even after jumping and the car starts, it is not fully charge. When you get it back in the garage, plug in the trickle charger/tender and let it on until it is fully charge. If after doing that the battery still keeps on getting weaker, maybe you have a bad battery or the charging system is not working. In this case you need to have it look at.

 

It is not possible to tell you if your battery is good or bad at this point in time. But, here is a little background. Your Lexus dealer can test your battery and let you know. It is possible that the battery has failed. I had the battery in my 450h replaced about 6 months after purchasing the car.

Given that you live in a cold climate and the car sits between use, you might consider getting a battery charger. I picked up one from Walmart (~$75) that has a digital readout. It will evaluate the battery and you can figure out if your battery has failed from the values that the charger displays (might save you a trip to Lexus service). The charger can be used to charge or recondition the battery. The one I purchased also has a setting that will allow you to jump start the engine so you do not have to use a second car. One final thing that you can do is connect the charger to the battery from time to time on it's lowest setting (trickle charge) and recharge the battery to full charge or use the trickle charge to maintain the batteries full capacity while it sits unused.

If you let your car sit for extended periods without use, the battery will die much sooner than you would expect. If that is your usage pattern, buy batteries with a good warranty and keep all of the paperwork handy.

 

Like UCSB said, it's not possible on this forum to determine your battery condition. But based on age and miles it 'could' be down from just lack of use. Also it's still under warranty and if the battery is bad, your warranty will cover it. Time to go to your service dept to have it checked.

 

But likely, either the battery has an issue, or you have too much current draw when the vehicle is off allowing the battery to go dead. Would be helpful to know what you mean by "not drive that much" though. Once a week it should be perfectly fine, couple times a month, maybe a battery charger is warranted after verifying the battery is ok during the winter.

I have an 04 Sienna still with the original battery that gets driven once a week these days. This winter I notice its cranking a bit slower than normal, but if I have to replace it after 10 years, that merely "meets" my expectations, not exceeds! In my 30+ years of driving, the youngest battery I ever had to replace was 8 yrs old.