MRIKSL

I just purchased a 2003 and have now 4 times experieced a frightening wheel lock up situation at speeds between 35 and 45 per hour. Without warning, while cruising at this speed, the wheels will suddenly lock up for no apparent reason, on dry pavement for about 1 second accompanied by a loud tone from the dash and a quick flash of one of the idiot lights. (it happens so fast I can't even tell you which light comes on).
The sudden motion and enexpected nature of this has now, several times, almost caused an accident. I usually need to pull over immediately to recover from what is almost cardiac arrest when this occurs.

It's going to the dealer but has anyone heard of this before? I suspect that it's the VSC system but when this occurs, the car is simply cruising on dry pavement on straight roads - no aggressive driving.

If you can help-it would be appreciated!! Thanks.

MRIKSL

The G Man

Sounds like one of the sensor is gone. If only one of wheel lock up, it may be a VSC sensor. If all the wheels lock up, I would think it may be related to the emergency brake assist. I would bring it back to the dealer and demand that they look up the maintenance history of that vehicle. This may have been a on going problem from the previous owner.

Good Luck

Pearlpower

iTrader: (2)

Issue with preowned is the unknown history. Could be many things but certainly does not sound familiar here. I double the recommendation to take it in for everyone's safety sake.

heytonyman

I had an LX come in about 5 months ago with the same issue. Had to drive the vehicle for quite a while and datalog the actual occurance. Found that a wheel speed sensor was intermittantly malfunctioning causing the VSC and ABS ecu's to react by applying the emergency brake assist feature. Your Lexus dealer with a top technician should be able to diagnose this properly. Make sure you express your concern with the shop foreman or a manager that it is a safety issue and your case will get some attention from the higher-up's. Be patient with your dealer on diagnosing it as it can take multiple test drives to duplicate. We have to make it happen in order to solve these pesky intermittant gremlins. There are no TSB's for this on any of our models. Best of Luck!

Tony