Wouldn't start after driven without key FOB and then parked for ~1 week (SOLVED and lessons learned in case other experience it)

[jexx45]

Long story short... had a friend take family to airport in my '14 LC200 and drove away while I still had the key FOBs (turns out it drives FINE without key FOB as long as you don't turn it off :/). We had to catch a flight so that person drove the vehicle to my house, parked it, turned off ignition, and manually locked doors.

Upon return, ~1 week later, my cruiser wouldn't start and battery was completely DEAD. Initially investigated the obvious things, ensure it was in park, foot on break, used a crank charger to try to start it, tried jumper cables from wife's car, etc.... nothing. Well, instrument cluster and lights would come on when crank charger or jumper cables were hooked up, but no ignition crank or starter solenoid.

The symptoms were *really similar* to @austindave's issues in this thread:

New battery... won’t start. key reset? engine immobilization?

forum.ih8mud.com

(But fortunately it didn't require computer replacement etc.)

What didn't work:

• Key FOB to key, foot on break, regular start method +
  • Crank charger (Dewalt) Battery Start, Recond or any other mode. It was simple stop after 3 minutes with the "battery failure" indicator, suggesting that the battery was bad
  • Jumper cables, rinse and repeat
• Take it out of gear into neutral, back into Park etc.
• Hook a different battery that was fully charged (sitting outside car) up to battery cables (while old battery was hooked up)
• Check all fuses in the fuse box for failed fuses
• Disconnect negative battery cable for 15 minutes or so and try again

What eventually worked:

• Fully disconnect battery and remove it from vehicle
• Let vehicle sit without any battery attached overnight
• Attached verified working battery via jumper cables (sitting outside) and not the old battery in place as well
• Lock/unlock doors 4-5 times via key FOB (to verify it was working)
• Start as normal
• I then charged the old battery on bench with crank charger and it charged FINE and didn't generate the battery fault warning (strange) and when reinstalling it, it worked again.

My guess is that a combination of drained battery and immobilization caused these weird combination of issues, so posting in case someone else experiences this (before they get a tech and start changing expensive parts).

 

[lookingfor200lc]

Thanks for the info...I have a somewhat similar problem. Just bought a 2013 LC and as soon as I got it home one the dash said low fob battery. I tried the other fob but apparently it was dead too (low battery fob still worked fine). Replaced both fob batteries. Went out the following morning to crank the LC and nothing. No dash lights, no low fob battery, no nothing. Replaced new fob battery with old...still nothing. I'm a little at a loss, but I'll start checking some of the things that worked for you.

When I called my local Toyota/Ford dealership, the very nice lady in service said, "Is a Land Cruiser a Ford?" No ma'am, but thanks for your willingness to schedule my service anyway. LOL.

 

[RET2]

Thanks for the info...I have a somewhat similar problem. Just bought a 2013 LC and as soon as I got it home one the dash said low fob battery. I tried the other fob but apparently it was dead too (low battery fob still worked fine). Replaced both fob batteries. Went out the following morning to crank the LC and nothing. No dash lights, no low fob battery, no nothing. Replaced new fob battery with old...still nothing. I'm a little at a loss, but I'll start checking some of the things that worked for you.

When I called my local Toyota/Ford dealership, the very nice lady in service said, "Is a Land Cruiser a Ford?" No ma'am, but thanks for your willingness to schedule my service anyway. LOL.

Is the battery in correctly, polarity?

 

[lookingfor200lc]

Is the battery in correctly, polarity?

I will check that when I get home. Thanks!

 

[skmaynard1]

I just had a different cause but same issue. Came out one morning and my battery was very dead (6V) for no apparent reason. Truck would not start with a jump start, but everything electronic seemed normal. Charged battery, tested battery, charged some more.... battery tested good but the start button did nothing but turn on accessory.

I did the key fob lock/unlock 5 times, and viola! The truck started.

I really appreciate this community for posting threads like this to help everyone else out, and save us hundreds of dollars on unneeded repairs.

 

[pvchaitanya]

your problem is that when the battery drains, jumping it by just connecting it with another battery will not provide enough power to the drained battery that the starter doesn't even bother turning.
I had this happen to me soooo many times with all sorts of cars.
I have to connect the jumper cables, let the other car run for atleast 10mins and then start the dead car. If I am impatient and try to start at 5 min mark, it may or may not work and then I have to wait again for 10mins for charging the battery.
(If you use high guage(thicker) jumper cables like 6awg and shorter, then the charging will be much faster).

 

[pvchaitanya]

the reason it worked with another battery is because you connected it directly. When jumper cables are involved, the power cannot be pulled directly from working battery as the thickness of jumper cables and its length doesn't let the power flow in the same as the working battery is connected directly to the car.