Rainwater leaking into auxiliary battery well

[Extiffy]

I have an RX 450h 2009 SE L model which I have recently taken to the dealership for an auxiliary Battery replacement. On inspection they have discovered the Battery standing in half inch rainwater, they now have to discover where the leak is. Have any other owners  experienced a similar situation?

[Herbie]

Sorry I can't help. All I can say is that it's unusual to find this problem on the 450h - it's usually the 400h that suffers from water ingress.

What I would say is that, at about £138+VAT per hour for Lexus labour and with water ingress notoriously time-consuming to find, I'd be taking it elsewhere or even trying to find the leak myself - after drilling a small hole in the floor to let the water drain away first, that is.

Good luck for a speedy resolution to the problem Mike.

[steve2006]

With the present weather I would dry the area completely then sit in the boot area with a book or iPad and some sandwiches and wait for more water to appear. Apparently a good coating of talcum powder shows up any water ingress, no doubt Lexus have some special stuff at £125.00 a sprinkle 😀

[royoftherovers]

10 minutes ago, steve2006 said:

With the present weather I would dry the area completely then sit in the boot area with a book or iPad and some sandwiches and wait for more water to appear. Apparently a good coating of talcum powder shows up any water ingress, no doubt Lexus have some special stuff at £125.00 a sprinkle 😀

And the Handbook is an inviting read too !

[steve2006]

13 minutes ago, royoftherovers said:

And the Handbook is an inviting read too !

You speak for yourself John, here’s mine 😀

[royoftherovers]

Steve 1 John nil !

 

Take it and a mirror and sit upside down and read it  ?

[Herbie]

Google Lens will translate that, it really is great.

[royoftherovers]

12 minutes ago, Herbie said:

Google Lens will translate that, it really is great.

If you had been educated at Cambridge I`d have you marked as a spy, young man !

[brendangeorge]

On 10/27/2020 at 9:54 AM, Extiffy said:

I have an RX 450h 2009 SE L model which I have recently taken to the dealership for an auxiliary battery replacement. On inspection they have discovered the battery standing in half inch rainwater, they now have to discover where the leak is. Have any other owners  experienced a similar situation?

Hi Mike

Did you get anywhere with this mate?  I just got my RX450h back from a service and MoT and had the same report.  The dealer said water may also be leaking into the traction Battery compartment as well.  They could not find the boot leak and want £450 for the body shop to check the traction Battery compartment - seats out etc. and I am too fat and old to do that these days.  Dry it out and send it back I said.  I will keep an eye on it.

They (the dealer) have just picked it up to repair the paint customisation they applied during the service (scratches).  I wonder if they will check for water in the Battery bay.  The heater stinks when it blows hot air and the car beeps like hell for a while when you set off from cold - probably a duff parking sensor.  That used to happen a lot on my old 430.  Although I thought it may be a seat belt warning because I had a lot of stuff on the seats - I plugged all the seat belts in and the warning beeps stopped.  That was a year ago when I was on a long trip at night - I can't tell you how annoying it is to have a constant alarm in your car.  That said the current alarm shuts off within 1/2 a mile and does not come back on when I stop - which makes me think it is not the parking sensor.

Any ideas would be very welcome.

Cheers

Bren

[ChrisM]

I have had a similar water ingress to the same area. it also manifests itself as condensation on the inside of windscreen.

i have in the past baled it out with a Jami Oliver infuser thingy the wife has, a bit like a turkey baster, a tube with a rubber squeeze end.

I have now drilled a small hole to allow the water to escape.

 

Had my auxiliary Battery changed by Lexus yesterday and there was no mention of any water in that area.   

[Barry14UK]

Where a car has a sunroof, the first thing I would do is to check the drains are clear. Quite often it has been found that one or more has become blocked.  If water backs up it can go a long way particularly if car is parked on a slope.  There have been a number of threads on the forum detailing this.  There have been other ways water can get in, through light seals and through roof rail points being two of them but ingress is not limited to these can mean removing  trim to detect how this is happening. 

[PCM]

On 10/27/2020 at 9:54 AM, Extiffy said:

I have an RX 450h 2009 SE L model which I have recently taken to the dealership for an auxiliary battery replacement. On inspection they have discovered the battery standing in half inch rainwater, they now have to discover where the leak is. Have any other owners  experienced a similar situation?

Any resolution, Mike?

[N18RKS]

On 11/26/2020 at 4:08 PM, Barry14UK said:

Where a car has a sunroof, the first thing I would do is to check the drains are clear. Quite often it has been found that one or more has become blocked.  If water backs up it can go a long way particularly if car is parked on a slope.  There have been a number of threads on the forum detailing this.  There have been other ways water can get in, through light seals and through roof rail points being two of them but ingress is not limited to these can mean removing  trim to detect how this is happening. 

Hi, i have the same problem and your fix of drilling appeals more than 450 inspection plus cost to repair - is there anything underneath i need to be aware of to avoid where i drill - out of interest where/how many times did you drill

 

thanks

[Martin J]

The contemporary second generation Prius is notorious for leaks into the 12V auxiliary Battery well, and a large proportion of them come from hairline cracks in the gutter channel just above the hatchback. The water travels down the inside of the D pillar and rear wheelarch behind the boot trim. In the Prius the roof channels are covered by a black plastic strip and are easy to inspect. Not sure about the RX - presumably many of them have roof rail attachments in this area. Might be worth a look if no other obvious sources.