New Battery - Big Improvement

[Cotswold Pete]

Battery completely failed on Monday and get new one on Tuesday.

Improvements are.

Smoother gear changes

No more rubbing sounds when steering column re-tracting

For last 8 months the gear changes have been lumpy at times, and a bit erratic when descending a hill near home, and the rubbing sound on the columns started.

So makes me wonder if these could be the first signs of Battery going - only in last 3 months has alarm been going off at random, which I knew was sign of Battery on its way west.

One strange effect was for first 40 miles of driving with new Battery when stationary the tacho was going from 200rpm to 600rpm and hunting, but yesterday did a 250 mile round trip up M5 and no more of that going on, so I assume the car was settling down and re-calibrating itself.

£80 for new Battery from local shop (all fitted), better than Halfords or ATS. RAC would have charged £120 if they had one on the van (!!)

[Scribe]

Pete, when I disconnected my Battery, charged it and reconnected at the beginning of this year, everything came on and worked fine again except that once or twice the revs dipped right down while the transmission was in Drive, and the car almost stalled. After several miles and a bit of foot-down on the gas, it stopped and has been fine since.

[Mybikes a cx500]

More confirmation that a dodgy Battery can cause lots of odd problems and yet still start the car, odd, but keeps coming up in the forum

[Scribe]

Yes, it's weird. Car fired up as normal, then the electrics went berserk. Charged up Battery, all was fine again.

[Cotswold Pete]

http://www.carnetix.com/regulators/how_to_coose_psu.html

This link explains the Battery voltage, and as you can see it does not need to be that much below 12V before the Battery is really in trouble.

Collapsing cells are where you get that blip which takes the Battery from fully charged to zero charge when the plates touch and cause a temporary collapse.

Also if each cell is only dropping 0.1 volt that takes you to only 50% charged.

So the chart I found goes a long way towards explaining why a Battery that can still kick the starter motor into life can play havoc with car computer systems.

[9690phil]

Very interesting!!! My gearbox has been a little up and down? My driver window has gone a little slow when half way down. Think will give a new Battery ago.

[plexus914]

Hey guys, I wonder how many of you have tried a solar charger??

To have the Battery always full loaded I would recommend a solar charger 6Watt minimum, especially for low mileage drivers.

I have a 1997 LS400 and the alarm went of at about 11,82V due to battery's high self-drain (called sulphation).

Rest current was okay (24milliampere).

Due to service data rest current should be under 0.05A!

I've tried a solar charger for the past 8 month combined with a new Battery, and I am happy with it...:

It is a China product but I'd would say very good making.

Supisolar

(Data: Power max. 6 Watt (1600mA at 3,7V and 500mA at 12V),
Weight 700 gram, Measurements 27 x 21 x 2 cm)

[Maduggo]

I got one of these that i use on my motorcycles and also the car, dead simple to use on any 12v Battery.

http://www.optimate.co.uk/optimate%206.htm

The video shows how it works..

Connect the 2 permanent leads with the connector plug onto the Battery, (each bike and car has it's own lead) when ready join the connector plug to the optimate plug and switch on.

[N55GUS]

The summer has been trouble free but my Battery let me down again today, fortunately I was at the cricket ground and the window was down and the car unlocked so i was able to jump start it from my triple mower.(very easily)

The reason the Battery was flat was because I had left the ignition on ACC for an hour or more, to my mind this should not be long enough to flatten the Battery.

Also last winter I had probs, yet my mechanic friend had fitted a new Battery and had the car checked by an auto electrician for any faults. My Battery before this one was still under guarantee but when I returned it, the garage checked it out and said it was still OK. So I have bought 2 batteries in the past 3 years and I am still having problems.

Ever since I owned the car I removed the boot bulbs for when the boot was open for a while, also i do not have the interior lights on when entering or leaving the 430, so there must be an underlying problem.

I am losing confidence so as I see it there are 2 options, go to the main dealer service reception explain my probs and see if he recommends a 'super' Battery to keep the system fully charged. Secondly there is the system suggested by maduggo which may overcome the problem.

FWIW another LS430 owner who my mechanic knows has had problems with his Battery etc in spite of having a new Battery and the system being checked out.

Any suggestions most welcome before I jump off the motorway bridge. :D

[Malc]

I remember reading several posts on here about Ls430 batteries discharging prematurely. It seems to be in the nature of the Ls430.

Not sure what the solution might be BUT guys do use solar chargers to support the Battery life.

The batteries in Ls400s seem not to suffer the same issues !!! . fingers xd.

Malc

( remember: another reason not to change to a 430 )

[N55GUS]

All very strange, after yesterdays little incident I drove home which is about 3 miles. I didn't bother using the Battery charger when I got home, I came out a couple of hours later and the 430 started like a good un. Up the village (just1 mile) with headlights on, left it parked for 2 hours, started again like a good un. Again this morning no problems.

The Battery dies very quickly but also does not need much encouragement to work normally, it seems to function OK until a little bit of 'out of the ordinary' takes place.

[Titch LS]

I've noticed a similar situation with the Battery on my 400 mk4. It only has to drain very slightly to produce strange behaviour from the car. Once, after doing some DIY on the car which drained the Battery a little bit, it started, but then idled very very slowly and then stalled. When restarted, it then idled higher than normal and when I put my foot on the accelerator nothing happened! (electronically controlled throttle). Whenever there is a small drain the 'VSC OFF' light comes on. Once charged up again the VSC light goes out and the car is back to normal. The car starts and runs great now. It seems to me that all Ls's are very sensitive to Battery condition.

[cruisermark]

got to say ive had my 430 for 2 years now and havent had any Battery problems and i do mostly local driving

[N55GUS]

After the let down the other day, which was brought on myself by leaving the ignition key on 'ACC' for over an hour I decided to put the Battery charger on the car this morning,. In less than 30 minutes the charger was showing the Battery as being fully charged.

[Titch LS]

I read somewhere that if you get over 4 years use from a Battery on an LS it's a bonus. All the electrical gizmo's on these cars don't help I suspect.

[Bluesman]

When the Battery went on my 98 LS 2/3 years ago the Battery they took off was the original from the time of manufacture. Mike

[Titch LS]

A 13 year old Battery on an LS. Wow, that's amazing. Mike, can you remember the make? i.e. what original Battery was used on the MK4 LS?

[Malc]

I wouldn't know in this instance BUT I would have thought all new Lexus would come with Toyota branded batteries.

When I bought a new Battery for mine in April 2012 I bought it from Lexus and of course it fitted well ( the Mk3 only fits properly the correct Toyota Battery ) and is guaranteed for 3 years BUT they told me it would probably last 5 yrs minimum.

I don't think I remember seeing anywhere in the Full Lexus Service History with the car any mention of a new Battery. I might have replaced the original too.

Malc

[emotionalgenius]

Lexus only give a 12 month guearantee now on their batteries. I bought a duracell one with 5 years guarantee for £85...£40 cheaper than the Lexus(Toyota) one !!

[Malc]

C'est la vie

Malc

[Bluesman]

A 13 year old battery on an LS. Wow, that's amazing. Mike, can you remember the make? i.e. what original battery was used on the MK4 LS?

I have no idea what Battery it was that Lexus used. I would have thought that Lexus would have had their own name on it. Still a Battery lasting that long goes along with the Lexus thinking of making things last. Mike

[Maduggo]

Lexus use toyota batteries, well they did when i replaced earlier this year, £85 and only took me 10 minutes with a cuppa, mine was the original also, car is a 53 plate, so not bad going.