Brain box Lexus designer not.

[Never_shoots_blanks]

Why did Lexus allow school kids to design the Battery charging contacts/layout on 2012 Lexus RX450H?  In fact, come to think of it, given the complete mess they made of the old RX450 12v Battery set up, you would think that they would have done a far far better job with the 450H. Have you ever looked at the positive and negative terminals for charging a flat 12v Battery under the hood?  You could not fit a child’s hand into the terminal location in fuse box and certainly no crocodile clips of any use would fit. An absolutely useless design and a disgrace. Your only real option is to go direct to the Battery by lifting  the boot floor. Naturally if you do get a flat 12v Battery (and you will) the boot door will not open, especially in the case of automatic door, but I suspect all of them too. Boot door Can’t be opened because erm, the Battery is flat!. You have to put down the seats and get inside and muck about with a screwdriver to manually flip a lever to get the boot door to open. 
 

When you look at the overall sophistication of today’s Lexus’s with their HUD’s and everything else, you really do wonder why Lexus can’t get the basics right. In fact (in my humble opinion) all well made cars today, should have a 12v Battery diagnosis system built in, output right on your dash, so you know when one of the most vital components of your machine requires attention. Give me something useful like that and you can take away 10 of the other electronics heavy features that are unnecessary or typically totally useless. 
 

This is my first Lexus from new. Only 76k done and it’s been reliable, except the radar sensor system died at 68k and since I don’t need it, I couldn’t be bothered wasting the money on what I’m sure would  be an expensive fix. I expect 100k minimum from any system a manufacturer sells me as part of their driving experience.  
 

I, like most of you, quietly chalk everything up from the ownership experience overall and it carries great weight on my next buying decision. This is not our main vehicle, but I have to say that Lexus hasn’t been quite the luxury experience I had hoped for. 

vent over, but experience deeply ingrained in the old grey matter.  
 

🙂

 

 

[MrChemist]

I got a flat 12V Battery on my 2010 RX450H, (off road for over 2 weeks last March with Covid), so, as you say, a certain amount of squirming in the boot was necessary. Still, at least you can get in there, I have known cars when I was younger that would fail with the boot locked and that's that. I looked at the contacts under the bonnet and couldn't really identify them, (turns out I was still ill) so I went straight to the boot, which wouldn't open, no central unlocking, so then it was over the back seat, at my age!  It's not ideal, but sometimes you just have to put up with the silly ideas. I think you and I would have put the emergency boot unlock in the centre console or somewhere where one could reach it, but it's not for that, it's for people stuck in the boot, Hollywood style.  And I wouldn't put the USB socket right down in the centre console, I can't see it and can barely reach it and can't get the plug in and there's not enough juice to charge my phone....! I watched a Russian review of the 450H and the only word I understood was "contrabanda" when he was showing how deep the centre console goes.

I got the car from its second user, so I inherited their Yokohama tyres, which wouldn't be my first choice, and they put a boot liner in, which preserves the boot floor carpet when I carry stuff to the recycling, but lets everything slide around even more in everyday use, but is too valuable-looking to just throw away, so I shall have the cleanest boot carpets when the car eventually goes to scrap.  The first owner was happy with really dark rear windows and no sunroof, I don't like the windows but I'm happy about the sunroof, never used one for more than 5 minutes in my life, apart from once in North Wales, and then we got bombed by a seagull...

Hope this reassures you, apart from odd daftness, they're good cars but we're always subject to other people's daft ideas. By far the best car I've ever had, though my old GS was faster, wooh boy, was it faster.

[Herbie]

I have no idea who 'Never_shoots_blanks' is but he's only ever made that one post from almost 11 weeks ago and never been back.

I missed his post at the time or I would have told him how to do it. I don't know what he's on about, saying that you can't "get a child's hand into the terminal location in the fusebox and no croc clips would fit it".

It sounds like he was trying to get the croc clip 'on' the terminal, which admittedly would be difficult because it has a sort of 'plastic box' around it, like in this photo:

That bolt terminal you can see there isn't actually the one we want. It doesn't really matter as such because it is connected directly to the Battery and does indeed have 12V on it so it should work. However, the proper jump start terminal is under that red cover and is usually a flat piece of metal that you clamp the croc clip against, as in the other two photos:

So he shouldn't have had any problems because the terminal is designed to take a normal 'jump-start-sized' croc clip.

However, if you're like me and don't like getting wet or messing about, you could install a jump start point in the cabin like I did:

 

[flookyk]

I had a 2011 RX450H before getting my 2017 one and had to jump start it around June time as it had not been used and had not been running it.

Had no problems at all attaching the crocodile clips under the bonnet on the correct places.

I like the dark rear windows on them, makes it much more private and stops people from seeing anything in the back.

Both mine have not had sun roofs but neither have my last 4 cars now and frankly would not really use them anyway when the cars have climate control.

[Racing Spoon]

Seems very odd to me that Lexus don't just bung a small solar panel somewhere in the top of the windscreen or rear window and avoid the flat Battery issues entirely.

[scudney]

If life were that simple I think they would have,unfortunately you can't please everyone all of the time and that seems to be what more and more want 🤔

[Herbie]

34 minutes ago, Racing Spoon said:

Seems very odd to me that Lexus don't just bung a small solar panel somewhere in the top of the windscreen or rear window and avoid the flat battery issues entirely.

It just wouldn't work. The physical size would just be too small to produce anywhere near the power needed.

[Barry14UK]

You think this might be just a wee bit OTT then Herbs? https://cleantechnica.com/2019/07/15/are-solar-vehicles-becoming-viable/

[Racing Spoon]

3 hours ago, Herbie said:

It just wouldn't work. The physical size would just be too small to produce anywhere near the power needed.

The dashboard ones the AA sell aren't very big, or do they not work? I was thinking the same surface area across a longer thinner panel should at least help.

[malcolmw]

Even if it did work a little, it wouldn't solve the problem of multistorey car parks at airports or of garage parking.

If I am leaving my LC for more than a week, I put it on a mains trickle charger. I did the same with my Aston DB9 which I had for 13 years and was still on the original Battery.

[Racing Spoon]

41 minutes ago, malcolmw said:

Even if it did work a little, it wouldn't solve the problem of multistorey car parks at airports or of garage parking.

If I am leaving my LC for more than a week, I put it on a mains trickle charger. I did the same with my Aston DB9 which I had for 13 years and was still on the original battery.

Sure, exactly. As you say, it's very easy just to use a trickle charger inside your own garage- so a small solar panel would solve every other situation apart from very niche cases such as long term airport parking.

[Illogan]

14 hours ago, Racing Spoon said:

Sure, exactly. As you say, it's very easy just to use a trickle charger inside your own garage- so a small solar panel would solve every other situation apart from very niche cases such as long term airport parking.

An even easier solution - - - just fit a bigger Battery!

[GSLV6]

I fitted leads to the auxiliary battery terminated in a proper ipx rated (covered) twin terminal connector which lives permanently accessible in the boot.  If the car is parked up for a week or more I simply connect my CYTEK charger to it.  No messing about under the bonnet and takes seconds to connect up to.  Open rear door, pull connector from under boot liner  (where I keep it hidden) connect to charger, close door and forget.  Leave as long as you like or just overnight for a quick top up.  It's no different in that respect from just about any Battery maintenance on just about every other car on the planet.  Just don't let the Battery get so flat it won't open the rear door.  They really oughtn't be left longer than a week without some sort of trickle charge as let any deep cycle Battery dip under 50% and you lose efficiency and Battery health.  Letting older ones dip under 50% charge can kill them off.