ShannonD

Hi everyone. I know that no one can make this decision for me, but I'm looking for some insight on high mileage with the 400h. I bought mine in 2012 used with about 40K miles on it. I have loved every second of it. This has been a wonderful, comfortable car. Other than maintenance and replacing the 12v battery, we have never had any major repairs. Which makes me a bit uneasy. I've been reading about the cost of replacing the inverter or the hybrid battery and I'm well aware that I am out of warranty. The car has no problems that I know of and is still a very comfortable car. I'd be happy to keep it. but I'm afraid of the repairs that may be ahead. My biggest concern is what happens if the hybrid battery dies? Does it just die and stall the car when you are driving? My son now attends a magnet school that is 20 miles one way. So I drive 80 miles each day- much of it on the expressway, sometimes with other kids. I know that any car can fail on the expressway. But I'm just wondering if the battery fails here, will I have any warning? Will the car just not start? I am weighing whether it's best to just trade it in on another car with much lower miles. I now have a child in college, so I wouldn't be able to afford another car like the Lexus, which I've loved. It's a hard choice. However, swallowing costly repairs wouldn't be ideal either. Just wondering if it's common to get high miles on the 400h like the rx300 or if the hybrid technology makes trading it in the smarter play here. The hybrid battery stalling on the freeway is my biggest concern. Thanks.

smassey321

The hybrid battery is the only high cost repair that we may encounter in the next few years. Inverters and transmissions rarely fail and when they do, it starts as a slow coolant leak. None of these leave you on the side of the road. A bad battery will result in low power but you will get home or to the shop. Inverters fail on Prius but not on RX400s so that my be what you are seeing. My wire's Prius inverter failed and she drove home on side streets with the gas engine only. We then drove it to the dealer where it sat for 90 days while they waited for the part to come in. The failures were so rare, the parts are not easily available.

There is a hybrid shop in Tampa. Give them a call to find out the battery repair costs and ask if they have ever even replaced an RX400 one. I have been on these forums for 8 years now and never seen a battery failure that was not covered by the dealer warranty. Our traffic is low on this site but they are not failing at rates that concern me. 06 batteries are close to 12 years old now so that is a good sign.

If you were to trade your RX400 in you would be surprised how low the offer will be. Running the numbers you are most likely better off keeping the car until something happens and then making a decision.

https://greentecauto.com/locations/tampa

thomas1

Agreed, keep car and run till it fails. Mine has 195k miles and I am going to try to get 300k on it. (2008) Getting timing belt done soon, Love this car.

WolfyLS460

Keep fixing it up. Even if you have to spend $3000 on repairs and maintenance it's still cheaper than buying a 'new' car because, let's face it, your old car isn't worth much in trade or private sale. Most buyers aren't going to touch it for exact same reasons i.e. hybrid battery.

My 400h has 158k mi and still going strong on the original hybrid battery. Honestly, I'm more concerned about other things going bad than the hybrid battery. I've just replaced the struts ($1k) and it rides so smooth like new!

jpw

I agree with everyone here about keeping it. We bought our 07 400H a few months ago with 180K miles and it was dealer maintained and we got it for a great price ($7k). It'd has the inverter replaced because of a recall and they did the water pump/timing belt just about 10K miles ago.

If you're really concerned about getting stuck on the highway, get AAA and keep maintaining your RX.

kl001

When you replace your timing belt, do you need to replace the water pump as well or is it different on RX400h?

smassey321

Some say yes and some say no. Changing the pump with the belt is simply preventive maintenance. Dealers do not change the pump with the belt. Water pumps are much better than they were many years ago. They seemed to fail all the time especially when they had a big fan bolted to the end of them. Lately I have not had one go bad in quite a while. I chose not to change my pump with the belt at 100k miles. Shortly after, one of the idler pulleys for the belt went bad so I had to do the job a second time to change s $20 part. So to be truly safe you would need to change belt, pump, idler pulleys and tensioner. I am now at 150k on the original pump.

Keep in mind that he 400h water pump is spun with the timing belt. There is very little belt pressure pushing sideways on the bearing of the pump. Pumps on a serpentine belt are under much more belt pressure than ours. And when pumps do fail, they generally start with very small leak that just makes a mess and does not leave you on the side of the road.