I was driving on the highway, going 65 mph and straight, and someone flagged me down to let me know that my car was smoking. None of my safety lights had appeared on my dash. I pulled over and saw that the back of my car was completely covered in oil and I had a fast oil leak underneath my car toward the front passenger side. I certainly sprayed oil on the cars behind me on the highway, potentially causing visibility issues for other drivers. I also leaked oil on the highway, causing a potential concern for other drivers. In some circumstances, this malfunction, coupled with highway speed, could cause the engine to seize and power steering and power brakes would have been instantly lost. Found a nearby auto shop and checked my oil dip stick - it was completely dry. Nearly all of my oil had leaked out. I was towed 100 miles home and took my car to the local auto repair shop. They did an assessment and determined that there was a gross oil leak coming from the oil cooler pipe (made of rubber) which runs from the filter adapter to the engine block. Lexus is aware of this issue and issued a warranty enhancement notification (attached) for the faulty part, but the part has not yet been recalled.

- Playa Del Rey, CA, USA

Water pump failed on 2009 lexux RX350 at 61500 miles and just 4 months over the powertrain warrenty. Lexus declined the claim. Engine overheating caused head gasket failure and warped cylinder head. 1.as per local mechanic who replaced water pump, there were indication of coolant leaking from water pump seal and it must be leaking for quite long time, even when vehicle was under warranty. There was enough volume of coolant when this incident happened, indicates that leakage was very minor and my not appear on the floor where car was parked. 2.water pump is part of powertrain and has no direct influence of driving pattern. Failure of water pump at 61000 miles is very pre-mature and indicate toward inherent problem with water pump quality. 3.safety issue: There were no signs of water pump failure until last moment when it actually gave up and check engine lights came up. There was very little time before check engine lights came on and further damage due to overheating. If it was ignored for couple of miles car would have caught into fire 4.powertrain warranty is 70000 miles or 72 months, whereas cars mileage is 61000 and time since first usage is 75 months (just 3 months over the warranty). Considering close proximity to warranty expiration, Lexus should consider this for warranty extension. 5.this engine series ( 3.5L ) is infamous for cooling system issues and several service bulletins have been issued regarding it. 6.several complains have been filed about the similar problem, where water pump failure and subsequent engine damage

- Bellingham, MA, USA

T-sb-0201-11 from Toyota/Lexus states "some vehicles equipped with 2gr-fe/fxe towing package engines may exhibit an oil seep from the engine oil cooler pipes." This tsb affects Toyota and Lexus vehicles going back to at least 2008-present. This is a major issue, and I feel this should be handled as a recall instead of a tsb due to the severity of the issue if/when the pipe breaks. I recently elected to have my vehicle repaired on my own just so I wouldn't have to worry about this issue happening to me or my wife, and thus blowing up my Lexus rx 350's engine causing thousands of dollars in damages. Seems pretty bad that a recall can be issued for floor mats and accelerator issues, but no recall is issued for this issue which can drain the oil from your engine in a minute, blow up your engine, and then possibly wreck your vehicle. Consumer's engines are now being destroyed, and this is showing up in different online forums. I feel that the NHTSA needs to force Toyota/Lexus to replace all of the defective engine oil cooler pipes with the newer metal ones that the tsb addresses. They should also be forced to reimburse all costs to those individuals that either needed to have the repair done, or decided to have the repair done as preventative maintenance on their own before those pipes burst on their own.

- Oak Forest, IL, USA

The vehicle engine light comes on and the vsc, and traction lights are on. Have spend over $500 on transistor and modules to continue to have nothing work. Most recently, was advised that I need a new transmission at $4,400. For a car with such a great reputation, and now seeing all of the other Lexus owners complain about their transmission, its seems as if there is a trend of transmission issues that follow these vehicles.

- Greensburg, PA, USA

The contact owns a 2009 Lexus rx 350. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to accelerate speed. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic for inspection where the contact was informed that the planetary assembly had become detached. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the issue. The approximate failure mileage was 70,410. Updated 2/11/14 the consumer stated aamco re-built the original transmission. They found the source of the failure was the pins had worked themselves out on the rear planet assembly gears, causing the transmission to fail. Updated 02/14/14

- Birmingham, AL, USA

When the SUV shifts from 1st to 2rd gear the engine revs up about 1000 rpms and hesitates 2-5 seconds before the shift takes place. I can't rely on power when needed because of this. It's not constant, about 30% of the time it occurs. The same thing happens when down shifting. The dealer, kendall Lexus of eugene Oregon (rick strong-service manager) is aware of the problem and says "Toyota won't put out a new chip to fix the problem". rick strong also said" I told the salesman he should inform potential buyers about this problem before they purchase a vehicle". this problem is ongoing since I bought the vehicle.

- Medford, OR, USA