Dead Battery issues

[basicxj]

Do these special types last longer than our traditional lead plate technology? Tell me more about them. Very interested.

I had an old school Optima Red Top last a solid ten years in spite of being discharged heavily a few times. Sadly, the current Optima’s tend not to last as long as they did back in the day.

If you overbuy and get a high end AGM deep cycle from one of the better manufacturers and top it off regularly with an appropriate charger, ten years is still achievable. You’ll pay up for one of those batteries, so many people tend not to go that route when the same money could buy you two standard batteries. OEM Toyota batteries are reportedly better than many, as some OEM and aftermarket batteries can permanently poop the bed as early as 18 months.

 

[EOD Guy]

Let me know the type number model etc for the LC as OPTIMA says they don't make one for our LC.

It's in the picture "DH6" (Post #15) The picture is it installed in my LC.

 

[BILL]

I had an old school Optima Red Top last a solid ten years in spite of being discharged heavily a few times. Sadly, the current Optima’s tend not to last as long as they did back in the day.

If you overbuy and get a high end AGM deep cycle from one of the better manufacturers and top it off regularly with an appropriate charger, ten years is still achievable. You’ll pay up for one of those batteries, so many people tend not to go that route when the same money could buy you two standard batteries. OEM Toyota batteries are reportedly better than many, as some OEM and aftermarket batteries can permanently poop the bed as early as 18 months.

Thank you for that info. Frankly I am happy to pay for a battery that may out live me. Because we have many vehicles here, 4 Toyotas one being a Tundra as well as anOld Chevy, Old Benz. Old Jeep. The Toyotas deserve the treatment of a better battery.

 

[chris_in_phx]

Love this dialogue. Thanks for the good info guys.

 

[Mikie]

I found my LC 1958 250whatever it is with a dead battery. Might be because the last user did not put the tranny in park. Doesn't matter. Dead battery, found like others, the rear cargo door was dead too. So I had to recharge the battery from the battery starter box. Impossible to get off without a screwdriver, problem 1. Charged the battery with a battery charger and came back with idiot lights abounding. Usual take me to the service dealer. WELL that is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. So far the only failure of system is the car door electric windows do not work from the driver door anymore. Only at the door. I am telling you my feelings here. This is not an off road vehilcle for adventures all over continents. If this cars bettery dies out back you can' t JUMP IT. I should have known this but I did want to try the hybrid.. Ithought I was getting something beyond a tarmac car. All this from a dead battery. Stuff happens. Software is supposed to start up again. It's like this car has a blue screen of death that I can't see. I plugged in my Carista and found I had 6 malfuntions. I told Carista to reset 5 of them. The big kahuna the OPS 3xx didn't want to go away untilI turned off the engine and restarted. However window control is gone. Honestly I have had a few LC's, 1976, 2005, 2021 and then this 2024. I think I can not trust the car. Reading what nonsense has happened to other folks on this forumn I would not pretend this is an all terrain vehicle. It ain't. Very disappointed. Bill

Hopefully you didn't get the liftgate lights or the illuminated door sills as options on your LC -- if you did, your 12V electrical issues would be worse!!! (Neither of these turn off automatically -- if the liftgate or front doors are open, then the corresponding lights are on, forever until the universe ends...)

 

[TakaraLC]

Hopefully you didn't get the liftgate lights or the illuminated door sills as options on your LC -- if you did, your 12V electrical issues would be worse!!! (Neither of these turn off automatically -- if the liftgate or front doors are open, then the corresponding lights are on, forever until the universe ends...)

I am pretty sure they will remain on only until the battery runs out.

 

[Mikie]

I am pretty sure they will remain on only until the battery runs out.

That's true -- the lights will remain on until the battery dies, or the universe ends, whichever comes first...

 

[BILL]

Hopefully you didn't get the liftgate lights or the illuminated door sills as options on your LC -- if you did, your 12V electrical issues would be worse!!! (Neither of these turn off automatically -- if the liftgate or front doors are open, then the corresponding lights are on, forever until the universe ends...)

Nope I did not. Hell hath no fury like a car w/ dead battery

 

[BILL]

It's in the picture "DH6" (Post #15) The picture is it installed in my LC.

Can't find the photo. Will you be kind enough to email wglevy@gmail.com,
Thanks, Bill

 

[EOD Guy]

Can't find the photo. Will you be kind enough to email wglevy@gmail.com,
Thanks, Bill

 

[GBee]

hi Bill. I have had also a few LCs - 40, 75, 80 and 105 series. I had battery issues with a few of those. I think you went about it the wrong way.
I think the solution is to get power to the inverter and then start the car normally - the traction battery will then charge the 12V system. I don't go anywhere without a booster in my car. The battery went flat on me probably 10 times including being towed once - then toyota gave me for free an AGM battery. No issues since I got the new 12V battery. cheers.

Question to all of you.... Since I am new owner of a 2025 LC 1958, in order to avoid this kind of trouble, I should...
1. Never leave the car parked in D
2. Always in P and power off.
3. Get a Batt booster...recomendatiions?.
ANYTHING ELSE....?

 

[RideWithYanu]

Question to all of you.... Since I am new owner of a 2025 LC 1958, in order to avoid this kind of trouble, I should...
1. Never leave the car parked in D
2. Always in P and power off.
3. Get a Batt booster...recomendatiions?.
ANYTHING ELSE....?

You should always* put your vehicle in Park before you turn it off and depart. This is not unique to Land Cruisers.

Battery boosters are a good idea. You’ll find lots of discussions here and elsewhere on the internet about ones folks find effective. Again, not really unique to this vehicle.

*There are of course edge cases where you want to leave it in neutral that do not apply to 99% of the driving experience.

 

[basicxj]

1) avoid leaving the vehicle in "accessory" mode for extended periods, like listening to the radio or playing with settings when parked
2) NoCo boosters have been pretty good for me (I have two of them)

NOCO - Boost Jump Starters

NOCO Boost Jump Starters are ultra-compact, yet powerful devices with the power of lithium technology. Pound for pound, lithium provides extreme energy output at a fraction of the size. And coupled with high-end electronics and design, it produces safe and efficient performance.

no.co

 

[EOD Guy]

Question to all of you.... Since I am new owner of a 2025 LC 1958, in order to avoid this kind of trouble, I should...
1. Never leave the car parked in D
2. Always in P and power off.
3. Get a Batt booster...recomendatiions?.
ANYTHING ELSE....?

IMO the single thing you can do to prevent a dead battery, Don't use the ACCY mode for any length of time without putting it in camp mode....... (engine running) or running a trickle charger.

Note: some LC's don't like the doors left open for long periods of time and other don't seem to be affected.

As far as a jump box, just about any make or model will work on the LC, as you are only powering up the computers to allow the hybrid system to start the ICE and not using the jump box to power a starter.

 

[Mikie]

A few more items to consider, in no particular order:

• First, as previously mentioned, you MUST get a battery jump starter!!! I have used a Noco GB40 for years, and it works great. I keep it in its storage case in the storage slot behind the back seat (across from the jack tools). Fits perfectly.
• Note that although the 12V battery is physically located in the side wall of the cargo area, you must jump start the car from specific connection points in the engine compartment (see your owners manual).
• Adjust the various timeouts for vehicle lighting (e.g. how long the headlights stay on after turning off the car, how long the entry lights stay on before timeout, etc.)
• If not needed, you can use the driver's overhead switch to disable the interior lights that auto turn on when you open a door (I do this when I'm camping). Unfortunately, this switch does not control the sill plate lights (see below).
• Obviously, you need to drive the car a bit for the 12V battery to recharge -- if you only do infrequent, very short trips, your battery will probably lose charge over time; you can always recharge the 12V battery by just letting the hybrid system sit in Ready state for some time (a half hour or an hour should be plenty). Note the auto-off function in the driver's display, you can just tell the car to turn itself off after an hour. The engine will cycle on and off during the recharging process.
• You can get a (very inexpensive) battery monitor, that will allow you to check the voltage/charge from your phone (connects via bluetooth). Then you have some idea what's going on with your battery at any particular time. The app can also send you alerts when your battery voltage drops to specific levels. There are some questions about the accuracy of the reported SOC (State of Charge), but the reported voltage accuracy seems to be very good (when I compare to my battery tester).
• You can get a battery charger, so you can fully charge, condition and maintain your battery when needed. A good charger will also de-sulfate the battery plates for you (i.e. "repair" the battery). You can install a "pig tail" to the battery to make the hookup and disconnect of the charger easy (for example, this one for Noco Genius chargers). Note that the LC owners manual specifically states that you should not use a charger with more than 5 amps (I use and am very happy with a Noco Genius 5).
• Getting an AGM-compatible charger is particularly important if you decide to upgrade your original battery to an AGM battery. The charging profile in the LC may not completely charge the AGM battery, and to optimally maintain the battery you should periodically "top it off" using a charger (set to AGM mode). The Noco Genius 5 has both a regular lead acid battery mode (for your original battery) as well as an AGM mode (if you decide to go that route).
• If you have the (optional) liftgate lights, and/or the (optional) illuminated sill plates, these warrant special attention... Unlike the cargo area lights, the liftgate & sill lights are very bright and draw relatively high current. Also unlike the cargo area lights, the liftgate lights & sill plate lights are not on any sort of timer, so they will remain on as long as the liftgate or front door is open. During the day, you won't even notice the lights being on, but if you are (let's say) camping or at the beach and you leave the liftgate or front door open for an hour or two, I think you run a real risk that you will drain the 12V battery down to the point that you won't be able to start the car...
• A fix for the liftgate lights problem (above) is to install a switch (but this is not trivial, see EOD Guy's build page for details). Alternatively, you can use the "carabiner fix" for short term, but it's been my experience that if I leave the carabiner in for more than a few hours or overnight, the liftgate "dies" -- i.e. when I try to close it, I just get two beeps... And the only way that I've been able to recover the open/close function is to slowly, but forcefully, force the door closed, after which the door resumes operating normally (but I don't like doing this...)

 

[geomars]

hi Bill. I have had also a few LCs - 40, 75, 80 and 105 series. I had battery issues with a few of those. I think you went about it the wrong way.
I think the solution is to get power to the inverter and then start the car normally - the traction battery will then charge the 12V system. I don't go anywhere without a booster in my car. The battery went flat on me probably 10 times including being towed once - then toyota gave me for free an AGM battery. No issues since I got the new 12V battery. cheers.

What brand and model AGM battery did Toyota give you? Did they mention anything about it needing different charging or maintenance voltage from the OEM sealed lead acid battery?

 

[wakeskate]

What brand and model AGM battery did Toyota give you? Did they mention anything about it needing different charging or maintenance voltage from the OEM sealed lead acid battery?

it's a Toyota AGM battery^^ they didn't say anything about different charging. I'm close to 16K kms on this battery with zero issues. I'm occasionally using the accessory mode still as well.

 

[Markarian421]

I'll comment here what I commented in another thread: the boost requirements for the US spec hybrid are different from a normal ICE vehicle. As EOD Guy mentioned, you're only starting the computers, the booster (and the 12V battery) are not powering the starter motor. The hybrid battery & electric motor take care of starting your engine, you shouldn't need something that will supply a large current. In the manual it says something along the lines of a long slow charge being sufficient to get it up and running. If you have a large backup battery (Jackery or whatever) and 12V battery clamps, that will probably work?

 

[Grandpawmoses]

Don't AGM batteries require adjusting the charging voltage of the vehicle? Maybe I'm thinking of something else though.

 

[AgRN16]

Don't AGM batteries require adjusting the charging voltage of the vehicle? Maybe I'm thinking of something else though.

Yes, usually they do. I have a 5th gen 4runner and put i an AGM. I had to make a mild mod to the fuse box so the alternator would pass through a higher current to keep the battery properly charged up.