For the past year, Alex has not been driving his 2008 Lexus RX-350 AWD very often, and the relatively new Interstate Battery has not been getting charged. When Covid-19 hit us in March 2020, Alex stopped driving his Lexus to Bellarmine High School altogether, as all his classes moved online.
After 3 months of not driving, the battery died ultimately. However, I could recharge it on a battery tray, which worked fine for a while.
Yesterday, November 8, 2020, when Alex tried to drive his car to pick up some school items at Michael's, the Lexus wouldn't start. I took the battery out of the car and hooked it up to my battery tender, but this time it didn't work. The battery tender reported an error (blinking red and green lights).
I decided to take the Interstate MT-24F battery to the local Interstate Service Center, located at:
211 Phelan Ave, San Jose, CA
The salesman I talked to tested my battery and said it needed to be charged before any warranty claim could be made. The battery has a 2-year Free Replacement Warranty.
After waiting a day for the battery to charge, the service center tested it, and it passed. Argh!
I decided to purchase a new car battery from Costco and return the old battery (the core is worth $15.00).
Two weeks later, on November 21, Alex tried to start his Lexus RX350 with his new Interstate battery, and the car was completely dead. There was not even enough power for a door light! I exchanged the dead Interstate 24F battery at Costco, but I now believe that a short circuit in the Lexus' security system is causing the battery to discharge when the car is turned off.
After I contacted the Foreign Affair auto shop, I scheduled a repair visit for Tuesday, November 24, 2020, at 7:30am. After dropping off the Lexus RX350, we eagerly awaited the call from Foreign Affair explaining what the mechanic had found.
The electrical issue was relatively straightforward. The map light switch was in the "ON" position and drained the battery when the ignition was off. The mechanic tested all other systems and noticed the current was over 30mA when the switch was ON. Hopefully, all will be well now.
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