My 2012 Lexus RX350 started on its own in my garage in the middle of the night while my family were all fast asleep. We do not have a remote starter. I woke up to the grinding of the running engine as it continued to start itself even while it was running. The immense smoke pouring out of the hood and full tank of gas terrified me so I called the fire department and grabbed my sleeping child and headed out of the house to be safe. It was the most terrifying night. The fire department were able to pull car out garage and disconnect battery and leave it with hood open to smolder. Lexus please help me to understand how a car can start on its own. Even a wiring short or maintenance issue should not have led to the car starting on its own in the garage. Lexus Canada tells me it is out of warranty and they cannot find any failures. It's a maintenance issue.... how can a maintenance issue lead to a car starting on its own with potential to cause a house fire from garage, fumes into the house, and harm to my child. Lexus Ottawa tells me it just needs a new starter motor ... I can see that would have been burnt out during this ordeal. But how can a car start on its own and why would Lexus not want to solve this. Replacing starter motor only fixes damage done ... problem still not identified.

Where are the key fobs stored? How long have you had it? It may be the fuel system purge that operates 5 hours after shut down somehow shorted out or was wired wrong that then made the car start when it activated.
Install the new starter. Ask the dealer to inspect the old one and its wire connections after it is removed. Was this the original starter?
Have the dealer check for a faulty ignition switch that may have shorted out.
Are you positive it was really shut off and not left on in Accessory mode?
Park outside for a while.
Be sure your key fobs are stored somewhere that the buttons cannot be pressed accidentally.
Contact Lexus corporate and complain.

This has been known to happen to other Toyota vehicles based on this same platform https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/Discus...42394_ds680983

Doesn't require the brake pedal to be depressed in order to start up the engine?
It seems to me like an ECU issue with ignition!

This is really alarming! I could never put it in my garage again!!

It sure seems like something Lexus would care about due to a HUGE potential liability. I also think they would want it kept as quiet as possible, which might hinder your ability to get it addressed. We had an issue with a 2010 that could have resulted in a similar liability, and Lexus simply denied it happened. We couldn't prove it, so I simply told them I refused to drive the car anymore. I threatened to leave it in the service department while I started writing letters. The dealer ended up taking it as a trade in and made us a very good offer to replace it. I'm sure they simply re sold it to someone else, and I do feel more than a little guilty about that.

any videos?

Keys were in the house. No remote starter. Unfortunately no videos. I was just so terrified and got my child and mother out the house due to the fumes.

Lexus charging me 1400 for new starter and said it was impossible that it started on own.

Such a frustrating time.

Which dealership ?

I don't think you should let them off that easy. You should file a complaint and post the dealer's name and the specific service department manager's name.

Here is the NHTSA site: https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/VehicleComplaint/

Also make a public post on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lexus?ref_src=tw...Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Also here is the Linked-in page of Peggy Turner, Lexus VP of Customer Services https://www.linkedin.com/in/peggy-turner-86b378a/

Get the news out there. Don't take it sitting down.

I'm curious, did the engine actually run? Or did the starter just keep turning it over until it burned up and smoked?

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. If you have not considered reporting this to Transport Canada yet, please see if you think you can go through the process.

Transport Canada: https://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/Saf-Sec-Sur....aspx?lang=eng

Also, check the NHTSA site for any similar complaints or investigations: https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle/2012/L...AWD#complaints

My 2021 Lexus NX started itself while in my garage today. I felt less crazy saying this, now seeing others experienced the same thing. This scared me to death. I do not know when it started. My keys were in my purse untouched since I last drove the car, 12 hours earlier, and my app with auto start capabilities, last record said "car unlocked", no other records. When I went in my garage, car was locked and car was running. That record was not in my app. My garage was still locked from night before, so none of the family had been in my garage. I called Lexus dealership and Lexus customer service, and I cannot tell if they do no believe me or they just don't really care. They didn't seem alarmed or concerned in any way. They said "we can try to reenact the issue to see what happened"... Like how would they do that? The car started itself, for the 1st time ever. I have had the car for 2 years. I guess all I can do is park in the driveway, and see if it happens again.

You may want to consider reporting this incident to the NHTSA . My guess is that you are not alone and they may suggest some specific actions you can take in order to make Lexus Corporate take these issues more seriously.

Thank you for the suggestion. I will do that. It feels like something that should be taken more seriously. I am dizzy and have headaches today, which I can only assume is the aftermath of my car running inside my closed garage for an unknow amount of time.