razahyde Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 ok well ive been having problems with my battery draining the car for a while now and ive gone through about 4 batterys so ikno battery aint a problem car worked fine untill this happened and i finally took it to sewell lexus......they charged me $100 just to get it checked so i paid that waited 3 hours in the lounge and then the lady told me they would have to further diognose the problem (what had they been doing for 3 hours) they still had no clue what was wrong and she wanted 400 more from me to get it checked even more they wanted to keep my car and give me a rental....but for 400 i think thats a waist of my time and money if they knew what was wrong they wouldev known and i dont think they know hwats wrong....so i told them id come back later but when i was leaving i noticed my windshield wiper was messed up i went back and we had an hour long argument about it....i know they messed it up because when i was driving there it was fine becuase it was raning and i had used it they finally decided to fix it and did a horrible job the wiper went from black to scratched up silver.... so now i have a car that has a battery problem a messed up wiper (not the blade but the part blade hooks on to also) waisted $100 and 4-5 hours of my time and accomplished nothing so im probably going to sell the car and let the new owner fix it because i kno this is going to run me around $1000 in the end do u guys think its worth it for a 96 ls400 with 116k miles??? its black on beige with chrome rims and nothings wrong other then 3 minor dents on quarter panel and the battery of course. how much should i be looking at if i sell the car? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obergc Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 It saddens me to see someone have to struggle like problems like this that SHOULD be relatively simple to diagnose. All you need is an ammeter to hook in series with the positive lead of the battery to measure parasitic drain on the battery. Along with the ammeter, of course you need to invest $35 for this electrical diagram from guess who? If you said Sewell Lexus you were right. That's where I purchased my shop manuals and electrical diagrams, all which have been invaluable to me in trying to maintain one of these older LS 400's. This is their website where they sell the manual http://www.lexus-parts.com/partdetail.asp?...ubCategoryID=26. Now, with the ammeter and wiring diagrams in hand you will have $85 or less invested depending on the quality of the digital voltmeter that you buy, anyone with a just a little experience in electrical troubleshooting should be able to find the source of the battery drain on a weekend day while drinking a few beers in the process. If your battery is going dead just sitting there, you connect the ammeter in series with the positive battery lead and it will read an amperage depending on how bad the drain is. Some ammeters that you buy that are relatively cheap do not measure above 10 amps so be careful here or you may damage the meter or at least you will blow an internal fuse protecting the meter at the very least. It might be prudent to connect a low ohmic value resistor, lets say .1 ohm in series between the battery positive lead and the positive battery cable. Take the key out of the ignition and make sure that everything in the car is turned off, doors shut, no lights on at all and don't lock the doors so even the security system is not armed. With the .1 ohm resistor in series between the battery + terminal and the + terminal battery cable, set the dvm up to measure volts DC and measure the voltage drop across the .1 ohm resistor. Multiply the voltage reading X10 to determine the current flow, or parisitic drain from your battery. With a .1 ohm resistor, a 10 amp drain on the battery will cause only a 1 volt drop across the resistor so you will be providing the rest of the car electronics with a voltage of at least 11 volts. With your problem, you almost certainly will find a fairly hefty drain on your battery and then it's simply a matter of disconnecting fuses, one at a time until you find the circuit that is causing your problem. Of course, if you aren't familiar with the basics of electrical trouble shooting and are not comfortable chasing down a problem like this, look around to see if you have any friends that can help you with this problem. A problem like this should not cause you to get rid of a car that you are otherwise content with. I wish I could tell you what the normal parasitic drain on the LS400 battery is but I can only speculate since I have not measured it. I would expect it to be a fairly low number, hopefully 1 amp or less since my LS occassionally sets for lengthy periods of time with no battery drain problems at all so far. Maybe someone else has actually measured the normal battery drain so you know what is "normal" drain. I would have asked the Sewell mechs what type of drain they were trying to run down, I'll bet you that they have that information and you certainly paid enough for them to provide you with that info. Bottom line is that you need the schematics, a DVM and a novice electrician to find this problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indiasfinest Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 sewell gave u a prob.? ive been buying my cars there for 8 years now and nothing but satisfaction...talk to joe martinez....certifed "master" very good salesmen.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razahyde Posted May 31, 2005 Author Share Posted May 31, 2005 im done with sewell for now..they tried to charge me around 400 for emblems and a guy i met on here who worked at sewell said it should have only been around 100. then they break my windshield wiper not just the blade but the metal part it hooks onto and they acted like they didnt do it, it was running before i got there and it was fine i left and turned it on because it was raining again and it scratched the bottom of the windshield so how are they going to tell me that it was like that :chairshot: and that was after they charged me 100 just to look at the car and wanted another 400 to keep looking at it. i felt $100 was more then enough to find the problem because there are suppose to be professionals and $500 is a bit ridiculous to just find the problem electric or not so i just left and i really dont trust them after i saw them playing football in the garage not short pass and catch it was a full on game in the garage with customer cars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRAND_LS 4 Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 im done with sewell for now..they tried to charge me around 400 for emblems and a guy i met on here who worked at sewell said it should have only been around 100. then they break my windshield wiper not just the blade but the metal part it hooks onto and they acted like they didnt do it, it was running before i got there and it was fine i left and turned it on because it was raining again and it scratched the bottom of the windshield so how are they going to tell me that it was like that :chairshot: and that was after they charged me 100 just to look at the car and wanted another 400 to keep looking at it. i felt $100 was more then enough to find the problem because there are suppose to be professionals and $500 is a bit ridiculous to just find the problem electric or not so i just left and i really dont trust them after i saw them playing football in the garage not short pass and catch it was a full on game in the garage with customer cars ← Try discounnecting the CD player and Audio system, or thier fuse. I've heard it was the source of the same problem for more then one owner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 Try to borrow a clamp on ampmeter from autozone or an electrician and clamp it to you positive cable. The drain on the battery should be very low in general. You've got more load than normal and will have to pull fuses while watching the meters amp reading to drop off. Find the big drop in load and you've found your circuit causing problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonInDallas Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 Look, diagnosing problems can be difficult, especially electrical problems. I used to work on my own cars as a hobby and I know diagnosis is often the most difficult part of a job. They charge by the hour because they're not in the charity business. Am ammeter? That isn't gonna help you much unless you test part after part to find the problem which is what they wanted 4 more hours to do. And what you really need is a multitester at least because some parts will have a specific impeadance when operating correctly which you must verify. Part by part. Hundreds of them. If a trained technician couldn't find the problem in an hour ... do you think you will be able to find it yorself? Without knowing how to use a meter? Without knowing the correct values for each part and circuit? I doubt it. Your car is old and screwed up and you expected a miracle. Well, apparently your car is screwed up enough to not be fixed for $100. So now you've wasted that $100 and if you take it somewhere else the next guy will have to start from scratch. The wiper blade is another story entirely, but my guess is that you were being difficult which caused the SA to dig his heels in and distrust you. Those guys at Sewell treat me right and have even given me free work without me even asking for it. You'll eventually learn that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new big400 Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 I do all my biz with sewell and couldnt be happier.And im in Indiana! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razahyde Posted June 1, 2005 Author Share Posted June 1, 2005 jason i got the problem fixed at a local mechanic he said there was a short in the radio and it cost me $20 and took me about half an hour now u cannot tell me that a local mechanic who by the way used to work at sewell and was a mechanic there found the problem that quick. we had a lilttle chat and he told me lexus knew exactly what they were looking at and it was jsut a way to rip off people and he had done it numerous times when working there. and this was not his first time seeing the radio had caused this problem i question my trust with sewell now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRAND_LS 4 Posted June 2, 2005 Share Posted June 2, 2005 jason i got the problem fixed at a local mechanic he said there was a short in the radio and it cost me $20 and took me about half an hour now u cannot tell me that a local mechanic who by the way used to work at sewell and was a mechanic there found the problem that quick. we had a lilttle chat and he told me lexus knew exactly what they were looking at and it was jsut a way to rip off people and he had done it numerous times when working there. and this was not his first time seeing the radio had caused this problemi question my trust with sewell now ← Please speak with a manager about this problem. Its one of two, either they dont know what they are doing at all (i seriously doubt it) or they are really trying to reel in your cash. And demand them to either refund your $100 AND fix your wipers, providing a copy of this thread/location of the forum. Internet forums seem to scare service writers to death. Esp if thier name is mentioned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razahyde Posted June 4, 2005 Author Share Posted June 4, 2005 yes im going to complain about this tomorrow i plan on going to the dealer after i get the local mechanics numer incase they try to deny me and what do u mean by printing out the forum what will that do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 That's bad, dealer couldn't like this. As my experience,for a oil change,I had to wait 2 hours. And yes,dealer is very expensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRAND_LS 4 Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 yes im going to complain about this tomorrow i plan on going to the dealer after i get the local mechanics numer incase they try to deny me and what do u mean by printing out the forum what will that do? ← Dealers are usually very afraid bad publicity. Esp if they find out your active in the Lexus community, and may influance potential, or existing customers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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