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I had a faulty starter. The first mechanic misdiagnosed my car. There was no evidence of a battery drain. A complete diagnostics was performed on my car. My SC430 2003 starts with no problem.
I will let you know, how my battery drain was resolved. I think that the fuse to my radio is bad. I turned off my radio and interior lights, instead of leaving it in auto, and I was able to start my car after 4 days of not driving it. Previously, my battery would die between 24 and 48 hours, when the radio and interior lights were set to auto.
I will have to absolutely agree with your idea. I had owned a few cars before, and one of them was Lexus ES350. Now I own 2011 GS350 and 2008 SC430. Typically the battery lasted for a few years(4~5) every time, thus I just happily bought a new battery and replaced the old one if there's any issue starting up the car. Just thought it's well used every time.
Now here's my problematic story. I got my 2008 SC430 in Sep. 2019 as a second car, and I used it for 2~3 days every week to commute. In Dec.(last month), As I couldn't start the car I checked the battery. It looked like a stock battery from Lexus to me, which is almost 12 years old(Can't be so sure though). Anyway I bought a new battery at Costco and replaced it over the Christmas holiday. The issue got cleared right away, but something happened this week. I used my car to work last Friday(Jan. 17) and parked the car in my garage for 3 days over the long holiday(MLK) weekend. When I tried to start the engine on Monday, nothing was happening. I measured the voltage from the battery with the volt meter which showed only 2.5 volts somehow. It was just hard to believe the brand new battery only lasted for less than 1 month. I am thinking about taking it back to Costco this weekend. Just wondering if this was caused from a faulty battery or the car itself. It was little frustrating but this is something I have to live with an old car.
I will have to absolutely agree with your idea. I had owned a few cars before, and one of them was Lexus ES350. Now I own 2011 GS350 and 2008 SC430. Typically the battery lasted for a few years(4~5) every time, thus I just happily bought a new battery and replaced the old one if there's any issue starting up the car. Just thought it's well used every time.
Now here's my problematic story. I got my 2008 SC430 in Sep. 2019 as a second car, and I used it for 2~3 days every week to commute. In Dec.(last month), As I couldn't start the car I checked the battery. It looked like a stock battery from Lexus to me, which is almost 12 years old(Can't be so sure though). Anyway I bought a new battery at Costco and replaced it over the Christmas holiday. The issue got cleared right away, but something happened this week. I used my car to work last Friday(Jan. 17) and parked the car in my garage for 3 days over the long holiday(MLK) weekend. When I tried to start the engine on Monday, nothing was happening. I measured the voltage from the battery with the volt meter which showed only 2.5 volts somehow. It was just hard to believe the brand new battery only lasted for less than 1 month. I am thinking about taking it back to Costco this weekend. Just wondering if this was caused from a faulty battery or the car itself. It was little frustrating but this is something I have to live with an old car.
I can relate to your story. Three years ago, when my battery died, I bought a brand new Interstate battery from Costco and it lasted only 3 days. Took it back, got another, this time it lasted 2 years 6 months. Took it back to Costco again, to my surprise, they gave me another free of charge. That was 4 months ago.
Back to your problem, first I would take the battery back to Costco exchange for another one. Second, check all interior lights, replace all of them with LEDs, turn off the 30 second delay headlights or not using Auto headlights function.
Every little thing will help as the SC known to kill the battery in three years.
I will have to absolutely agree with your idea. I had owned a few cars before, and one of them was Lexus ES350. Now I own 2011 GS350 and 2008 SC430. Typically the battery lasted for a few years(4~5) every time, thus I just happily bought a new battery and replaced the old one if there's any issue starting up the car. Just thought it's well used every time.
Now here's my problematic story. I got my 2008 SC430 in Sep. 2019 as a second car, and I used it for 2~3 days every week to commute. In Dec.(last month), As I couldn't start the car I checked the battery. It looked like a stock battery from Lexus to me, which is almost 12 years old(Can't be so sure though). Anyway I bought a new battery at Costco and replaced it over the Christmas holiday. The issue got cleared right away, but something happened this week. I used my car to work last Friday(Jan. 17) and parked the car in my garage for 3 days over the long holiday(MLK) weekend. When I tried to start the engine on Monday, nothing was happening. I measured the voltage from the battery with the volt meter which showed only 2.5 volts somehow. It was just hard to believe the brand new battery only lasted for less than 1 month. I am thinking about taking it back to Costco this weekend. Just wondering if this was caused from a faulty battery or the car itself. It was little frustrating but this is something I have to live with an old car.
I own two battery tenders...one on my SC430 the other on my Trans Am. It ensures a fully charged battery.
Having two SC430s, 2002 and 2007, I have never experienced a dead battery in three days.
I used my car to work last Friday(Jan. 17) and parked the car in my garage for 3 days over the long holiday(MLK) weekend. When I tried to start the engine on Monday, nothing was happening. I measured the voltage from the battery with the volt meter which showed only 2.5 volts somehow.
Did you really mean to say 2.5 volts, or did you intend to type 12.5?
I was going to encourage you to try some of the most common fixes to a draining battery, but if it is down to 2.5 bolts, it is definitely the battery.
If it is 12.5V, I would check to make sure you trunk is closed. Those pesky trunk lights seem to drain the battery pretty fast
If it is the battery, Costco will give you a refund and you have the option of buying a new one, or taking your money and going elsewhere.
Costco generally makes great batteries, I have used them for years. It seems like I never have to buy a new battery because they always replace them under warranty.
However, when I finally had to buy a battery that was not under Costco warranty, I bought an AGM battery made by Bosch. I love it. Recently I parked my SC with the lights, Radio & Alarm off and let it sit for a month. I got in and it started right up. (The secret is to not arm the alarm)
I wonder if it is some kind of electrical motor that has not shut off in your car. It would seem unlikely that the battery would drain that much with just an interior light on.
Did you recently install some new Equipment, like an Radio, amp or a Backup Camera? Sometimes people wire things into the ALWAYS on 12V line and the equipment runs down the battery.
The long story will be to put a Amp meter in-line with the power to see what kind of parasitic drain is going on when the engine is off. (You'll have to wait for a bit after inserting it in for everything to go back into standby after power-up.)
After that you can start pulling fuses until the drain disappears and then you've narrowed it down to a small subsystem of candidates. You can judiciously pick the fuse picking order with the expectation that the most likely candidates are the cause. Start with the security system, sound system, NAV system, interior lights, etc.
Start with the security system, sound system, NAV system, interior lights, etc.
Harold you hit on something I wanted to mention. The Navigation system can consumes power when the vehicle is turned off. I remember reconnecting the battery after installing my backup camera. As soon as I started my '06 to test the backup camera, the NAV screen had a message about having to wait while it reloads....
I'm not having any issues but I wanted to put that on the table. Like others I have her on a battery tender in the winter and drive her at least every week or 2 the rest of the year.
Just wanted to let everybody know that I replaced the battery from Costco over the weekend.
Then I measured the voltage from the battery again. Same way as before.
Now it's showing 12.6v. (2.5v when it was bad a week ago)
The problem is cleared and I could start the engine without any issue. Thinking about checking the battery periodically just to be safe.
A thought that was running through my mind. Maybe one of the guys with the service manuals can lookup. Do these have ignition off evap systems? If they do maybe that’s a big reason for the ignition off draw.
11-17-19, 10:04 PM
Sc430 battery drain update
