Lexus SC430 :: Battery Drain If Car Sits More Than A Week
Dec 17, 2014
We have had a problem with our SC430 battery going dead if it sits more than a week. We have had this car for a number of years and I am tired of putting a trickle charger on it all the time to keep it from going dead!
I can not believe that Lexus does not know what the big drain is on this vehicle when it sits even for a small period of time....I went to a Lexus dealer several years ago to have a new timing belt/water pump put in it and asked how to keep my battery from going dead. They pointed over the parts counter to a motorcycle type battery charger as they answer!
A friend has a late model Mercedes hardtop convertible, they (Mercedes) solved the problem by putting two batteries in it. One is isolated for just cranking! So, before I start with a fully charged battery and pulling every fuse and disconnecting everything until I find it. What is the big battery eater?
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I drive my solara pretty infrequently, but even so I am surprised by the way the battery drains to completely dead if I don't drive the thing for a week. 1 year old battery, presumably good per the folks at Schucks and its place in the price range, but if I don't actively drive the car - dead. It seems like there must be a bunch of electrical drain even when turned off, Also, when jumping (which is far too common an event) it doesn't work well unless I put the negative cord on the negative terminal instead of grounding it on the chassis like I typically do.
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I have a 2007 LS460L. It hasn't been driven in three or four days. Today we found the car was completely dead. I had to get into the car with the manual key. The battery is one year old. The AAA person found that the light switch was set on parking lights rather than automatic. Could that have drained the battery. I thought that the lights turn off after you leave the car.
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A couple days ago the engine wouldn't start. I thought it was a dead battery (installed 5 months ago), so I brought a mechanic with a new battery. While the mechanic was working on replacing the battery, I heard some discrete noise coming out from under the hood and windshield area (driver's side). I didn't pay much attention.
Now, when I switch off the car, I can hear the noise (it's like the door's closer sound but with higher interval and it comes out about every 30 seconds). When I'm at complete stop, I hear the noise with the rpm dropping a tiny bit until the noise fades away when the rpm gets back to the normal level. The episode is repeated every 30 seconds or so. Today I felt the battery started to drain (it took longer to start the car).
LS460, '08, VSR fix done 1 year & 30K miles ago. No other problems or symptoms.
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Is the remote starter going to drain your battery faster? is it why a lot of CL members having a battery problem? My friend said his dealer told him so that he didn't get a remote starter for his car. Is it true?
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2006's battery will die after 1 week of non-use. It is a new battery. Does that sound normal?
The car does have the Toyota VIP alarm if that makes a difference.
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I am away for a week and a half, the Touareg is at LAX in a indoor parking garage (WallyPark) the whole time. When I come back, the battery is dead. What is the probability of this actually happening? I know that it is common on 04's but I don't know how 05's are.
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my 2005 V10 Ex is garage kept. I work at home and have a different daily driver so it usually goes out once a week.
At 40,000 miles and 10 years...it still has the original factory installed battery. I keep a tender on it if it's going to sit a while and so far everything has been OK.
At 10 years, should I replace the battery just to avoid a potential problem?
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I checked my rx350 battery health and it is good. Still I am having recurrent issues when battery dies. And needs a restart. It happened many times and last one just happened this morning and I have feeling that this is related to rear hatch door...let me explain what happened:
Yesterday evening I went for grocery shopping and opened the rear hatch door using my car key remote, kept the groceries and closed the rear hatch using the button on the bottom of rear hatch door. I drove back to home and parked the vehicle in the garage. This morning I opened the rear hatch again and closed it, drove it to a house one block away, returned home and parked the car.
When I tried to start 1 hour later, the battery had already died. So, I have a feeling that opening and closing the rear hatch door 3 times caused this battery drain.
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I have a '96 4Runner (4WD V6 SR5) with 215k miles which had been running great until I parked it at work for a week & a half business trip and came back to a dead battery. I jump started it this morning and it ran fine until I disconnected the jumper cables, at which point it immediately started running rough (hesitating, almost dying) and the windshield wipers went to the high setting (they weren't on before) and all the lights on the instrument panel were on (check eng, etc.).
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My 2013 Sonic has died three times this week. After charging, the car runs fine, and will start up another 5-6 times with no problem. I can even turn the car off immediately after disconnecting jumper cables, and it will turn back on. I took it to Autozone to be tested yesterday, and my battery, alternator, and starter passed. (Alternator is only about 10/11 mos old. Battery and starter have never been replaced) When the battery is dead, I hear a rapid clicking sound, the interior lights are dim, and headlights wont work, Sometimes the dash lights come on, other times they don't.
Some other issues that have been going on which may or may not be related are, catalytic converter and fuel solenoid valve are faulty, and will be replaced this week. Also my car window will go down but will not come up, (no noise when attempting to roll up the window, so i don't think its off track) and the windshield wiper squirts the washer liquid under the hood, and not on the window. (Havent gotten to diagnose those issues yet).
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I bought a BatteryMinder Model 2012 charger. This is a low-amperage temperature-compensating multi-stage charger/maintainer/desulfator that is supposed to avoid the wear and tear that lesser chargers inflict on batteries in long-term storage.
The charger comes with a 2-foot cable section with a terminal connection on one end and a capped plug on the other. I like the idea of an easy disconnect so I don't have to get under the hood each time I want to take the car out for a jaunt. My first thought was to run the cable and plug to the grill area of the car, except there's no easy way to do this without the plug showing. Also, the permanently-attached cable is only 2-feet long.
So I'm wondering about the windshield wiper tray, passing from the battery over the hood's rubber seal:
I attached a photo, showing where the charger cable might run. I can't see any conflict with the wiper or other functions. Am I missing anything?
The charger itself would be screwed to the garage wall.
Also, how about using a charger/maintainer with a cover over the car? This charger should not be pushing the battery and causing any water loss. So, I'm thinking that destructive gases should not be a problem. Again, am I missing something?
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2008 SC 430.....battery went dead, to zero. Got jumped. Went to dealer who sold me new battery. Drove 90 highway miles. Got home & put trickle charger on to "just see" what battery recorded. It was at 75%. Removed trickle charger. Checked again following morning & battery at 65%.
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I have a megaphone that I installed a while ago but I connected it straight to the battery. I noticed that it was draining my battery so I had to disconnect it. Now I am trying to figure out how i should connect this megaphone to my car without it draining the battery, when I am not using it.
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i was trying to align my headlights last night and forgot to switch them off. now the battery is dead and i need to shift it to neutral to roll it out of the garage and jump it. but it won't shift. the dealer said to turn it to on and step on the brake. doesn't work. i just get a buzzing sound coming from the engine compartment. is there any way to shift it? or do i just need to take the battery out and get it charged?
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About month ago, the CHECK ENGINE, VSC, and VSC OFF lights came on in the dash of my '03 SC430 (~175k miles). Took it to the dealer and they read the codes; indicating a bad O2 sensor. They replaced it, and the lights went off. A few days later, the lights came back on. The lights remained ON until this past weekend.
On Sunday, i went to start the car in the morning and the thing wouldn't turn over. Turns out the battery was dead. The label indicated it was 5yrs old. So i bought a new battery. After installation, i noticed the error lights were no longer illuminated on the dash, but just figured it was due to the fact that the battery was disconnected during installation. But after driving it extensively since then, the lights have remained off.
Something else i've noticed since installing the new battery is the lack of the "rotten egg" smell from the exhaust. Before the change, i noticed a significant decrease in acceleration and the emissions smelled very bad. But for the past few days, i've noticed a dramatic increase in power and cleaner smelling emissions. Not sure if they're related...
Could the check engine lights have been the result of my battery dying? I'm not sure why they haven't come back on since the battery replacement. Nor a reason why i'm noticing improved performance and better smelling emissions.
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My SC430 has been acting weird for a couple months now. I let it set for a month or so and the battery died. I charged it up and it was fine. Now its not starting again. It cranks just fine and all of the electronics seem to be working. I've tried all 3 of my keys. The first time It did this I unhooked the battery and charged it, put it back in and it started and ran fine for a couple weeks. Last week it did it again, took the battery out charged it and it ran for one day. Now its just cranking again. The battery is only a year old, but I think I am going to go ahead and get a new one and see if that works.
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Parked my 2002 sc430 with 6 month old battery at airport for 10 days while I was out of the country. When I got back the battery was dead. It was easy to jump and the clock was still on. I could see nothing that was left on. I have seen some other cars that have had the problem, something about theft lights, gps etc. I drove it home about 30 miles and have had no problem since.
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Just bought a CTEK for the SC430 along with the 8ft extension cord. Car doesn't get much use during the snow/ice season.
How you did your install and routed the wiring? I would rather not keep the hood up during charging.
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something is causing the battery to go dead after the van sits for several hours. The battery isn't the problem, that has been replaced with a battery we know is good and then 4 to 6 hours later the battery is totally dead. what this could be?
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Reviving my car after long months of long winter storage and I cannot get the door unlocked. I know the battery is dead so the remote won't work, but I cannot even unlock the door with the key, twisting it back and forth and nothing happens. I am just trying to get under the hood so i can jump the car, but no way to unlock the door. It is a 2002 SC430 , is the key supposed to work ? Or does the car need battery for the key to twist and unlock the door?
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