A friend of mine has o7 es350 and experienced a strange situation. While driving the car, it began acting erratic it would try to accelerate when stepping on the brakes. As a result of this she got into a wreck. Now lexus say's nothing was wrong with the car (sure). Has anyone had this happen to them, maybe something similar? Anything helps....thanx

 

Believe it or not... The binders will actually stop the car even if the throttle is held at WOT in gear.

Old people try and claim "the car just took off" all the time, right after they crash the entrance to the Quickee Mart, or wipe out a crowd of people.

The old folks are usually found guilty.

 

I complained my RPM spiked when hitting the brakes as though working against me hitting the breaks and coming to a safe stop, ESPECIALLY if you adjust steering when trying to come to a stop.

Anyone who owns one and tries stepping on the brakes while also slightly turning steering wheel as though breaking on a slight curve of a road will likely see it.

I'm, I hate to say it, used to it now and long ago adjusted my driving accordingly.

Your/friend's issues sounds different than what I see but it is something I think Lexus needs to take another serious look at, even if just as a precaution if for no other reason. Hope your friend is ok and all involved are too.

 

Ha ha ..lmao .........That is very true. Seriously, she is not an old foogie, and I believe her. It's not like the insurance isn't going to fix the car anyway. She has nothing to gain but just wanted to express her misfortune to see if others had any complaints. I know every single electrical/mechanical system that is built is not fool proof, There is alway's a flaw somewhere, the world ain't perfect

 

Thanx....I am very sorry for your bad experience as well. Maybe as time goes on people will post more complaints here as well as the dealers. I really can't offer u any advice that wasn't already offered (except burn the car and let insurance pay u........lol) Really, I wish u best of luck

 

The ES350 has a "black box" recorder that records, among other things, whether the brake was depressed and what was happening with the engine rpms, the vehicle's speed, acceleration, etc.

This recording is all that is needed to prove what actually happened. Lexus will supply it if asked to.

 

What if the lexus dealer cleared the codes in the box to protect themselves?
This is manhattan lexus after all, anything is possible

 

Why guess what they did, why not ask them now?

 

blaise,

How long ago was this?

The reason I ask is someone filed a report on this type of thing with a Federal Transportation agency and I believe it was filed in July or August. You can look it up on the government website.

Was it the person you know who filed this? Because it sounds real familiar to me now that I have had more time to think about it.

If I remember right the lady, I think it was a lady in the report, claimed her car could not be stopped because of acceleration stuck and she had to throw it in reverse(?) to get it to but I don't remember if it saying she had an accident as a result.

It went on to say Lexus looked into it but could find nothing to back it up on the computer Dreyfus is talking about.

 

blaise,

I found the NHTSA.dot Federal complaint filed back in May of this year and it doesn't sound like your friend as this person did not have an accident it seems but Lexus or dealer could not find it in computer for this one either.
I hope the dealer from this incident below filed a report with Lexus back in May so they are at least aware of it as a claimed event.
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...in/results.cfm
Make : LEXUS Model : ES350 Year : 2007
Manufacturer : TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION *
Crash : No Fire : No Number of Injuries: 0
ODI ID Number : 10156602 Number of Deaths: 0
Date of Failure: May 2, 2006
VIN : Not Available *
Component: VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Complaints Summary Make: LEXUS
Model: ES350

Year: 2007
Complaint Number: 10156602
Summary: *
DT*: THE CONTACT STATED WHILE TRAVELING 30 MPH, THE VEHICLE BEGAN TO ACCELERATE UNCONTROLLABLY. THE VEHICLE WOULD NOT SLOW WITH BOTH FEET DEPRESSED ON THE BRAKE PEDAL AND IN NEUTRAL. THE VEHICLE STOPPED ONCE IN PARK. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO THE DEALERSHIP, BUT THEY ARE UNABLE TO DETERMINE THE PROBLEM. THE MANUFACTURER HAS SENT TECHNICIANS TO LOOK INTO THE PROBLEM. THE VEHICLE IS A 2007 LEXUS ES350. *AK

 

As was stated previously, unless there is a major brake system failure, the drivetrain CANNOT "overpower" wheels that are stopped by applying necessary pressure on the brake pedal. I suppose if you lose the assist boost from the vacuum system on power brakes you could say you'd need a whole lot more pressure on the pedal which would be difficult for people with compromised leg muscles, but that is a stretch.

Remember the Audi scare hyped by "60 minutes" in the 80's which damn near put them out of the US market? CBS got an engineer to overide the cruise control system and make it floor the accelerator pedal by itself. I will never forget watching that show....can see it in my mind as I type this.

Turned out the Audi "unintended acceleration" scare was totally bogus. It was misapplication of pedals. Case closed.

On the other hand, ANYTHING is possible.....

 

That makes no sense. It says the car accelerates uncontrollably, yet in N, they can't stop the car either?? So it's a malfunction of BOTH the accelerator and brake pedal???

Also, the vehicle stopped once in P.... so.. he busted his transmission by shifting directly to park while in motion?

 

This whole thing sounds VERY fishy to me and TOTALLY bogus.

Either the driver of the car in question is a retarded 16 year old who doesn't have the vaguest idea how to drive and likely misapplied the accelerator thinking it was the brake or is under the employ of a competing car company.

Remember how 60 minutes slandered the Audi 5000 when it turned out there was nothing whatsoever wrong with that car? I owned one back then and it damn near killed the car's resale value.

Whoever made this patently ABSURD allegation should be thoroughly investigated.

Something sounds very fishy about this.

 

Bob....Nextour....

Read Mr. Healey's review, the part about the brakes, he was concerned enough to bring it up to Lexus and got a luxury car answer.

I have seen and felt the RPM spike against the brakes and have mentioned it several times to Lexus/dealer, I'm sort of used to it more or less now but it is odd that it happens and i would not want it to all of a sudden be a more intense an event than when it happens.

I agree that the scenarios sound over the top, but it seems that's two, one who managed to stop the car and one who had an accident.

Nextour...it says towed in the Fed report but it does not say hosed up transmission, maybe the person refused to drive the vehicle and demanded it be picked up and repaired for the phenomina and that is the reason it was towed.

If it happens to us at least we know we can throw it into park to stop it. If it is a rare phenomina or a story, we won't have to worry about it.

 

I don't know if this makes any differences or not; The gas pedal on the Lexus ES350 is not a physical direct link to the throttle. I read somewhere that when you press on the pedal, there's an electronic sensor that sends a message to the throttle so it knows how much gas to send to the injectors.

Can this sensor be acting weird.

oakplank