Lost Power (And Almost Lost Life) On Highway

[Safety Matters!]

My Rx350 (2007) lost power going 65 mph on a highway, and began to slow down quickly. With a truck on one side and another barelling down my behind, I tried to accelerate but the vehicle began to shudder and shake violently! By some miracle, I managed to swerve to the shoulder across 2 lanes, and avoided getting hit and crushed by inches!

Got the vehicle to the Lexus dealer and they found out that it was a premature ignition coil failure - the vehicle has only about 42000 mi on it. Asked Lexus Corporate to:

1) Do a full investigation so as to prevent similar life threatening safety failures

and

2) Reimburse the cost of repair at a minimum

Lexus Customer Service responded with a verbal offer to bear 10% of the cost of repair! Talk about adding insult to injury. We'd undergone a traumatic event, almost losing our lives - my wife had started screaming on the side of the highway and would not get back into the vehicle! I refused, of course, and paid the entire (and substantial) bill myself.

I'd like all readers to be aware of the power failure and be especially careful out on the highway. Also be aware that the Lexus promise of perfection seems to be mainly lip service nowadays - safety apparently is not in their definition of 'perfection'. To see such a serious incident being treated so trivially was totally at odds with the Lexus mission and the Lexus promise to its drivers.

[maseace]

Just curious - did you already have the inverter IPM recall performed before this incident?

[Safety Matters!]

No, Mason - I was not even aware of this particular recall. Does it have a connection to sudden engine power failure? Thanks!

[13IS250C]

I felt the same way yesterday when I had my flat tire on the interstate. When I bought my car, Lexus of Memphis made it sound like they would come to my rescue no matter what happened. I called my service consultant @ 5:30 for help and he said everybody had left for the day. Really?!?!?! They will only help me between 8-5? Thank God I hadn't canceled my AAA. They took care of me.

[maseace]

No, Mason - I was not even aware of this particular recall. Does it have a connection to sudden engine power failure? Thanks!

Register your VIN on My Lexus and check which recalls are outstanding: https://secure.drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrivers/my-lexus/home.do

Sudden loss of power and entering a fail-safe "limp home" mode is a symptom, which is why it was a safety recall.

http://www.lexus.com/recall/#rxRecallSection

TORRANCE, CA September 3, 2013 – Toyota Motor Sales,

USA, Inc. today announced that it will conduct two voluntary safety

recalls. One involves approximately 133,000 MY 2006-2010 Highlander

Hybrid and MY 2006-2008 Lexus RX 400h vehicles. The other involves

approximately 102,000 MY 2006-2011 Lexus IS 350, IS 350C, and GS 350

vehicles.

In the involved Toyota Highlander Hybrid and Lexus RX 400h

vehicles, transistors within the hybrid system's inverter assembly can

experience heat damage due to variations in characteristics of the

transistors' parallel circuits. Should this occur, various warning

lights on the instrument panel will illuminate, and in most cases the

vehicle will enter "limp home mode." In limited instances, the hybrid

system will shut down and resulting in the vehicle stopping while the

vehicle is being driven.

Owners of vehicles subject to these recalls will receive a notification by first class mail.

Detailed information is available to customers at www.lexus.com/recall and

by calling the Toyota Customer Experience Center at 1-800-331-4331.

[lenore]

The listed on the bio is an RX350, not a hybrid...

[Safety Matters!]

Thanks anyway, Mason- and thanks Lenore. I now know where to go to check out recalls. I don't know how many incidents like mine have happened, or what the minimum # of incidents has to be to trigger a recall. I fear that someone may get badly hurt or worse if Lexus does not go deeper into this failure and try to address the root cause.

[pj8708]

Hi Ajay and welcome to the Club. As you can see, we are a group of Lexus enthusiast you enjoy helping one another.

Their are a couple of things that come into play with your situation. The first thing is I would be on the side of the road with your wife screaming!! It sounds like an incredible experiance.

Next, if my counting ir correct, your RX350 now has 7 - 8 yers on it. Also, your Lexus dealer Roadside Assitance would have expired at the end of the first full year your RX was put in service under your name.

So here is the conumdrum. The Lexus new car warranty runs for 4 years or 40,000 miles. Which ever comes first. Having never been in your situation, I don't know what I woulld expect. However, you've had the first 4 years of you owner ship covered for free, and your additional 4 years with out apparent trouble until now. Given all this, if this is not a national recall , how long should Toyota extend full coverage of service?

In terms of the Roadside Assistance, dealers that I have known offer complete assitance for the first year of ownership. There after, the customer can continue the coverage by paying for it, or get it as you have from someone else.

These of course are just my thoughts.

Paul

[maseace]

The listed on the bio is an RX350, not a hybrid...

Oops - I forgot they allow non-hybrids in this forum now. We need our own hybrid forum back!

[RX400h]

Your wife started screaming on the side of the highway? Isn't that a bit extreme? My wife had a flat tire, last year while driving on the highway. She calmly moved over to the shoulder and called me. I called the tow truck and its driver installed the spare tire. Swapping out a tire, yourself can be harrowing if cars are whizzing by you, but you are generally safe if you stand far enough away from the road.

Luckily, you weren't flying a plane.

[lenore]

You know coil packs can fail on any car, like on my Ford F150, Yes they shouldn't, but it happens. As for shutting down it should have only started running ragged. Unless all of your coils failed which I doubt. My question is has the Check engine light been on and ignored? If so then the car will eventually go into limp mode. Sorry it happened to you, and the cost of service sucks, but Hope it gets fixed for you. By the way never wash your engine compartment down with water, this can cause coil pack failures.

[Safety Matters!]

Folks, thanks for the responses and comments.

My primary concern is to make Lexus and Lexus drivers aware of the potentially life threatening risks from such failures. I think Lexus should improve both product design and manufacturing process for such critical parts, in its own assembly plants as well as in their supply chain. What sets Lexus apart from other auto makers is its promise - the "pursuit of perfection starts at our core".

My vehicle had barely 42000 mi on it and the Lexus mechanic said such ignition coil failures are not expected at this stage in the vehicle's life - this was a premature failure and quite distinct from the normal wear and tear replacements that we expect to make. Tires burst, but can be inspected prior. There's no way for an owner to inspect an ignition coil externally. Lexus should incorporate an early warning system that signals such potentially dangerous failures - my engine light came on at about the same time that I began to lose power.

Re: comments about my wife's reaction - it wasn't a pleasant experience - but understandable when one looks near death in the face. We cut across 2 lanes of heavy traffic with an unresponsive vehicle, horns blaring and brakes screeching on all sides, missing trucks going 65 mph literally by inches. It was traumatic. I was shaking too!

So far I have not heard any meaningful word from Lexus - I shall continue to try to inform and warn Lexus owners. The last thing we want is another failure that may, God forbid, lead to loss of life. Lexus will take note of the recent $1.2 billion fine imposed on Toyota and the associated reputational damage - it all began when Toyota ignored a potentially dangerous performance and quality issue.

[lenore]

I understand, however The government had NASA and the NTSB investigate Toyota, and there was no proof of electronic failure in the Toyota product for sudden acceleration. The floor mat was rectified and Toyota covered it. General motors on the other hand new about the defect in their ignition switches and continued producing them. THey caused 33 or more lives to be lost. Your failure is no more different than in the old days of having a fuel pump go bad while on the freeway...Remember one thing, Cars are mechanical and they do fail. Toyota has a long standing history of reliability.

Hey my Ford F150 has known bad fuel injectors which cause the same failure you have but Ford refuses to replace them all, instead will only replace them one at a time when they fail. Driving on the freeway is a potential for death anytime you have any failure, it could be a Blown tire which causes you to need to get over quickly....I again am happy you are safe, but your failure, other than being early for that component is normal. Your part of the country is harsher on cars than where I live and so timely maintenance and preventative maintenance is a must.

By the way lets see if the Government imposes a fine on General Motors, like they did to Toyota.

[RX400h]

I've worked in and with Quality departments enough to know that if there is one failure of a component among 100,000 vehicles, that issue will most likely not be at the top of any priority list. There have been multiple incidences of component failures in C5 generation Corvettes in which the car would veer out of control, yet GM has yet to issue a recall. As Lenore mentioned, GM gets away with far more than Toyota, especially since the bailout and Toyota's overtaking GM as the top selling car company. The government fine is so biased, it is utterly ridiculous.

[tex2670]

My Rx350 (2007) lost power going 65 mph on a highway, and began to slow down quickly. With a truck on one side and another barelling down my behind, I tried to accelerate but the vehicle began to shudder and shake violently! By some miracle, I managed to swerve to the shoulder across 2 lanes, and avoided getting hit and crushed by inches!

Got the vehicle to the Lexus dealer and they found out that it was a premature ignition coil failure - the vehicle has only about 42000 mi on it. Asked Lexus Corporate to:

1) Do a full investigation so as to prevent similar life threatening safety failures

and

2) Reimburse the cost of repair at a minimum

Lexus Customer Service responded with a verbal offer to bear 10% of the cost of repair! Talk about adding insult to injury. We'd undergone a traumatic event, almost losing our lives - my wife had started screaming on the side of the highway and would not get back into the vehicle! I refused, of course, and paid the entire (and substantial) bill myself.

I'd like all readers to be aware of the power failure and be especially careful out on the highway. Also be aware that the Lexus promise of perfection seems to be mainly lip service nowadays - safety apparently is not in their definition of 'perfection'. To see such a serious incident being treated so trivially was totally at odds with the Lexus mission and the Lexus promise to its drivers.

Your car does not have a life time guaranty. Driving a car, including on the highway, has inherent risks associated with it.

Thanks for the heads up of your problem, but understand that your car does NOT come with a lifetime guaranty. A car is complex piece of machinery, and things go wrong. If something goes wrong within the warranty period, that's on Lexus. Otherwise, unless it's part of a recall, it's on you. Maybe you should have bought a Hyundai for the 10 yr/100,000 power train warranty--then you would have been covered.

Certainly, if this is a common occurrence, posting on message boards like this one or Club Lexus will help alert other members of the public; and if a recall is later issued, you should receive a reimbursement of your repair costs. But, until then, a 10% discount is awfully generous, given that Lexus has no responsibility here whatsoever.

[tex2670]

I felt the same way yesterday when I had my flat tire on the interstate. When I bought my car, Lexus of Memphis made it sound like they would come to my rescue no matter what happened. I called my service consultant @ 5:30 for help and he said everybody had left for the day. Really?!?!?! They will only help me between 8-5? Thank God I hadn't canceled my AAA. They took care of me.

If the salesman "says" it--get it in writing....

[tex2670]

Folks, thanks for the responses and comments.

My primary concern is to make Lexus and Lexus drivers aware of the potentially life threatening risks from such failures. I think Lexus should improve both product design and manufacturing process for such critical parts, in its own assembly plants as well as in their supply chain. What sets Lexus apart from other auto makers is its promise - the "pursuit of perfection starts at our core".

My vehicle had barely 42000 mi on it and the Lexus mechanic said such ignition coil failures are not expected at this stage in the vehicle's life - this was a premature failure and quite distinct from the normal wear and tear replacements that we expect to make. Tires burst, but can be inspected prior. There's no way for an owner to inspect an ignition coil externally. Lexus should incorporate an early warning system that signals such potentially dangerous failures - my engine light came on at about the same time that I began to lose power.

Re: comments about my wife's reaction - it wasn't a pleasant experience - but understandable when one looks near death in the face. We cut across 2 lanes of heavy traffic with an unresponsive vehicle, horns blaring and brakes screeching on all sides, missing trucks going 65 mph literally by inches. It was traumatic. I was shaking too!

So far I have not heard any meaningful word from Lexus - I shall continue to try to inform and warn Lexus owners. The last thing we want is another failure that may, God forbid, lead to loss of life. Lexus will take note of the recent $1.2 billion fine imposed on Toyota and the associated reputational damage - it all began when Toyota ignored a potentially dangerous performance and quality issue.

Listen to what you are saying. How is Lexus supposed to "make you aware" of absolutely everything that can go wrong on your car--thousands and thousands of parts? They can't install a warning light covering every part that can go wrong which will leave you stranded. Sometimes, stuff happens. It's not Lexus' fault.