Ever since I purchased the car in late 2005, my 2006 lexus rx 400h hybrid SUV will lose braking effort when going over a bump. I have press harder on the brake pedal to maintain braking force to stop the car when this happens. This happens every time you go over a certain type of bump when the brakes are being applied. There is no light or warning sound associated with the loss of braking effort. If it possible to safely remove your foot from the brake pedal or a second, and then re-apply the brakes, the brakes are restored to normal operation. Vigilance is required in increasing brake pedal pressure when this happens to avoid a crash. I have to complained to several lexus dealers and to lexus central customer service about this issue. I was told the company never received any complaints about the problem and/or was never able to reproduce the problem in my car.
2006 Lexus RX Hybrid brakes complaints
Page 3 of 3: complaints 41 to 48 of 48, newest first, as owners wrote them.
I own a 2006 lexus rx-400h, and I have experienced braking problems while driving this vehicle for the past 1-2 years that has become progressively worse. The problem generally occurs at speeds between about 25-45 MPH, and involves a sudden decrease in braking deceleration with constant brake pressure, making it necessary to quickly apply more pressure to bring the car to a stop. From my own observations, as well as from technicians at the dealership, this problem appears to be related to the hybrid regenerative braking system, which seems to abruptly stop regenerative braking without compensating with additional friction braking. After finally having this phenomenon confirmed by the dealership after over well over a year of experiencing it, I am being told by the dealership that lexus engineers are calling this "normal" and "expected" behavior of the car. I am filing this complaint because I feel that, while it may be "normal" or "expected" to lexus, it presents a serious a danger to myself and other drivers when the vehicle does not respond to braking in a predictable manner. I have on several occasions been startled by occurrences of this problem when approaching a stop sign or cross walk, and consider myself fortunate that I've been able to react in time to avoid hitting the vehicle in front of me, or a pedestrian. This problem has become severe enough that it can be fairly easily reproduced in the first few minutes of test driving.
The vehicle actually accelerates or lunges forward when I step on brake and am braking over uneven part of the road.
I have 2006 lexus rx 400h and have the same problem with my brake as prius has. When I slow down a car and my car hits a rough patch of surface, or pothole, the brake seems to release and I experience 'brake surging'. Several instance I almost hit a pedestrian because the car surged forward at an intersection. I brought the issue to the lexus dealer but they said they could not replicate the problem during their examination. Help!
I have a 2006rx 400h, with 60k miles, and an extended warranty. I broke down 2 weeks ago on a 2 lane highway, without brakes, loud warning sounds, and failure lights all over the dash. My choices at that time were to stop in the middle of the road, center divider did not exist but instead was a concrete barrier, and right hand shoulder eased off to the river. Since it was not commute time, traffic was light and I was able to slow down and pull off at the old mare island base in vallejo. My car was towed to freeman lexus, santa rosa, where I bought my car and have had all servicing done. I was informed that the computer needed to be replaced and would take a week or so to get. The job was done on wed. Feb 11. I went to the dealership to pick it up and was on my way to sf to teach a class, when less than 30 miles from the dealership, on highway 101, in the middle of commute traffic, failure alarms and lights sounded and brakes did not work. I was shocked and tried to quickly get my car over to the slow/right hand lane and tried to slow down. I finally, 2 miles later, found an exit ramp and brought the car to a stop after a long approach to the ramp. I was stopped between the lane and the shoulder. Called the dealer again to let them know of the failure. They now have the car towed back at freeman lexus. If this computer was replaced, how could this failure happen again. Additionally, I had to reach out to all my students to cancel the class at the last minute. This is a catastrophic failure and both times could have ended in injury, serious collision, to others or myself. While I have always been delighted with this vehicle and lexus products and service, I do not know what I could be told regarding the repair of this car, that would make me feel safe. I feel like with these 2 failures, two potentially serious situations were averted. How can I be sure that this won't happen again with terrible or deadly consequences?
The regenerative brakes on my lexus rx 400h will stop working during normal braking operation causing the operator to have to apply more pressure to the break pedal to compensate for the loss of regenerative breaking. This is an intermittent problem and you never know when you will have to make a braking adjustment. This problem first started in december, 2007. I purchased the car in april, 2005. I do not feel that an operator of a vehicle should have to make sudden adjustments in their breaking action to compensate for the disengagement of a portion of the breaking system, especially when you never know if it is going to happen. I have taken this back to the lexus dealer on several occasions and they tell me that they believe the car is working normal, even when the problem is intermittent.
Vehicle was normally maintained and lightly driven. One year of age of the vehicle, when driven on level dry surfaces, the braking of the vehicle became erratic and remains erratic. In everyday use the vehicle will tend to overbrake or underbrake depending upon the mechanical loading of the hybrid drive. The onboard firmware is not properly accounting for integrating the stopping power of the brakes and the hybrid drive. This causes driver confusion and in some cases hazardous failure to brake conditions when the hybrid drive unexpectedly and erratically ceases it's contribution to the braking force of the vehicle. I.e. If the driver does not immediately compensate, the vehicle will lunge forward at low speed and within a few feet of pedestrians and other stopped vehicles in traffic. The dealership states that nothing can be done and that erratic/loss of braking is normal for this model. There are no recalls or sbs posted to upgrade the firmware, braking/hybrid drive systems. Lexus rx400h, 2006 model.
Brakes failed on two occasions within a week. Brake failure lasted for about 10 seconds and then brakes returned. During that time the dashboard warning lights lit up and a loud buzzer went off. Was able to stop the with great difficulty. Fortunately neither incident required an emergency stop.
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