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this has to be a driver error for sure.....i never heard of any toyota/lexus cars witj this kind of issues.......no one is gonna know for sure whos telling the truth same thing like those bs gas pedal issues.....
BS gas pedal i know there was a recall on those, i didn't know they did recalls on BS problems
Having seen a automatic transmission's Park pin (which locks the drivetrain in place) fail before, this is not that far fetched. Is it likely? No. However, I will wait for further information before passing judgment.
My wife said PARK quit working today on her '08 RX350. She drove to the dealer who called it 'transmission failure' -$7500 plus $1000 for 2 flushes and front brakes.
She drove home, parked with her parking brake and texted me to see what she should do.
There have been no other issues. It restarts in park and holds still with the parking brake.
Should it be repairable?
Came to the furum tonight seeking similar events/incidents after my wife experienced a very frightful incident earlier this evening. Wanted to see if anyone else has experienced RX rolling out of Park when left running on slight incline. This is what occurred: She backed out of garage in her 08 RX350. Used onboard garage opener to shut door. Second garage door left open and not coded in Lexus system. So she stopped, placed vehicle in park on a slight incline and walked over to manually shot 2nd garage door. As she was walking to garage, the Lexus rolled right past her. Her primary instinct was to grab door and try to jump in and stop vehicle. She managed to open door and grab steering wheel but unable to fully jump in. The car drug her 10 feet or so when it eventually crashed into and took out brick wall (load bearing) the separates the two garage doors. Car also took out both garage doors. heavy bumper, hood, windshield and undercarriage damage. My wife is 53, with over 35 years driving experience. She is a safe driver and she insists the car was placed from Reverse into Park. I have no reason to doubt her. The reason I post this is to share my story in case anyone else has similar incidents or warn readers to be cautious in these type of situations. Car was left running and NO....the parking brake was not applied. I did not post this to receive insults or have my intentions or integrity questioned like the initial posting from 2011......so please leave the playground antics where they belong. I seriously deliberated not posting because of the reactions many had to the previous postings. I expected more civility. But if you feel the need to bash....I can not stop you. Again, I am posting simply to let others know what happened. I will consult with insurance and have vehicle looked at to see if it was a pin failure or operator error if the "black box" will tell us such data. I will post findings any helpful updates or findings. My wife is obviously shook up. Car can be repaired. House sustained structural damage and will require a bit of work to repair. Just glad it all turned out the way it did rather than her stepping in front of vehicle and getting hit/run over. The incline where car was left is not severe. Incident happened within a few seconds of stopping, getting out and begining to walk forward.
KYLexusXL, first I'm glad your wife is ok. No matter the cause or reason for the RX to roll, no one here wants to see anyone injured. Please keep us posted on the results of the investigation. If you notice, OP didn't come back to tell us. Credibility is lost somewhat when that happens. I'll keep an eye on the thread to make sure the comments stay civil.
BTW, this post can be deleted by yourself or any of the mods at any time. It might be advisable until the investigation is over.
This is a scary event, glad your wife is ok. It looks like your RX is in very good condition.
I am interested in how this comes out, I don't know the vehicle sytem information well enough to know what they can tell from the cars data logs? Did the airbags deploy, perhaps no, if there was no one sitting in the car?
This is scary indeed. I'm happy to hear nobody was hurt.
Wonder if the pin that engages when in parks was defective? I would think a good mechanic can tell once the transmission mechanism is opened up? Or the BLACKBOX will have a history of what happened? IDK. Regardless, the important thing is nobody got hurt. Whatever physical damages can be repaired or replaced.
Similar episode had happened to me several years ago, but it was my own fault. The driveway was at very slight up incline to the garage and I had backed out of the garage. I had closed the garage door and then I forgot I needed something out of the SUV and I was by myself. So while the SUV was still in Drive I jumped out without even thinking because of the slight uphill incline, the SUV was not moving. As I reached into the back of the SUV to retrieve things, I noticed the SUV started to love forward. I quickly jumped back into the driver's seat and slammed on the brake and stopped just short of the closed garage door. My heart was beating so fast and it sure was scary. From that incident on, I either shut off the engine or I make sure to fully put it in Park AND FULLY ENGAGE THE PARKING BRAKE.
These days with all the electronics on the vehicle, one never knows when some electronic gremlins or glitch will kick in.
Originally Posted by KYLexusXL
Came to the furum tonight seeking similar events/incidents after my wife experienced a very frightful incident earlier this evening. Wanted to see if anyone else has experienced RX rolling out of Park when left running on slight incline. This is what occurred: She backed out of garage in her 08 RX350. Used onboard garage opener to shut door. Second garage door left open and not coded in Lexus system. So she stopped, placed vehicle in park on a slight incline and walked over to manually shot 2nd garage door. As she was walking to garage, the Lexus rolled right past her. Her primary instinct was to grab door and try to jump in and stop vehicle. She managed to open door and grab steering wheel but unable to fully jump in. The car drug her 10 feet or so when it eventually crashed into and took out brick wall (load bearing) the separates the two garage doors. Car also took out both garage doors. heavy bumper, hood, windshield and undercarriage damage. My wife is 53, with over 35 years driving experience. She is a safe driver and she insists the car was placed from Reverse into Park. I have no reason to doubt her. The reason I post this is to share my story in case anyone else has similar incidents or warn readers to be cautious in these type of situations. Car was left running and NO....the parking brake was not applied. I did not post this to receive insults or have my intentions or integrity questioned like the initial posting from 2011......so please leave the playground antics where they belong. I seriously deliberated not posting because of the reactions many had to the previous postings. I expected more civility. But if you feel the need to bash....I can not stop you. Again, I am posting simply to let others know what happened. I will consult with insurance and have vehicle looked at to see if it was a pin failure or operator error if the "black box" will tell us such data. I will post findings any helpful updates or findings. My wife is obviously shook up. Car can be repaired. House sustained structural damage and will require a bit of work to repair. Just glad it all turned out the way it did rather than her stepping in front of vehicle and getting hit/run over. The incline where car was left is not severe. Incident happened within a few seconds of stopping, getting out and begining to walk forward.
If it had slipped out of park, or the pin broke (both of which are highly unlikely) then the vehicle would have gone into reverse and backed down the driveway, not forward into it. Think about how the gear shift is set up, Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive.
Ford had a famous slip out of park into reverse issue back in the 1970s due to a bad new design of the shifter, which was on a column. There was a huge recall. I remember my next door neighbor had it happen to them but luckily it backed down the driveway, across the small street and got stopped when the rear wheels went into the drainage ditch between the street and the neighbors yard.
In short, I think your wife probably made a mistake and never actually put it into park. However, I am glad she was not injured.
Interesting enough I ran into a neighbor at the local supermarket this morning. I shared with him our "unplanned remodeling" story. He then told me that his wife's 2013 RX350 had TWO similar events with her placing car in park and the car rolled as she leaned against it on one occasion and a second time it did it on its own without any push. They took it to Lexus dealer and they tried to re-create the problem without any success. Understandably Lexus would not tear into transmission to see if anything may have caused issue. They have now made it a point to use their parking brake no matter where they park, duration of park, etc to ensure this does not occur again. We both found a little comfort in the fact that "it wasn't just us" or that either of our spouses failed to properly place car into park.
My sole purpose for posting is to check in the community for similar problems and/or bring to light our unfortunate incident so folks are aware of what may/can occur. I will reach out to Lexus next week and inform them of this event so they have record. This may be a bigger problem but if they aren't made aware of it they can not track stats on these types of events or possibly push to look more into the issue of gear malfunction if that be the case. We love our Lexus and have been very satisfied to date with Lexus support and reliability of vehicle. Just hope this isn't a potential achillies heel with the car. Thanks for your responses, feedback and well wishes. I will advise any further outcome. Till then, happy motoring (ours will be repaired and back home a week from today hopefully!)
This is a scary event, glad your wife is ok. It looks like your RX is in very good condition.
I am interested in how this comes out, I don't know the vehicle sytem information well enough to know what they can tell from the cars data logs? Did the airbags deploy, perhaps no, if there was no one sitting in the car?
To my surprise airbag(s) did not deploy even though the front end sustained pretty good impact and damage. Probably no deployment because it did not register anyone sitting in seat at time of impact. Front bumper torn, undercarriage damage as it hit footer wall, hood damage, A pillar severe dent, broken windshield. Total estimated cost $5500. I brought up the issue of checking the car's "black box" with insurance adjuster.....he stated that the system would not record the fact what gear the vehicle was in prior to, during or after incident. I do not know enough about these "black box" systems to further comment on their operational capacity.
If it had slipped out of park, or the pin broke (both of which are highly unlikely) then the vehicle would have gone into reverse and backed down the driveway, not forward into it. Think about how the gear shift is set up, Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive.
Ford had a famous slip out of park into reverse issue back in the 1970s due to a bad new design of the shifter, which was on a column. There was a huge recall. I remember my next door neighbor had it happen to them but luckily it backed down the driveway, across the small street and got stopped when the rear wheels went into the drainage ditch between the street and the neighbors yard.
In short, I think your wife probably made a mistake and never actually put it into park. However, I am glad she was not injured.
Appreciate your feedback. I have gone over the incident with my wife numerous times trying to mentally walk her back through step by step as to what occurred. She is steadfast on placing in park. I asked her if she remembers where the gearshift was once the dust settled.....she cannot, with certainty remember specifically what all she did or did not do once accident occurred as she was quite shook up understandably. When I got to the garage in 15 or so seconds after occurrence, after checking on her well being I checked vehicle to make sure it was in park and it was. This has us puzzled and I certainly understand your explanation above. She had no reason to place in Neutral instead of Park. I wasn't there at the moment it occurred and only relay what I saw and what she responded soon after and days after.
he did answer on his first opening thread. Yes he shifted to PARK.
NO, HE DID NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION.. The question was whether it was in park WHEN HE GOT TO THE CAR.
I am not going to read through 8+ pages to find out if the OP ever answered the critical question. He states the engine was running, and it hit shrubs, etc, and was totalled. It bothers me when people post something, and repeatedly do not answer the MOST critical question anyone asks.
My bet is that Lexus will find driver error, and that that is what it was.
Yes, he should have used the parking brake. I too have learned that even on a very slight incline, having the car's weight lean on the parking paw is a no no.
BUT, should the parking paw have failed? Like I said in my first post here, we will never know if he really did put it in park. I see no reason for the paw to fail in the first place even without the parking brake. Unless the paw was completely damaged over a long time, transmission should have been have to stop it.
A simple trip to the mechanic should be able to tell you if the paw is still intact and working properly
Not a big deal, but it is a "pawl" not a "paw".
His story has more holes than a fishnet. Likely, he put it into Reverse, instead of all the way up to Park. The reverse gear being unable to actually move in reverse UP the hill with the engine running could easily cause a stuttering/vibration motion within the trans, which could cause it to slip into Neutral....away it goes.
Yes, anything can happen to a mechanical item. However, with over 2 million in sales in the U.S. alone, and over 4,000,000 worldwide, a 1-in-1000 occurrence would have happened over 400 times, and would be a matter of great concern. Not saying it never happens, but is doubtful.
03-15-12, 10:19 AM
i know there was a recall on those, i didn't know they did recalls on BS problems
