Unclassified problem on the 2011 Lexus Es350
5 crashes 2 injuries 7 of the 30 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 8 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
Owners of the 2011 Lexus Es350 report unclassified problem at a median of 50,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 12th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 100,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 69,400 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
25% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28,600 miles | 40,000 miles | 51,500 miles | 91,250 miles | 98,000 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, 5 a crash and 2 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 2011 has 30. 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.
Lexus inbox x [xxx] <[xxx]@gmail.com> 10:23 am (0 minutes ago) to me I own a 2011 lexus es 350. On 12/10/2015 I was parking in a church parking lt when suddenly my car roared like an airplane and surged up a hill through an iron gate at a cemetery, downing a stone pillar and finally coming to a stop on top of a headstone. I cannot describe the sheer panic I experienced. My first thought was thank god no one was in front of me. The previous day I picked up my 5 yr old granddaughter at her elementary school. Children could have been killed!!!! I can never drive this car again. I believe it will be totaled anyway. It's at eddie's auto body in moodus, connecticut. I retired 2 1/2 yrs ago from p&w aircraft as a performance engineer to buy the car of my dreams which turned out to be my worst nightmare. Following are other examples of the same issue. Please investigate this to save lives! [xxx] [xxx] moodus, ct. 06469 [xxx] VIN unavailable information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).' *jb
Tl* the contact owns a 2011 lexus es350. The contact stated that the passenger side air bag warning indicator did not register them in the seat. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the air bag sensor needed to be recalibrated. The vehicle was repaired however, the failure recurred. The contact was informed due to their weight, approximately 90 pounds, the air bag would not register them in the seat. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 47,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 2011 lexus es350. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign number: 16v340000 (air bags). The part for the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The contact stated that the air bag warning indicator was illuminated the manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 23,000 VIN tool confirms parts not available. Updated 03/07/17*lj
Also reported on the 2011 Lexus Es350
Airbag inflator rupture
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
Other electrical problem
Sunroof failure or glass breakage
Other body or interior problem
Stalling while driving
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 30 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 30 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 2011 Lexus Es350?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2011 Lexus Es350?
30 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.8 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