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Acceleration & cruise control

Lexus ES300 Acceleration problems by year

160 complaints filed with NHTSA about the Lexus ES300's acceleration & cruise control. Unintended acceleration, surging, throttle problems and cruise or adaptive cruise faults.

Acceleration complaints by model year

YearAcceleration complaintsCrashesInjuriesRecalls
20051100
20035432130
20025534150
20019310
20008540
19995110
19985520
19976330
19962100
19956100
19944100
19932000
19922110
19901110

Latest ES300 acceleration complaints

2002 Lexus ES300AirbagsAcceleration & cruise controlCrash

The contact owns a 2002 Lexus ES 300. The contact stated that while driving approximately 5 MPH in the driveway and turning into the garage, the vehicle unintentionally accelerated, hit a beam, drove through the garage wall, and into the dining area of the residence, crashed into the furniture, and stopped. The air bags did not deploy. The contact noticed sparks and smoke coming from the dashboard after the impact. There was no injury sustained. There was property damage. The contact stated that she had previously...

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filed a complaint regarding the vehicle's sudden and unintended acceleration. A report police was filed with the police. The vehicle was towed to a tow yard and was later towed back to the residence. The dealer and the manufacturer were not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 110,000.

Filed Incident Air bags · Vehicle speed controlNHTSA 11713910
2002 Lexus ES300Acceleration & cruise controlCrash

In a commercial parking lot, I shifted from r to d to exit a parking space and, with my foot on the brake pedal, my lexus suddenly sped forward and rammed a parked car, driving it into a 3rd car.

Filed Incident Vehicle speed controlNHTSA 10990663
2002 Lexus ES300Acceleration & cruise control

2002 Lexus excelerated on it's own.I was getting on freeway I stepped on gas to go with flow of traffic , then traffic started backing up so I went to use brakes to slow down but car kept excelerating. I had to use both feet to try to stop ,then I felt a pop from gas pedal at that time it stopped excellerating

Filed Incident Vehicle speed controlNHTSA 10984541
1995 Lexus ES300Acceleration & cruise control

Accelerated around a vehicle that had pulled out in front of me. My vehicle accelerated uncontrollably. Cruise control engaged itself. I pumped breaks. Tried to deactivate cruise control unsuccessfully. While heavily pumping breaks, vehicle returned to normal and cruise control light went out.

Filed Incident Vehicle speed controlNHTSA 10744515
1997 Lexus ES300Acceleration & cruise control

Tl* the contact owns a 1997 lexus es300. While driving approximately 50 mph, the vehicle accelerated independently without warning. The failure occurred on numerous occasions. The vehicle was towed but was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate mileage was 216,000.

Filed Incident Vehicle speed controlNHTSA 10723287
2003 Lexus ES300Transmission & drivetrainAcceleration & cruise control

I purchased a used 2003 lexus es30from used car dealer. After a couple days of driving it I noticed it was shifting gears innormally. It would surge up to 4000rmp before shifting to 2nd gear and at one point wasn't moving while I hit the gas the acceleration very fast out of nowhere. My mother also had this same year make and model vehicle a few years back and it had the same problem before the transmission went out. I did some research online and found many other lexus customers experienced the same problem. I...

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found a web site that claimed that there was a tsb put out for this vehicle and that the lexus/toyota dealerships would fix this problem with an upgrade. I was wondering if this upgrade is still available and if my vehicle would qualify? And if so how would I go about this process.

Filed Incident Power train · Vehicle speed controlNHTSA 10720988
2003 Lexus ES300Acceleration & cruise controlCrash

I was pulling out of the garage slowly to pause on the driveway to close the garage door and when I step on the gas in reverse the car flew out of the garage and I couldn't stop it with the brakes. There was a small roofing across the street which stopped the car. No one was nearby so no one was hurt. The accelerator seemed stuck for this incident to happen. However, lexus had an inspector check the car and didn't find anything wrong that showed on the computer so they won't take responsibility for this...

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occurrence and they closed the case. I tried to speak to someone to send this to arbitration but no one would speak to me. Case closed. This was a very frightening experience with no control in the car. *Tr

Filed Incident Vehicle speed controlNHTSA 10713854
2003 Lexus ES300Acceleration & cruise controlBrakesCrash

Driving out of my garage usually slowly and when I put my foot on the gas while in reverse to pull out the car just flew out into the street. The immediately tried to brake and couldn't work. When I hit a truck in the street behind me the car finally stopped. I had no control. This never happened before, a first time and a very frightening experience. The car is at the lexus authorized body shop waiting for the lexus inspector to go over the car. I would be afraid to drive this car in the future thinking this could happen again anytime. I'm the original owner and felt this is the best car I ever owned until now. *Tr

Filed Incident Vehicle speed control · Service brakesNHTSA 10695529
2003 Lexus ES300Acceleration & cruise control

My car over the last couple of years started experiencing abnormal acceleration . There were times it uses to surge or sound like it was ramping up to go fast, even with my foot on the break, you could hear the acceleration trying to ramp up like if my foot wasn't on the break it would just take off. Then the opposite started to happen. My car idle would just drop and basically when I would go to take off from a stop, the car would not accelerate at all. It was inconsistent so sometimes it would over...

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accelerate and sometimes under. There was no accident, but I've had a few close calls and some people to get aggravated at my car.I took it to the pep boys they thought it needed flushed maybe injection cleaning like all other scenarios I am just now reading about. After that, it seemed to work for a short while, but then the issue start occurring again. I had my spark plugs changed and new coils , new air flow hose to make sure there was no apparent reason for the issues. The problem still exist so I took it to a lexus dealership where their suggestion is the problem is in the throttle bottle. It seems to be a common link with the acceleration issue and the same suggestions are made from the mechanics to fuel injection , to spark plugs to seeming like transmission issue and its the throttle body / please have lexus fix these issues.. They are expensive for the owner to have to go through all the trouble shooting and range of . Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.S.C. 552(B)(6). *Tr

Filed Incident Vehicle speed controlNHTSA 10690117
2003 Lexus ES300Body, doors & structureAcceleration & cruise controlEngine & coolingCrash1 injury

I was reversing and trying to turn when my car lexus es 300 suddenly picked up high speed acceleration by it self and went forward and hit a fence in front. The vehicle picked up unintentional high speed (full throttle). It was beyond my control. My body went forward and backward violently. For few days I have experienced muscle stiffness, pain and poor night sleep. *Tr

Filed Incident Structure · Vehicle speed control · EngineNHTSA 10627242
2002 Lexus ES300LightsBody, doors & structureAcceleration & cruise controlCrash1 injury

I own a 2002 lexus es300 and am the original owner. I have enjoyed the experience of driving the car to around 175k miles in nearly 12 years. So far, I did not have any major problems with the car until recently. Last friday, aug 8, 2014, my wife drove the car to a friend's place and was parked in a parallel parking area. There were 3 cars in that parking area including my car in 5 car parking area. The two parking spots behind my car were vacant. My wife was trying to back up to a spot right in front of another...

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car which was parked there. While trying to backup, there was a sudden acceleration of the engine and hit the car right behind and that car went and hit another car that was behind that car. The impact was so much that there was significant damage to my car and another car that was right behind and minor damage to the third car. Not only the damage to one car right behind but displaced its position and direction that it was parked. The third car was pushed over to the curb and was about to hit the pedestrians that were nearby. There were eye witnesses and police were called to the accident scene and reported the incident. After the incident occurred, I was looking to see if there were any issues with sudden acceleration of the cars and any safety recalls. I did notice that there were quite a few complaints about the sudden acceleration and safety issues on 2002 lexus es300. I am kind of disappointed in the way the car malfunctioned and I want to know what nhtsa is doing about it and how it can help victims like me. Thanks and appreciate your response. *Tr

Filed Incident Exterior lighting · Structure · Vehicle speed controlNHTSA 10622618
2003 Lexus ES300Acceleration & cruise controlCrash1 injury

Tl* the contact owns a 2003 lexus es300. The contact stated while driving approximately 35 mph, the brake pedal was applied and the vehicle increased acceleration unexpectedly. The vehicle failed to reduce speed and crashed into another vehicle and a fence. The contact suffered from a fractured right arm and sustained bruises to the body. A police report was filed of the incident. The vehicle was destroyed and towed to a salvage facility. The manufacturer was not notified of the defect. The approximate failure mileage was 140,000. The vin was unavailable.

Filed Incident Vehicle speed controlNHTSA 10597946
2005 Lexus ES300Acceleration & cruise controlCrash

Tl* the contact owns a 2005 lexus es330. The contact stated that while stopped with the brake pedal depressed, the vehicle accelerated and crashed into a wooden wall. The contact was not injured. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and stated that an engineer would inspect the vehicle. The vin was not available. The vehicle was not repaired or inspected. The approximate failure mileage was 111,000. *Tr

Filed Incident Vehicle speed controlNHTSA 10536963

Source: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) complaints and recalls, checked daily. Complaints are owners' own reports and are not verified. How we use the data

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