tdjacw

I did that on mine, made no difference and I did not lose my settings. I drive this car in manual and Sport Mode. That's the only way I can tolerate it.

COOLIS

It's shocking to me Lexus isn't owning up to this issue. I had a loaner 17 RX350 for less than a day, and I could clearly feel the issue. There could easily be a class action lawsuit with them telling you to use premium fuel when the stated requirement is regular. The lemon law would be hard to apply in these cases, but if your dealer puts in writing to use premium fuel and drive is sport mode to remedy the problem, have a good attorney draft a letter claiming misrepresentation, and I'm sure Lexus will take notice.

This issue isn't new to Lexus, which makes it even more alarming. There are many horror stories of the 02-03 ES300 with a similar issue. My parents have a 2002 ES300 and it has had the software updated a few times and the problem was never completely fixed. My mom has thought many times the transmission failed in their ES and each time Lexus claims it's operating normally. Here's an article regarding the ES: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may...lexus-20100523

FastFord

Thank you for this post and the article about the ES. I suspect we might have the same thing with the RX. For what it's worth I opened up my 6th case with Lexus after I read the ES post. yea yea, they'll have a manager call me back.

johnhey

I completely understand that some people have problems with "hesitation" and "vibration and drone noise".
However, I have read many reviews for this car and no one mentioned these as an issue.
I personally test drove the car and noticed none of these issues. I spoke to 3 owners, no issue.

My point is, may be it only affected few people or some people's expectation is different (like they expect Lexus acceleration to be similar to BMW - which is not thus they think car hesitates)

If 2016-2017 Lexus RX had these [serious] problems, how come it is top selling SUV and Lexus is selling them in thousands?
it is just common sense to me.

tdjacw

I think there are several reasons why. Number 1 is, I personally think it falls within expectations of some drivers.
A lot are women, my wife included acknowledges my concerns but would not have brought it back to the dealer.
Number 2, you need to own the car and drive it daily. There are different sernarios that occur when driving that are
not always apparent in a test drive. I honestly didn't notice some issues until a few weeks in.
Number 3, they are selling lots because of the Lexus name. I fell into the trap an purchased it purely on the Lexus name.
I think a lot of folks purchase this car based on the brands reliabilty. As disappointed as I am with this vehicle it hasn't had
any problems that the dealer considers abnormal. Hense it is reliable. Right or wrong, that's my take on why they are selling so well. PS Consumer Reports for reliability doesn't hurt.

stevez2

Ok - so my 2017 RX 350 is perfect after six months - and my RC350 similar after 2 years. And my prior LS was best car I ever owned.
I still believe that some people are having hesitation and drone issues with their RXs.
What I don't know is numerator and denominator. It seems like the problem vehicles are a small percent of total but it would be helpful ( to all ) if there were some indication of the number of problematic vehicles versus total. Perhaps the WEBMASTER could help with at least a total of those with this complaint on this forum.

johnhey

I agree with you but I believe it would be fair to say most drivers, not some.
Otherwise most drivers would complain about it and Lexus had no choice to do something about it.

We are living in social media age, if something is not right (i.e. Lexus reliability) people talk about it and everyone gets informed very quickly.

COOLIS

There is no doubt there is an issue, as Lexus is working on a remedy. They issued a TSB to dealers, so obviously, Lexus/Toyota engineers have picked up on it. As I mentioned, I noticed the hesitation with having a 17 RX350 loaner for less than a day. I wasn't expecting it to have BMW acceleration, but I was expecting it to respond when I stepped on the gas, and a few times it didn't accelerate without a noticeable delay/stumble. Lexus sold over 71,000 ES300 in 2002, so quoting sales numbers has nothing to do with whether or not the car has an issue.

FastFord

The hesitation affects all 2016 RX350's. I don't know about the 2017. The problem has been addressed to some degree with the TSB both in Canada and the USA.

I agree that many people don't notice it, don't know enough to realize there is something wrong, don't care, brush it off as it doesn't happen often, but it's there.

I can make my car hesitate at any time under any condition. I have learned to drive around it but I shouldn't have to. I don't care that it costs XXXXX dollars I wouldn't put up with this on an inexpensive base model anything.

Lexus has completely dropped the ball on this 8 speed transmission. Whether more testing should have been done, mapped differently, or done a better job with the TSB, only Lexus knows. I still enjoy driving my RX, but when it does it's hesitation/jump, I want to take it to the dealer and drop it off. I will not be buying another 8 speed from Lexus again. Looks like it's a 450H, as many people have expressed their pleasure with this model. I still enjoy dealing with Lexus and will not let this issue be my sole decision in my next purchase. I still believe that they are one of the best automotive companies in the world, and make excellent vehicles.

I'm not mad at Lexus or wish to bash them in anyway. I am very disappointed that the fix did not correct the problem. I have had lots of vehicles that had issues and the manufacturers behavior towards a fix was similar to Lexus. I suspect that Lexus will lose customers in the future due this issue. I would also guess the "bean" counters have already priced that out when they installed the transmission knowing there could be an issue, rather than delaying the introduction of the tranny. Many of us have seen this in all sorts of industries....first to market at almost any cost!

I suspect as the years go by we will learn about the 2016 RX350 and it's transmission faults...similar to the ES as posted earlier.

PCW

I posted TSB 159 on Feb 10. I have to agree with FastFord as it's now been 7 months and while the initial hesitation on my 2016 RX350 has improved, I still have an issue when I need to speed up from approx 25-35 to a higher speed. The RX doesn't respond immediately and hesitates. I talked to the senior Tech at my local dealer today, who installed the TSB, and he told me that they haven't had any complaints from other RX owners who had the TSB installed! Additionally he said there is no additional TSB yet on this problem. Previous to this 2016 RX350 I owned two RX hybrids and should have bought another one as many have stated.

JTucker

I wish I had read this post before I bought my RX350 2017.
It has a bad hesitation in the lower gears. Poor Quality from Lexus. Would stay away from purchasing the RX350 you will be disappointed with the way it drives in traffic.

tdjacw

I wish I would have read the thread about excessive noise and vibration. Could have saved a lot of heartache.
Not only do I have heasitation, have a low drone and vibration at aroud 1500 rpms. Hopfully you don't have that issue.

dchobo

To those that still experience hesitation, can you describe how long the hesitation is? Is it a half second lag when it down shifts? Or longer like 2-3 seconds type of delay?

Thanks.

Nail34

Also car speed, mode, what gear (by shifting into M) prior to hesitation or any other pertinent info.
Thank You!!

Htony

This problem is with Acura, Jeep as well. But Audi, BMW are not showing the problem. One reason I dumped brand new 2016 Acura MDX, came over to get 2015 RX, No thanks to new generation RX. One thing I know, this trannies use dog clutches actuated by hydraulic oil which makes the problem worse in cold weather.
If a driver does not notice this phenomena I am wondering how come. Rewriting software takes time. There is no such thing as perfect software in this world. They are written by human. Sooner or later the solution will come out. My SIL bought a brand new Toyota truck which uses same trannies showing same issues.
He had to force the Toyota buy back the truck on the condition he'll take fully loaded 4 Runner which still used older tranny.