IS300h car batery

[Richard1200]

Came back from a 6 week holiday Saturday 10th and the car Battery totally flat. Opened the car with key but nothing. AA called and they got it going quickly. Their meter showed the amps going up so left it with me to go for a drive. Lexus dealer said yes can happen. Will take it to the dealer next week for a Battery check. They recommended a trickle charger. I have checked the log on my Blackveiw dash cam and it shows it shutting down on December 28th, holiday early 30th so it’s not that. No more events until yesterday.

anybody had similar problems?

[royoftherovers]

1 hour ago, Richard1200 said:

Came back from a 6 week holiday Saturday 10th and the car battery totally flat. Opened the car with key but nothing. AA called and they got it going quickly. Their meter showed the amps going up so left it with me to go for a drive. Lexus dealer said yes can happen. Will take it to the dealer next week for a battery check. They recommended a trickle charger. I have checked the log on my Blackveiw dash cam and it shows it shutting down on December 28th, holiday early 30th so it’s not that. No more events until yesterday.

anybody had similar problems?

I connect my GS to a solar powered charger for 6 weeks or more (including Winter moths) Richard and have not had any starting problems in 4 years.

The Car and the charger are always left facing South to ensure the maximum capture of available light

[ColinBarber]

More than expected. The 12v batteries on the hybrid vehicles aren't large (because it isn't used for starting the engine as it is with non-hybrids) so won't typically last more than 3 to 4 weeks standing.

Best to either disconnect the Battery or use a trickle charger if leaving for more than 2 weeks.

Lead acid batteries don't like being completely discharged either, they will loose some capacity so you end up in a downwards spiral of less and less time before it becomes discharged.

[Martin F]

I had a faulty Battery on my IS, it started not lasting for longer than 2weeks, then 1 week and then even less. Was swapped under warranty by the dealer. 

 

 

[Richard1200]

Anybody recommend a trickle charger.

[Bob99]

I bought a citek mxs  5.0 when my 12v Battery needed charging. Not cheap but it is one of the most recommended about. The Battery was nearly 50% discharged and I was having the alarm going off sporadically. No problems after a full recharge.

[Richard1200]

Ctek msx 5 ordered, thanks to all. £63 from amazon including p&p

 

[MONTIMAR]

I used the same Ctek charger connected for three and a half months while I spent the winter in Thailand and had no starting problems on my return.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bluenose1940]

10 hours ago, MONTIMAR said:

I used the same Ctek charger connected for three and a half months while I spent the winter in Thailand and had no starting problems on my return.

What a fantastic way to spend the winter, lucky man!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Richard1200]

Car going into Lexus on Thursday for the day so they can check to see if the Battery is holding it’s charge. I have a BlackVue dash cam with the magic pro which powers down the camera after a set time or voltage. It now powers down 5 minutes after coming home which means it’s going below 12.5 volts very quickly. When it was fitted it would stay live for hours after.

[Richard1200]

Battery checked today and found to be good. It was just purely lack of use.

One thing I did learn today is that if you are away someone just puts the ignition on the car will obviously start but it will stop but the hybrid Battery will keep on charging the 12v Battery. The biggest Battery user while you are away from the car is it continually searching for the key. I have bought a trickle charger though.

[200h]

i'm sure you can turn off the keyless entry if your not using the car for a while,

it happened to me in jan 17 and after 3 weeks flat Battery i went and bought a

normal car Battery so i had something to boot the car up with ,its been fine ever since.

[parkman]

I have a classic Merc, a 500se which is a 5 litre motor. I leave it for months at a time, connected to a Ctek trickle charger which I bought in Halfords a couple of years ago. It works fine although I have the car in a solid lockup, and the alarm is not used. The garage lockup is alarmed and has cctv both inside and outside so I am satisfied that I can afford to have the car alarm off, but the car itself is locked and has a steering lock fitted, one of the long bar ones.

After all that !!!!!!!, my point is - the car starts fine even if it is left on trickle charge for 6 months. The charger in Halfords was about £40 I think at the time.

Parkman.

[Thackeray]

On 15/02/2018 at 6:03 PM, 200h said:

i'm sure you can turn off the keyless entry if your not using the car for a while,

Interesting that the manual says there's a Battery saving function to prevent the Battery running down if the car isn't used for a while. For some people it doesn't seem to be working as well as it should.

The manual says:

"In the following situations, the smart entry & start system may take some time to unlock
the doors...
• The smart entry & start system has not been used for 5 days or longer.
● If the smart entry & start system has not been used for 14 days or longer, the doors cannot
be unlocked at any door except the driver’s door. In this case, hold the driver’s door
handle, or use the wireless remote control or mechanical key, to unlock the doors."

Has anyone had the opposite experience of the Battery not running down? ie: the car has been left for some weeks without a trickle charger or without disabling the smart entry and the car still opens and starts as usual when returning?

[sorcerer]

On 2/15/2018 at 8:37 PM, parkman said:

After all that !!!!!!!, my point is - the car starts fine even if it is left on trickle charge for 6 months.

Well it should be - that's the whole point of connecting a trickle charger  

[parkman]

I would agree that the point of the trickle charger is to start the car after a fairly long layover, but there is a case, perhaps, for not leaving it quite so long. I read a post recently, on the Mercedes owners forum where someone had a trickle charger connected to his classic Merc and the charger malfunctioned, over-charged the car Battery and set both his car and his garage on fire.

The garage and the car were destroyed.

The other small point to remember about leaving the car on a charger for a long time is that you should try to turn over the engine a couple of times, to get the circulated around the engine. Despite what oil manufacturers might say oil will drain down and leave parts unprotected. At least with my classic Mercs I can just disconnect the king lead, turn the engine over a few times, plug the king lead back in and then start the engine normally.

I'm not quite sure what you could do with a modern car like the IS though !!

Parkman.

[Martin F]

1 hour ago, parkman said:

 

I'm not quite sure what you could do with a modern car like the IS though !!

Parkman.

Remove the igniter or EFI fuses and do the same thing. 

[Mr Vlad]

Or use a product called ZX1. I've used it on all my cars.

[parkman]

ZX1 looks like an interesting product, I must have a closer look. In the meantime here is the link:

http://www.team-zx1.com/

Parkman

 

[Muddywheels]

My RC300h isn't being used much this time of year and also suffered flat Battery issue

Been fine since I connected my CTEK MX5.0 from previous vehicles

[Mr Vlad]

If owners of the is300h or any other car as it happens are going to leave their car parked up for a period of time why don't they simply disconnect it? 

Trickle chargers are a total waste of money. Simply disconnect and reconnect it when ready to use the car again.

People have been doing that for decades.

[NemesisUK]

May be ok for the older cars but on modern models there are systems that require constant power, that require 'normalisation' once power is reconnected.

Trickle chargers are anything but a waste of money, they maintain a constant charge level, keeping all systems 'normal'. Many high-end, high performance models, that probably wouldn't be used regularly have charge points factory fitted for easy connection to the maintenance charger.

[Muddywheels]

Disconnecting the Battery isn't an option for me as I have to reverse into garage and am unable to open boot for Battery access 

I also wouldn't want to disconnect Battery as this would disable alarm

I've used my ctek for years on 2 Range Rover Sports, Discovery Sport and now the RC to avoid dead Battery and being locked out of vehicles especially when emergency lock was against garage wall and inaccessible

The ctek has been a good investment for me

[parkman]

There can be other bigger issues disconnecting the Battery in most new cars. I did it with a 2006 Jaguar XJR and after being away for two months I reconnected the Battery. I immediately got a number of electronic faults, the car started up with limp home mode and wouldn't clear itself, the passenger side electric mirror was stuck in the closed position, the fuel and temperature gauges went way past the end of the scale and got held in a position about a quarter turn past where they should have been [ there are no pins to stop the gauges going past the end point].

I drove it very slowly to the main dealer who checked the Battery, which was perfectly OK, but fitted a new Battery just in case but that didn't solve the problem. It was left with the dealer and they eventually had to replace the main "brain" in the car at a cost of £3500. The workshop manager told me that the re-connection of the Battery almost certainly caused a spike to the electronics, and then "bang", main processor fried.

I also saw the same thing happen to a Renault 30, many years ago. The Battery went flat and the AA came to start the car. They jump-started the car, said "everything is ok" and left. The owner later found that things like the engine control had gone mad, the car wouldn't tick over properly, it would suddenly accelerate on its' own, and Renault, again, found that the main ECU was disrupted. This car also had to get a new ECU at a large cost.

My own view is that I don't disconnect the Battery unless it is really, really necessary. Likewise, if it has to be jump started I leave the jump leads connected for about 15 minutes to the flat Battery, to give it a chance to take some charge before attempting to start the car which has the flat Battery. And of course, ensure that the car used to jump start the "patient" is kept running at about 1000 rpm.

For me the trickle charger is a godsend.

Parkman.

[ColinBarber]

I've heard stories of many European cars with blown ECU and electronics when jump starting / connecting batteries but never Toyota vehicles - just some blown main fuses reported here and on TOC.