Thoughts on possible 12v Battery issues with LBX

[Herbie]

1 hour ago, Hazzle said:

I’ve sought info on how to check the state of charge of my 12v battery in vain.

@Lexusjim linked to the Ancel Battery Monitor and I believe they're very good. At £24.00 it's amazing just how much info you get from it and if I was in the market for something like that, I'd have no hesitation in getting one of these units.

However, I'd like to propose an alternative, in the form of the Rewire Security DB2 Tracker at £34.99 (plus about £70/year for the tracker service/SIM. Its main function is as a tracker but it does so much more, including 12V Battery voltage monitoring.

Have a look here to see what you get for your money.

This is a screenshot taken a few seconds ago:

 

[Hazzle]

48 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

One doesn't use the mechanical key to open the case, see below from the handbook, the cover slides off

Thank you so much, Nemesis UK. As soon as I got home just now, I did as you say, & it worked a treat. And I have a card full of the correct Battery! (The online videos do not show this type of Lexus key, so the ones I looked at are all less than adequate.) Every day is a day in school.

[Hazzle]

12 minutes ago, Hazzle said:

Thank you so much, Nemesis UK. As soon as I got home just now, I did as you say, & it worked a treat. And I have a card full of the correct battery! (The online videos do not show this type of Lexus key, so the ones I looked at are all less than adequate.) Every day is a day in school.

PS. What page of your handbook is that on? I couldn’t find it in mine — which as far as I’ve seen so far, just says open the case, without saying how to open it.

[Hazzle]

47 minutes ago, Herbie said:

@Lexusjim linked to the Ancel Battery Monitor and I believe they're very good. At £24.00 it's amazing just how much info you get from it and if I was in the market for something like that, I'd have no hesitation in getting one of these units.

However, I'd like to propose an alternative, in the form of the Rewire Security DB2 Tracker at £34.99 (plus about £70/year for the tracker service/SIM. Its main function is as a tracker but it does so much more, including 12V battery voltage monitoring.

Have a look here to see what you get for your money.

This is a screenshot taken a few seconds ago:

 

I’m sure your suggestion will be of interest to a lot of owners, Lexusjim, and it certainly extends the range of attractive possibilities for me to think about. Thank you. (As with other suggestions, the snag for me lies in the fact my 12v Battery is neither under the bonnet nor in the boot.) Whichever device I eventually choose, the car will have to be booked into service at, and the device fitted by, my nearest main dealer (20 miles away). It’s all a far cry from the 3-4 decades in which I always owned 2nd-hand cars and replaced their under-the-bonnet batteries myself, with new ones bought fully-charged from a small business just up the road in this small village.

[NemesisUK]

35 minutes ago, Hazzle said:

PS. What page of your handbook is that on? I couldn’t find it in mine — which as far as I’ve seen so far, just says open the case, without saying how to open it.

Page 471 (not my handbook, just what I downloaded from Lexus UK)

 

 

[Hazzle]

1 hour ago, NemesisUK said:

Page 471 (not my handbook, just what I downloaded from Lexus UK)

 

 

That explains a lot. I was given with the car the "LBX USER GUIDE" — 173 printed pages. I’ll be printing (if allowed) hard copy of the "main owner’s manual" you kindly refer me to — and which is mentioned (along with its online location) inside the front cover of my User Guide. (Copyright forbids me from copying anything from the Guide, in whole or in part, without Toyota’s written permission. Life’s too short. So is the Guide.) Thank you again.

[ColinBarber]

14 hours ago, Hazzle said:

That explains a lot. I was given with the car the "LBX USER GUIDE" — 173 printed pages. I’ll be printing (if allowed) hard copy of the "main owner’s manual" you kindly refer me to — and which is mentioned (along with its online location) inside the front cover of my User Guide. (Copyright forbids me from copying anything from the Guide, in whole or in part, without Toyota’s written permission. Life’s too short. So is the Guide.) Thank you again.

Just download the PDF version and use the search facility. The whole reason Lexus doesn't provide paper copies of the main guide by default is to save paper (and money).

[Hazzle]

50 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

Just download the PDF version and use the search facility. The whole reason Lexus doesn't provide paper copies of the main guide by default is to save paper (and money).

Thank you, Colin. Have noted that. (I still however question some things left out of the User Guide, e.g. how to rebattery the key. The 3 lined pages at the end of the User Guide, for customers’ notes, would in my view be better used for inclusion of detail likely to be needed  by a lot of users.) Thanks again.

[ColinBarber]

4 hours ago, Hazzle said:

I still however question some things left out of the User Guide, e.g. how to rebattery the key. The 3 lined pages at the end of the User Guide, for customers’ notes, would in my view be better used for inclusion of detail likely to be needed  by a lot of users.

Agreed, although there is a full page on the procedure in the main owners manual. I assume, as the Battery should be replaced at each major service, that most owners don't need to trouble themselves with having to replace it so it wasn't included?

[Hazzle]

1 hour ago, ColinBarber said:

Agreed, although there is a full page on the procedure in the main owners manual. I assume, as the battery should be replaced at each major service, that most owners don't need to trouble themselves with having to replace it so it wasn't included?

That makes sense (so one wonders why there are 3 mini-videos on the ´net showing how to do the job on a Lexus key — though not, it’s true, on the LBX key supplied to me). Life is full of such little mysteries. Still, I’m glad to know now how to do it should the need arise, however unlikely that might be.

[Tel]

It is staggering your Test Drive did not highlight the vagaries of a modern car.

Tel

[Hazzle]

3 hours ago, Tel said:

It is staggering your Test Drive did not highlight the vagaries of a modern car.

Tel

In fairness to the dealer, I was part-exing a Yaris Cross hybrid & had owned 3 Jaguar hybrids — so their salesman probably assumed (correctly) that I knew about staying out of neutral and not leaving the car undriven for long. But not having owned any hybrid long enough to encounter others of the vagaries you refer to (and not having had the leisure to digest the 400+ page online Manual), I was thrown (when the Battery LOW warning came up) not by the car itself, but rather by my discovery thereafter of the information excluded from its systems (e.g. 12v Battery monitoring, & which Battery was LOW) & from its User’s 173-page Guide). At handover, the salesman would have needed a fortnight to fill me in on the range of such vagaries.

[Tel]

Harry,

Owning 4 previous Hybrids shouts expertise as you say & please note, latest cars take exception to being left unlocked if left standing .

Tel

[Hazzle]

1 hour ago, Tel said:

Harry,

Owning 4 previous Hybrids shouts expertise as you say & please note, latest cars take exception to being left unlocked if left standing .

Tel

Very kind of you to speak of expertise. If only… I’m a slow learner & prone to forget things after a while & have to learn them all over again. (Fortunately, I get an instant reminder from the app whose exact name I forget for the moment (!) when, as occasionally happens, I omit door-locking from my end-of-journey routine.) We’ve come a very long way from my ICE motoring beginnings in a Moggy Minor in 1965. I look back fondly on the relative simplicity of driving in those days, and in later decades. All grist to the mill. Hope you are well, Tel, and enjoying your motoring.

[NMc]

Hi Folks, I purchased an LBX Original Edition in June '24.  We're now in Oct' 24 & I'm dreading the winter because in the past two weeks the car has left me (& my wife) stranded twice with a flat Battery! The last time was the day after she'd completed a 110 mile motorway trip!! Aircon etc was barely on. Went to my local dealer who checked the 12v Battery, but was told it was ok! They've offered to connect a wire & plug to the 12v Battery (under the rear seat) in order for me to be able to trickle charge the 12v Battery and more importantly, so I can connect an emergency portable Battery booster to enable me (or my wife) to start the car.  Don't anybody even think about using the terminals under the bonnet, because the LBX just clicks its instruments when trying to charge from under the bonnet. My wife & I are are now on tenter hooks each time we go to start the car! Our first (& last) Lexus. We're gutted! And please don't anyone ask me if we use the dreaded heated seats or heated steering wheel, or rear demister etc etc. Utterly gutted Lexus, and I never new anything about this huge design weakness & fundamental flaw! 

[Lbeex]

1 hour ago, NMc said:

They've offered to connect a wire & plug to the 12v battery (under the rear seat) in order for me to be able to trickle charge the 12v battery and more importantly, so I can connect an emergency portable battery booster to enable me (or my wife) to start the car.  Don't anybody even think about using the terminals under the bonnet, because the LBX just clicks its instruments when trying to charge from under the bonnet.

I wish Lexus installed a plug to trickle charge  at the rear seat cover of 12V Battery. However the booster (i.e. jump starter) should be connected to the terminals as described in the manual. It is relatively simplest, most efficient and quick way to revive the car.

Nevertheless the 12V Battery issue is a blot on the landscape, and not because you need to spend another dollar for a booster or a voltage monitor or alike things, but because this is big reliability problem Lexuss seem to ignore, and especially that the LexusLBX  system is not providing any efficient warning about 12V Battery voltage!

 

[EEH]

7 hours ago, NMc said:

Hi Folks, I purchased an LBX Original Edition in June '24.  We're now in Oct' 24 & I'm dreading the winter because in the past two weeks the car has left me (& my wife) stranded twice with a flat battery! The last time was the day after she'd completed a 110 mile motorway trip!! Aircon etc was barely on. Went to my local dealer who checked the 12v battery, but was told it was ok! They've offered to connect a wire & plug to the 12v battery (under the rear seat) in order for me to be able to trickle charge the 12v battery and more importantly, so I can connect an emergency portable battery booster to enable me (or my wife) to start the car.  Don't anybody even think about using the terminals under the bonnet, because the LBX just clicks its instruments when trying to charge from under the bonnet. My wife & I are are now on tenter hooks each time we go to start the car! Our first (& last) Lexus. We're gutted! And please don't anyone ask me if we use the dreaded heated seats or heated steering wheel, or rear demister etc etc. Utterly gutted Lexus, and I never new anything about this huge design weakness & fundamental flaw! 

Hi Nick. Totally get your frustration as have many others commented in this form and in many other Lexus and Toyota forums. This has been an ongoing issue from Toyota which is why I originally posted this topic in April this year. My concern was always that the LBX had even more features to run than my Yaris/ Yaris Cross which in effect this car is also based off.

My dealer assured me at the time of signing my purchase contract "This is a Lexus and quality and after market support is way superior to Toyota and I must stop worrying". Based on numerous conversations of reassurance, I signed and paid my deposit. As the first deliveries took place, I started to read more ad more posts about the dreaded "no start issue"  on the LBX. I contacted my dealer immediately, voicing my concern and asked to pull out of my deal. I was refused this option and was forced to take my Takumi Design or Cool model (as its called in EU). 

Their solution was to then wire in a harness directly to the 12v Battery to which I then plug into a small solar panel. They were very pleased with the solution offered, while I was less so. Instead of covering the cost to do so, I was left with the bill to cover cost of this installation and panel.

I do believe that Toyota/Lexus are fully aware of the issue for many years now, yet nothing has been done.  (I am fully aware that there a people out there who have owned a hybrid from Lexus/Toyota for ages and never had this, but can only report on my experiences which were not pleasant in my Yaris but did not have the option to then walk away from my LBX deal).

In fairness, I really like my LBX. It is such a quiet, comfortable drive, the perfect size for city and small motorway commutes. To date, and it's 3 months on with the car standing for most of the time with its solar panel attached. I have had no Battery or no start issues. Combined with the fact that I am now fully aware of the Do´s and Don'ts of owning a hybrid (keeping car in Ready mode and not ACC mode when parked etc). However I think this is something none of the dealers communicate to people who have come from ICE cars to hybrids and get caught totally off guard. 

Holding thumbs this solution keeps me going especially during the winter where I too was afraid of running seat and steering wheel heating. Time will tell!

 

[Lexusjim]

Although it shouldn't be necessary,  I think a Battery monitor is essential....solar panels will give some charge over the summer, less so at this time of year and for the next four or five months