DNC

Tonight while driving our 2007 RX350 as I made a right turn the driver's door came open. Thankfully I was not leaning on the door. The door was closed properly with no alarm sounding, no ajar light on, and no wind noise.
Has anyone else had this happen?

salimshah

Karma?

Seriously, Where was the seat belt?

The only time I had problem was with the belt in the lock mechanism.

The door ajar chime in Lexus is a bit too polite. It soft dings when you reach 3mph (or some speed) which might be ignored if the driver is distracted.

Although intermittent problems can pop up, but most likely you can reproduce the failure.



Salim

DNC

I was wearing the seat belt. As I left my house the door was completely closed. I can say without a doubt I have never had my car door come open, not even my classic special interest cars. I tried duplicating what happened on my way home. Nothing happened.

xfirechief

Sounds impossible but if u said it happened I'd sure find out why?
Did u somehow pull open the door handle & not realize it?
Now, if it really happened, u should go to the dealer today, not tomorrow & have that door checked out.

DNC

Yes, it "really" did happen and no, I did not pull on the door handle. If there had been an obvious explinationn I would not have taken the time to post the question. I don't need help figuring out why it happend; that would be impossible to diagnose over the Internet. I posted the question to see if this has happened to anyone else and bring it to the attention of others.
Now go change your oil, it's dirty.

Grumpa72

Do you have your computer set so that the locks engage when the car is put in gear?

Regardless, I would have that vehicle into Lexus asap. Let them tear it apart, look for some hidden failure and correct any problems. I doubt that Lexus wants the liability of a defective door and I doubt that I would want to drive a car that I didn't trust.

salimshah

Been on this board for a while and yours is the first unexplained door staying-or-popping-open event posted.

By the way, the door has 2 stage latching and then lock is on top. It seems you encountered double failure. Not impossible, but improbable. Since I had the belt in the mechanism, we can chalk that one solved. Yours is unexplained.

Although the failure is pretty serious, you can tug on the door every time you close to confirm.

Salim

xfirechief

Sure, I'd wait & see if it happened to someone else before I take it in. Must have happened to 100's of others but no one ever posted about it before.

It least I'm smart enough to change my oil & also to make sure my door is closed too.

DNC

Now that was cold

DNC

Yes, the fact it has a 2 stage latching system with thirty years of proven dependability is what surprises me so much. I called the dealership today and no one has heard of this happening to a car that has not been damaged in some kind of way. Tonight the seat belt alarm came on when I was driving down the road, my seat belt was connected and I was the only one in the car, with nothing setting in the other seat. I wonder if this might be part of the same problem?

salimshah

^^ Nah. It might explain why the door ajar alarm did not sound, but does not explain the mechanical malfunction of the latch mechanism.

Salim

Junkxus

"Relentless Pursuit of Ejection"...... I am glad you are OK. My 1st 08 RX had a problem with the rear door handle falling off. But the door came open first when turning. When washing the car the handle came off in my hand. I also had an issue with the driver seat belt that triggered the air bag fault and belt warning light. It ended up being a bad seat belt latch assy.

mandyfig

Salim's right, this is mechanical and unless a lever was touched, no way it would dis-engage....you were smoking something? LOL! JK. But I imagine the hairy experience..

DNC

Man, you guys are just cold! I swear I in no way touched the door. Both my hands were on the steering wheel.
When I told the Lexus mechanic I thought it was impossible for the latch to fail he replied with never say impossible. He said he had seen the impossible happen several times when dealing with cars. Still this was a first for me. I have never had this happen with any car I own and I have a couple that are fifty years old.
It is likely we will never figure this out. I just wanted to know if this had happened to anyone else and make others aware. Thanks to all who responded, well not all

xfirechief

Sorry u didn't like all the responses but thats how it goes. Sounds like the Lexus guy was just trying to be nice to u as he doesn't want to be called cold too.