These modern SUVs are freakin’ massive. And this means that unless you have eyes on the back of your head, you’ll likely need to rely on built-in tech to reverse your behemothic vehicles. A Lexus SUV is no different. But now the Japanese luxury brand has recalled over 144,000 cars in the United States because this technology has gone wrong as faulty backup cameras become a major issue.
Fortunately for Lexus, the problem is rooted in just a missing small capacitor in the Lexus RX, NX, and TX models. When shifting into reverse, the rearview screen will go blank. While frustrating, it’s an easy and free fix for owners who can get it attended to by their local dealership.
The Root of the Problem Is A Simple Voltage Drop
Malfunctioning screens aren’t a rarity in the industry anymore. In fact, it’s become frustratingly common across a number of brands. But this issue came from a simple issue. According to the marque, a number of these vehicles were built with USB charging ports that were missing the villainous capacitor.
With the capacitor used to stabilize a flow of power for the parts involved in the reversing camera, without it the car sees a sudden drop in voltage. If the driver cycles the ignition from off to on within an eight-second window while the engine is running, the dip in power interrupts the backup camera system.
This means that when you put the SUV into reverse, you’ll be gifted with a blank screen.
Which Lexus SUVs Are Affected?
As always with these things, there is a silver lining. Not every vehicle is affected by this issue, with Lexus confirming that the only cars affected are the ICE models equipped with certain multimedia units with this specific USB package. If you drive a hybrid, you’re off the case.
The recall covers exactly 144,200 vehicles spread across four specific gas-powered nameplates:
- Lexus RX350 (2023–2026): The bulk of the recall hits the RX, with 71,084 units built between late October 2022 and mid-January 2026.
- Lexus NX350 (2022–2025): 43,774 examples produced from March 2022 through August 2025.
- Lexus NX250 (2022–2025): 25,529 units rolling off the line during that same March 2022 to August 2025 timeframe.
- Lexus TX350 (2024–2026): 3,843 of the larger family haulers manufactured between September 2023 and February 2026.
How Lexus Plans to Fix the Blank Screens
Toyota’s luxury brand has been watching this issue unfold for a while and had opened an internal investigation as early as the beginning of 2025 to counter it after a number of drivers had started complaining.
Starting May 3rd, Lexus will begin unrolling the red carpet to owners with notification letters to the owners of the cars affected. These owners will need to bring in their cars to their local dealerships where they will be diagnosed and repaired for free. This repair will either be from a reflash of the system with a software update which bypasses the camera’s finicky boot sequence, or the hardware will be replaced entirely.
