2002 Lexus Es300 problems, complaints & recalls
Most-reported problem areas: Vehicle Speed Control (36) · Power Train:automatic Transmission (31) · Vehicle Speed Control:accelerator Pedal (13)
🧭 Reliability snapshot
Compared against other Lexus Es300 model years — complaint volume vs the model's median year, recalls and severity. How we score →
🛣️ Complaints by mileage
86 NHTSA complaints that reported an odometer reading.
Safety recalls (0)
No recalls on record for this model year (campaigns announced since 2010).
Service bulletins (97)
Technical service bulletins are repair instructions manufacturers send dealers for known issues. Unlike recalls, the fix is not automatically free — but naming the bulletin at the service desk can save diagnosis time and support goodwill repairs.
Structure:body 2024-04-19 · L-SB-0022-24 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
acid rain results from rainwater or other airborne moisture that become acidic due to industrial chemical impurities in the atmosphere. if these acidic compounds settle on an exposed vehicle, especially the horizontal areas such as the hood, roof, and decklid, significant damage to the painted surfa
Structure:body 2024-04-19 · L-SB-0021-24 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
lexus vehicles are currently protected with rapgardtm protective film designed to protect the horizontal painted surfaces. this material protects from acid rain, environmental fallout, and rail contamination. follow the removal procedure in this bulletin to remove the rapgardtm protective film withi
Structure:body 2024-04-19 · L-SB-0020-24 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
vehicles may occasionally be subjected to contamination by airborne iron particles shed from railroad tracks, train wheels, exposure to heavy machinery facilities, grinding, welding, etc. this type of contamination can be identified by the presence of small, red or brown particles on the paint surfa
Structure:body 2024-04-19 · L-SB-0022-24 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
acid rain results from rainwater or other airborne moisture that become acidic due to industrial chemical impurities in the atmosphere. if these acidic compounds settle on an exposed vehicle, especially the horizontal areas such as the hood, roof, and decklid, significant damage to the painted surfa
Structure:body 2024-04-19 · L-SB-0021-24 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
lexus vehicles are currently protected with rapgardtm protective film designed to protect the horizontal painted surfaces. this material protects from acid rain, environmental fallout, and rail contamination. follow the removal procedure in this bulletin to remove the rapgardtm protective film withi
Structure:body 2024-04-19 · L-SB-0020-24 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
vehicles may occasionally be subjected to contamination by airborne iron particles shed from railroad tracks, train wheels, exposure to heavy machinery facilities, grinding, welding, etc. this type of contamination can be identified by the presence of small, red or brown particles on the paint surfa
Showing the 6 most recent of 97 bulletins. Search all of them free at nhtsa.gov.
What owners report
2018-08-24 · Seats · 155,000 mi · 💥 crash“tl* the contact owns a 2002 lexus es300. while the contact was stopped in traffic, the vehicle was rear ended at 45 mph by another vehicle. both the front driver and passenger seats collapsed. as a result, the rear passengers sustained traumatic brain injuries that required medical attention. the driver and front passenger sustained head injuries, …”
2017-12-18 · Electronic Stability Control (Esc) · 100,000 mi“i replaced the battery on my lexus and it would no longer idle you take your foot off the accelerator and the engine dies.. the computer lost the idle parameters this is dangerous as i turned left off one road to another took my foot from accelarator to brake engine died and i lost power steering almost wrecked most mechanics are aware of thi…”
2017-05-09 · Vehicle Speed Control“2002 lexus excelerated on it's own.i was getting on freeway i stepped on gas to go with flow of traffic , then traffic started backing up so i went to use brakes to slow down but car kept excelerating. i had to use both feet to try to stop ,then i felt a pop from gas pedal at that time it stopped excellerating…”
2016-06-29 · Unknown Or Other · 236,400 mi · 🔥 fire“while driving on a freeway the car made a sudden & brief shutter immediately followed by loss of response by the accelerator pedal. i immediately began to move off the freeway knowing that something was wrong with my car. upon getting o the off ramp i saw flames coming from around the front left tire. i put the car into park, turned the engine off…”
2016-05-28 · Air Bags“side airbags near windshield are leaking when it rains. at first it was a slow leak, but really pours in now…”
2016-05-13 · Engine · 145,000 mi“large cloud of white/gray smoke when car sits overnight from previous night driving. after researching online this seems to be a common problem. there was a lawsuit filed because of this. why not a recall????…”
2016-01-25 · Engine · 130,000 mi · 🔥 fire“tl* the contact owns a 2002 lexus es300. while driving 30 mph, there were flames and a black substance coming from the engine compartment of the vehicle. the fire department was able to extinguish the fire. a police report was not filed and there were no injuries sustained. the vehicle was towed to an auto body repair center, but was not diagnosed …”
2015-01-17 · Engine And Engine Cooling · 180,000 mi · 🔥 fire“on 1/8/15 at approx. 9:30 am, i was driving to work south on hwy 95 near exit 67 . suddenly, other drivers were frantically waving at me to pull over onto the shoulder of the highway. what they saw ( and which i couldn't), was that there were flames under my car. i pulled over and got out of the car. within seconds ( not even a full minute), the e…”
2014-07-09 · Unknown Or Other · 156,342 mi“dealer and finance company claim clean title but documents reflect otherwise. *tr…”
2014-05-21 · Power Train · 1,000 mi“when the transmission shifts between first and second gears at a slow steady speed(approx 20mph) the car will frequently violently jerk. my car has 75000 miles and has done it since day one. *tr…”
Excerpts of consumer complaints filed with NHTSA, lightly truncated. They are owner statements, not verified findings.