Battery dead!

[Rexlex]

Hi guys, Just tried to start up my baby...2005 RX 300se and she wonny go! Dead flat Battery, to be fair I drive my Mercedes Sprinter most of the time especially in the winter

I took the Battery off because the car is round my mums flat and I took it home to charge it up, the charger says faulty and it doesn't charge at all, I left it for an hour but nothing is happening

The Battery is the original Panasonic so its done well to last for 12 years but looks like I need a new one and this time I'll take it off in the winter and keep it on the charger...

So the reason for my thread was to enquire if anybody can recommend a good replacement? I did some searching on line but there is a fair few to choose from! Do I need a premium Battery?? I suppose it does have a lot of electrics to run, I have no idea if a premium Battery is necessary so I will take on board any advice and feedback

Secondly I noticed a few months ago that the gearshift doesn't light up at night and this can be confusing as I don't drive the car all of the time and my van is manual! Every time I look to see what gear I'm in forward or reverse its just black! I have to turn the interior light on when I'm doing three...four point turns in the dark!

Can I fix this myself? I am very meticulous and careful and I would be cross with myself if I damaged anything! But if it is fairly simple to remove the center console cover to get at the bulb then that would be rather cool and one less thing...

Thanks in advance.  

[PCM]

I got a Yuasa - seems a good brand and does the job.

[Rexlex]

Thanks so much for my only reply, yes I looked at the Yuasa and not bad prices however I managed to get my old Panasonic charging by connecting another Battery to it using jump leads

It seems the charger won't charge a completely flat Battery, if it sees the voltage of another Battery it starts charging both batteries, I left it like that for two hours charging and then I took the jump leads off and it continued to charge the Panasonic Battery on its own, by 6pm last night it was fully charged! (12 amp charger) I'm going to cycle the Battery a few times and hopefully it will hold up on a Battery load test

The cells look good so I'm quietly confident that I may have saved this Battery to live a few more years...

Thanks again for your response and now back to fitting my kitchen, I just love being indoors on such a lovely day! Not 

[Parrot of Doom]

The Battery is twelve years old.  Don't be tight, replace it.

[Bluesman]

Mine was completely flat this morning. It had a 40 mile run yesterday, brand new from Lexus only 4 months ago. Checked that there was nothing left on. This happened about 2 months ago but I put that down to freezing cold temperatures. Will get the alternator checked out in the next couple of days and if thats OK I will have to have a word with Lexus.  

[chesterman]

I believe many of the modern "intelligent" chargers will not work on a completely discharged Battery as they have to detect the polarity.   Thus your solution of connecting a second, live Battery, was a good work around.   I bought a Bosch S4 (45AH) Battery for my 400H when the previous Toyota battery was 10 years old.   Paid about £50 from euro Car Parts.   This was the largest capacity Battery which would fit in the Battery housing, as reflected in many previous posts on this subject.   Hope this helps.  

[Chosen One]

My RX400h 2005 suffers from the same problem of a flat Battery.  I have put up with recharging it overnight, for it to be flat again after a few days.  As it was about 6 years old I replaced the Battery with a genuine one from Lexus to no avail. Fitted solar panels to the spoiler, that helped somewhat, but still flat Battery after a few days.  Latest trial was to fit a secondary Battery in parallel in the luggage area of the car, early days yet but will provide feedback when I know more.

[Parrot of Doom]

If a good Battery is going flat after a few days then you have an electrical problem.  The car should be able to sit for weeks at a time without the Battery going flat.

[PCM]

Agree.

Courtesy light not going off?

 

[Rexlex]

Did some research and apparently wet celled lead acid batteries need regular charging to stop the cells from sulphating, some kind of corrosion, when this happens it kills a good Battery even if its not that old

I'm happy to report the cells in my Panasonic Battery look really good! So either it was replaced at some point or Panasonic sure know how to build a good Battery!, I checked the condition indicator and its Blue which indicates good to go... the car starts like it was brand new so I think I have saved a Battery from landfill which I feel pretty good about...

The problem is the car isn't a daily driver so I've gotten into the routine of charging it and over charging it every fortnight, apparently its important to over charge the Battery and most modern chargers do this automatically, I guess it cleans up the cells inside, anyhow its working well so pretty chuffed that an idiot like me repaired my own Battery and didn't need to dump it!

I think there must be a Battery drain on these cars, perhaps the alarm or something? My buddies X5 does the same, its quite common on suv's to drain batteries if left standing for a while so it seems

Next job cam belt, gulp! Cars 12 years old but only done 60k, apparently its 100k or 10 years and then the belt needs changing, its a bit scary to think that there is only a rubber band driving my cams? My VW was shaft driven off the crank, got to be a better idea... also got to do the water pump and idler so i'm told, the car runs and drives like brand new so I'm not thrilled about the idea of someone pulling it apart! My local Toyota dealer is owned by the local Lexus dealership so the prices are the same! I heard that Toyota are usually cheaper but not in my case, that is unless I go out of the local area, either that or I do it myself but looks a bit tight on space under the bonnet, could be a nightmare without a car lift...     

[sorcerer]

For goodness sake, your car is 12 years old like mine. You definitely do not want to be paying Toyota/Lexus main dealer prices for a car that old. There MUST be a good independent garage/mechanic around you who will do the job.

To give you an idea, I had the cambelt and all idler/tensioner/pulleys done, plus water pump, plus 10 litres of Toyota Super Long Life Pink coolant for about £450 or £460 including labour charges and VAT at an indy place.