arrowroot

On previous vehicles, I've always change the battery myself. Pretty simple - unhook both terminals, remove the bracket, replace the battery, resecure the bracket, resecure both terminals, and enter radio/navigation PIN.

The battery on my 2016 Rx is on its way out. I'm trying to decide whether I should replace the battery myself (battery at costco approximately $120 CDN), or let my dealer do it (probably $$$) due to all the electronics and bells & whistles involved in this vehicle.

Are there any issues/inconveniences of replacing the battery myself on this vehicle? I did read one thread mentioning that the navigation console won't turn on unless if you follow a very specific restart sequence after replacing the battery. Also read about a guy whose door locks would not lock by touching the "dimple" on the door handle anymore - although it's unclear if his issue is due to a battery replacement. Anything else I should be concerned about?

Cocal

If you do it yourself and do not have the equipment to keep power supplied to the vehicle, you'll have to re-set all your selections from radio to seats etc. you may also have other glitches as well.
It's a big pain that this happens and for this reason I'd advise to go the the dealer or any indie that has the equipment and knows how to use it.

toyotaman7

It's a bit premature for a 2016 battery to die???

I personally think You could use booster cables and another car to keep the connectors attached to that while swapping the battery.

mikemu30

Five years old or more depending on manufacture date. It's time. Search the forum as I recall reading some nightmare posts of owners that changed their own battery and bad things happened to the head unit. I'll let the dealer handle it when it's time for a few extra $.

dibl

I drove my 2015 three years on the original batter with no issues. When I bought my 2018, I asked their recommendation. The service manager told me something like "Plan to buy at new one at the four year mark -- just do it then and sleep well." Judging by the posts on this forum from the ones who let the OEM battery die first, I think the advice I got was solid.

JeffKeryk

Costco Interstate Battery and a few wrenches and you are in business.

mikemu30

I agree - I replace at four years by default.

arrowroot

I'm charging the battery fully today as a final test to see if it's really dead.

The potential issues with head-unit malfunction worry me. I'm not worried about losing my radio station pre-sets (those are easy to re-program). It's the bigger problems such as the navigation/head unit not even turning on that are worrisome.

I do have a charger that runs at 2 amps - I wonder if I could keep that connected while changing the battery and prevent all of the issues? Or is 2 amps too high for this purpose?

I also have a Gooloo jump starter - not sure if I could use this for this purpose? ( )

At this point, I'm not sure if it's worth taking the risk of doing this myself...

Cocal

Wishful thinking on today's' vehicles.

dibl

I would suppose that if you use jumper cables to connect your battery cables to the terminals on the battery of another running car, then disconnect your cables from your battery, and do the replacement and then reconnect your cables to your new battery, you could get by with doing it yourself. Sounds kind of tricky and kind of risky, to save $50 or $75 of labor.

Cocal

These days "discretion is the best part o valour!" (Shakespeare am not paying you royalties) I'd let the dealer do it.

raylor4

I had to change the battery on my '16 Avalon recently, so four years on the factory battery is about right. I did not have any problems with any electronics after changing the battery. I'm not sure if this matters, but I set it up so the swap from cables off to cables on was less than a minute. I would mention to the dealer about my head unit concerns when changing the battery, get a quote from the dealer, see if they'll do it with your Costco battery, return the old battery to you so you can get core credit at Costco, and see if the extra cost buys you the peace of mind you desire. Ray A.

PeeVee

Funny that I see this post. My battery went dead Friday, got boosted and returned home in the garage. Sunday I get in and start, battery dead again. So I took my kids car to buy a new one and installed it.
I could not wait to get one at the dealer. And I always bought replacements at the same place and always changed them myself.

It's soon 5 years that we own it (beginning of April) , and the battery is warrantied for another five years, but we think to make another 2 years with it.

YVRRX350

Wow...all of us with 2016's are now changing batteries!
I just did mine last week. Super easy.

Go to Costco. Buy the Group 24F battery
Open hood
Put a towel or something to protect your fender from getting scratched by your belt buckle or zipper
10mm wrench will undo the bolt and nut holding the battery hold-down bracket.
Remove bracket and don't drop bolt or nut
same wrench to loosen the nuts on the battery terminals
push battery leads to the sides and lift battery and the little plastic shell out of engine bay
relocate the plastic battery shell/case onto new battery
put new battery back into engine bay
remove plastic covers on new battery terminals
reinstall battery leads and snug up the nuts to tighten (only needs to be snug tight)
reinstall battery hold down bracket
give your install a once over and make sure you don't leave tools in engine bay
start car

don't forget to return core to Costco for your $10 refund

**if you have left your hatch open when you do this, you will need to manually close the hatch before it will properly power open/close again.

I didn't need to reprogram my radio or settings and battery location makes it fairly easy to lift battery out and re-install.
MUCH easier than changing out the battery in my Audi B7 A4.

PeeVee

All I saw when I restarted is that the navigation was showing like a flash card on screen with the words "Restarting, do no turn off the power".

And for the rest, only the time took the wrong time zone at first and then it fixed itself and all my options stayed as the were.