2024 RX 500H F Sport "Hybrid Malfunction" at 3K miles

[Flonie18]

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I've had my 500H for about 4 weeks now and as a Traveling Nurse have been averaging 1K miles weekly and absolutely loving it. This was my first Lexus and my main concerns were reliability....but it definitely helped having the F Sport package bc it looks and drives like a beast and spending 12-16 hrs daily in the car its like my 2nd home. Had my Suntek PPF full front, tints and Ceramic to the car as well.. $4K later i was living my best life and feeling good. Got my first oil change at 2200 miles just to be safe. Life was very good!
Last night while i was out for a quick errand....while driving at about 40 mph the entire drivers display lit up with what seemed like 100 alerts/lights. Mostly saying "Hybrid System Malfunction" and "Steering power loss" and the check engine light. The steering became very stiff and the accelerator got hard to press down. I immediately pulled over and sat there for a few just reading and taking pics. I then turned the engine off and waited another few mins....hoping this was a fluke,.
But when i restarted the engine all the lights came back on telling me to take the car to the dealer ASAP. This was 10p at night. i went home and made an appt at Lexus dealer for 7a the next am. I then reconsidered and called the next morning Lexus roadside assistance thinking better to let them tow it in then me driving. Considering the storms we were having i give Lexus much credit as they showed up for the tow 90 mins after i called. Its now been about 6 hours since they had my car and i just got told it going to "take some time to examine and find problem so i can come in and get my loaner".
I am a little disappointed bc for $70K i purposely got a Lexus to avoid these types of problems i had had with GMC, Dodge etc over the last decade. I loive Nursing and i love driving for a living but when car problems start it makes me regret it all!!
To switch all my supplies out of my car to a loaner is a pain. But, Im going to stay positive that this can all work out fine....even after reading some other posts with similar probs. IDK if this is just the 500h F Sports?

 

update....Picked up my loaner this am(2023 RX 350) and actually saw my F sport in the bay there. Its 7 hrs later and just got a call from Lexus service Dept saying they are still diagnosing what exactly is causing this "Hybrid Malfunction "issue. The Rep informed me the check engine light and various other alerts are still active. They are investigating problems with the 12V battery that is causing communication issues with the main system. They also told me they have contacted Lexus Corp concerning this issue. He was very calm and pleasant but sounded down a little and whern i asked he said this is such a rare occurrence that he is baffled to explain it. So.....tomorrow is another day.

 

next update...Lexus has had my car for 48 hrs now and the latest update is its a "voltage issue". A Lexus Corp rep has come to examine my car and. after a "full reset" was done all the alerts are gone and they still dont have a definitive answer as to what happened and they have not been able to replicate it. I was told today that ther Rep gave them a checklist of 7 things to try and then if it doesnt show up to return vehicle to owner. Basically....they dont know what happened so heres your car back and lets hope it never happens again. 

 

 

[RX400h]

Brian, did they perform a load test on the 12V battery? The only incident in the last 18+ years that involved a scary warning on the dash, ended up being a battery cell that was low on distilled water/battery acid.

There were no codes to pinpoint the issue, but it is well known that especially with newer vehicles, electronics are very sensitive to battery voltage. 

[Flonie18]

IDK at this point I will have to ask that tomorrow. They told em they have done 5 pf the 7 items the Lexus Corp Rep told them to do and so far have not been able to recreate the alerts. At this point there are no alerts on the car and the plan is to finish the other  test and then if nothing shows up i get my car back tomorrow. I will mention the low on distilled water situation and get back to you. This is day 5 they have had my car and although i get calls with updates daily there is not much happening. 

[LexusGuyRX]

Any updates??

[Flonie18]

Hey....they kept the car for a week and gave me the exact model as a loaner. They reset everything after 2 days and the Lexus Sup mechanic came tospect ans called me to say they could not replicate the error message. I picked the car up and they gave me 5 free oil changes for inconvenience and told me they cannot explain what happened. Lexus Corporate did follow up with a call and that was it. The care has been running flawlessly since.  

[Dan Lynch]

Had a similar issue three weeks ago with my 2024 RX500h at 3,500 miles. Out running errons, restarted the car and got the engine malfunction warning with "contact your dealer immediately. Like with the othjers mentioned here the local service deptartment could not dianose the issue. They provided a loaner and advised me they needed to have an engineer from Lexus (out of Atlanta) run a dianostic. My dealership recommended I might want to initiate a Lexus Buy Back claim incase the car could not be repaired in a timely fashion (which I did). Received a call from my service manager a couple of weeks later with great news - the engineer that came up to dianose the issue was able to correct it. They were able to download an update to software that corrected the logic issue that caused the warning code. 😊

I guess that's the price we pay for enjoying all the benefits of a technically advanced vehicle. Hopes this helps others that have had similar issues with their new Lexus 500h F Sports.

[Flonie18]

Its been almost 6 months the "voltage issue" was resolved and with 22K miles now everything has been going just fine. No problems of any kind. I love this car folks. I have noticed because i m averaging 1K miles weekly that i am now way ahead with my services. I always do the oil changes at 5K but i saw the invoice the other day and @$206/hr for labor it really dramatically adds up. I am wondering are these NYC prices or is this normal?

I see they have things down there like "check placement of floor mats on drivers side" and top off fluids that are truly ridiculous with me bringing the car in every 5-6 weeks because of all the miles i put on it. An oil change is about $150 and i mostly deny the other services. I dont even take the free car wash bc it only delays the visit by at least an hour or so. Overall love this car so much and no regrets at all after having a few Dodges,Yukons, Chevys this is glorious. BY 25K miles with my 2019 Yukon i was having a new Transmission put in already. 

[Camodav]

Bought my 2023 RX 500h F Sport on Saturday evening.  Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) with only 10k miles.  Was in the car on Sunday setting up everything.  Ran the motor for a few minutes then had it on Accessory mode for a bout 15 minutes without the engine running.  Car went totally dead.  Nothing electrical worked.  Couldn't even open doors with physical key from fob.  The headlights started flashing in multiple different sequences.  I was only able to get back in the vehicle because I had inadvertently left the passenger window down.  Without that, I would have been totally locked out after leaving the vehicle.  Had to have it towed back to the dealer Sunday morning, for service on Monday.  Lexus Roadside assistance tried to jump it, but no help.  

Not a great experience and getting totally locked out is frightening.  I could have been on a trip in the mountains, in a bad neighborhood, or worse.  The fact that you get locked out and cannot even jump it to get to a dealership or to a safe space is unacceptable.  I am waiting for the Service team to report back.  

[mcpowderman]

I had the exact same problem. 2023 certified pre owned with 8500~ miles.  Mine was able to be jump started and the dealer put in a new battery. That was a week ago and so far so good.  BTW you're not locked out.  I had all of the windows up and found that on the bottom of the door handle there's a small lever you can use to open the door.  Mine was in the garage so the car wasn't locked and I was able to open the door then the hood and the tow truck driver was able to jump start it.  I don't know what happens if the doors are locked but before I found the small lever, the tow truck driver was going to use his Slim Jim to open the door.