Lex_utor

Indeed I did. Could only get the switch for the driver's door window. Like I said, before that one of the rear windows had already given up.

Sure. But I don't think this is it here. I seem to have some electric gremlins. Electric small things keep going wrong. My horn fuse keep blowing off. I have given up replacing it. I have lost count of how many times I had to recharge my battery because it was dead. Then the alternator went. I thought maybe this was causing the battery problems. Alternator was not working properly till it finally gave up. Got it fixed and now the battery went again, about a month after having the alternator fixed. With it, my whole door window switch panel on the driver's door is no longer working. I can only open my own window. Before that, only one of the rear switches was not working. I thought, another fuse. But now all switches are not working, apart from my own window. And no, it's not just locked. 🙂 The switches on each door work. Only on the driver's door main panel not. There were always some electric niggles. When I sold the Ssangyong it had 225.000 Km and was still going strong by the way. It was exactly 21 years old by then 🙂

So, the battery didn't charge. The charger had an error message. The error reads: either the charging was interrupted or the battery is damaged and can't be charged. Said to reset and restart the charging, which I just did. So far no errors. Let's see if it finishes charging. Yesterday, while it was hooked to the charger, locking and unlocked worked again and the dash lit up. I didn't try to start the engine. In the evening, once I saw it was stuck because of the error, I unhooked the charger. This morning, dead again! Had to use the physical key again to unlock and open the hood. Then when I connected the charger, it started this siren. The most annoying noise. I never heard it before. Normally the alarm is the horn. It was coming from the rear wheel location. In the UK, the driver's side rear wheel. I disconnected the battery fully and the siren raged on. I guess it must have its own battery. Is this a secondary anti-theft alarm? Now, the options seem to be: 1. Charging got interrupted or a charger glitch. 2. The battery after so many recharges because of the alternator wasn't working properly needs replacement. But should it have happened if it was driving ok after the alternator was repaired? I would have thought if this was the problem it wouldn't recharge at all after the alternator was repaired? 3. The alternator repair is bad and the alternator is not working again and it damaged the battery. I hope this is not it. Because if I take it back again, they could just find an excuse and say the problem is caused by something else, just to charge me again. Fix the alternator again at my expense instead of honoring the warranty and I would never know. 4. Something very bad is going on and is damaging alternators and eating them for lunch? What do you guys think? I like the car. One of the best driving dailies i ever ever owned. But man, no other car I have ever owned has given me as much headaches and I have owned Ssangyong, Vauxalls and French cars.

Like what could he have done? Not taken care of the car you mean? I think normally electric issues is normally from factory. Car is probably a lemon. Could be the reason he sold it. He kept it for 2 years or so. So he also must have tried get along with the car. Who knows.

So, the saga goes on. Today, battery was dead again. Car was dead. Wouldn't unlock. I had to use the physical key to open the bonnet to put the charger on. Charging as we speak. 😞

Thanks. But to be honest, I'm seriously thinking about selling it. MOT is coming and I will probably sell it after. No other car I have ever owned has given me more grief and expense. I wanted a RWD 4 doors saloon with a manual transmission and the reason I passed on buying a BMW was exactly that I was not looking for big bills. So I bought a Lexus because of the stellar reputation. But based on this first and only, and most likely last Lexus, I can't say I recommend them, let alone buying another. Maybe this generation IS is the blacksheep? I had heard horrible things about the IS220. But not of the IS250. As much as I love driving the car, I'm getting tired of the big bills. As it is, the garage told me that I might have problems getting my next MOT because they saw some rust. This after having to replaced a totally rusted out fuel tank 2 years ago. And I barely drive the car as we have 2 other cars in the family. Ironically, I love Alfa Romeos and the reason I don't own one is the rust and unreliable reputation.

Hi Brian. Glad you got your car sorted. As faith would have it, I just got my car back today from the garage. They managed to repair the alternator and it's now working fine. Didn't mention any other problems, so I guess I'm good. Interestingly, they first tried ordering a new Denso, but it didn't fit. They said something about it being a special type. So they got it repaired instead. I wonder if this is just some business tactic. Unless the manual transmission cars have a different hard to get alternator? Oh well, at least now the car is working again.

The garage mentioned the possibility of "fixing" it if possible. Which would be cheaper. But they said this is not always possible. Plus I guess it would add down time. They will know once they have the car. As for which Denso, they selected the alternator from their computer system using my VIN, so maybe it's the correct Denso?

So the autoclub truck was here. I'm a member. He measured it and said it's the alternator. I was today at a couple of places and I think I will have it done with one of them. The alternator they would put in is a Denso. I guess that's is ok?

I measured it. Battery was under 12V and with the engine running, under 11. But I'm not sure how accurate this is. It's an old multimeter and it's first time I done this. The battery was not freshly charged though. I fully charged it a week or so ago and since then I have started the car to move it a few times. But regardless, if it reads lower with the engine running it can only mean the alternator is not doing its thing right. If the measurements are accurate.

Oh man. Not very encouraging. As far as doing it from underneath, I have no lift. I only have those ramps, so the car front is lifted a few centimeters off the ground. You have to lay underneath the car. This is what I meant when I said from under. Probably better from the top then, under these circumstances?

Thanks. I was out of town for 2 weeks for work. I charged the battery overnight before I left. I just came back Friday, so now I'm looking into this again. I charged the battery fully, car will start but battery light is still ON. I didn't measure it yet. I get how to measure the battery. but as far as measuring the voltage for the alternator, you do that through the battery? For the battery you measure the battery poles with the engine off and for the alternator you measure the battery poles with the engine running?

So...after sitting for 3 hours, the car started. So I could at least manage to drive it into my garage at home. But this is strange, as when I came home the car just died and wouldn't restart. Internal dome light was still on etc. But engine wouldn't start and dash wouldn't light up. Now it started almost on que. And power steering was ON. Then the power steering quickly went. Very hard to turn in the the garage. But the car didn't die again. I would have thought if it was dead before it would remain dead? Because it presumably died because the battery was dead. So how did it get enough juice to start now?

Sorry to hear about the write off. 😞 Yeah, I need to have a look and see if I think I can do it.

Well, it only takes about 12 mins. right? Can't be that hard. 😄 In all seriousness, I don't have a fully equipped shop or the expertise. I'm no mechanic and never did this before. But even if it takes me the whole Saturday, as long as I can finish it, I guess it's worth it to save 800-1000 quid. I have most of the tools. I'm not sure if he used a special tool to take those studs off, so he didn't have to take off the AC box. Or if that is just a small socket? Need to get a mirror. And the tool for the belt removal, just a normal ratchet with the correct size socket will do or is there something else? Hardest part seems to be that one bracket. I'm also guessing it's easier to do the job coming from the top than from the bottom of the car? At least I don't have to remove all the top plastic clad. Mine are all off already. 🙂

I'm with our local car club. I have used them to tow me for free once when I broke down on the motorway (not the Lexus). They only tow it directly to a garage/mechanic. But now the car is at home, so I'm not sure if they would still do it. Plus, I'm not entirely sure I want to leave 800-1000 Euros at the mechanic to sort his out. I might do it myself, if it's not too complicated?

I'm not in the UK. 🙂

Hi Vlad. How have you been? 🙂 Thanks for the quick reply. Is it worth it trying to charge the battery? I can't even get the cart to a mechanic, without towing. But I'm thinking of doing it myself at home. Is it a dread, like changing spark plugs in the IS? Anything I should watch for, if I don't buy a Lexus part?

Hi. So yesterday I noticed my battery light was ON. I don't drive much. But drove on Friday and everything seemed ok. Didn't drive during the weekend and yesterday, battery light was ON. I drove a little bit, to charge it, as I had the problem before of the battery dying on me after not driving for a few weeks. For a moment, the light went away. But came back again. Today, it was ON again. I drove off and on my way back, I lost power steering and the whole dash lit up like a Christmas tree. ABS light, VSC Light, airbag light, and of course the battery light. Then very close to home the dash started flashing ON and OFF and the needles going up and down as they do when you turn the car on. As I turned in my street everything went dark and the engine started loosing power. I barely made it to my house and had to park up front. The engine didn't have power to drive in. All was dark and engine had no power. Glad I at least made home. Now, obviously something related to power. Can a bad battery do that? Or is all this a clear sign of a bad alternator? I have a battery charger. Is it worth it connecting? To at least being able to drive the car in the garage? Or if this has damaged the battery it can de dangerous? I seem to remember something in the charger manual not to connect to a damaged battery. But the manual is gone. Thanks as always for the help gentlemen. Cheers.

Update: VSC light is GONE!!! Doing the calibration did the trick. Linas helped out via PM. Thanks again Linas and thanks to everybody who jumped in to help. Car never had any problems but it's sure nice to drive without that annoying light on. I'm also glad I could do it via techstream instead of the wire hack. Thanks again gentlemen. This chapter is closed. Today I get my big brakes installed. Looking forward to that.

I'm trying to do this now. Looking at the Service Manual. There is option A. Clear the zero point calibration data. which seems more similar to the steps your described above. Then there is option B. Perform the zero point calibration of yaw rate and acceleration sensor. Shoud I do both? Regardless I can't find my way around techstream to find "Reset Memory" for A. Or find "Test Mode" for B.

Thanks. What's the correct way of erasing? On the health check page as above or in the VSC page, where I scanned and found the posted codes? Or makes no difference? If memory is correct, I think the engine symbol is available on both.

Wow, thanks gentlemen! Solved! So easy. But yes. Decidely adbsurd it's needed.

Yep. Those are the only lights on the dash. You mean this symbol:

Wow. This sounds scary. How common is this/these issues? If that happened to my car I would be at a total loss, considering how much it would cost to have it put right and the time or even finding out the problem. But I have invested too much in the car at this point to just drop it. But electric/electronic problems scare me. Specially that my car seems to do some funky stuff related to that sometimes. Like now I can't open any windows from the driver's door, apart from the driver's window. But the universal lock is not ON. I figured maybe a fuse. But didn't look yet. But I had a couple of electronic niggles along the way. So the topic in this thread scares me. 😳