Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2005 Lexus ES
Only 3 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure gets reported
There are 3 reports of control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2005 Lexus ES, 3 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 6,000 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $700–$3,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure, every year of the Lexus ES
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Wed may 23, 2007 went to jm lexus to check on the lights on the dashboard which say air bag on and air bag off. Saw joshua lentz who said they recalibrated the system. He told me that as long as front passenger weighs above 70 lbs the air bag system should operate. I asked if the air bag would activate in event of accident if the air bag off sign shows. He told me it would not activate. Today as we drove the sign air bag on showed. After a stop at a store we drove home and the air bag off sign showed all the way home. Today I called 1-800-255-3987, which is the lexus customer assistance center & spoke to mr caleb. He will have someone call me in two days with some answers. Am still waiting for the call. Fri may 25, 2007 got call back from john hall, service manager at jm lexus. Told me he will be in touch with lexus in california about the air bag problem. He believes they are working on the software for the air bag and he will try to find out when they think they will have a solution. He will call me today after he speaks to california. Sun may 27, 2007 haven't heard from service manager john hall. *tr
I purchased my 2005 lexus es330 in august of 2004 and have had the transmission acceleration / deceleration problems cited here in since the purchase date. I have had my car to the dealer 4 times for repair, plus a fifth visit with the lexus manufacturers representative. They have upgraded the software and reset the ECM memory each time, and state that there is nothing mechanical wrong with the car. I concur that this is a definite safety problem, especially in heavy traffic, due to the delay and lunging that can cause you to be rear ended or to rear-end someone else. Luckily, I have not had an accident - however given that this problem appears to have been reported on the lexus es since the 2002 model, I would expect lexus or the NHTSA to have done something by now. Note that I have also driven the 2006 es as a loaner while my car was being repaired, and it too has the exact same problem. I estimate the number of failures at 300, as that is the estimated number of days I have driven my car since I purchased it. *nm *nm
Also reported on the 2005 Lexus ES
Other powertrain problem
Other speed control problem
CV axle or driveshaft failure
Loss of power steering
Other lighting problem
Other brake problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 3 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 3 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure happen on the 2005 Lexus ES?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 5,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure on the 2005 Lexus ES?
3 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed