Hybrid Inverter For Rx400

[Geordie12]

Hello everyone, I'm a new member as of today looking for some help/advice. Hi, I have been told that my 400h needs a new hybrid inverter at a cost of £3200. My car rolled of the production line 8 Jan 2007, do u think it is possible that the recall hybrid inverter from 06 models may have found its way into my car, I am appealing the cost on the grounds that this is a possibility. Any comments greatly appreciated...

[Duncan Roberts]

All the cars that required an inverter were recalled and you should check that yours was not involved and was missed.

Inverter failure is rare and there are few discussed here and I have to say I thought catastrophic ie the car stops. May well be worth seeking Lexus good will but essentially you are in their hands if this is a genuine failure. how many miles has it done?

[Geordie12]

Hello Duncan, thanks for your reply, my car has done 68,000 miles, inverter is covered for 5 yrs or 70,000 miles (whatever comes first). My car just 'died' which could have been catastrophic, luckily I was only travelling at 30mph but that is not the point, I could have been on the motorway at 70, it was scary enough at 30 never mind 70. The car braked and dipped so much that the bottom of the bumper scrapped the ground, can only hope lexus take this into account...

[steve2006]

Hello and welcome to the LOC.

From what I have read the main cause of invertor failure is the cooling system it uses, if this goes the invertor overheats and fails.

If the car has a FLSH I would press for at least some discount but there have been cases where this has been granted and others where the dealer has stood firm so go in with a softly softly approach perhaps mentioning that this particular car is being discussed on the LOC ( apparently Lexus GB monitor our club!) and it is not a very good advertisement for a prestige car designed to "Perfection"

The thing is with the Invertor unit if you can find a good used one from a write off it is a specialist job to remove and replace one. With high voltages being used I wouldn't like to get involved myself.

Plus there are no places reconditioning the invertors as apparently all the duff ones go back to Japan, from there no one knows what happens to them but I have an idea!

Good luck with Lexus and please come back with updates.

[Geordie12]

Hello Steve and thank you for the welcome. I have been informed today that my appeal is now in Brussel and I am awaiting the outcome, start of next week I've been told. The chap I've been dealing with at Lexus Glasgow has been more than helpful and has been fighting my corner for me, so fingers crossed. I will update when I get some news...