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I have so many friends who have had both RX ICE and Hybrid over the last 10 years. None of them have ever had this battery issue we are discussing here. I am wondering if this pandemic has had such bad effect on manufacturing of many car parts including batteries.
yes I think 12V car battery quality has tanked. I have a friend that’s gone through three batteries in a year in his Honda. Brand new replacement batteries are junk.
My battery has died twice already. First time i was home so it came back on its own. Second time it died as I was waiting to get pizza .
I got out the car to feed my baby in the car seat while we waited and the whole car locked up on me. Couldn't get in and didn't have the keys as I use the app. Thought I was going to have to break the glass but by some miracle the trunk opened. Absolutely nothing else budged on the car. Thing was.DEAD.
AAA was able to jump it directly on the battery in the trunk.
On one cold day back in December I was gearing up for my morning dive. Because it was pitch black outside I thought it would be a good idea to leave the lights on (come/leave home stays on until the car is locked). The lights were on for about 40 minutes. I then locked the car (RX500h). Hazards flashed, buzzer beeped. I came back an hour later and popped the hatch open. The car beeped again and hazards flashed. And this is where the problems began. I tried opening the side door but to no avail (gotta thank Lexus for those idiotic electronic release handles). Pressing the unlock button on the fob only resulted in flashing lights but no buzzing. Doors were still locked. I had to climb over the back seats to reach the rear door manual release handle. Once the doors were open I tried starting up the car. It beeped again but the dash didn't even light up. Dead battery symptoms... Luckily another diver was parked nearby and had jumper cables. We jumped the battery and the car started right up.
Two weeks went by with zero issues.
Having feared being left alone with a dead battery in the middle of nowhere, I decided that my wife's husband deserves another Christmas gift in a form of a booster.
Sure enough, couple of days ago I had the same issue. No lights were running before locking the car but same symptoms came up again. The hatch opened no problem but then the car died on me again. The booster was put to its intended use and voila the car was brought back to life.
I blame the battery but wondering if this happened to anyone else. The car is less than a year old and Lexus keeps scoring top three across all known reliability charts. My next servicing is coming up soon so I will definitely have them look into it but my guess is that they will offer a battery replacement at my own expense.
Kinda ironic that a hybrid car is immobilized because of a dead battery.
I’ve been buying new Toyotas for 40 years- they have all been fantastic and reliable. That said, they all have lousy batteries. I expect to replace them within 1-2 years. Have honestly had the best luck with batteries from Walmart. Get the 5 year battery, it usually fails in 3 and so I get free replacements pretty much forever.
yes I think 12V car battery quality has tanked. I have a friend that’s gone through three batteries in a year in his Honda. Brand new replacement batteries are junk.
We had to get a new battery for our Explorer. Sourced one at Batteries+. Picking it up I decided to look at the "born on" date. The one the salesman got off his shelf was 2 years old already!! Sure, it had a warranty from purchase date, but, still. I refused that one and asked him to find a current date battery, one less than a month old. Found one, got it installed this past Spring. All was fine. Until the temps around here did the artic plunge thing (-15 in Missouri!). One week in subzero temps and it's dead.
Not sure if Varta batteries cross reference to Toyota vehicles, but that would at least be a good European made battery - the German cars all use that brand. But I don't think they have a retail sales channel in the US.
I wouldn't do it. The 12v battery is only designed to power up the hybrid and run a few accessoroes, it doesn't have the crakinng amps to start an engine.
The battery in my RX450h+ has 345 CCA. That's plenty to start most engines. The older lead-acid based jump starters usually have a motorcycle battery powering them.
That said, I don't recommend it since Lexus doesnt. Just saying it has the ability.
My battery has died twice already. First time i was home so it came back on its own. Second time it died as I was waiting to get pizza .
I got out the car to feed my baby in the car seat while we waited and the whole car locked up on me. Couldn't get in and didn't have the keys as I use the app. Thought I was going to have to break the glass but by some miracle the trunk opened. Absolutely nothing else budged on the car. Thing was.DEAD.
AAA was able to jump it directly on the battery in the trunk.
What led up to the dead batteries? Was the car completely off? In accessory mode?
Killerpups, I wouldn't rely on that app. Always keep the key fob on you as a backup even if you use the app and or digital key. You could always use the manual key in the key fob to get into the car. ( No broken glass).
I was a seller of Interstate Batteries when I had my automobile parts business and the route driver would stop by once each month to look over the date codes on the batteries that we had on the shelf. Any that were more than 90 days old were taken and swapped out with fresh ones, which always allowed us to not sell any old or stale inventory. Interstate batteries are made by Johnson Controls and are pretty good quality. They were also the original suppliers of the old Sears Die Hards. We did have a few of them fail under warranty but, they were few and far between. Costco is now selling Interstates so, you might want to see if they have the correct group number for your vehicle. I know that my two cars use a Group 96R, also known as a T5.
I was a seller of Interstate Batteries when I had my automobile parts business and the route driver would stop by once each month to look over the date codes on the batteries that we had on the shelf. Any that were more than 90 days old were taken and swapped out with fresh ones, which always allowed us to not sell any old or stale inventory. Interstate batteries are made by Johnson Controls and are pretty good quality. They were also the original suppliers of the old Sears Die Hards. We did have a few of them fail under warranty but, they were few and far between. Costco is now selling Interstates so, you might want to see if they have the correct group number for your vehicle. I know that my two cars use a Group 96R, also known as a T5.
Two of the three garbage batteries by friend has dealt with over the last year were Interstates from Costco. It's a shame -- Interstate used to be great. They're junk now, from what I can tell.
