I must have an honest face. Not being able to find adequate answers I went into a Lexus dealership today to try to get to the bottom of how a Lexus like the one that killed four people in CA actually worked. There are no good answers anywhere that I have searched. Not the Lexus forums, not here, not Googling the incident regarding this or that. So after looking around for an answer, wondering about anti-lock brakes, how an ES transmission worked, what the ECU would control, how to shut the engine off in an emergency and not finding any really good info including comments from Lexus owners I decided the only way to get to the bottom of this was...................go to a Lexus dealer and take a test drive in an '09 ES 350.
Now exactly what Lexus dealer is going to turn over a new car to a guy dressed in work boots, blue jeans, jean work shirt, dried mud on the knees of his jeans. Especially after he tells them what he wants to do. Specifically, I want to take one of your new cars out and test drive it to see how the transmission works and whether or not the brakes can haul it down from 80 mph at full throttle.
They threw me a key fob and said go test that one and give us a report on what you find.
But before I get into that we had a little discussion at the dealership. It was the floor mat they said. Ah, but it isn't nearly that simple I replied. I've been to Lexus forums to read owner comments, gun forums, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Corvette, BMW, Porsche....etc. No one knows the answer, there seems to be a lot of confusion and no one has tested this. Why didn't the brakes stop the car, why didn't the driver shift to neutral?, can the car be shifted to neutral when accelerating?, etc.
So they turned me loose with one of their brand new '09 cars with 31 miles on it. I had my camera, wishing I had new batteries it. I took a few pictures then realized it had a video mode. I had never used it. But, I fired that up in hopes that I could record what I learned
I sized up the interior and the dash, the accelerator pedal and the front mat that was still installed in this one. It was no where near the pedal. The brakes felt exactly like the ones in my Ford truck. Spongy but they seemed to work fine. I sped down the entrance ramp to the nearby interstate searching for a big hole in the evening traffic. Soon I had my chance. I eyed the start/stop button with suspicion should things not go well. I played around with the shifter putting it into the driver side slot. The most forward position is neutral, then drive, then lower gears can be selected by pulling the lever to the rear. There is a short center gate position with nothing showing and a right gate that leads to reverse and park.
70 mph came up quickly, the road was clear and straight for 1/2 mile front and rear, four lanes. I nailed it, the transmission downshifted once or twice, the tach hit about 5,700 rpm if I remember correctly. As the car surged forward I hit the brakes with my left foot hard at 80 mph, right foot still planted on the floorboard. The brakes hauled the car down, was it smooth, no, the car was shaking like the rotors were warped but I expect it was the anti-lock system kicking in. As I slowed enough to have ditched the car, put it against the rail, etc. Appx 20 mph and the brakes were still good. I let off the brakes and reaccelerated to 80, foot still on the floor. This didn't take long and I hit the brakes hard again.
This time I had about 1/3 the braking force as before and the car would not stop. It did slow but not easily and not nearly enough. I let off the brake pedal and ran it back up to 80. I immediately hit the brakes hard again. This time.....I had essentially no brakes. I stood on em. They had faded. My conclusion. On this car you have one chance to stop with the brakes with the engine at wide open throttle. If you play with the brakes, try to stop a bit, let off, allow the car to reaccelerate, try to stop, etc., you aren't going to stop. This car has four wheel disc brakes. But they have a limit and one stop from this speed with the engine at WOT is it.
Now about the transmission. From all "apearances" the left gate is the one you would use. It is lit, shows neutral, drive, lower gears. The right gate is for reverse and park. The very short center gate appears to do nothing. So with gear selection lever in the left gate and in the drive positon I pushed the gear selector all the way forward to neutral. Nothing.I accelerated and while accelerating pushed the lever all the way against the neutral position which is as far forward as it will go in the left gate. Again nothing, the transmission stays engaged.
So, what about downshifting? As I expected you can downshift progressively with each pull of the gear selector toward the rear. Downshift up to a point that is. The ECU controls how far down you can shift or if you can downshift at all, based on speed. At speed you cannot downshift. Reverse is locked out.
But what does that short center section do. No lights, no nothing but it is a gate. So I shifted into it. Here my options are drive and neutral, nothing else and nothing marked as best I could tell. Push forward on the gear selection lever in the center gate and the transmission goes into neutral regardless of throttle position. Yes, the engine will rev when in heavy acceleration and idle if you push the lever to neutral. Just like it should. What is a problem is that if you weren't familiar with the car and in a panic you might not recognize this gate as a viable option. I only tried it because I was testing everything. Wasn't my car. So, there is a functioning, non computer locked out neutral.
Next I tried the start/stop button. Punching it will do nothing to turn the engine off whether moving slowly, coasting or accelerating. On the other hand, holding it in continuously for several seconds will kill the engine regardless of throttle position and the car is completely controllable. A quick punch restarts the engine with all the normal start up lights on the dash lighting.
So our driver only needed to know there was a functioning, manually engaged neutral position and where to find it, or, how to use the dash start/stop button to kill the engine. Unfortunately he apparently didn't know either. I suggested that all Lexus clients be notified about how to shut the engine off in an emergency and where the non computer controlled neutral is located. You can't control what aftermarket mats might be put in a car. You can make sure purchasers know these two things. I haven't tried the camera yet. If I was able to get a video of the stop and start and attempted stops I'll post it.
