Engine sensor failure on the 2000 Lexus Rx300
Only 4 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 engine sensor failure gets reported
There are 4 reports of engine sensor failure on the 2000 Lexus Rx300, 4 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 95,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 126,500 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 $180–$900 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 Rx300
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.
After approximately 62,000 engine light illuminated. The oxygen sensor was replaced by my local repair shop. After the engine light came back on, and I reattempted to use my local shop 3 times I brought it to the dealer. The problem is the mass airflow sensor/meter. This seems very premature for this type of part to fail. For a auto comapny that professes quality I was disappointed for this problem to arise. I am past warranty and am petitioning lexus to pay for some of the repair. *ak
With no warning signs at all the transmission on my lexus rx300 has failed. The car never previously failed to engage in any gear, however, while driving the car decreased in speed and would not switch gears to accelerate. We stopped at a red light, and the car would no longer move. Luckily we had made the rare choice of not driving on the freeway that particular night. The transmission fluid had been checked 3 weeks earlier, and the car has had regular maintenance and oil changes. After further research I am finding hundreds of complaints of the same problem with this model of lexus, and evidence that there is a design flaw in this transmission set up. For the price of these cars I cannot understand why there has been no recall. There is no reason why a transmisson should fail at 126,000 miles on this car. We have been told that the repair cost could be between $3500-$5000. This is not the quality that I expected with the purchase of this car. We have had to replace the oxygen sensors, the mass air flow sensors the vvt valves and oil pan, and now we are faced with the great expense of replacing a very expensive transmission that…
Tl* the contact owns a 2000 lexus rx300. The contact stated that the only gear that would engage was drive. Although the contact could shift into any gear, the gears would not engage. The contact also mentioned that approximately four pistons misfired and the 02 sensor was defective. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where the technician stated that the transmission needed to be rebuild and the o2 sensor needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The VIN was not repaired. The failure mileage was 127,000 and the current mileage was 128,700. *tr
Also reported on the 2000 Lexus Rx300
Other powertrain problem
Complete transmission failure
Other engine problem
Other speed control problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
Audio or connectivity failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 4 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 4 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 engine sensor failure happen on the 2000 Lexus Rx300?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 125,000 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 engine sensor failure on the 2000 Lexus Rx300?
4 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 22 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