rajeev6

I have experienced the same too - once I start pressing the brakes, when I expect the car to slow down, it "seems" to accelerate for a split second. But no lurching in my case - I live in Northeast!
However, I have experienced this on at least one of my previous cars can't remember which one though - I had a '01 Carmry and '00 Tahoe and then '09 MDX - all these were non-hybrids and not so "computer controlled"
I always thought that my body was expecting the car to slow down but it wasn't slowing down for that brief moment and I "felt" like it was accelerating.
With regular cars, all I can think now is that during the process of braking, maybe there was a spot where the clutch was disengaged but the brakes were not engaged yet
Not sure what's happening with HS now but as sublexus said, I've now become used to it. I know that it's only a fraction of second and the brakes will not fail and I'm not worried about it (although it'll be good to know if there's something going on and have it fixed)

RXSF

during your test drive with the dealer, try to go on some bumpy roads and brake there. This will only happen during a bump in the road

Magellan55

Sorry to hear about your experience. I have an early 2010 premium and so far haven't felt anything like that while braking. It's possible you have an issue specifically with your car, like air in the brake lines or a faulty sensor. i really hope you can reproduce it for the dealer so they take action. I fear that, without a tech feeling the sensation for him/herself, they won't know where to even start the diagnosis.

Though, if you don't like a computer controlling your brakes, you might want to buy an older car, as almost all cars sold today have ABS brakes. And cars now have other brake controls too - my Odyssey downshifts while braking, and at certain brake pedal pressures you get a jerking as it happens. It freaked my wife out until I explained it to her (she still doesn't like it, but at least understands it's not "broke" or dangerous).

Good luck!

rajeev6

Although our press has tendency to blow things out of proportion, I do wonder what's going on http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/01/us...html?hpt=us_c2

Toyota,
Some honest clarification will be nice - well not just nice, it's desired, errr, required here!

rajeev6

CNN Documents Link

richrf

Thanks rajeev6 for your comments and relating to me your own experiences.

Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately) I cannot get use to the situation. Had a pedestrian been in front of me the pedestrian would have been hit. This is the first car that I have ever driven that I have genuinely felt unsafe in at all times. It is pretty disorienting stepping on brakes and wondering how they will behave.

I spoke again to Lexus customer service this morning. They promised to get back with me with a technician but never did. I was very upset that they wanted me to go yet again to the dealer for a road test after I had already explained many times that it does no good. The only difference that I can discern between the famous Lexus customer service and any other service I have ever received is that Lexus politely does nothing.

After much heated discussion, Lexus finally agreed to have a field technician take a look at the problem. I am dubious. This is an engineering design/computer programming issue. Someone blew it. No driver should have to feel the car is lurching forward when breaking. It is unnerving and unsafe.

Apparently, according to Lexus, they ignore all of the complaints that may appear on government safety sites or sites such as this, rely on their technicians to make the final determination. So it is a question of who to believe - the drivers of the cars or the computer that keeps saying all is well? I am convinced that only a sales hit will get Lexus off its duff. I have a friend who is ready to buy a 250h tonight. I'm going to let her know what is happening. I seriously doubt she will go ahead with the purchase.

I'll update after I speak to the field technician.

richrf

Definitely will mention this to the field technician if/when I talk to him/her. Thanks much for the recommendation!

richrf

Thanks for your comments! Yes, it is something strange going on with the brakes and ABS. It has happened in the past when the car was actually coming to standstill (not quite). This hasn't happened in a year but twice last month it happened on a slightly slippery road. There may have been bumps. It is more than unnerving. It is downright dangerous since the car ceases to halt. Definitely has the feeling of lurching forward.

Thanks again.

richrf

Thanks for the link. My own feeling is that the Lexus engineers who are designing the cars have given too much control to potentially buggy computer programs. Of course, the computer programs themselves will not report any programs because from its point of view, everything is fine. The only one who knows differently is the driver who is freaking out.

richrf

Same problem with the CT 200h being discussed here:

http://www.ct200hforum.com/forum/lex...e-problem.html

rajeev6

That's a great point - the computer will think that everything is fine. I hate this half hearted investigation by car companies which, from the very beginning, is designed to find fault somewhere else.

Good luck and please keep us posted.

richrf

You have hit upon the issue. The lackadaisical effort by both the car dealership ( I would love to mention the name) and the manufacturer (Lexus). This is an obvious problem. They know about it. They prefer to sweep it under the table and pretend nothing is going on until they come up with a new design for future models. What we have here is a problem that should be of great concern to any person - i.e. a car that either is accelerating or seems to be accelerating (definitely not slowing down, while the driver is braking. This is highly unusual if not unique experience. It actually still may be safe (I cannot see how), but then Lexus should explain exactly what is going on. But whatever is going on, at the moment that it is occurring, it is quite unnerving.

I'll keep you informed. Right now I am waiting for Lexus to get back to me about setting up a test with a Field Technician and I am also waiting on a response to an email I sent them with links to this thread and the other one associated with the CT. Not matter what, Lexus' much vaunted reputation as the brand to go to for reliability is now as tarnished in my eyes as is Toyota in general. How quickly new management can destroy decades of work.

acheparev

I do think that it is the same problem. When I first noticed the breaking problem, I thought the car was lunging forward, but after experiencing it a few more times, I realized that the car was decelerating fast and when the ABS breaks let go while going over a bump, the cars feels like it's lunging forward but it just stops decelerating. You can reproduce this yourself, but breaking hard then letting go suddenly, the car will feel like it's lunging forward when in reality it is not accelerating.

The thing that bothers me is that all the previous cars I have driven with ABS breaks have never completely disengaged all breaks. The computer is supposed to disengage the only wheel that is slipping, but it feels like all breaking is lost for that split second that only one tire is airborne. It's pretty disconcerting.

I have not considered taking the car back to the dealer yet for them to look at the breaks because I have very little confidence that they can do anything or even reproduce the problem themselves.

acheparev

I just had a thought, I may be completely off base here... but what if the loss in breaking is because when the computer feels a slip on a wheel (or a wheel is airborne), it disengages the regenerative breaking, which is helping to slow the car down. This loss of the extra breaking is creating the feel like breaking is lost for a split second. ???

richrf

Of course, it is up to you, but if you report the problem and force the dealer to note it so it is reported to Lexus it will make it easier for me to make my case with Lexus. I believe, based upon my own experiences, that this is a hazardous situation.