If you are considering buying a used Lexus RX, these are the common problems worth knowing about first. Our garage database tracks 2 known faults for this model, 2 of them rated high severity. Every one below is a repair bill a seller has good reason not to mention.
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Check a Lexus RX advert (free) →The Lexus RX has 2 known faults in our database across 3 generations, 2 of them rated high severity. The most serious are electrics (inverter Intelligent Power Module (IPM) failure causing the hybrid system to shut down) and fuel system (lexus UK recalled RX 450h cars built between September 2013 and May 2019 (alongside GS). None of them makes the car a bad buy on its own; the risk is a seller who knows and says nothing.
That is a count of the faults we hold, not a reliability score. Popular cars get written about more, and a newer generation has had less time to show its faults.
No year is a write-off on its own. What matters is which serious faults a given year and engine can have, and whether the car in front of you has had them fixed.
Each one is set out in full below, with the symptoms, the typical mileage and a rough repair cost.
One owner each, in their own words rewritten as a line, and not counted in our risk scoring. A fault joins the list above once a second report or an editorial source backs it.
Sellers rarely admit these faults outright
We track 5 specific phrases sellers use in adverts to soft-pedal these exact issues. Paste any Lexus RX advert and we check it in seconds.
Check an advert now (free) →Recall work is done by the manufacturer, and GOV.UK says you will not usually have to pay for it. These are the 5 DVSA recalls for the RX, newest first. They do not tell you whether this particular car has had the work: for that, put the registration into the free GOV.UK MOT history check, which shows a recall status where the manufacturer shares it, or ask a franchised dealer to check the VIN.
For certain vehicles equipped with a Parking Assist ECU a component of the Panoramic View Monitor (PVM) system that displays the rear view image the software may cause the rear view image to freeze or not display
Put right by: Reprogram the parking assist ECU.
For certain vehicles equipped with the combination meter system (where various information is displayed) that due to an improper programming of the combination meter unnecessarily repetitive data is written to a memory device. This may cause the memory device to deteriorate and the monitor to not display during the meter at start up and remain in this state permanently.
Put right by: Reprogram or replace the combination meter.
On affected vehicles there is a possibility that the DCM may not complete the shutdown process within a specific period of time when the ignition is turned off causing the DCM to not restart at the next ignition cycle and making the e-Call function unavailable. As a result the vehicles do not comply with relevant regulations.
Put right by: The software of the DCM (Data Communication Module) will be updated via an Over the Air (OTA) wireless update.
It is possible that due to variations in the build specification of the Intelligent Power Module (IPM) which includes the Insluted-Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT's) the lead-based solder could be affected by abnormally higher operating temperatures. This could result in a degrading of the solder and eventually heat damage to the IGBT's. If this occurs then warning lights on the instrument panel will illuminate. However if the driver fails to heed these warnings or the main power supply fuse blows then the vehicle could stop without warning.
Put right by: Recall all the affected vehicles and replace the IPM unit with a upgraded unit.
Due to a none conformance to specification the front crankshaft pulley inner and outer rubber mounted section may separate. If the separation occurs noise will become apparent the ignition warning lamp may illuminate and in the worst case the power steering drive belt may detach from the pulley which will result in the driver having to significantly increase their effort to steer the vehicle especially at low speed.
Put right by: Recall the vehicles that are likely to be affected to check and where necessary replace the crankshaft pulley.
Recall data published by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency under the Open Government Licence v3.0. A recall listed here may not apply to every car of this model: the build dates and the registration check are what decide it.
No Lexus RX year is a write-off, but the 2nd Gen (2003 to 2009) carries the most serious faults: electrics. The 4th Gen (2015 to 2022) has high-severity faults on record too. The 3rd Gen (2009 to 2015) has none rated high severity. Year matters less than whether the specific car has had the known fixes, so check the history for them.
Ask the seller about the electrics and fuel system faults on this page and whether they have been fixed, with invoices. On the test drive watch for 'Check Hybrid System' and 'VSC System' warning lights and warning lights and messages on the instrument panel. Read the MOT history for repeat advisories, then paste the advert into the free check, which reads it against its known faults before you travel. Check a Lexus RX advert →
The DVSA lists 5 safety recalls for the Lexus RX issued between 2012 and 2025. The most recent, from December 2025, is "Parking Assist ECU reprogram on multiple models". Recall work is done by the manufacturer, and GOV.UK says you will not usually have to pay for it. This list is by model, so it cannot tell you whether one particular car has had the work: the free GOV.UK MOT history check shows a recall status from the registration where the manufacturer shares it, and a franchised dealer can check the VIN.
Owners report 32.5 mpg on average across the Lexus RX engines with data, about 84% of the official combined figure. The gap between official and real-world economy varies a lot by engine, so the Real MPG page lists every engine and generation separately, from 676 owner submissions. Lexus RX Real MPG by engine →
Looking at a Lexus RX right now? Check the advert before you go and see it.
If you used to check the Honest John “Good & Bad” section before the site closed in 2026, this page is where that information now lives. We rebuilt the Lexus RX owner-report history from the archived Honest John dataset, added our own research, specialist and owner-club sources and DVSA recall data, and we keep it free. Each fault above is badged with its source. The same data feeds our free advert check, which reads a listing against every known fault for the exact engine and year.
CarAdCheck is not affiliated with Honest John or Volkswagen Financial Services. What happened to Honest John, and where each feature lives now.
Knowing what a Lexus RX goes wrong with is half of it. The rest is reading the advert and checking the car's history before you hand any money over.