Barry14UK

Herbs, See what Professor Kelly says in the video link William gave from point 4 on about the deep cycling battery in the Prius (same technology as RX450h). This is what reminded me of what I had read elsewhere.

The Pan battery is 51 Amp hour and the Hankook 50. I don't think this will make any significant difference. My preference would be for the AXS55D23L about which I am waiting further information from Megastore. It might be that if they had to specially get this in it would A take more time to obtain and B take time to even get a price because of it not being a battery they normally supply. (They are advertising the larger AXS65D26L 75Ah version for £106.97 but this is too long although perhaps an indicator of price). I got the impression when I spoke with Megastore that they were very busy and didn't want to spend time over the phone discussing battery technicalities hence asking me to email details which I did and have not yet had a reply If this battery is not stocked in the UK as seems to be the case, perhaps the wait could be too long for you. So I leave it with you as to whether you wish to pursue with Megastore whether the SA55020L which they stock is suitable checking the point I made about vents and accepting you might need a longer earth strap. Due to the fact that your battery is in urgent need of replacement it might be better in your case to bite the bullet and buy the Pan one from Lexus if the SA55020L is not suitable. Please let us know which way you go.

An interesting video and well explained. It reminds me I did not mention that greater deep cycling of these batteries, moreso than the heavy cranking ability characteristic of batteries to start engines in cars that are not hybrids. As regards not using a non AGM battery, there are people in the UK and USA who have run on a non AGM battery for a time but this is a bit chancy both from a safety aspect where the battery is in the boot and possibly causing problems with the electrical systems as explained in the video. I would only fit a deep cycling AGM Valve Regulated Lead Acid (VRLA) battery of the type fitted by Lexus in the RX450h and the battery I am enquiring about meets this demand with Prius being specifically mentioned, although this would be the smaller 45Ah version for that car rather than the 50Ah version for the RX450h. Of course you can pay a lot more and buy the Lexus fitted Panasonic without qualms and amortized over 5 or more years this is the route many, will have gone , particularly because of the lack of a suitable alternative. The battery on my car having been fully charged drops to 12.25 volts after about 4 days and this with everything possible switched off and the hatch raised and lowered manually. I will charge it once a week with my CTEK 5 smart charger which has an AGM charging mode. I will fit the Hankook if I can get hold of one and if it works out well others can do so if they wish, perhaps even a Group Buy. If Lexus find there is a far less expensive alternative being fitted, they may even reduce the cost of the Pan. Time will tell.

That is my understanding too. You could use an ordinary maintenance free lead acid battery with vent as I have on my BMW E39 for many years but there is a rear bulkhead in the Beemer (unlike the RX450) which would provide some protection from acid in the event of an accident or explosion as somebody showed the result of in a thread started several years ago on this forum. The AGM batteries have the acid stored in glass matte, are lighter and not affected by severe angle of tilt, so in the event of an accident are safer and specified in the Panasonic Battery Lexus fit to the car. There is another type of battery which uses a Gel but I have not considered that because the recommendation is that batteries should be replaced by like for like type.

Just an update to say I rang Megastore early this week about the Hankook battery AXS55D23L and was asked to email them so their sales people could consider which I duly did. I think it preferable to go through a major UK supplier like them if possible before attempting to purchase from abroad which could be more problematical if the warranty had to be invoked. I did ask for an early reply and if they have not got back to me by the end of next week I will chase them. However, due to lack of use during lockdown they are dealing with many enquirers for batteries at present. I will post as soon as there is there is any news. The advantage of the above battery is that it is plug and play (for at least the 3rd Gen RX450h. Megastore actually advertise another Hankook battery that might serve but it would require modification from the negative terminal to earth because it is normally run back over the top of the battery but because the terminal is recessed the cable would have to take another route and the spare wheel impedes. Also, although it appears to have a vent for a pipe it looks to me as though there may be several vents just under the yellow top lip, which would rule it out if true https://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/product/hankook-sa55020-agm-car-battery-uk-part-code-063h/ I will only investigate this if the AXS5523D23L proves unobtainable. Meanwhile, I note that several members are experiencing battery problems and it makes sense to check the voltage on our cars weekly or fortnightly and charge via solar panel or smart charger if necessary to avoid a flat battery and possible shortening of battery life.

Lucky in front bank!

True but surely when a customer pays more for a premium perceived car he/she would consider reliability should be at least comparable and as well guaranteed as in a lesser marque/model without paying extra for the assurance. People are becoming more discriminating in what they buy and I know a number of people who have had Mercedes and BMW cars who have gone elsewhere and won't buy them again due to unreliability and heavy running costs of their modern cars, nice though they look and handle - I am one of them. There are a lot of good cars available now, some better in certain respects than premium cars and if I was doing many miles each year I would consider a Kia for the standard 7 year warranty among other things. My daughter has a Sorento in which she does mega mileage ferrying her brood to/from 4 different schools each day etc., and with which she is very pleased. Sorry, this has gone off direct topic but I think OP got pretty unanimous answer in thread.

It's about time Lexus at least matched Toyota's warranty and better still the 7 year one of KIA. I suppose they wouldn't want to do this as they would have to increase the initial cost. In view of the age of the car here and anticipated annual mileage, maybe worth not risking expensive dealer repair bills..

I get the impression that many of the Insurers quote a competitive premium to attract new business. Last year I moved to Saga but they have upped the price very considerably this year at renewal with none of my details otherwise changing. I fed my details into the Confused site because I was really ha ha. Anyway I used their link among others for a quote from autonet insurance group who turned out to be a broker. Nevertheless, they seemed to be well reviewed and came up with a price that was much less than what I paid to Saga even last year. The policy is with Ageas Insurance Limited who also seem to be OK (mentioned previously in this thread). Strange thing is that when I did a check direct with Ageas providing the same details as given to the comparison site, the direct quote was about double!!

Sad to see some of the old Bristols awaiting restoration that link takes you to. I am reminded that Britain produced some very special cars in their day years ago, perhaps beyond the reach of the average motorist. Allard, Alvis, Lagonda and better Sunbeams and Daimlers being some of the others as well as RR and Bentley of course. We might build more cars nowadays but these are almost all assembled for other owners with Morgan being a quirky small scale exception - not sure who owns Aston Martin now, another premium car struggling I believe. We know that with these premium marques you are paying for better coachwork, comfort exclusivity and performance these sort of cars offered in their day. Even the cheapest modern car today is generally going to be more reliable and cheaper to maintain with as much performance as is needed under normal conditions on our overcrowded roads. I knew I guy once who had a number of exotic Italian cars which I am sure will have appreciated but he told me his Ford Escort was the most reliable and best used while the others were just for play.

I remember an Interceptor being 'Best of Show' some years ago at a car show, (the metal bodied one rather than the fiberglass bodied one that had a charm of it's own). It costs a fortune to keep it in good order or fill it with petrol being a large American lump and spares generally available and if so at what cost? It's very dated in a number of respects, rear end suspension for example which is not independent. Probably better to get an Aston if looking at this sort of car. As regards the Bentley, these are bought by very well heeled individuals including overpaid soccer stars and pop stars initially or company chairman and the like. (The chairman of the company I worked for had a Bristol, another low volume car). But these sort of people often update frequently, so an extraordinarily expensive car depreciates quite quickly but then stabilizes some years on so that for example a good low mileage one can be had for a shade under 40K for a 12 year old. How much would a glorified Range Rover fetch 12 years on from new? In other words you would be buying the Range Rover at the higher end of it's depreciation curve but the Bentley much further down along it's depreciation curve and look at the craftsmanship that's gone into the Bentley.

I can understand the Kudos and special feeling of having the Bentley Continental GT convertible but the up market Range Rover - come on!! As previously said, better to have a Lexus or one of the top Mercedes. A lot depends on how long this person intends to carry on driving. A petrol (or diesel) is not a bad choice now because it will probably take 10 years to get a decent infra structure to support all electric or hydrogen cars but faced with the same situation in 10 years time a battery or hydrogen powered car might be a better option, although the uniqueness of the Bentley would make it worth more than a Range Rover I think.

I have deleted reference to the Lucas battery I thought might be a possibility but it isn't. I have done a lot of research on an alternative battery to the Pan but none of what I have found on forums or seen advertised seems to come close - well maybe I have now found one that is close enough! I found it on a major Battery supplier's site in Belgium. It is the middle model of a small range of 3 Auxiliary batteries made by Hankook in Korea and is referenced AXS55D23L with 5 year guarantee. Scroll down to see here https://batterysupplies.be/wp-content/uploads/docs/catalog/BSCataloogENG_web_hankook.pdf The footprint may require a slight trimming of the Lexus plastic undertray. It's bigger brother the AXS65D26L is shown here https://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/product/hankook-axs65d26l-dual-purpose-agm-battery/ being sold by Battery Megastore for £106.97 but it is too long. I don't know whether they would be prepared to stock the AXS55D23L but I doubt it if they could only sell a couple or so batteries. I will sound out Megastore about this but before doing so would like to ascertain whether anybody else might be interested as they may take this into consideration. In need I could investigate the possibility and cost of importing the AXS55D23L from Belgium or agents in France. Interesting short video here on Battery Supplies Home page https://batterysupplies.be/en/ NB I don't think it would be necessary to remove any of the lip of the undertray as a fillet of plywood could be used to infill as there is sufficient height to do this do this. Just use appropriate plastic round the battery like some of us used to do with the flooded batteries before AGM.

Ideally petrol should be used in 3 months from fill up. It is progressively less effective after this and although may start a car for quite a time after, the longer it is left the more unsatisfactory it will become. Depending how much fuel there is presently in the tank it could be helped by adding a good proportion of new fuel. Did you pull a plug to see whether there was corrosion and a spark when plug body earthed?

I purchased complete Denso blades from ECP for my RX450h last year at reasonable cost and have found them to be great. It was just as well I collected them though because with the the first pair that was offered, one was of the wrong length.

The Russians built some very interesting planes too, although surprisingly their version of a Concorde was a failure. I remember many years ago watching with amazement a display by two SU27 Flankers at Biggin Hill when they performed their 'Cobra' manoeuvre. Yet in complete contrast Sukhoi SU 26 was a great aerobatic plane in it's day which I also saw at Biggin Hill where I attended many an air show. (Sadly no more airshows there now). If anybody has not been to Brooklands it's worth a visit to see over the prototype Concorde which has some cut away sections inside and also some interesting cars. Many car clubs have a meet there - don't know if Lexus have ever done so but a thought for the future. Bit of an irony that Brooklands provided many planes for battle with the Germans in WW2 but was in due course saved by Mercedes buying part of the land for it's Museum and test area. Before this happened and the strip was lost there was a 'Final Fly-in' (out) by light air craft. An old aero engined record car also made a run down the strip. (Can't remember if it was the John Parry Thomas car that was resurrected from Pendine Sands but if not similar) I was given some in cockpit instruction on flying the static VC 10 and remember the day well. Watched interesting documentary on TV last night on the Messerschmitt Me 262 that started the jet age as seen in this video. Fascinating!

Yes that's the point I was making, that they had another explanation, some of which did not make sense or was irrelevant. What is clear is that CTEK and their support team need to write their manual in way that gives no cause for doubt because there is a lot of uncertainty as forums have shown. The two issues I raised, one about connecting the negative of charger remotely to chassis as CTEK and Lexus suggested and the other about what AGM batteries can be Recond on the CTEK have been clarified.

Toilet rolls for droppings! No wonder there's shortage in supermarkets! I have always used wet newspapers - many call them rags anyway. Good luck with your car.

Nick, I did the same thing, saw there was a mode on the CTEK for CAR with AGM and Recond and programmed accordingly. This was some 4 days ago before I saw Tony and John's comment. My battery went up to 12.76v Car starts but I have not used it since. I have tried to minimize any drop by switching off courtesy lights and closing hatch manually, rather than using the button but of course it pulls in finally electrically. I checked the battery today and it showed 12.25v. I am wondering whether like you by using the AGM Recond mode I may have stuffed the battery, although it was not holding up well previously so may not have been caused by this. I will check again in a day or two. I think there should be a prominent warning not to use the AGM Recond facility even though it is an option provided on the CTEK. See what CTEK Support say here Φ. Δ. 2 months ago (edited) Hi. I own the CTEK MXS 5.0. Can i use the "recon." function wen the battery is connected on the car? CTEK Battery Chargers 2 months ago Hi, Yes! All CTEK chargers are made to be electronic safe all the time and can be used in all modes whilst still connected to the vehicle. Please note that AGMs and GELs should not be RECONDed, all other types of lead acid batteries can be RECONDed once or twice a year. Best regards CTEK Support I follow what Herbs and Colin have said about the possible reason for separately grounding the neg of the charger during charging but this was not the reason CTEK gave as I pasted into my previous post. If the voltage on my battery continues to drop significantly, I will try normal charging this time and if this happens again will secure a large heavy normal LA battery I have spare in the boot and connect by jump leads to existing Pan battery so as not to lose settings if I have to use the car in an emergency before obtaining a suitable replacement.

The CTEK MXS 5. charger manual is not very explicit in certain respects to the point of being seemingly contradictory in some ways. CTEK support says not to use the Recond on AGM batteries. Also, eyelet connectors are provided for connection direct to the battery and can be left on the car but the manual says that for batteries mounted inside the car the ground should be connected to the vehicle chassis remote from the fuel pipe and the battery. This aspect was put to CETEK support as here :- why can the black not be connected to the - on the battery? CTEK Battery Chargers 4 months ago Hi Mary Ellis. The battery will be perfect charged if you connect to the battery! The issues is - if your car is quite new and equipped with a Battery Management System (BMS)- that you need to connect to chassis to make the BMS notice that the battery has been charged. The BMS is dialoguing with the vehicle computers to make the vehicle work as good as possible. And if the vehicle believes that the battery is empty, the alternator will run more and create more CO2 than needed, other functions might not be working as good as planned. I hope this explains. Best regards CTEK Support I am still not clear how this relates to our Lexus cars. Anyone know if we have this BMS and if so what year/models? I don't quite follow this because if the battery was still connected to the car, it would be grounded anyway and why would you remove the battery from it's terminal post? Would it be safer to connect the ground eye lead from the CTEK to a screw on the chassis anyway? NB. The Lexus manual also says to take the Neg lead from a charger to chassis when charging so if this is the case using the 2 eye connectors + and - connected to battery is incorrect as the Neg should be taken direct to chassis. Could this be because it has BMS?

Be interested to learn make and model/spec purchased, also how is works in short and long term. Virtually any 12v battery will do a job for a time but ideally a deep cycle job is preferable, particularly if you use auxiliaries a lot and when fitted under the bonnet like I believe yours is, not so necessary to be an AGM one like that in boot of RX450h.

This will depend on the state of charge before car was laid up and how good the battery is. It's not a bad idea to check with multimeter when car is about to be laid up and charge it to full. (If you have a CTEK or sililar smart charger, you can just leave it connected and forget it because it will keep battery charged up as necessary). Otherwise suggest you check once a week initially. If battery still shows reasonable charge you could leave it for a week and check again charging as necessary. So you can determine whether a fortnightly boost is necessary. With a good well charged battery the figures obtained may mean you could extend to checks at 3 weekly intervals. You might be OK for even longer but I would not chance it without a solar charger or smart charger such as the CTEK. See what Lexus said which I posted under 'Alternative Battery' thread about battery problems currently being experienced and their suggestion for running car at intervals. We are only considering charging our 12v battery here. If the car is laid up for months it would be necessary to run the car to charge the traction battery as I don't think there is any way an owner other than a specialist can charge that.

Assume correct battery was fitted. I would think the 12v battery should hold up OK for a couple of weeks without use if it was nearly fully charged to begin with. If it doesn't last this long the battery could be failing or discharging due to a heavy drain somewhere in the system or even something like happened to me once on a different car where a light in the boot remained on. Best check it out with a multimeter.

Also tyre pressures. As I understand it, self centering is caused by all the parameters that make up steering/suspension geometry and I would not have expected this to have changed significantly to make a great difference.

The original Panasonic 12v boot located battery on my third Gen RX450h is AGM but does not say so. It is VRLA (Valve Regulated Lead Acid) and has a vent tube to outside the car. I believe this is typical for Lexus hybrids for reasons Colin states. I have read that this type of battery should not be opened up but somebody did add a little distilled water to a dead battery and by careful charging resuscitated it. (A way to charge a dead battery that will not accept a charge is to connect it to a partially charged battery and charge it for a considerable time - it sometimes works). The person who topped up the battery removed the Panasonic label then broke away some whiteish plastic to reveal the cell caps. Maybe Lexus fit variations of the battery?