MaineGirl

New girl here, hoping one of your fine folks can help me.

I have a 2021 ES300h and my Wi-Fi stopped working about two weeks ago. Each time I click on the option to turn on the Wi-Fi Hotspot I receive the "Preparing to connect to the internet. This process may take a several minutes." prompt. After about 30 seconds or to 1 minute, I receive the message, "Internet service temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."

I can probably count on one hand the number of times my Wi-Fi hotspot has been on when I've started my car. Almost always (9.7 times out of 10) I need to turn it on manually. Up until this issue, it was pretty seamless. Click the option to turn it on, wait a few seconds, and wah-la! All is great and my 11-year old isn't losing his mind in the passenger seat next to me.

When it first started to be on the fritz I just assumed there was an update going on and I needed to find some patience. (I don't generally have a bunch to spare)
One day I noticed the Wi-Fi option was missing completely from my setup menu. I thought that was strange, but again just figured updates were happening (maybe it was the fix to not have to manually turn the Wi-Fi on every time!) but alas no dice. The Wi-Fi option finally came back, I was able to manually turn it on for a day or two, and then my present issue appeared and apparently wants to hang out with me for a while.

I called Lexus Connect today and they connected me (no pun intended) with the Wi-Fi peeps. I talked to a lovely representative who really tried to help me, but after trying a few things (including deleting all of my personal data), she referred me to my local dealership.

Before I give them a call, I thought I'd check here to see if anyone has experienced this or if you have any advice.
And before you ask, yes I did pay my bill with AT&T

Please let me know if you have any questions! Thank you in advance if you can help me.

glamglam

I noticed that your name here might indicate that you’re physically located up in Maine somewhere. If so, there are a lot of places up in Maine that don’t have a WiFi signal. Maybe that’s why you’re having problems connecting to WiFi inside your car.

MaineGirl

Wow, what a welcome! I'm not sure if you are trying to be funny (I did laugh btw) or if you're truly suggesting that could be the issue.
Yes, my username does reflect that I live in Maine, but I assure you that I'm not up in the county. In addition to running water and electricity, we also have impeccable cellular tower coverage. (at least where I'm at!)

The areas I have been traveling to are the same places I've successfully connected to my Lexus Wi-Fi prior to this issue occurring.

glamglam

To be honest with you, I always thought that a WiFi connection has to do with how close that you are near the cell phone towers. I know that at home that the WiFi connection is established by Ethernet wires that go to and from the router to the modem and to the electrical outlet and that the WiFi is brought through by the satellite signal. I’m not sure how the WiFi works inside a vehicle. I would think that it works the same way as it does at home by obtaining a satellite signal for connection. Maybe someone else in here can enlighten us as to how WiFi works in WiFi capable vehicles.

MaineGirl

I don't believe the issue with the Wi-Fi connection from the cellular towers to the car, but rather the car is not turning on the Wi-Fi capability within it.

I'll give the dealership a call tomorrow to ask if they can assist. Thanks anyway!

bc6152

This was a big problem when Lexus first came out with this feature. It was hit or miss if it worked. Complaints to Lexus and they referred you to Verizon. Call Verizon and they stated that it was a Lexus issue. Working with the tech person at the dealership was a waste of time. His tech I.Q. was single digits. I finally gave up trying to use it and just forgot about it. My money is on Verizon as the problem as I'm quite sure that along with indoor plumbing, an inside bathroom, and electricity, that you have an adequate WIFI signal. GOOD LUCK!

grp52

If your car is equipped with the Navigation option, you can verify the car's Data Communication Module (DCM - the module which handles the in-car Wi-Fi connection with the outside world's cellular network) by noting if a cloud with a downward arrow icon appears on the 12.3 " screen when the system is getting route guidance for a destination or in getting other types of cloud derived information such as nearby points of interest.

That said, you're most likely correct that the problem lies somewhere within the in-car Wi-Fi system. In the 2019 model year when Verizon was the in-car Wi-Fi provider, there were reports of glitchy in-car Wi-Fi like you're having (see the Unable To Access My Wireless Access Point in my 2019 ES350 thread) but yours is the first I'm aware of since Lexus switched over to using AT&T for the in-car Wi-Fi provider.

In case you haven't already thought of it, if you end up going into your dealer for troubleshooting make sure you take along the device your 11-year old uses in the car so the dealer's technicians are troubleshooting the same equipment configuration as the one experiencing the connectivity problem.

Hmmm... as she posted, MaineGirl's in-car Wi-Fi provider is AT&T which is correct for a 2021 model year ES300h.

ionian

I forgot all about WI-Fi Hotspot feature in my car and never activate the trial. I haven't come up with any use case where I need my car to be a hotspot yet. The data plan is cheaper on phone nowadays and phone is so much more versatile. I turned my phone into a hotspot a few times while in the car for kiddie devices but that was years ago when data plan was expensive.

LexusJoey

I was going to pretty much respond the same. I'm struggling to see why people still need to have this feature in the car.

bc6152

Yuk! I missed the ATT part...

E46CT

I've never learned what the wifi function in the car does or is supposed to do. Do you pay for it through Lexus? I turned it on once, saw signal bars.. but... my phone... has... wifi? already? so why do I need two wifis? (pronounced "weefees") Not to mention it takes like 3 hours to first find it hidden in the menus, then set it up and turn it on. Whatever it is it isn't intuitive or clear as to what it's for and how it's set up and whether or not it costs anything?

TechNut

I haven’t used this feature as my wireless plan includes unlimited data and personal hotspot. Having said that, I still have to take a moment to turn it on as I don’t like to leave it running constantly for security or power consumption reasons. I can see the benefits of the in-car hotspot for younger family members, but only if it works reliably and engages automatically.

The bottom line here is that regardless of any individual poster’s use of such a feature, it is included and marketed as a working option in this model. It should work just like a mobile hot spot on a mobile phone, so the only dependency should be on cellular coverage. MainGirl has indicated she has good coverage and this feature was working as desired (marketed?) previously so it sounds like something has changed.

I had to reset network connections on my mobile phone recently to resolve a problem with random blackouts. Since the car effectively has a built-in mobile phone, I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a similar reset the dealer can perform on the communications module?

Welcome to the forum @MaineGirl ! We can sometimes be a cynical lot and love a good debate - the nature of a discussion forum perhaps. Of course, there are some very helpful posters here so don’t ever be afraid to bounce your questions off this group. We may not have the correct answer and can even be wrong, but it’s a great place to seek answers or just share your observations/opinions. Best of luck chasing this down. Please do keep us posted on what you find as we are also a curious bunch and somebody may see this again.

mikemu30

It broadcasts a wifi signal so the kiddies in the back can surf the net on their tablets.

E46CT

i thought tablets already had 5G capability and/or you can just tether to one of the parents phones in the car? vs. paying for a monthly subscription just for the car. how much is it?

ionian

5G capability adds additional cost and monthly fee and most people choose to save some money by going with WiFi version only as it isn't their primary device for accessing the Internet. Years ago I used to turn my iPhone into a hotspot for kiddie devices so kids got internet access while we were out and about as long as they are in close proximity to me. It beats just having wifi lock to a vehicle. Vehicle's Wifi isn't practical in most cases as you have to keep vehicle running to surf up access.