Ssteigss

Cocal

With all the draw on the battery our new technology inflicts on it, it behooves us to get a smart battery charger (CTEK; GENIUS etc) and plug it every 6 months, the battery's life will be doubled if not tripled and you'll get you pay-back in $ & less inconvenience.

Bambarbia

And why is that? Yes I know some people do it with their motobikes and custom LiFePO4 batteries and smart charger will 'balance' cells inside the box and etc; why to do it with Lexus SUVs lead-acid battery? 50 years ago people didn't get dead lead-acid battery in less than 2 years!

Lexus on-board computer may show smarter error messages if battery power is not enough to start engine.

Ssteigss

Cocal

50 yrs ago the battery only started the car & operated lights today they do a whole host of different things which put a draw on it constantly.

Bambarbia

You can connect electric heater, TV, refrigerator, and A/C to your battery, and connect your battery to the charger (as in case with running engine's alternator), it shouldn't decrease battery life, and it shouldn't consume any electricity form the battery. As 50 years ago, electricity was used to keep engine running (by sparking gas in valves), but is was electricity coming from alternator and not from battery (although battery was "on a way").

Almost nothing changed (in terms of battery consumption & total-watts-per-year-per-battery which indeed significantly decreased!), except that today Lexus Canada (Ontario) uses modern computer chip to operate it.

endless402

lexitaxi

I think I may have the fix for you! My 16 RX had this same problem. I was getting the "Braking Power Low" message on the instrument cluster screen. Since no codes are stored, my local dealer went to the first fix that has been mentioned here a number of times, they replaced the Brake Booster. In fact, that didn't fix it so the SECOND time, they replaced the Brake Booster and Master Cylinder assembly, per a Field Lexus tech my local dealer called on the phone. That didn't fix the problem. Finally on the third attempt, I believe they have fixed it because, knock on wood, since September I am problem free. It was coincidental that on the date of my third service appointment, the Field Lexus Tech from Chicago (same person they called on my second fix attempt) was visiting my dealer for another case. He advised the following. I cut and pasted it verbatim from the service invoice.

FIELD TECHNICAL REP HERE FROM LEXUS CHICAGO ADVISED TO ADJUST BRAKE LIGHT SWITCH STILL IN FACTORY SPEC SETTINGS SO THE BRAKE PEDAL ENGAGES THE START BUTTON FASTER WITH LESS FORCE

This fixed it for me, hopefully it will do the same for you!

ravenuer

Ha! So after replacing all those part$, all it needed was a brake light switch adjustment!

lexitaxi

guxu

I think there are two issues. First, the brake booster loses vacuum too fast. So the brake becomes stiff in short amount of time. Second, the brake switch position is on the far side. With the stiff brake, some people may not apply enough force to make the brake reach the switch position.

I am the regular driver of my RX. I noticed the stiff brake but I never had problem to start the engine nor had the warning message. But when my wife had my RX last week, she saw the warning message, and even had problem to shift.

Owner157

The Meter Control unit logic has been modified to address this condition. Did this software update actually fix the vacuum issue?

Skygc

I have not perform the update yet. But my guess is that's a software update only, so the brake booster is still loosing vacuum overnight.

Bulkin82

WhoDat

I've not had that notice....yet. however the break light just showed up and I cant start the car. Going to try the bypass method to start it and take it to the shop 1st thing in the morning, if I still cant get it started I'll have them come to the house.