Had an issue driving our 2012 RX350 home Friday night - Wife was driving, she felt the loss of power steering and the dashboard lit up like a disco.
Limped it home with headlights dimming as we pulled into our neighborhood.
Suspected bad battery as car would not respond to the key fob after we got out.
This morning I opened the hood, removed the covers and found that the battery + was fairly corroded - pulled battery out, cleaned the contacts with baking soda slurry and wire brush and reattached. Still no worky.
Tried to recharge battery, but the charger would not register that a battery was attached.
Bought a new battery (since this was the holiday weekend and I did not want to have to haggle with Lexus over a 3 year old battery under warranty and I could not drive it to the "dealership" without the battery).
Battery goes in with no issue - but I was not prepared for the panic alarm to go off when I connected the negative post so I dropped my 10 mm wrench down into the engine bay while tightening the post bolt.
I got the alarm all sorted out, started the car, everything looked good and sounded good. Cut the car off and got a flashlight to look for my wrench. I spotted the wrench in the plastic lower splash pan under the battery.
Crawled under the car and located which compartment it was rattling around in
Called my wife over to hold the flashlight while I dug the wrench out of the splash pan. Started unsnapping the plastic tabs and removing a 10mm bolt that held the pan in place and my wife goes "What is that smoke?"
I said I just started the car up and turned it off and it should go away. At that point I had removed enough fasteners to flex the splash pan down and grab my wrench.
I put everything under the car back in place. And then I noticed a smell and I saw there was light wispy smoke coming from the left (passenger) side of the engine bay. Here is a still from the video I took
Smoke was coming from around where the red square is
I snapped off the plastic "manifold cover" but could not locate the source. Smell was getting stronger, but the smoke remained wispy and hard to track the source. On a hunch I pulled the negative cable and the smoke went away.
The only thing in that area I could think of would be the alternator - Would a shorted out alternator smoke/burn like that? Is there something else I should look for?
I am thankful I dropped my wrench as I likely would have not noticed the smoke and just shut the hood and walked away.
I have a mechanic that is about a mile away - should I tow or take risk with a quick drive over?
If you have AAA or towing thru your insurance id get it towed. I don’t think it will catch on fire but obviously something shorted or is still shorted and if you give it constant juice you will end up frying it. Hopefully the mechanic can diagnose it before any permanent damage is done.
Some thing electrical in nature has gone bad [logically guess based on smoke source] and it took out your battery enough to make it a non-entity. With the new battery in, the smoke has returned.
Disconnect the battery and let a tech trace the issue. Tech may use a controlled environment to smoke out the problem source.
Looks like a bad connection at the alternator. If your corrosion was as bad as you described, likely bad at the alternator too. Not an expert but I am a retired HD mechanic. Let us know what you find.
