The "first year" excuse should only apply to low level brands who don't care about how features work in the long term. Hyundai for instance

However, I don't find that excuse acceptable for a luxury company under the Toyota umbrella.

And honestly, I agree that I got a problem car. It has been borderline pain in my *** since the day I got it. Such a shame. And the service manager isn't good to deal with, he will simply let it sit because his hospitality is poor at best.

3 days now, no flickering to my knowledge. I'm beginning to wonder if it's battery related....

Either way, won't lie, going to take a look at a few 2016 Sierras

 

Unfortunately, first year issues can effect vehicles in any class/segment. Hyundai, Toyota, Lexus, MB, Audi etc. none are exempt.

I hope you get some resolution to the headlight issue.

 

False - that is EVERY brand on brand new builds especially. They find issues and fix them along the build process. People hate hearing it if they bought an initial build. Lexus has very few issues though as they do test runs for training purposes and those vehicles get crash tested or scrapped. I remember reading an article on a bunch of Dodge Vipers getting crushed. -Dodge couldn't sell them
w/no Vin numbers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-production_car

 

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/06/06/g...evy-buick-gmc/ GM has to get sued to do a recall that's one thing about Toyota they do them voluntarily for the most part. They replaced the frame in my truck- think GM would. -thought so

 

I don't think Toyota was so proactive before the whole runaway acceleration/floor mat issue and legal issues some years back. Also the keyring and cover-up lawsuits against GM have made all the manufactures more proactive.

 

The key ring lawsuits are a joke. I refuse to fulfill that on my car and GM shouldn't be held responsible for someone putting 200 things on their keys and accidentally hitting it and knocking it out.

 

Have you taken your Camaro in for the "defective ignition" recall?

For those non-Camaro owners, this is when driver’s sit close to the steering column and the driver’s knee can hit the key fob, causing the key to move out of the “run” position. This can cause the vehicle to stall.

 

NX, in Swacer's quote he specifically says "I refuse to fulfill that on my car..."

 

There are two different issues, recalls, and lawsuits. One is with an overloaded keyring where the weight of the ring will shut off the engine.

The other is specific to the Camaro and its fob, where a driver's knee can bump it and it shuts off the vehicle.

I don't think the former applies to his car, but I just wanted to ask.

 

In order for me to hit my key (notice, key as in singular, not 200 like those in the lawsuit) I would have to contort myself then turn and face the back seat all while raising my right knee like 6" out of the way. Literally....no possible way. And keep in mind, I am 5'11", 215lbs. Far from a small person. So how hard were these people trying to hit that key?

Thus, I refuse to fulfill this "key fix".

Smh

 

Overall, a surprisingly small percentage of recalled vehicles get the work done.

 

I think that is because in many cases, the recall is for something very small in which the owner does not wish to be bothered with it. Furthermore, dealerships do not hire the best of mechanics, so sometimes you take your car in to fulfill a recall, and they break something else. However, after looking at some of the installation instructions, it appears that Lexus is pretty straight forward with "if you break the part, just put a new one in". I have NEVER seen that in a GM install procedure, so props to Toyota.

 

And so we don't side track too far down the GM recall tangent, I am starting to really consider my theory about battery drain as a possible reason for my headlight flicker.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it in my initial post, but the NX sat outside for a week in our driveway without moving while my wife and I were out of state on vacation. Prior to leaving, the headlights had never shown any issue. After arriving home, I did not see anything weird (as we drove over to my wife's parent's house for an evening), it wasn't until the workday morning that it caught my eye several days later. The flickers were very obvious that day (that was the day I posted on this thread). The next day, it was just a couple flickers. The day after, 1 flicker. The day after that, 1 flickers. Today, nothing.

The LEDs in our cars are high current, high brightness LEDs. As such, if the battery was to be drained over the course of a week (in which it snowed), is it possible that the battery drained down far enough to not be able to provide enough current to all of the lights? V=IR says so as R will remain constant.

Its widely known that Lexus cars are terrible for battery drain issues, and I suspect that the NX is no exception. I even mentioned my theory to my salesman (who is ever so helpful), and he said not a week goes by that someone doesn't bring their car in or call unhappy because their battery drained down either over night, over a week, or over the time they "finally got back to their vacation home". Either way, these cars just eat batteries. Which is funny, because my Camaro can be parked in October and not be started again until April and she will turn right over. GM has the ECUs designed in their cars that as battery level begins to drop, the car starts shutting off essential systems in order to preserve battery. (I use a battery tender either way, but just to state a point) Why doesn't Toyota do this?

Either way, I'm debating on changing batteries in the car and seeing what happens. I won't be on any vacation which requires the car to be parked for another week, so it will be hard to compare.

If this solves the problem it might just salvage this car for me.

 

I'm no electrical/mechanical engineer, but I'm thinking that if the battery doesn't have enough power to turn on energy-efficient LED lights, then it shouldn't have had enough power to start the vehicle.

 

Nothing on your car is measured in "power". Do you perhaps mean joules? Nothing is measured in joules. It's measured in voltage, which is volts, and current which is measured in amps.

Voltage = current * resistance

So here is your classic example of why your LED lights won't work, but your starter can. Assume that your battery is a 12V car battery. Let's look at a parallel circuit with just the starter and led headlights.

Your starter is a high resistance component. V=IR says that means the starter only needs very little current to operate.

Your led headlights on the other side are very low resistance, which means they require a very high current, as I had originally said.

As your battery dies, the voltage decreases. Thus V=IR changes. You go for your starter, now your battery has 6V, well if the low current is enough to operate the starter (as R is constant) the starter will turn. However, with a lower current (as R is constant for the LEDs as well) you may not be able to support the current required to operate the lights.

Thus, as the batteries die, their ability to operate the "super efficient" LEDs is impacted by inconsistent current and potential loss of lights. They are efficient for long term on the alternator (alternator use is what impacts gas mileage), but their dependence on the initial battery is high.