Cruise control failure on the 2008 Lexus Es350
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 cruise control failure gets reported
There are 3 reports of cruise control failure on the 2008 Lexus Es350, 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 72,000 miles. It is the 11th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 8,890 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 $200–$1,400 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 Es350
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.
On november 5, 2008 I was driving on a freeway in my 2008 lexus es 350 with the cruise control on. I gave the car a little extra gas to pass another car and the car just took off. I tried to disengage the accelerator by trying to turn off the cruise control switch as well as tapping on the brake pedal, but it would not disengage. I tried to turn off the engine by pushing the keyless ignition button, but it would not turn off. I checked the floor to make sure that there wasn't anything on the accelerator, and there wasn't. I then put the car in neutral, but when I did this, the engine sounded as if it were going to explode, so I put it back in gear. By this time, I was going well over 100 MPH. My only choice was to stand on the brakes. Within seconds, the car was in a cloud of smoke coming from the 4 wheels/brakes. The car began to slow as thankfully the brakes were stronger than the engine which was going at its maximum RPM's. The car went over a mile before finally coming to a stop. I was then able to put the car in park and stop the engine. After a few moments, when I had calmed down a bit, I started the engine again and it…
I was driving south on interstate 5 in california near oceanside on may 10, 2009 from orange county towards carlsbad, ca. When approaching highway 78, I felt the vehicle increasing in speed to about 90 MPH, without depressing the accelerator. I had been on cruise control at about 73 MPH (probably 68-69 MPH actual speed). I had two passengers in my car. The female passenger screamed at me to slow down. I was unable to do so even after stepping forcefully on the brakes. Also disengaged the cruise control, by pushing the button on the end of a stem, so that the green cruise indicator light disappeared, since I noticed the cruise control still on even after touching the brakes ( I assumed from previous experience that speed controls are ignored when stepping on the brake) my commands to slow the car down were inactive, but I continued pumping the brakes and the other passenger suggested to turn the engine off; so I pushed the start/kill button on the dashboard briefly, but did not hear or noticed the engine stopping. Somehow, a few seconds later the car finally slowed down and I steered the car to side of the road and stopped the car…
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 lexus es350. The contact was driving with the cruise control set to 75 MPH when the traction, engine and vehicle stability control (vsc) warning lights illuminated. The contact applied the brakes and the vehicle began to decrease in speed however when he removed his foot from the brake pedal, the vehicle began to accelerate back to 75 MPH. The cruise control would not deactivate by applying the brakes. The contact depressed the brakes again until the vehicle came to a complete stop however, the vehicle abnormally accelerated to 65 MPH when his foot was released from the pedal. The vehicle maintained a speed of 65 MPH although the cruise control was no longer activated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the contact was awaiting a diagnosis of the failure. The current and failure mileages were 49,167.
Also reported on the 2008 Lexus Es350
Airbag inflator rupture
Other speed control problem
Other body or interior problem
Other visibility problem
Other electrical 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 cruise control failure happen on the 2008 Lexus Es350?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 10,000 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 cruise control failure on the 2008 Lexus Es350?
3 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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