athsndlvs

Firstly let me say that this is NOT a car mat related accelerator link issue.

I was just driving with my father in his 08 IS350 and about 60 seconds after coming off the highway while sitting at a red light his car suddenly redlined while his foot was on the brake!

I looked over at his feet on the drivers side and his foot was entirely on the brake for the whole time and he had to keep pushing it down to stop the burnout that it was now beginning and the thing only stopped revving when he put it in park.

Just to be very clear here is a play by play over about 90 seconds:

• Exiting the highway
• Coming up to an already green light and accelerating up hill
• Change lanes and begin braking for red light
• Full stop of the car for 15-20 seconds
• Car begins to burn out and redline while foot is on brake
• Applying brakes very firmly, engine still racing
• Transmission put into park, RPM's finally drop off.

My father reports that this has happened twice before and that both of those times it happened just after he got off the highway.

He bought the car about 4 months ago and it just went for the 56000km service so there is still plenty of factory warranty left.

I'm going to get him to call Lexus tomorrow and speak with the service manager but if ANYONE has encountered this I would like to hear from you as it will help us leverage the service manager taking us more seriously.

Thanks for any help!

Marexus

iTrader: (1)

Damn that's scary and funny all at the same time...and yeah work the hell out of that service manager they need to take care of you! Otherwise that's a lawsuit if they don't at least replace the tires and offer you lifetime oil changes!

Gville350

iTrader: (10)

That's one hell of a safety issue there. You know what though, the dealership will have to hold onto the car and try to replicate the issue. When this unexplainable reving happened how long had you both been driving the car? Long road trip, short trek to the grocery store, car warm or cold engine/trans?

ISBU

Have it check if the recalls are done.

athsndlvs

Gville350,

This time we had only driven about 8km and the car had been sitting outside for about 45-60 minutes in the moderate cold (Southwestern Ontario Canada)
The only thing that precedes this issue is a drive on the highway at moderate speed and then once you're off the highway for less than 5 minutes driving stop go the car thinks its on the highway again and drops the hammer on you!
It's happened after a 30-50km trip too so I'm not 100% as to what this is... I tear apart old alltrac celica's daily (own 3) so I'm a Toyota guy and know a lot about cars.

I'll post up when we hear back from Lexus asap

When we pressed the dealership at the point of sale they said that all the recalls had been taken care of...

Kauro

Hope this issue gets fixed for you. Sounds terrifying being in the car.

athsndlvs

yeah, might start traveling with diapers lol !

athsndlvs

Someone on My.is is saying that it could be something to do with the traction control or an ABS wheel sensor, I really hope its something as simple as that.

Thanks for your comments so far everyone.

LamTheSham

iTrader: (8)

Damn hope everything goes smoothly. That's crazy though. An IS350 just randomly redlining...I'd be pretty scareddd. :O

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

It can't have all the LSBs done if it does this. Yours would be the first actual case of unintended acceleration not attributable to pedal misidentification. There is an LSB for this covering what happens when both pedals are pressed at the same time. Brake wins with the new software. Sounds like yours clearly is not doing this.

Any modifications to this car?

athsndlvs

Lowbuxracer,

Car is entirely stock as we've only had it for about 4 months.

I asked both the tech and the sales manager about the TSB's being covered and they both assured me they had been taken care of as they're part of the inspections due before selling a certified pre-owned Lexus.

The 'Club' on Lexus.ca lets you log in and see past service history on your car but is limited to the amount of time that we have owned the car.



Car is going to Lexus tomorrow morning, anyone know how many trips the ECU stores? I'd really like to hope that they can pull the data from it and know 100% what went wrong.

Apparently the car was being strange this morning as well. When still cold and just out of the garage it didn't respond to the gas pedal when my father went to accelerate about 200m from the house. He said the car seemed like the engine was going to stall.

sleeper24

Man, that is very scary. Hopefully the problem is an easy fix. I'm in the process of looking for an IS350, so this is definitely on my mind now. Good thing you posted this up athsndlvs.

GiantsFan

iTrader: (9)

Are you 100% sure part of his foot wasn't accidentally on the gas pedal? No offense, but its kinda hard to believe that a car just randomly started revving to redline when it had been at a full stop for 15-20 seconds.

Either way ... hope you figure out what the cause is!

Authorize

Take that car back to the dealer where you got it, tell them the problem, and if they even TRY to brush anything off, call your attorney.

dorkacho

iTrader: (5)

Wow, this is unheard of. Super scary! Don't drive it again until it gets fixed, stay safe buddy