I purchased my vehicle from carmax about 2.5 months ago with an extended warranty. After driving my vehicle daily back and forth to work, I noticed the hesitation while coming to complete stop or a traffic light. The RPM would increase while the transmission would hesitate when I pushed the accelerator between the speeds of 10 - 35 MPH. At first sign, it appeared the transmission was defected, so I decided to take it to carmax service center. Two days later I received my 2003 lexus es300 with a clean slate (the service technicians indicated the transmission did not indicated wear) and I was told to bring it back if I still had the same problem. I am taking my vehicle to the service center with more information tomorrow. Lexus/toyota needs to either recall these vehicles to fix this issue or they will have a major lawsuits from a lot of people with a class action suite. This is a very dangerous situation and needs to be address from lexus/toyota representatives to keep toyota/lexus in good standings. After reading other complaints, I am really nervous about driving my vehicle and I just purchased it.
Lexus ES300 hesitation problems
49 of the 680 owner complaints about the Lexus ES300 describe hesitation when accelerating, most of them for the 2003 model year.
- owner complaints
- 49
- worst model year
- 2003
- typical mileage
- 10,000
By model year
Often reported together
What owners say
After the vehicle has been running from a light or stop there is hesitation when trying to accelerate. I have taken the vehicle to the lexus dealer in owings mills,md.several times.the first instance they said could not get the vehicle to repeat it. I went back complaining for the second time a was told that it could be fuel injectors clogged followed by another list of potential service items for about $1000+ expense which we deniedit since we have always maintained our car good & alwaysuse 93or 89 octane gas with maintenance service as recommended. This is my wife's car and I am always worried about a potential accident with this car.lately this hesitation frequency has increased from what we hear is that we are not alone and seems to be an ongoing problems.
My 2002 lexus es300 has been jerking and shifting very hard on acceleration. It seems to have more of a problem when I accelerate slowly in the lower gears. It jerks very noticeably. I was told it was just the nature of the car, but it has been getting much worse over the course of the last year. It also hesitates when stepping on the gas after deceleration.
We have experienced on several occassions that vehicle hesitates when trying to accelerate at stop sign or when initialy in start to drive at about 20-30 miles per hour at times for few seconds & at times it rattles 3-4 times. This car was purchased as certified pre-owned from lexus dealer in excellent condition in 2006 that came with extended warranty upto 75000 miles but this problem started with slight & smooth jerk about 3 years back, took it to dealer after noticed for few times to diagnosis. At first instance they could not feel it since it was not consistent but when again complained for second time was told that it could be fuel injectors cloged followed by other list of potential service items we were talking about $1000+ expense which we denied it since we have always maintained our car good & always use 93 or 89 octaine gas with maintenance service as recommended. This one is my wife's vehicle & used to commute to work mostly on express way. We do have couple other issues with this car but not as important. Now, lately this hesitation frequency have increased & from what I hear is that we are not alone and this seems to be an ongoing issue with some other es300 owners as well.
The day before the accident happened all the tail light were off and I found the fuse for tail light was blew. So I replaced the fuse. Next day,when I turned on headlight while driving on highway 680, the "r" indicator on the dashboard became on as well -- now both "d" and "r" were on. It puzzled me for awhile so I decided to turn off the headlight. As soon as the headlight was turned off , the car "hesitated" on freeway. I took the car to dealer for service who claimed they have never seen this before. After 3 days of services, they said some wires were crossed and charged $581 for replacing those faulty wires and one controller. The car is only 13 year old and about 100 k miles. I would definitely classify this accident as a defect by manufacture. I want to file this compliant to see any other es300 owners have experienced such problem.
2003 es 300 - transmission issues: I have been experiencing hesitation upon acceleration almost every time, along with hard shifting 50% of the time. The acceleration hesitation can be scary if I'm trying to enter the highway, or turning left. The hard shifting feels like I got hit from behind. Both problems have been going ongoing for years and lexus dealer has never been any help. I read many of the online forums and found that both of these problems are very common as are their results for getting these issues fixed - not much luck from the dealer - "it works as it is designed". Really? Lexus needs to stand behind their product. I can't believe how many complaints I have read (100s) and their hasn't been a recall. How does a consumer go about pushing for a recall, or class action or will the lemon law work?
2004 lexus es330-car hesitates when attempting to accelerate. Very unsafe when trying to merge into highway traffic. Almost had serious accident because of this problem. Computer chip for transmission has been replaced that was supposed to fix problem. Used premium gas as suggested by mechanic- nothing helped.
Tl*the contact owns a 2002 lexus es300. While driving 25 MPH, the vehicle hesitated and the contact smelled fuel. He pulled the vehicle over and noticed smoked under the hood. In a matter of seconds, flames appeared. The vehicle was destroyed. The palm beach county police department filed report number 09-092367 and fire report number 09-50737. There were no injuries. The manufacturer will be notified. The current and failure mileages were 44,000.
Car accelerates when not appropriate and shifts very poorly especially when the air conditioning is on. Seems to be stuck in gear when trying to accelerate to pass another vehicle. Hesitation. Bucks and shifts really hard intermittently.
The lexus es300 has had a serious hesitation problem since delivery in march 2003. I have had it in for service several times before the accident complaining about this problem. On may 8th,2006, my wife was trying to make a left turn at an intersection and upon accelerating through the turn the car hesitated/lagged and was struck by an oncoming auto. After contacting lexus direct, they came out to test drive the auto. I was contacted several days later and was told that my lexus has no problem. Since this problem still exists, I took the car back in for service on may 26th, 2006 and again was told that my car had already received a transmission computer update and their final words were "vehicle is operating as designed at this time". This car still has the problem.
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the Lexus ES300 hesitation
Which Lexus ES300 years have hesitation when accelerating problems?
The model years with the most reports are 2003 (23 complaints), 2002 (21 complaints) and 1993 (1 complaints).
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