Interior Water Damage Rx350

[Chatham Lexus]

So my wife started complaining about a damp smell in her car. In checking it out I discovered that it was all wet under the driver's seat. Took it to our Lexus dealer and they said the station tubes that drain the sunroof were blocked and water was backing up into the car. And that there was mold all in the interior of the car and it would have to be removed and replaced. Thankfully our auto insurance policy covered it, who knew? Not sure this is a common problem or not but the service department asked where we get the car serviced? Our Lexus dealer is 100 miles away and there is a Toyota dealer about 6 miles away who advertises they service Lexus cars. The Lexus dealer claimed that this was the problem because when Lexus services their cars they know to clean out these tubes. I had never heard of these tubes blocking and God knows how many autos have sunroofs. Just sharing! And the repair was over $8,000!

[13IS250C]

WOW!!!!! Good thing it was covered. I have had some kind of sunroof in almost every car I have owned. I have never heard of this.

[lenore]

Typical dealer garbage....Don't Toyota cars also have sunroofs? Please be aware their are generally four tubes draining water. Now if you have dirt roads and build up a lot of debris both on the bottom of the car and top this could happen.

[LEX-SV]

Interesting, glad it was resolved.

Ward - Tell us a little bit about conditions or usage of RX prior to big problem. Driving a lot on dirt roads? Parked outdoors a lot under trees, etc.?

[Lexilover64]

This is a common problem when you live in the country with unpaved roads. After a heavy rain we noticed the floor mat was wet. The drain tubes had become clogged. Lexus has a special too (probably a coat hanger) to clean them out. Lexus of Austin fixed the problem, detailed the car gave a loaner overnight and NO COST! Gotta love them. 

[Stevieo]

This seems to be a common problem with RX 350. It happened to me about 4-5 years ago and again a few months back. I took it to an auto shop, they cleaned it out but i am still having the issue and every time it rains my floor mats are soaked. My question is: how can we get Lexus to do a recall to fix this properly?

[heidi123]

HI All: I have a 2018 RX350 with the same issue above. it has only 17000 miles on it. apparently I hear a lot of RXs with sunroof has this problem. dealer admitted that they see a lot of problems like this. so, it can not be our issue or how we use the car. Lexus needs to recall this and fix this tubes as they should not get clogged so easily. they want me to pay for diagnosis and repair. this is ridiculous for the car that has barely been used. any advise on how to hold lexus accountable?

[GNR]

My 2006 Lexus IS 250 was having issues with the battery not being fully charged. The dealership suggested I drive the car more often and for longer distances, especially after the 3 years of the pandemic's shelter in place policies in urban areas. I found it ridiculous that I would have to drive the car every other day.

Finally after 4 tows, in 8 months, the dealership finally replaced the battery and the alternator, after I mentioned there is a whirling sound when I would start the car. They were not able to charge the battery anymore, and that never worked in the first place.

4 days later, and after 2 days of rain, the car did not start again. It is a city car, and often parked outside. I tried not to park it under trees. It was parked downhill, which may have contributed to the sunroof tube causing water intrusion.

After the 3rd tow, I had run out of AAA services for the year. With the 5th tow, the service manager kindly showed up in person and used his AAA services to tow my car to the dealership. I would say the customer service was excellent, even though it took many months and multiple tows to repair the car not holding its battery charge and dying while I was driving it.

The insurance company has deemed the car a total loss. This could have been avoided, if the problems were discovered and remedied sooner.

Clearly, water intrusion from the the sunroof's overall design is a Lexus problem, and a recall should be issued.

 

[PatLexus2023]

On 3/6/2022 at 8:23 PM, Stevieo said:

Hi, looks like Lexus still have not resolve the issue. 

i just got the RX350 and when it rains hard the center console will have a heavy leak on the passsenger side. 
the dealer said it's a clogged issue so it's not covered. got the car a little over a year. barely drive it.

live in the city with an awning over the car where i park it too.

This seems to be a common problem with RX 350. It happened to me about 4-5 years ago and again a few months back. I took it to an auto shop, they cleaned it out but i am still having the issue and every time it rains my floor mats are soaked. My question is: how can we get Lexus to do a recall to fix this properly?