Don C

My mate carries a spacesaver in a bag on the boot floor.

Take a look at the photo. The battery clamps themselves are 6mm and there is opportunity to use 6 or 8mm on the earth side. Don’t forget you can use any earth on the body.

No.

It will work but you need to manage it carefully to avoid overcharging. If you buy a smart charger you can leave it connected indefinitely with no harmful effects. Most manufacturers seem to favour CTEK which are very good.

We get it, you’re p issed off, there’s no point keep wittering about it and your not the only one. It’s not our fault, we’re trying to help but you’re too busy feeling sorry for yourself. What are you going to do? Reject the car or sort it out.

All the best Ian. I’m curious what might replace your Lexus although if you think it will invite mocking and sniping, that’s fine. I would hope we’re all sensible enough to respect your decision.

I don’t think a month is unreasonable. To be fair, I don’t think it’s poor engineering or cost cutting because the last thing they want is disgruntled customers and everything that goes with it. Something appears miscalculated there’s no doubt. What do you intend to do about it?

Yes, no problem. Bear with me 👍

I think those voting leave never understood the implications. Our cars will always follow eu legislation.

That battery in the photo is the one listed for all Yaris and Cross and is identical in physical features to the one fitted on the LBX. Yuasa do a 3000 and that 5000 which has the higher capacity and a 5 year warranty. I can check the current spec and upgrades for your RX if you pm me your reg.

Sorry, I understood you to say that there’s no point discussing it further and I was up early so can come across curt. My UX has a bigger battery and has never caused problems but it isn’t unheard of, particularly on the US forum. These LBX folk are right at the beginning of a steep learning curve which will feel alien to them and unless the dealer is joint with Toyota, they will treat it like any other flat battery but we know already, these go flat much sooner than expected.

This is utter nonsense. Lexus is Toyota and together the brand have hundreds of thousands of cars in this country and millions worldwide and you are suggesting that they all suffer starting problems. You’re also suggesting other brands don’t and this is not true either. Cars with full hybrid systems don’t have a “starting battery”, they have an auxiliary battery and any of them have propensity to go flat with time. It’s isn’t a Lexus (Toyota) decision at all. There most definitely is a problem with the Yaris/Yaris Cross/LBX battery in that they run out of capacity somewhat quicker than they should. You seem to be agreeing with that. Whatever you think, it isn’t up to you to end the post, there are still people waiting to discuss it and you don’t even run one. My UX doesn’t suffer like an LBX and neither does your RX so you butt out if you don’t want to discuss it. Hi Tel, you mean did I put him up to it? I’m a mechanic by trade and a lot of people still turn to me for help. I’ve cured numerous Toyota Yaris and Yaris Cross’s by upgrading with the identical battery above. The owner of the one above had a Cross that had problems like the ones here and that had a new battery then shortly after got written off. I was optimistic that the problem was with the Turkish made Mutlu batteries on the French made Yaris’s and knowing that the Lexus would have a Japanese Yuasa battery that it ought to be cured. I flattened the battery on an LBX after about 40 minutes with only the led interior lights on and then reading this forum, we jointly agreed it would be prudent to upgrade given how easy and how little cost it is. LBX owners are going to go through a whole lot of pain going back on forth to dealers and maybe getting another battery which could well be a Mutlu and I’ve just short cut to an improvement.

I know some of you will argue that you shouldn’t have to do it but I fitted an upgraded battery on my mate’s LBX today. You don’t have to do it, it’s up to you but you can see the capacity is well up. It’s under the back seat, took me about 20 minutes and it cost just over £71 with a 5 year warranty.

He’s right.

Mine tells you immediately “Key Not Detected” if you walk away. Of course it might not if the second key was present.

Well you can err towards caution and shoot first if you want to and that might be the case if it’s a joint dealership. The point is, you can cure the problem “mostly” by changing to a higher capacity battery. Keep in mind, we are not on conventional systems with any full hybrid car these days so forget what used to happen. The 12v battery on a conventional vehicle is capable of cranking an engine for several minutes and therefore has acres of capacity to power ancillary circuits. A hybrid battery has had all the cranking capacity omitted and has only the reserve by design. It doesn’t have a starter, it starts the engine with a traction motor. You can go on about how it should be and how Lexus should handle it but it isn’t going to change things. If you go down the official route, they’ll want it in to test and, and…. It makes no odds to me, I have a smart charger and carry a jump pack but that doesn’t suite everybody especially if they’re not mechanically minded. It’s not a Toyota/Lexus thing, it’s a hybrid thing and the shape of things to come.

I’ve got a UX which is virtually the same interface I believe. It’s only two presses on mine to get to the choice menu then the third disables it. I’ll film it if I get chance. It did bug me at first but it’s one of those things we have to accept. The next stage is that it will automatically limit your speed which will be fun but rest assured it is already planned.

It isn’t an AGM battery, it’s a conventional lead acid. I can assure you that you can charge the battery from the jump start terminal. I don’t know why they would say otherwise other than a lack of understanding on their part. It’s just an extension wire from the battery. I leave mine on a smart charger while I’m away and I can monitor the charge rate via the smart plug from another country.

To be fair, the Lexus sales people are new to LBX and it’s only that model that is turning out to be vulnerable. The Toyota guys know all about it because the Yaris/Yaris Cross are known for it. The calculations show the battery should be correct but in practice it’s borderline. You can change the battery for a larger capacity one which I’ve done successfully, several times on the Yaris equivalent but it’ll usually be at your own expense. I know that won’t sit well on a new car but by the time you’ve been back and to the dealer, you’ll wish you’d done it in the first place.

Customer Relations are really good to talk to if you phone them.

At least you’re putting miles on their car not yours.

Handbrake must be good 😉

It’s a good point Terry. A lot of these opportunist lower life forms won’t know the difference and they can do a lot of damage finding out that they can’t take it.

We’re talking about one example. I don’t do anything special to mine and it has no marks. I don’t get the drama.

You’ve got the fabric/alcantara? Those are the most comfortable seats I’ve ever sat in.