My wife and I looked at a 2010 RX350 with 95K. It looked clean and the carfax reported that it had been well serviced and maintained. It was in an accident in 2012 but Lexus Certified it after that. I looked under the hood and there was quite a bit of gunk on the engine. The dealer showed me the repair bill which included a radiator replacement. They detailed it before I could take it to a mechanic and being knew to the area I don't know any mechanics so I took it to one with good reviews online. The mechanic did a full diagnostics on it and determined the struts needed to be replaced. The dealership replaced the struts as part of the deal and gave me a 5 day return policy. He said it's a great car and has no problems.

We drive it off the lot and take a drive for about 100 miles. The next day the check engine light comes on. Took it back to the mechanic and he said the O2 sensors needed to be replaced. I asked him how he missed it before and he said it's possible they wiped all codes from the machine. I took it back to the dealer who said they would replace them. I also noticed the car started driving funny which could be a symptoms of the O2 sensors.

I also noticed the Stability Control Light became stuck ON and continuously illuminated. The ECW button stopped working as well, as it would toggle the dash light from "ECW Off" to disappearing

There is no smoke coming from the exhaust so I don't think there is a cracked engine block or gaskets and the mechanic gave it a clean bill of health. However, I am very concerned as these problems started popping up. I don't mind putting in a few repairs because it wasn't a bad deal and the car is pretty clean, I'm just concerned about buying into a money pit. Likewise, I am VERY concerned about the radiator replacement which means the car may have overheated and potentially caused other unseen problems. I am also concerned about the potential for electronic problems.

Is anyone familiar with these issues and are these common with RX350's at around 95K, or would you say (like I am feeling) to just walk away from it all together?

Thank you for your thoughts!

 

Walk away. Something funny going on there and there's lots of RX's out there for sale. I bought with 130k miles and now have 150k without spending a dime on repairs. Is it a Lexus dealer or a smaller independent? I'd be less worried if a Lexus dealer with a reputation to uphold.

 

Return the car and keep shopping for another. As stated above, there are lots of used RX350s out there. A 2011 would be better than a 2010 just because the phone charger is not buried inside the center console!
This car overheated and has a lot of damage that they put bandaids on and wiped the codes. Get rid of it.
Also you can go to the Lexus drivers link below, sign up and enter the VIN of any car you are thinking of buying, it will show you the dealer service history. It is a great source of information. Toyota has a similar web site that uses the same password so once you have a Lexus account, you also have a Toyota account. Useful if you are also cross shopping Highlanders.
https://drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrivers/

 

I have no opinion one way or the other but, for the record, the stability control light being on and the ecw switch not working are both because there is an active code in the system. Once the O2 sensor is replaced and the code is cleared the stability control light will go out and the ecw switch will work again. Typical for all Toyota's.