rrichard7

I just thought I would share issues I have had with the RX. Purchased as a CPO in August of 2014 with 35K miles. It now has 97K. The car has been serviced every 5K miles at a Toyota dealer. Over the nine years: audio amplifier failed, left front brake caliper, alternator, oil pan gasket and oil lines. The amplifier was replaced under warranty. Oil lines are a known problem, fixed for free if within 10year/150,000 miles. Alternator was an expensive fix, a lot of labor (it’s on the bottom). The car was eating batteries. I guess was expecting more of a Toyota bulletproof experience. I thought I would share my experience.

salimshah

Thank you for sharing. All data points are important to build a more realistic picture.

I will share mine ..
The above mentioned oil line issue is definitely a known issue and imho Lexus/Toyota used a sub-par part.
Brake caliper is a maintenance/environment/service item.
Battery/alternator/(amplifier?) maybe all inter-related stuff. Your experience may be an extreme issue. Battery typically last 5-7 years initially and 3-5 yrs after that. The alternator is pretty robust, but if you have a shorted cell in the battery, the diodes in the alternator blow out. The culprit is the battery in this case.
Gaskets (which are oil soaked) .. Lexus gaskets have a life of 90K before they start seeping. I too wish it was more but this has been my observation owning different Lexus models since '95.

Q? Did any mechanic ever try to dive down into the root cause of the problems you encountered? Ex: I summarily concluded maintenance on the clipper problem [which might be wrong as the caliper could have quality control problem ... but unlikely as it happened after many years of service ]


Salim

Felix

I concur ^^^^^^ Possibly the alternator going out is thanx to a weak battery, as the alternator isn't designed to constantly be charging.. Your caliper issue is possibbly not cleaning & regreasing (w/ the proper grease) the slide pins or the pad/rotor combo,or possibly the weather where your at, corrosion, rust, ect. as well possibly not flushing the old brake fluid w/ new dot 3 fluid. It'd also be grea tto replace the caliper on the other side as well.......All in all compared to other like vehicle manufacters, its not really that bad......

rrichard7

Thank you for your comments. I was not familiar with the battery - alternator relationship. All batteries are Toyota batteries. I think I’ll start replacing them every 3 years.

carguy75

I have to concur with your statement about the Toyota/Lexus engine gaskets. They do seem to start weeping around 100k miles and just seep until repaired. The good news is that most owners will never have to change them out before selling the vehicle due to the seeping lasting well over 200k miles before becoming full on leaks that must be addressed.

I have a seeping front timing cover gasket and seeping lower oil pan gasket on my 2015 Rx350 with about 180k miles that do not leave any oil on the garage floor even when parked for days(or weeks). The oil level does not seem to change much when I do check it. I only know the seepage exist because I perform my own oil changes and see the residue. My transmission only needed a transmission fluid change to perform like new again. The engine and transmission is very well made and robust in our RX35.

Overall, the RX350 is a reliable vehicle that can go 200k(or longer) miles before needing any major repair work. Not many other car companies(if any) can compete with Toyota/Lexus in terms of long reliability.

salimshah

No, please do not make that a time based replacement. I would suggest, that be prepared for that eventuality (life expectancy) and only replace when determined by proper testing. As an example the second battery I installed in my first gen RX lasted 10yrs. I attributed that to the quality of the optima red-top and my use of trickle charger. I replaced it with another optima red-top but that lasted 3 yrs.

Salim

BillUK

You'll possibly be wasting your money as you could potentially get a longer from your battery than that.

My approach is to carry a portable jump starter, just in case, and only replace the battery when it starts to fail.