klegrow

Hi all, I'm hoping someone out there will be able to help me with this. The other day my wife and I were waiting to exit a parking garage that had a steep incline. Like the manual said, I pushed down hard on the brake to engage the hill assist. Not only did the car roll backwards a lot and almost hit the car behind me, but the car shuddered and could barely pull itself up the ramp. Any suggestions???

Stormforge

i assume you had the transmission in drive correct? when i come to a stop on an inclining hill (ie: traffic stops), brake pedal is fully depressed to prevent roll back. when traffic starts, you lift your foot off the brake and step on the gas to go. at this point the hill assist should automatically work to prevent roll back.

now i'm not certain if there is a difference if you exit a parking garage that has a steep incline. i think hill assist should still work. the fact that your RX shuddered and could barely pull up the ramp suggests there maybe something wrong. at this point i would recommend you take your RX back to the dealer to find out if there's anything wrong.

Cruiter

It sounds like you either were not doing something right or the switch in the console is set to off. I use ours almost daily with all the hills here, just depending on the luck at traffic lights etc.

Make sure the switch in the console with the vehicle emblem and squiggly lines is not set to off. Find a hill where you can practice it. Come to a complete stop and press harder than normal after coming to a complete stop on the brake. You'll see the light in the dash come on. After taking your foot off the brake, it may 'seem' to roll back sort of as if you had put it in park but it really won't go more than an inch or so. It should hold there. Keep your foot off the brake if it takes hold. As soon as you touch the throttle again, it goes forward nice and smooth.

If that doesn't work (it should), I'd plan a visit to your dealer and have him take a look at it. Could be something that was overlooked in the pre-delivery.

Hal56

On the shuddering--a friend has the 5 series BMW--he had a lot of bucking and shuddering--after some work the dealer identified the problem as gasoline with more than 10% ethanol

your problem probably is different but the question is what gasoline are you using.

These problems are like a skin problem and going to a dermatologist. Sometimes a process of elimination.

RXSF

the shudder was probably the transmission trying to keep up, because at the point of almost hitting the person behind you, you or your wife must have bee slamming into the pedal to not roll backwards. Common for the transmission to not react as fast as your foot.

As for the hill start assist, as others have said, be sure to be at a complete stop, then push the brake pedal again, then search the dash for indicator light, and also a beep to notify you that it is on.

I dont think there is an OFF button for this system, so if it doesnt work, then bring it to the dealer

klegrow

Thanks for the info, I'll test it out again. However, I was doing what has been suggested. Looks like I'll be taking it to the dealer.

rxets

If you just talked about the hill assist (350 - I don't know 450h) and how to engage it when moving from P to N/D (I don't recall Hybrid's gear), you can move the gear from P to N to let your RX roll back a little bit, then take a brake and move the gear to D and step further on the brake, now your hill assist will be easy to be engaged as it works during your normal driving that everyone is talking about above.


I have the same issues everyday when existing from the company parking lot or some of valet parking garages.

wraithmojo

klegrow.. if you notice this happening again be sure to look closely at the dash.
A transmission slippage error light will (should) light up indicating an error. This may also be recorded into the vehicle history computer and the dealer should be able to see it when you bring the car in to have them look at it. Given the amount of backwards movement you indicated and proper hill assist settings it sounds like a transmission issue. Good luck!

tempestv8

I wasn't aware of the hill start assist feature. So what I did was to engage the foot operated park brake, then take my right foot off the brake pedal and depress the accelerator pedal to the point where I could feel the transmission strain against the brakes. At that point, I disengage the foot brake and the vehicle moves off. That's my own hill start "assist". Next time I'll try the one that the vehicle comes with. I must admit, I didn't know about this feature and wanted to start a new thread on the subject, but found this discussion via the search function.


EDIT: I found a steep driveway and was able to test the hill hold feature. Works very well! Very pleased I don't have to do the foot shuffle involving the foot operated park brake anymore. Yay!