How to open Tail gate / back door UX250h with no power

[Sara T]

Flat Battery on 2020 UX250h.

I cant find a way to open the power back door to enable me to use a trickle charger on the flat Battery. I've looked for the solution in the  car manual on line but cant find the answer. Any suggestions? 

[ColinBarber]

3 hours ago, Sara T said:

Flat battery on 2020 UX250h.

I cant find a way to open the power back door to enable me to use a trickle charger on the flat battery. I've looked for the solution in the  car manual on line but cant find the answer. Any suggestions? 

Yes in this case you should use the mechanical key to unlock the drivers door, pop open the bonnet, then you can use the charging point in the engine bay as you don't need the Battery to open the bonnet.

The manual talks about jump starting using this method but you can also trickle charge this way too.

[Sara T]

Thanks for the reply. Yes we ve tried via that method but the trickle didn't hold. The AA guy said it must be losing ampage doing it through the front plus the theft alarm set off during the night whilst connected to the trickle charger. He advised connecting to the Battery from the boot space.... but we re unable to unlock the boot without power. 

Looks like another call out for the  AA to re start it before going on a "longer" journey to Lexus to have its annual service! 

[ColinBarber]

You would need to connect a 12v Battery then to the jump points in the engine bay so that it will power up the vehicle and allow the doors to be unlocked.

If the alarm went off then the trickle charge must have brought the Battery charge up at least a little - what current does your charger supply? Maybe you could borrow one that is a little more powerful (up to 5 Amps) to speed things along.

[ColinBarber]

If you do just want to open the tailgate without using a jump battery then you need to get into the cabin, lower the rear seat so you can get into the boot then:

If the back door opener is inoperative

The back door can be unlocked from the inside.

1 Remove the cover.
   To protect the cover, place a rag between the flathead screwdriver and the cover as shown in the illustration.

 

[Sara T]

Thanks for the info. Our trickle charger is a fast/slow, 6v 12 v DC 4A ,so hopefully it will do the trick once connected. Will follow your advice to release the door via the cabin & report back.

 

[ColinBarber]

1 hour ago, Sara T said:

Our trickle charger is a fast/slow, 6v 12 v DC 4A ,so hopefully it will do the trick once connected.

Yes that should be fine. However it will make no different whether you connect directly to the Battery or via the points in the engine bay as they are directly linked together.

It might be worth completely disconnecting the Battery from the vehicle to charge it - but it may just be that the Battery is faulty and now cannot hold a charge.

[Sara T]

Thanks for the advice, it does appear to be more of a problem with the Battery. We spoke to Lexus who are sending a mechanic over to re start it and take it in to investigate. 

[Ed the Ted]

 I purchased a Ctek charger and it came with a 2 pin plug and socket. The 2 pin socket leads are permanently bolted to the 12v Battery terminals and positioned in the boot area thus providing easy access to charge the Battery without having to lift the floor boards and the need to connect crocodile type clips to Battery terminals. It's been very useful during this lockdown period.

[Charli Alder]

Age of the car suggests a dodgy Battery which Lexus should replace under warranty. I also have the CTek permanently connected to Battery with comfort lead displaying state of charge. Works a treat. Also CTek customer services are really helpful in answering my queries ie how long can I keep the charger attached and operating. 

[Sara T]

Thanks for the info. Will be interesting what Lexus come back next week with regarding the Battery & if they will replace under the warranty...... I wont hold my  breathe!!!

[EvilRacer329]

Hey Sara, curious to know how this turned out? One of the reasons you were having trouble with the trickle charger was that some smart chargers are using the read of the Battery voltage to know how much juice to put in. When the charge was enough for the car to wake up and activate the alarm etc. that may have not only caused the charger to panic and stop, but I imagine would have quickly drained what little juice you'd managed to put in.

The aftermarket tracker I had installed on one of my motorcycles sends me a text message if the 12v Battery gets below a minimum voltage level; with all the sophisticated telematics systems in the UX I'm disappointed that Lexus doesn't have a similar setup to prevent this exact scenario.

Nick