Picked up my Copper Crest RX450H+ last night and am loving it so far, although a tad apprehensive to go to the garage and try to start it this morning -lol. In any event, I would think that if people are getting trapped in the vehicle as mentioned above, that would be a safety concern. If enough of those who experienced this safety concern would file complaints with the NHTSA https://www.nhtsa.gov/.... this might get Lexus' attention by triggering a recall. The catch is that NHTSA doesn't care about 12V battery charging algorithm/design problems, per se, but if those algorithm/design problems are, or lead to, a safety issue they may get involved. The complaints would need to stress the safety problem...i.e. " I couldn't open the door and was trapped in my car in the hot sun", or whatever...

Just a thought...

 

You just pull the door release button twice to open the door. Do people really not understand this?

 

Don't know....but someone mentioned that they saw this on Reddit...

 

I'm dubious. Probably an attention-seeker, if true. It's pretty intuitive to pull that lever.

 

It was someone's 75 year old father, the reddit poster said - a senior who didn't care about cars or gizmos. They called their son on the phone frantically then to help them, after their brand-new NX450H+ died and locked up, with them sitting inside (probably in ACC mode, which by WellsB's statement - is a "trap"). Such a 75 year old person couldn't care about reading manuals or researching forums and gizmos about their car - a Lexus is not a toy to them. They just bought the car thinking that being a Lexus, it just works and they can depend on it for basic functions. The son posted the story is what I remember.

To a senior who's never owned a car that requires electronically push a switch to open a door, and then finding that their new car dies in the brand new state of ownership, and then knowing/expecting such, and also being prepared/knowledgeable to push a different lever to get out of the dead car - that's not a dubious story to me at all.

It only takes lack of empathy to not understand that a vast majority of the cars' owners are not anything like a few Lexus-loving posters on this forum.

 

Doubting a story from reddit in this day and age, when one has zero context go with it, is just common sense, not a lack of empathy.

That said, the first thing my 70-something year old cousin did, when she could not get out of the passenger side because it was locked did, was pull the lever twice and get out, so I don't think its an age thing at play there.

 

The first thing Lexus dealers do for test drive or service loaner is tell and physically show how to get out of the car. I can see an older person panicking and down the road not remembering that extra step. Just like a lot of people forget where the parking brake is because never use it as it is automatic.

 

WellsB is spot on here. I too, have seen first hand, the entire top of a lead acid battery blow right off, due to a spark which occurred right at the battery terminal.
It's just not worth the risk....as in..... sulfuric acid in your eyes.

 

He's correct, it works just fine. If at first you don't succeed, read the owner's manual.....OR watch the two in-depth You Tube vids that have been posted on here several times. They are filled with very useful information.

 

So we suffered a completely dead 12v battery last week. When I measured the voltage before jumping it, it was only 2.5v. It had last been driven only 3 days earlier.

It turns out that the smart EVSE I had purchased was causing the vehicle to wake up repeatedly. This was even with the charging cable unplugged from the vehicle, but plugged into the wall plug 120v. Apparently, the Bluetooth or WiFi connectivity of the EVSE was interacting with the vehicle to wake it up continously. That is in spite of the vehicle and charger not being paired to each other. I unplugged the EVSE from the wall plug and the 12v battery drain stopped almost immediately, and I saw no further drain overnight.

While this does not explain the long-term drain on the battery, it may be a clue. If other unknown devices are waking up the vehicle every now and then, it could cause the 12v battery to die sooner than expected (but not in a span of a day ir two) and be impossible to replicate by the dealer.

The Bluetooth battery monitor proved invaluable in diagnosing this problem, and I will continue to use it see if other clues surface.

The EVSE that caused the problem;
Tera for Tesla EV Charger Level 1 + 2 J1772: 32A 8A 110V 240V ETL 5 Years Warranty Dual Use Portable & Wall Connector NEMA 14-50 & NEMA 5-15 Wi-Fi & BT Enabled 25FT Cable with Holder, P01 https://a.co/d/e7YeEad

The battery monitor I am using;
Battery Monitor BM2 BM3 Bluetooth 4.0 Wireless Battery Tester 12V Automotive Battery Load Tester,Automotive Charging and Cranking System Monitor Digital Battery Analyzer for Android & iOS https://a.co/d/4esyDcg

Graph from battery monitor app showing 12v battery on charger with EVSE plugged into wall but not plugged into the vehicle. 12v charger turned off at 8. EVSE unplugged at 10 then plugged back in at 11:30 then unplugged again at 21. Voltage stayed flat after that into the next morning.

 

I have a 2024 Rx450H+ which has been a fun and interesting car to drive (about 2000 miles to date) Then I went to start it and it went into some sort of endless loop. The headlights flashed on and off, it became unresponsive to key and couldn’t start or stop the vehicle. Shift lever did nothing. Finally had to abandon my efforts and take another car to airport for a trip. When I returned 12 volt battery dead. Managed to manually open rear door and connected charger to battery. Remains dead. Unresponsive to key and unlock buttons in car. Only way to open doors is manually.
Now I can’t remove the Hybrid charge cable. Monday will call roadside assistance and arrange tow to dealer.
I am wondering if there is a way to manually unlock the hybrid charge cable.
There should be a ‘simple way to force reboot the computer unless something in the chip burned out.

 

Your battery was dead at the first try. The mods will move your post to this thread on dead 12V batteries: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/hyb...-incident.html

 

Most modern chargers will not start charging if the battery is completely dead. You need to jump start the vehicle to get the battery above the cutoff point where the charger will start charging it.

There is a manual method to remove the charging cable. It's in the owners manual.

 

My RX 450h+ is back at the service department for the second time in 2 weeks with a dead starter battery.
OP, did you find a technical resolution or did you proceed with lemon law?
Not sure how to proceed at this point. Many thanks in advance for any information you can provide.

 

I've been watching our 12v battery via a Bluetooth monitor quite a bit since May 16th. Nothing conclusive yet, but I've seen 12v battery discharge behavior that seems to be related to the key fobs being too close and a Wi-Fi/ Bluetooth enabled EVSE that seemed to be waking up the vehicle constantly. With the key fobs about 30' away and no EVSE waking it up, I've seen days with very gradual discharge, to where it could go a week between starts, but still a deeper discharge than I like.

I've also seen discharge behavior that I cant explain, though I think it may be due to WiFi and or Bluetooth devices of unknown origin, probably from neighbors, though it's random.

Another worrisome behavior is that the 12v charging system makes no attempt to fully charge the battery, with the end result being a "normal" resting voltage of 12.1 to 12.4 volts, which means that the battery cannot provide near its rated capacity, explaining why it dies so quickly in ACC mode, and is also in the range where sulfation occurs, which will greatly reduce battery lifespan.

I've now taken to fully charging the battery with a charger every week, rather than every month.