JTho

Apologies – this is a bit long:

Took the SC from Orange Co, CA to Vegas for work this past week.
First real distance trip since getting her 2 yrs ago Loved it! The ride was quiet and smooth (even w/ run flats) and I hardly noticed when the speedometer was creeping up. I used the luggage that fits the trunk and was able to put in an additional piece while enabling the top could go down. Perfect.

At home, I keep it on a tender. Left for trip Mon; came back Weds. Sadly, I failed to close fully the passenger door when I put her back in the garage and by Fri eve when I went to take it out again it was dead. I hadn’t put it on the tender as I knew I would drive it soon.

Will attempt to jump tomorrow. Meantime, in case I do need to replace this 2 yr old battery, I was searching these threads and a zillion others about batteries and what kinds people liked. There wasn’t anything super new, but I saw mention back in a 2016 thread about AGM batteries.

Thought I would stay w/ Interstate. Looks like they now have two AGM’s to fit our cars. Both state they have “plenty of power for accessories and plug-ins - even while the engine is off.” That intrigues me. Real or marketing hype? Has anyone tried one of these top tier batteries in their SC?

The Super Premium has 730 CCA & a 48mo warranty; almost 3X the life of conventional flooded batteries; 40% more cranking power. MSRP 282.95

The Premium version has 760 CCA & a 36mo warranty, 2X the life of conventional flooded batteries. MSRP 214.95

They have the MTP has 730 CCA, a 30 mo warranty and is the “best flooded non-AGM battery.” MSRP is 174.95, but the specs seem to match an Interstate at Costco just like it for 113.99.

If AGM is worth it, I’d just as soon go with that. Anyone here try these two AGM’s or similar? Can I still place the tender on it just in case? In the two yrs I’ve had the car, I’ve only put on 6K mi, but anticipate driving it more when I eliminate one of our cars.

Here’s the link to the Interstate site and to batteries for our cars:

https://www.interstatebatteries.com/...search-results

Thank you,
Jill

Caflashbob

Bosch AGM for me. More power. Less self discharge. Temp compensated battery maintainer,

ivanj

If you jump start the car properly, and then drive the car for 50 miles or so to charge it up, you may find you do not need a new battery. I didn't.

Look in the OWNERS' MANUAL for proper instructions. Check me - As I recall you ground the black to the front of the SC engine block, not the battery itself. (If you do battery to battery jump you just get a click noise or the engine turns over but won't start.)

Living where you do I don't see a reason to replace even a "cheapo" 2 year old battery. There aren't great temperature fluctuations or below freezing unless you live in the mountains.

Is there a Lexus approved battery tender and tender procedure?

DJWLDW

Jill

I have a Duracell Platinum AGM 48 (A6) 760 CCA 3 yr free replacement battery in our 2006 SC that was installed Jan/Feb 2018. I have never put a tender on it and will go 10 days 2 weeks without driving the SC and it has never failed to start on the first try.

Dennis

JTho

Thanks, all, for the feedback!

Harold57

Do a load test (or have a parts house do one) on the battery to determine whether it needs to be replaced.

After dealing with the battery, replace all your interior lights (including the trunk) with LEDs. That will increase your door open while engine off time by close to ten fold.

ivanj

Great idea. Where can one get these LEDs - I take it they have resistors built-in now?

Lavrishevo

iTrader: (1)

I'm also using a Bosch S6 AGM. Very nice battery. Believe it or not the EverStart Maxx from Walmart is an excellent battery for a standard. Always very well by consumers reports.

VVTiBob

There are plenty of sites on eBay that sell LED to replace the corresponding incandescent bulb. Just remember polarity matters on LEDs. Several threads here covering the topic.

Harold57

It depends on what you are referring to as the resistors. The resistors used to confuse the bulb out detection (CAN bus, I believe) are not used in the interior bulbs, just ones like the main external lights. The interior lights are not monitored.

If you are referring to the resistors (or various components) required to allow the LEDs operate at other than their native voltage, then yes, these LEDs are made to operate on the voltage supplied by the car, in our case it is 12Vdc. As Bob stated, there are a couple of threads that spell out all of the various bulb sizes used if you do a search. The operators manual will also have most of them, though I believe that there are a couple that don't list the size. Keep in mind for bulbs like the map lights that Lexus reverses the expected voltage to the socket (there's probably a good reason for that but I don't know what it is). So for those you'll have to buy reversed polarity LEDs or non-polar LEDs. Both will work but the non-polar LEDs will start to sooner flicker when the voltage begins to drop (like from a weak battery).