Unclassified problem on the 2009 Lexus Es350
4 crashes 3 injuries 7 of the 24 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
Only 7 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 unclassified problem gets reported
There are 24 reports of unclassified problem on the 2009 Lexus Es350, 7 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
It is the 25th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 43,000 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
Of these reports, 4 a crash and 3 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2017, at a median of 700 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 95,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 70; the 2009 has 24. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
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.
Failure of airbags to deploy in a head-on collision on october 24, 2009 involving my 2009 lexus es 350. Damage estimates from the involved insurance company total over $15,000.00 for all frontal damage which intrudes into the engine compartment. Estimates which are over $15000.00 indicate that the airbag sensors are being replaced, but there is no charge indicated for the sensor replacement which lexus is probably doing at no charge. This means that the damage of $15,000.00 are for parts and work other than that involving the front airbag sensors replacement. Injuries sustained by front seat passengers. Driver is being treated for a closed head injury/concussion and passenger is being evaluated for concerns of dizziness, right hip pain and a possible neck injury. *tr
Tl*the contact owns a 2008 lexus es350. On february 9, 2010, while the contact was attempting to change gears with his foot on the brake, the vehicle suddenly accelerated. He attempted to slow the vehicle down by depressing the brake pedal with both feet but the vehicle did not stop and collided into a wall. The driver was not injured but the passenger did sustain injuries to the mouth and upper body. A police report was filed. The current and failure mileages were approximately 28,000. The consumer is requesting the findings on the vehicle. Updated evoq 10/13/10 the consumer also stated the air bags failed to deploy. Updated 02/25/11
On tuesday, 6/28/11 my wife was involved in a head on accident. The vehicle in front of her had no brake lights and she slammed into the back of his truck. She has $9,000 worth of front end damage and none of the airbags on her 2009 lexus es350 deployed. I find that to be an issue. Due to that fact she has sustained a head, neck, back and knee injury. I contacted lexus of cherry hill, nj where the vehicle was purchased less then a year ago as a precertified vehicle and was told that it depended on how fast she was going at the time she hit, that would determine whether the air bags would deploy. A car with $9,000 front end damage in my opinion should have deployed an air bag. Something is wrong with this picture. *tr
Also reported on the 2009 Lexus Es350
Airbag inflator rupture
Other speed control problem
Sunroof failure or glass breakage
Other brake problem
Other body or interior problem
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 24 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 24 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 unclassified problem happen on the 2009 Lexus Es350?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 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 unclassified problem on the 2009 Lexus Es350?
24 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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