jhburke

I wanted to tell the story of my 4 month old RX400h with about 5900 miles:

Last week, with no warning, the car stopped suddenly as I was accelerating from a stop. I heard a loud "clunk" from under the hood, and a lot of warning lights came on (HYBRID SYSTEM FAILURE, VSC SYSTEM FAILURE). The engine was still running (at fairly high RPM) but the car would only move about 2 mph (I think it was moving from the rear-wheel electric motor only.

After waiting 2 1/2 hours for the Lexus/AAA tow truck to arrive, we flatbedded the car to the Lexus dealer. It was late in the day, and the guy who took the hybrid classes had gone home already. The next morning the service guy called me and said two Lexus engineers were flying in from somewhere and the dealership was told not to touch the car until they arrived. I'm guessing nobody has had to repair this problem yet.

After 8 days, the car has been fixed. There was an internal short in the inverter, requiring replacement of the inverter, hybrid cooling system, and battery pack.

The dealership said this was one of the most expensive repairs they ever performed. The cost of the parts alone would be well over $10,000! Fortunately, the car seems to be running fine.

It is very disappointing, of course, for a four-month car to suffer such a severe failure. I have no complaints about Lexus service, however. Thank goodness the hybrid system has an 8 year 100,000 mile warranty! I thought about demanding a longer warranty, but 8/100000 seems pretty good.

Bottom line--I don't think I would buy a hybrid which was out of warranty. Maybe I'm slitting my own throat when it comes time to sell mine.

John

NeverSatisfied

Wow, that sucks! Personally, I'm not sold on hybrid technology...

jracerlmn

sheesh....good to know....i think i would hate for that to happen to me when i'm driving...

Lil4X

Welcome to ClubLexus jh, and thanks for your post! Yours is the first catastrophic failure of the hybrid system I've heard of - but there may be others. As an "early adopter" you are essentially doing the beta testing for a leading-edge technology. The fact that Lexus flew in a couple of their engineers to get a look at the problem is a good sign - tirst, that they probably haven't had many of these failures, and second that they are dead serious about getting to its source.

As I read you post, I first wondered if it could be related to the Prius hybrid failures that have been in the news lately, but their problem seems to be related to controller software - a relatively easy fix. Toyota/Lexus seems to be committed to hybrid technology, and although your experience was bad, it indicates T/L is determined that it not happen again. Best of luck with your 400h - and keep us informed of any additional communication you have with Lexus!

SGT

Sorry to hear about your mishap, but at least they fixed the problem with minimum downtime. Let's hope it doesn't happen again.

LexRexBlue

I'm glad you're safe and your car is fixed. However, I hope they look into the problem quickly and find a fix. Nobody wants that experience and it would give the car a really bad reputation. Lexus does operate in "interesting" ways. They seem to like working under cover and solve problems slowly but they never quite admit flaws. For example, the "fix" to discourage the headlights from being stolen.
I also can't understand why they didn't train all their service people and mechanics on the workings of the hybrid. When it was new I called with a question and the service dept. couldn't answer the question because the trained person wasn't there. They referred me to the salesman instead. It makes you wonder.

spwolf

take a chill pill, first reported inverter problem with Toyota hybrid ever reported, more people had issues with their gas engines than that... Hybrid system is not made to be maintained, it is completly sealed off.

Prius is the most reliable car in midsize class according to CR...

Eric-RPS13-

I to am not sold on hybrid cars.

tomd

Diesel technology is so much more proven than the hybrids. Mileage is similar. Engines are no more expensive than gas, plus diesels are known for their durability. Who needs, or wants, hybrids?

flipside909

People who don't want to pay the inflated prices for diesel. Here in CA Diesel is up to $0.40 more per gallon than Premium Unleaded. Those who dislike the lingering smell of diesel on their hands and clothing after a fill up and those who take frequent short trips around town are a few things that come to mind.

hendjaz

Jhburke ("John"), what dealer is your 400h being serviced at so that we may check out the details to see if they are something applicable to our 400hs? I would like to talk to the service manager in order to be able to verify the conditions that occured and how they adressed it, as well as likelihood of recurrence.

Thanks jhburke for any addition detail you can provide.

katzjamr

hendjaz: The inverter that failed in that 400h is an electrical component. It is impossible to predict the failure of this part, only that it has been rare. Both the Prius and the 400h have had a very low frequency of repair rate, and have been very reliable. To Tomd: the demand for diesel worldwide is greater than that for gasoline and diesel prices will remain high. The hybrid i drive gets over ten mpg better mileage than the vehicle it replaced, its also safer, more comfortable, pollutes less and more powerful than any car ive owned.

jhburke

Hendaj: the car was serviced at McGrath Lexus in Westmont, IL. I appreciate everyone's replies to my initial message. I'm sorry but I was on call this weekend and didn't have much time to reply. I know you questioned the use of the word "catastrophic", even though you later edited your post and removed it. I'm not much for hyperbole, but I think that if something breaks in a car which costs over $10000 to repair that can be considered catastrophic.

I don't have any idea how rare an inverter failure is. Part of my rationale of reporting this is that I had never heard of this problem before in a new hybrid. I'm very pleased with Lexus' response. I'd be very afraid of buying a used hybrid if the warranty coverage was expired. Who wants to pay $10000 to fix an old car? It may be that inverter failures are more common once a car reaches 100,000 miles.

I'll let everyone know if I have any further problem with the car. So far everything looks good.

John

spwolf

actually you are completly wrong. New turbo common rail diesels (which is what you are talking about) with all aluminium design, 2nd/3rd gen common rail are more troublesome than petrol engines by far shot. I see pumps failing, injectors clogging, turbo's going bad, clutches and transmissions going bad. It is very doubtful that you would go more than 100,000 miles in an diesel, without one of these components failing. Every check ratings from VW on their diesels as supposed to petrol engines? eh.

Toyota has some of the most durable diesels on the market in Europe, yet cost of maintainance when compared to petrol is a lot higher for diesel just because of these things... Other manufacturers have even bigger issues with their diesel units. Replacing clutch is completly normal for around 60,000 miles (Hybrids dont have clutches), and most turbo's in VW and Peugot/Ford will destroy themselves before 150,000 miles. Lets not talk about Bosch fuel pumps which costs around 6,000 Euro NEW, and fail before 60,000 miles. Of course, reason it is not HUGE issue is that people find used parts and use them, same as old Prius owners able to find battery packs on the junk yard for 500$ installed as supposed to buying new for 6,000$ w/o installation.

I really have no idea from where would you pull that info at all. Maybe 80's MB with their iron block, 50hp and no turbo would last forever but thats really have nothing to do with modern turbo diesels...

SGT

I have a 1985 Benz 300D Turbo Diesel which has 205,000 miles on it and the engine is still going strong.