es466

I took a job about a month ago where I'm working from home, so I'm not driving nearly as much. After getting off the plane following my first week (orientation), my 08 TL started hard but eventually got going (it had been sitting for four days at an outdoor airport lot in cold weather).

Then, on New Year's Eve, after three days of sitting in the garage, I went to turn the key and -- nothing (except for a couple of idiot lights glowing). Got a fresh battery installed and everything was back to normal, or so I thought.

Earlier this evening, went to start the car -- headlights came on, dashboard fully illuminated, radio came on, etc.... but after one CLICK there was just a humming noise it refused to turn over. Finally gave up after a dozen attempts.

SO, now I'm going to be looking around for a tow to the dealership tomorrow morning.

What gives? This car was absolutely trouble-free until this crap started happening. Not happy -- any ideas?

main70072

Have you tried jump starting it? There might be a chance that your HFL module is slowly draining the battery. This cold weather could have an effect on a weak starter so have that checked out next if it's not the battery.

YeuEmMaiMai

+1 for charge and disconnect HFL.. if problem goes away HFL is bad. if you are competent with a soldering heat gun you can heat the board up to reflow solder and it will fix the issue (most of the time)

es466

Thanks for your responses. Turned out that I had a bad HFL unit that was not shutting off and was draining the battery. I had it replaced and I'm picking up my car on Monday.

Until then, I'm going to enjoy tooling around in the '13 TL SH-AWD loaner the dealership gave me.... what a ride. The hype I've read on this site about that model's handling is right on (e.g., rolling through all of the roundabouts we have around my area at 45 mph without having to brake at all).

main70072

Be careful out there now.