Electrical Glitch

[Scribe]

Happy New Year to all!

Meanwhile, can anyone make sense of the following?

Yesterday evening when I took the car out

1) the red 'door open' warning light stayed on and the dash display said RIGHT FRONT DOOR, which was firmly closed (I checked several times). Plus the door open warning alarm sounded every time I moved away from rest.

2) after a few miles I noticed that the offside headlamp bulb had blown

3) at destination, left engine running, turned lights off and on and the headlamp was on again, no problem.

4) turned engine off and removed ignition key. Steering wheel did not retract, 'door open' warning light stayed on when all the doors were closed, and remote alarm wouldn't work.

5) Got back in car, put key in ignition and alarm went off. Drove home again (alarm went off after a few seconds) and headlamp was fine, but 'door open' light has stayed on ever since. I'm expecting it to drain the Battery by the time anyone can look at the car.

6) Everything else seems to work, including the steering wheel when I adjust it - it just doesn't retract automatically.

I'm assuming (and hoping) that all of these things are connected to something simple and electrical?

[thatfatbloke]

Had similar strange things happen to my F*c*s. Was advised to replace the Battery which I did,and hey presto - no more weird goings on.

[ambermarine]

Possibly the Battery is tired get it checked out in the meantime remove the Battery, charge it up off the car reinstall and see what happens.

[thatfatbloke]

...or water getting in somewhere can do similar things.

[Scribe]

Can't be water as the car is garaged. And the Battery is only 12-18 months old, and when the previous one gave out I didn't have any weird goings on like this. But I haven't used the car for a few weeks so I'll have it checked.

[cruisermark]

i would also say its the Battery - the fact you havent used the car for some weeks may mean the Battery has lost some charge.

[ambermarine]

There are numerous posts on this forum regarding the electricity hungry security system on the LS400 Mark 4 .If it as been stood for a number of weeks I am surprised you managed to start it at all.Mine lasts just about two weeks.I keep it on an intelligent 4 amp charger since my first couple of flat Battery episodes and they were both brand new, embarrasingly for me I took the first one back saying it was faulty and the replacement went dead after two weeks of non use.

I suspect that with this new info the electrical system as gone into survival mode on the car and caused these various trips in your system, with a rejuvenated Battery and constant charging from whatever source you should be OK.

[Scribe]

Thanks Ambermarine. It's pretty obviously a single issue, rather than simultaneous failures (perish the thought). And my indie mechanic says I need to use the car more than I do. But it burst into life as soon as I turned the key, so I didn't immediately think of a Battery problem.

[Scribe]

By the way, do you keep the Battery on charge in situ or take it out?

[Titch LS]

Scribe, I had a similar problem once on a Rover Sterling (Honda 2.7 V6). The car would start fine but had electrical glitches with the power windows. I replaced the Battery and all was well. Another avenue to explore is the capacitors failing in the ECU. This causes untold mysterious faults. But in your case I think, like the others, it's more likely to be a Battery problem.

[steve2006]

By any chance has your electric door mirrors adjustment stopped working also?

[ambermarine]

Scribe

I use a golf caddy charger and just put the crocodile clips to the terminals on the car.The reason I use the caddy charger is they are rated at 4 amp so are well able to cover any drain that is happening with security system and tracker.The problem with some of the online and store intelligent chargers is they are sometimes only 0.75 amp rated are constantly playing catch up and quickly burn out.

The caddy chargers are not cheap but are more reliable and safer.

[Scribe]

By any chance has your electric door mirrors adjustment stopped working also?

Steve, I didn't adjust the mirrors when the electrics went haywire the other evening, and I'm not going to try until my mechanic comes round to investigate because I don't want to set the alarm off again by turning the ignition on. But I remember hearing the buzz of the passenger door mirror when I put the car into reverse. Why do you ask about this?

[PEPE]

Hi Andrew,

My MK 4 also gave me a very tough time recently, and I started a thread which you can read here:

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/85945-help-please-my-mk-4-thinks-im-a-car-thief/

In my case I concluded that when fiddling with the gizmos I did something that prompted the car to ARM ITSELF, as some cars are programmed to do this. I read about this here:

LS400_MK_3_SECURITY.pdf

I have just PMed you with my mobile phone. If you ring me I can elucidate more quickly. I can understand how you feel.

Happy New Year

Pepe

[PEPE]

Hi Andrew,

My MK 4 also gave me a very tough time recently, and I started a thread which you can read here:

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/85945-help-please-my-mk-4-thinks-im-a-car-thief/

In my case I concluded that when fiddling with the gizmos I did something that prompted the car to ARM ITSELF, as some cars are programmed to do this. I read about this here:

LS400_MK_3_SECURITY.pdf

I have just PMed you with my mobile phone. If you ring me I can elucidate more quickly. I can understand how you feel.

Happy New Year

Pepe

[PEPE]

Hi Andrew,

My MK 4 also gave me a very tough time recently, and I started a thread which you can read here:

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/85945-help-please-my-mk-4-thinks-im-a-car-thief/

In my case I concluded that when fiddling with the gizmos I did something that prompted the car to ARM ITSELF, as some cars are programmed to do this. I read about this here:

LS400_MK_3_SECURITY.pdf

I have just PMed you with my mobile phone. If you ring me I can elucidate more quickly. I can understand how you feel.

Happy New Year

Pepe

[The-Acre]

Pepe, I've never seen such eagerness, posting the same thing 3 times!!

[PEPE]

Pepe, I've never seen such eagerness, posting the same thing 3 times!!

So sorry, Phil. There was a glitch in my computer saying "THERE IS A PROBLEM TRY AGAIN." I only noticed the outcome now when I returned to my computer and read your post.

[The-Acre]

We've all done it, a few years ago I bought a laptop online....twice!

[Scribe]

Update (for anyone who's interested):

Eventually the Battery went flat (the 'door open' warning light wouldn't go out). Disconnected it, put it on charge for a few hours every day, reconnected it this morning and everything seems to have reset as I hoped it would. The car started fine and everything works. The only slight glitch was that it temporarily idled very slowly - about 300 rpm - so that when I put it into gear it stalled. But it restarted without problem. Then I took it to Asda to put some petrol in and it behaved perfectly.

I don't really understand these things, but it seems that the Battery can be charged-up enough to start the car as normal but be run-down enough to upset the general electrical system - hence my simultaneous problems with warning light, headlight, alarm and steering wheel motor when the car hadn't been used for a few weeks.

Moral: I need to use it more, and at least start it up once a week even if I'm not going anywhere in it. Also: disconnecting, charging and reconnecting the Battery should reset everything, though I'd rather not have all that palaver again.

Anyway, thanks to Pepe for his advice and consolation. He had similar problems, though I think for different reasons. The important thing is that we still love our cars!

[Malc]

Why not use it every day ??? Amazing motoring .............. and might stop these issues for you.

Malc

[Scribe]

Just because I commute 5 or 10 miles a day (each way) through the centre of Brighton, in quite heavy traffic (jams), and so a smart is ideal for this. The Lexus is for long journeys, but I haven't done any recently, which is why it stayed in the garage for too long.

[Malc]

well, use it or lose it i guess OR maybe use it more and stop these issues .... maybe just alternate your car use into Brighton maybe ........ or sell the smart car and just use the amazing Lexus ............... they thrive on being used

Malc

[bigjap]

its not just going into a city,parking an ls can be a problem,Brighton not car friendly or the easiest place to park,i used to go there alot

[Scribe]

Malc and Bigjap - you're both right. I'm not going to use the Lexus every day for everyday commuting - parking at work isn't easy, apart from anything else - but I'm going to use it more. Pepe was saying earlier (on the phone), it's not just the Battery that needs regular charging. Everything else on the car needs to be kept in use.