Rollback On Hills?!?!?!?

[mikeydude]

Guys help me out here.

I've just purchased a 2007 Lexus RX 400h SE-L from Lexus Southampton with 90K on the clock. It's had a full service history with lexus.

Anyway the car is great - so comfortable it's beyond belief. Thing is.... the car rolls backwards in-gear on steeper slopes. Now I don't know about you guys, but that doesn't seem right to me, as I thought the whole point of auto-box is no need to find bite point on hills (!).

I called up Lexus and they told me that it's normal and I quote 'designed to do that' as it doesn't have the 'lock', but that they'd check it out if I wished.

Any thoughts???

[Sleepypete (FB)]

Guys help me out here.

I've just purchased a 2007 Lexus RX 400h SE-L from Lexus Southampton with 90K on the clock. It's had a full service history with lexus.

Anyway the car is great - so comfortable it's beyond belief. Thing is.... the car rolls backwards in-gear on steeper slopes. Now I don't know about you guys, but that doesn't seem right to me, as I thought the whole point of auto-box is no need to find bite point on hills (!).

I called up Lexus and they told me that it's normal and I quote 'designed to do that' as it doesn't have the 'lock', but that they'd check it out if I wished.

Any thoughts???

Does your's have the Hill Start Assist feature ? (I don't know enough about RX's). Try :

Stop the RX (foot on brakes)

Press brakes down some more while at a complete stop

Hopefully see a little icon appear : Yellow background, black car, 2 black S's

That'll be the Hill Start Assist, it'll keep the brakes on for about 2 seconds after you release the pedal.

Took me a read of the manual to find it, plus a bit of up and down on the pedal. That's in a CT, hopefully it was in the 07 RX too :)

[Neil Morphett]

I don't think there's a Hill Start Assist, I don't remember it in the manual for my '08 RX, and I've never noticed any symbology coming up after prolonged braking.

Yes, it can roll back a bit on steep hills, sounds like yours is OK. Think it's a feature of CVT gearboxes, I had an Audi with a 'multitronic' (CVT) gearbox and it also could roll back on steep hills - conventional autos do as well but it seems they can tolerate more of a gradient. The RX doesn't roll back far/fast, but you do need to be aware of it (and roughly what gradient it happens on) so you can switch feet to left-foot brake before moving off. Or, I suppose, could use the foot-handbrake, which I have probably used nearly ten times in 3 years.

[m1pui]

Or, I suppose, could use the foot-handbrake, which I have probably used nearly ten times in 3 years.

Be careful with that kind of practice. We've had our RX for about 6 years now and somewhere along the line I got lazy and totally forgot/stopped using the parking brake. Went into garage last month and been told the handbrake is seized solid. Probably doesn't help that we live straight across the road to the beach so the car is literally exposed to those elements 24/7-365!

Apparently they spent quite a while trying to free it all off to no avail. He rang about to get prices for parts to sort it and he said it'd be about £500 as some of the seemingly rudimentary parts are £50-100 each and Lexus supplied only. Haven't got round to taking it anywhere else for a 2nd opinion but he said to try using the handbrake regularly for a while and see if it frees itself up.

[ISJason]

i think you'll find Hill Start Assist came in on the RX450h not the 400h, prob from 2010.

[ColinBarber]

yes hill start came out on third generation Toyota hybrids around 2009 onwards - Prius III, Auris hybrid, CT200, RX450h etc.

[CJHYBRID]

My drive is sloping when I back in I stop the car on the brake put in park and put the foot brake on. Car rolls back about six inches and settles to a stop.

It's quite steep and have my fingers crossed when the snow comes.

Chris

[DanD]

Your car is behaving normally. There is no Hill Start Assist on the RX400h, and yes the car will slowly roll back if gradient is steep enough.

Got mine checked by Lexus S'ton when I bought my car from them and they confirmed that all was working as designed.