jcarlo

Hey. I've had my 2013 ES300h since December 2012, and I'm loving this car. I've been experiencing this problem where I would leave my car and come back and it'll be on running. I know I turned it off when I left, but it’ll just spontaneously turn on. I try to turn it off, and it does, and it'll turn on again by itself while I'm sitting in the car. It's crazy cuz I'll leave it for hours to find it was running. I don't know how long it would be running for. Sometimes, I'll find that the trunk is opened too, and I know better enough not to leave my trunk open so I think the car opened it by itself.
Has anyone else had this problem or has any suggestions on what to do?
I plan on seeing my dealer but I don't have time with work until 2 weeks from now.
I'm hoping I can fix this myself.
Thanks!

lesz

Is your ES equipped with a remote starter? Also, when the car is turning on by itself or opening the trunk by itself, do those things always happen when the car is in the same location, or do they happen when the car is in various locations? One thought that crosses my mind is the possibility that some other electronic device could be operating at the same frequencies as the car's fob and that that device could be turning the car on (if you have a remote starter) and opening the trunk.

Otherwise, it would seem like something has gone haywire the car's electronics. One thing that I might try would be to disconnect the battery for 10-15 minutes. After reconnecting the battery, you will have to re-set lots of things in the car, but that re-boot might well correct whatever might be going wrong that is causing the car to start by itself and open the trunk by itself.

Mike728

This could be very dangerous, depending where you park. I don't know if it's possible to turn the car off while in neutral, but if you can, I would do that while looking into the issue.

Arty101

You have a major problem! Is this recent, or going on for the last 3years?

yardie876

Very odd... Elaborate what you mean by on. Are the electronics (nav, speedo, etc) on on the inside? Or is it the sound of something running that has you suspect the car is on?

jcarlo

I had Lexus install a remote starter when I first purchased the car, now I am thinking that could have an effect on it.
It does it at various locations, like while parked on the street or in my driveway. I think luckily, the car stays locked while it's running (except when the trunk is open, of course). I've only noticed it do it once in a while since the past 3 weeks or so. By on, I say, the engine is on and electronics are on, the AC would be running. It's a very odd thing. I just noticed it do it today again in my driveway

SonicMotor

iTrader: (19)

I would definitely take this back to Lexus to find the issue. Your car seems new enough it would still be under the factory warranty, correct?

lesz

From the limited information that we have, I'd guess that the source of the problem is the remote starter, and I'd feel more confident in that guess if your remote starter was installed by the dealer and not on the car when it was delivered to the dealership.

Is the remote starter actually the Lexus remote starter or is it a third party starter? If it is a Lexus starter, is it the basic starter that works only with the key fob or is it the RES+ that can work with the key fob or a smart phone app?

Also, when it does start by itself, how far are you typically from the car? If, every time it starts by itself, you are within, say, 75 feet of the car, I'd think about the possibility that your key fob could be malfunctioning and sending the start command or trunk open command to the vehicle without (conscious) input on your part.

In any case, if the car was mine, I'd make every effort to get it to the dealer as soon as I could. And, if I couldn't get to the dealer immediately, I think I'd park it in the garage with the battery disconnected and find something else to drive until I could get it to the dealer. I certainly would not want, every time the car is out of sight, to have to deal with wondering if the car has started or the trunk has opened.

SW17LS

Are you 100% sure that nothing is jamming the buttons on your key fob? The key isn't in your pocket while you're in your house doing stuff?

Arty101

If both your engine is running and the trunk sometimes open, than it sounds more like your fob than the remote starter. Make sure there's nothing hitting or stuck to your fob.

jda2000

Please keep us updated when the issue is resolved.

SLH

I have a 300h also. On a few occasions, I have poked the button to turn it off, and then discovered that it was not actually off. Either I didn't fully poke the button, or I double-tapped the button (turning it off, and then immediately on again).

When the motor not running, it would be easy to walk away believing that that the car is "off", when the car actually still "on".

I recall reading a note in the Camry Hybrid forum in 2013 -- someone returned from a 5-day business trip, and discovered his car in the airport parking garage was cool. The air conditioner had been running the whole time, after he forgot to turn the car "off" before leaving on his trip. The motor only ran occasionally when the battery got low, so the one tank of gas was enough to last the whole time.

SW17LS

Except for the fact that when you do that it beeps three times loudly outside the vehicle when you exit and shut the door, and its impossible to lock the doors.

lesz

Because the fob controls both the (Lexus) remote starter and the opening of the trunk, my guess would be that the source of the problem is either unintentional presses of buttons on the fob or stuck buttons on the fob, but what makes me hesitate a bit is that using the remote starter requires a sequence of 3 button presses, and the third press needs to be held for 3 seconds. While it is easy to imagine accidentally pressing the buttons in the required sequence once, it is harder to imagine that that would be happening repeatedly. Even though it may be a long shot, that is why I suggested earlier that it might be worth a shot to force a re-boot of the car's computers by disconnecting the battery for 15 minutes and, then, re-connecting it.

SLH

The manual on the remote start says that, after being remote-started it will run for at most 10 minutes, and it will only remote-start 2 times between regular starts. Here's the manual: http://drivers.lexus.com/t3Portal/do...ADG-0108-D.pdf The statement is on page 5.

I know mine _does_ turn off 10 minutes after being remote-started. That is a little irritating, actually. (I use the remote-start the car when the check arrives at the brunch restaurant on Sunday, then pay the bill and get ready to leave. 10 minutes isn't really enough time to cool the car in the mid-day sun in summer in South Florida. And, if gathering the people up to leave takes 12-15 minutes, the car is hot again.)