Table 1 shows two common exterior lighting related problems of the 2002 Lexus ES.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Headlights problems | |
| Exterior Lighting problems |
My 2002 Es 300 has headlight sensors which make it go up and down depending on what angle the car is parked/moving at. So going downhill, it should dip down to avoid oncoming traffic from glare and going uphill, it should make the light go farther. Somehow the sensor (or something else) got faulty. Lexus dealership made me drive at least 5000 miles (I used to live in fargo, nd and the nearest dealership with 225+ miles one way) before they could acknowledge that there was something wrong with the lights. I had to make a video at night (as they denied test driving at night) to show them my safety concerns about the headlights. The distance I could see was very small and it got dangerous at night time, unless I turned my high beam on. Lexus acknowledged the problem, kept my car for one month, drove it for approximately 3000 miles. Engineers from chicago and la came (I was told) and the answer was: we could not find what exactly is causing this, but there is some magnetic field around the wire to the sensor which disrupts the functioning of the sensor. We have put the shielded wire around the wire and it should not happen again. I had not been driving this car much since then at night time due to safety concerns, till I moved to albuquerque. The terrain here is hilly and I don't see the lights to dip down or go farther while going downhill and uphill respectively. While making turns around canyons and cliffs , going uphill, it becomes dangerous as you can' see more than 30-40 feet (or less) on a freeway which is not a safe braking distance at 65-70 miles/hr and if you turn the high beam on it's not safe for the oncoming traffic. I urge that NHTSA investigate this issue and I am willing to provide my car for driving up to 300-400 miles. Even though I have put Aug 22nd 2003 as the incident date, that is my purchase date from my uncle (the original owner) and it happens . Everytime I drive. Thanks for your time in this matter.
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 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.