macLexy55

Unfortunately I am now on my 4th new battery since February, the last 3 being in the last three weeks. As mentioned in my previous posts, when the first battery had gone flat I had an auto electrician check everything and no issues were found with alternator or battery leads/connections etc. The issue began with the blinking lights whenever I lock the car and walk away. Again, all the door switches were checked and found to be working perfectly. It is obviously an electrical fault, and most likely the lights. As I said before this all started after having 2 front lightbulbs replaced.

If anyone has experienced this or has any pointers, please do tell 🤔

It is frustrating that none of the car shops, auto electricians or stealership have a scooby of what's going on. Everyone is in the dark about this. Surely not every car issue has to have your car for one week to solve the problem, or to just find out what the problem is. I have had Lexus and Toyota cars for many years, but the past one year is testing my commitment and desire to carry on with Lexus brand I always could rely on.

I think the consumer world today, whether cars or phones etc, are built to breakdown. Not as before when you could buy a good car and as long as you looked after it it would go forever. Much like iPhones and MacBooks etc when your phone or laptop lasted for many years without replacing one single accessory or anything going wrong with it.

Manufacturers realised a long time ago that the money is made on accessories, spare parts, maintenance and service etc. Not much to be made selling products that last a long time and require little upkeep.

What to do yani 🙄



Disillusioned 2008 Lexus LS 460L owner

Dave144239

See this video for tips - might be worth buying the diagnostic tool and doing it yourself:

R Z

A bad door actuator (or whatever it's called, can leave your lights on all night and day. I had that problem in my 08 and once I replaced it, all good. Not saying that's the issue, but it can be.

macLexy55

thanks Dave I will check the vid, tho as you will be aware it will be a bit of a hit and miss with it not being a Lexus.

jmcraney

Your lights "flashing" may be an indication that you are leaving the car with the ignition ON. If the ignition is on without the engine running, the battery charge will be depleted quickly. One way to see if that might be the case is to leave your car in the usual manner, locking the doors with the button on the handle. Take the electronic key away from the car, about 30 ft and leave it, and return to the car and see if the doors are locked, by lifting the handle. It should not be possible to lock the doors when the ignition is on, so if the doors are not locked that might be an indication that the ignition is on. Another way to see if the battery was drained while the ignition was on is to watch when the new battery is first connected to see if the lights in the dash come on when both battery connections are first made. If the battery is drained with the ignition off then the lights in the dash will not come on when the connections are first made.

miket000

I would suggest to narrow down your issue I would change the way your headlights act.

Using techstream you can disable the headlight "on" feature. I changed all of our vehicles to immediately shut the lights off once the ignition is turned off and the drivers door is opened. The stock setting keeps the lights on for 30 seconds. I felt that 30 seconds is an unnecessary drain on the battery. One advantage to this setting is every time you walk away from your car the lights should be off, no waiting around 30 seconds to confirm they are off.

There may have also been an option to have the headlights immediately shut off when the key is removed from the ignition. In your case I would select this option. Either option should help. After changing the settings if you still have issues with dead batteries the issue likely is another system.

Dave144239

The technique is the same, though. He looks for the circuit that's pulling current and then figures out what's connected to that particular fuse or relay.

macLexy55

Thanks jmcraney for your feedback. Flashing lights is not related to leaving the ignition ON. As I said in my previous posts, Lights only blink/flash when I switch the lights to OFF position. When I switch to AUTO they do not blink/flash. However, the battery is still draining. Whether the cause is related to this I don't know.

macLexy55

Thanks mike000 for your feedback. This sounds very plausable what you are saying. At the very least I would hope this way I would have no need to put my lights to AUTO everytime I lock my car, and at the same time when the lights are in the OFF position it stops flashing.