Issue * Check Parking System, Parking Brake Inoperable?
 

Just got back from my vacation, drove my GS to a local supermarket last night and left it in the garage over night...

this morning when I came out of park, the auto parking brake will NOT disengage. has anyone experienced this?

I've tried all the obvious, pressing and releaseing the auto button as well as park button.

the PARKING sign will NOT turn off and the on screen display states "Check Parking System" on start up, when I try to engage and disengage the title changes to "Parking System Inoperable"

let me know if anyone experienced this and was able to fix it.

Lexus is picking it up later today...

I haven't seen this failure before. Let us know how it turns out.

as it turns out, there's a manual parking brake release. it's accessed by turning a knob located below the spare tire. with the car being only 2 weeks old... i wonder if I got a lemon? i don't really feel warm and gooy inside.

This is good to know!!! I never knew and I read the manual too!

http://drivers.lexus.com/t3Portal/do.../sec_07-02.pdf

Page 738

Yep, that's the page I was referring to...

Apparently the car works fine now but they decided to hold it over night... and they contacted California to see if they had any leads on what might have caused this...

I guess another way of saying they don't know what or why the parking brake got stuck.

I don't feel so good about a +50K car having issues within 2 weeks of it's life. what do you guys think?

I wouldn't worry too much about it. This is the only instance of this problem I've read about and there are thousands of GS350 owners out there and many of them read these forums. Unless it starts showing up in dozens of other cars, I don't think it's anything to worry about. Relax and enjoy your car. You made a great choice.

::UPDATE::

The dealership claimed that everything is working since they cleared the alarm and that they could not explain or replicate the issue. They spent a lot of time contacting California but it looks like my issue is the first in its case.

When the incident happened, the dealership towed my car, but didn't notify me that services department would close soon and that I should get my courtesy car right away. Since I had returned from a 2 week vacation my wife and I had many errands to run, all of which got prioritized thanks to lack of information my dealership provided.

I complained about not having or even getting the courtesy car offer for the weekend while they scheduled to tow my car AND having to wake up my wife and my kid just so she can drop me off in the morning, the Dealer is willing to give me "something" for it... they asked be to make my demands.

So, if poor information and lack of service response ruined your weekend what... would you guys ask for?

(the guy offered first oil change which i laughed at since I was promised already that i get the first and second free.)

I wouldn't ask for anything, but if you're going to ask I think them covering a minor service like an oil change or the 15k service which you do have to pay for is appropriate.

I mean...***** happens...nobody's perfect.

had the same issue on my 2013 gs350 f sport and fixed it by first inadvertently killing the battery (left all the doors and windows open with lights on). I jumped the car and immediately drove to autozone to get my battery replaced. Havent had an issue with "parking brake inoperable" again.

having done some research online, seems like the 2013 gs350 has a faulty battery of some kind which can lead to these kinds of errors. I genuinely feel lucked out since i dont have warranty and if I had gotten it towed to a mechanic, i probably wouldve been looking at a 1k+ bill.

this just happened to me tonight. so, it's just the battery? and everything will be back to normal? **** was scary. when i was trying to start it. thank you club lexus for this awesome forum.!

What year car do you have @cysGS350?

I have a 2014

+1 for the battery
 

Happened to me as well. Drained the battery by playing around with techstream for way too long while the car was in IGN-ON without the engine running. Charging it as we speak with a trickle charger....

Parking brake won't disengage
 

Same issue happened to me after a detailing shop hardwired cameras for parking mode. Could it be when the battery is killed that electric parking brakes won't respond to the main CPU?

Anyways, I got it towed to Lexus and their lead mechanic says they've never seen this happen before except on a LS 450 (they had to cut the brake line for that one).

After looking thoroughly at the brake the mechanic determined that the separate ECU for the parking brakes aren't getting power.

They just got the part in yesterday after waiting a week for it to arrive and will install it today. Hopefully this fixes it. I really think this is a battery related issue as well.