My sis bought a new RX330 AWD shortly after it came out 5 months or so ago and she complains that several times during panic stop or hard braking, the RX nose-dived severely. At the time, I told her it was due to her poor driving or braking skill. When I went to the Lexus SUV driving event a few months ago sampling the RX, GX, LX and other makes, I noticed the 3 RX330s I drove all exhibited this "nose-dive" when braking hard. I told one of the Lexus staff there and he said they had noticed that too as well as from some of the participants. I have never heard of or experienced this "nose-diving" problem with the old RX300. Is this a common problem with the new RX330? If so, is Lexus trying to resolve this issue?

 

Can't get mine to nose dive.

 

Mines rarely nosedives. You might need to check out your brake distribution on the SUV. The back brakes should be working more than the front. I have not had this problem at all. The old RX300 did this several times......

 

The two RX330 (AWD and FWD) I test drove all exhibited the nose-dive symtoms during panic braking but the FDW seemed to be a little more pronounced. My neighbor's AWD RX330 has the same problem and he's trying to get the dealer to fix it but so far not much luck.

 

I've got an RX330 with the performance package. So far, no nose dives. Had to make a sudden stop awhile back and I was impressed how fast it stopped.

 

Guys, this is what you should expect in an SUV due to its high center of gravity, etc. My 2001 Infiniti QX4 does this, our Jeep Grand Cherokee did this, and our past acura MDX in the family did this in hard breaking situation. It does not matter, since you don't need to break hard all the time.

 

I've had only a couple of sudden stops so far and I too thought something was up with the way the braking worked (nose diving) but after thinking about it all I can say is my 330 stops really really fast. So fast that it sort of startled me. I traded in a Tahoe so the difference is remarkable.

 

Same here, compared to my other cars the RX330 definately nose dives. Given its high CG I expect that. It does, however, stop fairly well. I haven't had any close calls thus far.

 

CK, do you have any mods in store for the RX?
you have PM...

 

I am not sure what that last post meant???

As far as nose diving goes, there definitely is a "dip" when stopping hard.. Not sure I would call it a "nose dive." It occured in the 330 we test drove as well as the one we purchased. It is one of the items I personally would like to see Lexus work on if possible to improve the "performance" aspect of the vehicle.

We test drove the BMW X5... No diving or dipping occurred even in a very hard stop or sharp turn. Very nice drive, better than I would have imagined in an SUV. If only that same "drive" feeling was available in the 330, I would be SUV Nirvana! (Sorry, LUV Nirvana :-) )

 

That last post by legendary was directed to me.

Anyway, the only thing I might do is add a subwoofer and 18 or 19" rims later sometime. The other mod would be to color match all the unpainted plastic lower body trim and color match the black hatch spoiler. Maybe I'll lower it a bit, but this is my wifes car so I probably would do too much.

 

Noise diving on vehicles is caused by the proportional valve is bad ( this causes in this case to much fluid to the front brakes and not enough to the rear) Or the front struts and not beefy enough ( Lexus will never admite to any of this)............Watch your brake pad wear .........If fronts go to fast and rears look like new than it 's proportional valve ( front does most of braking but not all)............I would believe that it is poorly designed struts.

 

YOu made my point. Finally there is someone who understanded what i mentioned earlier about brake distribution. DID u guys know that Infinitis have these and they are the best on the market. My brake pads on my Infiniti QX4 never wore out till 60 thousand miles, twice as long as the normal time for break wearing.

 

Funny you mentioned Ininiti. I have recently noticed that a good number of the G35s I've seen on the road have discolored front rims. Brake dust no doubt. That's kind of soon for a new model. I'll bet those owners will have to replace the pads quite soon.

 

From my understanding, Infinity choose to put a very soft brake pad compound on the G35 to achieve that awsome baking performance in tests. I've heard that they do wear out faster than your standard brake pads.