After leaving my vehicle idle for many months, I had a dead battery. I swapped out the battery and unfortunately did not pay attention to polarity when installing it. I shorted my vehicle's systems for about 5 seconds. (The horn blared for about 2 seconds of that, alerting me to my error.)

Now I have a vehicle that won't start.

I get a master warning light, brake malfunction, Check ABS and a few others. Many other electronic systems are not working (rear door opening, seats, I haven't tested much).

I am a long way from a dealer, so I am looking at fuses and many fuses appear to be okay. I cannot, however, figure out how to remove the long red fuse that I believe controls some of the inoperable systems. Before I pay for towing and repair, I thought I would at least check this fuse.

Can anyone inform me how to remove it?

I have removed the shorter one (left of photo). The problematic one is the longer fuse. Also notable what little I can see here suggests that the 140A fuse (top) may not be intact.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Hopefully your problem is in the main fuse box [in the engine area]. Heavy fuses are bolted at the terminal ends and for some the access is by removing the fuse box [nuts are underneath the fuse box]. The tiny slip-in fuses can not handle large current due to weaker [squeezed based] connection to the terminals.

You will have to exercise caution as some cable will have direct wire from the battery. To be safe disconnect the ground end of the battery then work loose the fuse box . Depending in your comfort level check the fuses for continuity.


If you take the vehicle to the dealer or a well experienced Lexus auto Tech, and when you explain that you accidentally reversed the battery terminals, they would know which fuses to check based on experience. They might charge you less time to debug but most likely will charge you higher labor rates.

For the big fuses you will have to go to Lexus/Toyota dealership as they are not likely to be available as generic fuses. Salvage yards can a source for the big fuses and you just might find the full box. Since there are variations between how the vehicle is configure, please verify each fuse [missing/inserted/rating].

Salim

PS: My information is more generic in nature.

 

Thank you for the reply.

I have opted to use a dealer to extract the fuse/relay and replace it. Hopefully that is the sum total of my problems!

Many thanks.