sparkins

My mother-in-law has an '08 ES350 with navigation. The other day, she had a quick oil change place clean the battery terminals (they were severely corroded). Anyway, they told her that the terminal clamps should be replaced soon, as they were damaged by the corrosion. I want to replace the terminals for her, but I was wondering, if the battery is disconnected for 15 minutes or so, will the programmed stations be lost? What about auto up/down on the windows? Or anything else, for that matter. I'm familiar with the procedure to get the auto up/down working again on Toyotas, but didn't know if it was the same on the ES, especially since all windows are auto up/down. Thanks!

mlacomb

15 minutes will probably wipe the settings - I know it does on non-nav. Former Lexus tech helped me with my auto up/down - basically, from the DRIVERS console - roll each window down in turn, pressing the whole time and holding for 5-10 seconds after full down; then roll full up holding up the whole time holding 5-10 seconds after. If the little LEDs on the switches are green after that, you're golden (not flashing).

sparkins

Thanks, I'll try to work quickly. My guess is that nav-equipped cars are more forgiving. My '13 Tacoma with touchscreen radio is pretty good about retaining the stations, but with my wife's '08 Sienna (standard radio/CD changer) it loses its programming within a couple of minutes.

chuyrobles

There are other possible problems when disconnecting the car battery.
http://www.aa1car.com/library/batter...t_problems.htm

The solution is a backup power supply that can connect to the power outlet (cig lighter). See CTA Tools 2002

That being said, I've disconnected the battery several times in our ES350 and the only inconvenience has been loss of radio station pre-sets. (We don't have a nav system.) Not a big deal compared to what happens to other vehicles.

Have you inspected the terminals yourself? A little rust can be sanded off. Then, apply some battery corrosion preventive spray to keep the terminals clean and free from future corrosion.

sparkins

I looked at it last week, and it was the worst case of corroded terminals I've ever seen. I haven't looked at it since the quick oil change place cleaned them, but they told her that the clamps were so damaged by the corrosion (you know what they look like, stamped copper with what looks like cad plating) that they should be replaced.