Battery drain - SC430

[Marco SC430]

Familiar topic I know - just after some updated advice. Having just replaced a Halfords Battery which lasted a year (my SC430 is driven intermittently and not during the winter) - the Battery drain problem etc etc  - I've just fitted a new Yuasa YBX5096 12V 80Ah 740A Silver High Performance Battery which I got a great deal on from Tanya (good customer service as well) - to avoid a repeat, when the car is not being used (it's in a garage so solar charger no good) is it better to connect to a trickle charger which means having the bonnet open and not being able to fully cover the car or simply disconnect the negative terminal and reconnect when I want to use the car again. I've got Ring 12A Smart Charger so I could connect up in maintenance mode but as I say, means leaving the bonnet up. Thank you in advance for info.

[NemesisUK]

Must be possible to route the charger wires or main lead up from under the car?

Bonnet and boot seals tend to be quite compliant I managed to easily close the boot on my CLS with the mains lead trailing out.

[Azabache]

Sorry I'm a year late-just seen this item!

I have a 2008 SC430-exactly the same issues-this vehicle is one of the world's notorious parasitic Battery drainers. I bought an AGM Battery which was marginally better at holding a charge, but have to resort to having two solar panels on my car port roof feeding the thing-even so, I'm lucky if I get more than 2 weeks of charge after a decent run before having to connect up the Ring charger on the Maintenance mode.  Like you I don't use the car regularly-this is the core of our problems.

In the winter I use the Ring on Maintenance mode to keep the Battery healthy (I don't normally use the car for about 4 months in the winter).

However, for what it's worth, one winter I just disconnected the Battery. I'd read all those doom-laden reports of everything being lost, but, when I reconnected, there were no problems at all-apart from having to set up the (only) 3 radio channels I use; I've never programmed the seat settings anyway, and don't recall any other problems.

Don't waste any money having any analyses done; Lexus will also fob you off; there's a wealth of info. on the USA sites about this; but at the end of the day just accept that this is a quirk of this otherwise magnificent car. And BTW there are plenty of other makes with the same issues.

Good luck!

[royoftherovers]

Nigel,

Speak to our friends on Lexusworld.com as they have many owners of SC430.