Front End Shakes When I Brake

10.0

really awful
Typical Repair Cost:
$500
Average Mileage:
85,000 miles
Total Complaints:
1 complaints

Most Common Solutions:

  1. replace the rotors (1 reports)
2003 Lexus ES 300 brakes problems

brakes problem

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2003 Lexus ES 300 Owner Comments

problem #1

Jul 172008

ES 300 ES V6

  • Automatic transmission
  • 85,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

I bought a certified pre owned Lexus ES300 in November 1996, and 6 months after having the car the steering wheel and front end would shake every time I hit the brakes. I took the car in and they told me that the rotors were warped and they needed to be machined, and that they would cover half of the expense since this was not covered under the warranty. I was very upset, only having the car for 6 months and the car only having 30,000 miles at the time, but I decided that there was nothing else that I could do so I agreed. Everything went fine for 6 months and then to my dismay the front end and the steering wheel started shaking again when I would brake. I called the dealership to have them check it out and this time they told me that the rotors had to be replaced. Now I know that rotors can be turned two or three times before having to be replaced, so naturally I was shocked to hear this since this meant that the rotors had already been tuned before, and remember that the car only had 30,000 miles on it when I bought it. I was furious, but again to no avail, I had to pay to have all four rotors replaced because this is not covered under warranty. I did so thinking that this would solve the problem, but guess what, it is now another 6 months, July 17, 2008 and once again, after having what I thought to be all four rotors replaced, my front end and steering wheel start to shake when I hit the brakes. I again take my car to the dealer and they tell me my 6 month old front rotors are warped on the front end, and I find out at the same time that my back rotors were never replaced, only machined, and that they could only machine the front rotors, even though they were under warranty, because that was all the warranty would allow them to do. I was told that I would have to call Lexus consumer service to see if they would do anything more. So not only is this the third time in 18 months that I have the same problem, but now I have to call consumer services to try and get something done. Let me tell you something, "Sewell Lexus" does nothing for the service industry.

After talking the Lexus consumer service for three days, and telling them the story about being lied to about my back rotors, and telling them that I would never put my faith in Lexus or ever buy another car from them, they told me that they could only machine the front rotors because that is what the warranty would do, and because I was lied to about the back rotors they were going to replace them. My issue here is that is not going to fix the problem because obviously this is a major problem with the Lexus cars, and I am quite sure that in 6 months that this is going to happen again.

- Dennis B., Fort Worth, TX, US

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