Well, after my somewhat long reply earlier today - did my errands, went to visit a friend with top down - perfect cruising weather. Had dinner , got in car ( top down ) started fine although heard a strange sound when starting that I ignored, but registered. Dash lights in Speedometer console OK ( tach, speed, gas ... ) - no lights in Temp control or radio area. Nothing work in that area 9 while driving) - no heater, Nav system, Radio, CD - zip. Very worried that top would not go up. Got home, car in park, pushed top button - top came up. Still no radio / heat. Turned car off - turned on but did not start - Temp control / radio lights came on and worked. I have one big **** Electrical issue apparently. Am off to West coast crack-o-dawn tomorrow - will have to deal with this when I return. So - more advice please - I need to raise the bar on this issue with Lexus - way past the GM of Service level . How does one go about doing this w/out going postal ??

 

Check this thread out in 2001.....SAME ISSUE as yours !!!
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc430-2nd-gen-2001-2010/23238-anyone-else-experiencing-electrical-problems.html

 

I looked up kpura's past posts, he seemed to have solved the problem : Look at this thread

 

I believe the car shuts down certain systems when the battery runs low. I had something similar to that happen when I had a race battery installed in my car. I was installing some wiring one night while listening to the radio, when I was finished I tried to put the top up and the radio shut off. I had to charge the battery and everything was fine. The radio seriously drains the battery.

 

Sent a letter to Lexus - got a "we feel your pain" response and a "sorry" -that was it. Car then went to Dealership for a week with a voltmeter attached - as expected, No Problem found - no battery drain indicated. I guess time will tell and the Virginia Lemon Law is one step away from qualification. BAsed on its history report, I am on the 3rd Stereo / CD and 4th battery. Va law states that if a vehicle has that same problem, looked at by certified Lexus shop 3 times, over an 18 month span from time of purchase - it qualifies. This was my second official visit on each in the one year I've had the car.

Car is behaving itself for now - go figure. Will report back any developments - Also noticed a new Battery problem posted recently on an 06. If my issue happens again, one way or another, this car is gone.

 

I have an sc 430 2006. I travel a lot plus this is just a weekend car. I drive it 3-4 times a month if that. I bought a Optima Red battery after this problem at 1900 miles. The dealer checked it out and found nothing wrong...... I hope the battery had a dead cell like the dealer thinks.

 

I have an 06 that I go last October it sat for the winter except for starting it once in a while and taking it for a spin on dry days. Now I take it out a couple of times a week.

No problem so far.

 

Well, its been 2 weeks or so since its return from the dealership for same issue which resulted in "no problem found" - and yet what happens, dead battery AGAIN this morning. Car getting towed to Dealership accordingly and am supposedly getting a call from the regional Lexus person to "personally" address my issue - we shall see. I last drove the car.....8 days ago and ran fine. The only thing is did with or to the car was 2 nights ago when I used the remote to make sure the car was locked. As I assume this perhaps sets the alarm, is it possible the alarm is a possible culprit ? Everything else is turned off, shut down.

 

i had battery problems several times. It would just stop working next morning. But when i jumped the car, it would start back right away. Then i realized that the battery was fine. The problem was the connection to the battery. For some reason, if the connection gets slightly loose, the battery kinda disconnects itself until you reset the connection by little touch. To address the issue, i tightened the connection to the battery. I even used alluminum foil to make sure that the connection is tight. Since then, i have no battery issue.

 

The comments above were made in 2001 and our brand new 2006 430 is doing the same thing AND the San Antonio Lexus dealer is telling us the same thing! They said we have to drive it every 3 days or the battery will be drained and that's just the way it is.

I read some of the discussions on this over the last 5 years and it appears to be a common problem to SOME of the 430s, but not all. Are others having this same problem? If so, is your Lexus dealer telling you the same thing? How ridiculous that a car cannot sit 4 days and still start. We've had to charge it up twice - the dealer said they'd replace the battery (a 2 hour drive away), but it sounds like we need to do that really soon so that maybe the car will be "flagged" in it's records.

Any suggestions gang? This problem is simply not acceptable as is. (wish I had my old El Dorado back!)

 

What is the charging voltage of your alternator? Your battery may be defective, but doubtful.

Are you turning off all the accessories and the auto functioned headlamps and wipers?

If your not satified with the answer given, escalate. Don't live with the problem.
Was this defect discussed prior to your purchase? Do they have lemon laws in Texas? Don't settle for the easy answer from the dealer.... It's not the way it is.

They can tow your new auto the two hours to replace the battery rather than burning your fuel. It's not a favor, you've prepaid for the service.

 

Yes, we DO have lemon laws in Texas, thankfully. We have a call back into the Dealership and will see what they say. If nothing else, they can ship a battery down to our local Toyota dealership and they can replace the battery! Driving two hours to and fro to San Antonio is rather dumb just to replace it.

Fortunately, we are a farmer family with a battery charger in the garage, but the battery was so dead twice that we had to jumper to get it to kick in. The joke is that when the battery is that dead, you cannot put the car in neutral and push it out of the garage to jumper it. We had to bring in a small car to maneuver around our garage and get close enough to do it!

One thing I've noticed from day one is how long it takes to crank the car on... a good 5-6 seconds, unlike any other car we have that usually take only a couple seconds. And that includes the El Dorado with an engine larger than this one (with almost as many "computer features". Maybe it IS the battery, but it's up to Lexus to figure this out.

Hubby set up a trickle charger in the meantime, but what a pain that is... I just know I'm going to forget to unplug it and pop it loose backing out of the garage. Plus, like, what do we do when we have to drive it to the airport and leave it a few days on a weekend flying trip?

Many thanks y'all for all the input now and also back to 2001 - very helpful to at least see that not all 430s have this problem.

While I"m at a rant... anyone noticed how hot the top gets on a 100 degree sunny day when the car is left sitting out even for an hour? We could fry an egg on the inside of the roof. Takes about 15 minutes to cool the car down enough to stop sweating. Hubby can't believe they didn't put some sort of thin insulation in that roof.

 

Hi:

I haven't been on this site for 5 yrs and I received this reply message today so I checked it out.

I am glad I did, because I was just thinking about how much I miss my SC430- now I know better.

With the problems I had with my roof rattle, after bringing Lexus USA into the picture, they lemon Law-ed my car and gave me a new one, that one also had the same prob, had it in the shop when they side swiped the car - the Then GM at the dealership told me if I hadn't stopped in unannounced and seen my car wrecked, I would have never know the difference after it was repainted..well, told him to keep the car and got my refund with the help of Lexus Usa 2 Sc430's gone.

My Advice, make lots of noise !!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW Is the roof rattle still an issue with the newer models?

 

No roof rattle here at all - at least something has improved in the last few years (at least with ours)

 

The saga continues.. the head Service Manager called back and they are going to send another battery down to us next time someone heads to Corpus Christi (supposedly next week) and we'll put that in. I mentioned the slow start and crank this car has always had, so we are suspecting a bad battery, but time will tell.

I'll give another report when we get the new battery (I plan to let the car sit after driving it about a week to test it out), but meanwhile, if anyone else has a battery going dead problem, post it here or the other discussion going so we will keep in tune with how many of these 430s have the "problem".

Many thanks gang!