Some Lexus NX owners may start their crossover and find part of the gauge screen blank. That glitch is behind a new Lexus NX recall covering 68,356 crossovers from the 2022 to 2024 model years. When it strikes, the screen may not show the warnings for engine oil pressure, coolant temperature or electrical charge.
Toyota filed the recall with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on October 20, 2026. It covers four versions: the NX 250, NX 350, NX 350h hybrid and NX 450h+ plug-in hybrid.
Fortunately, the fix is software, and it costs owners nothing. However, the paperwork shows that finding the cause took Toyota and its supplier roughly three years.
What the Lexus NX recall says goes blank
According to the NHTSA recall record for campaign 26V687, the combination meter may fail to display certain warnings and indicators. Because of that, the affected cars do not meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 101, the federal rule that covers controls and displays.
Those three telltales matter, because they guard the engine. A low-oil-pressure light or a high coolant temperature reading is often the only early sign of a failing engine. NHTSA’s summary says that missing them can increase the risk of a crash.
Toyota’s Part 573 safety recall report adds detail. The NX uses a 7-inch combination meter, and an error can occur during its start-up routine. As a result, sections of the display can go blank at random when the driver switches the car on.
A three-year hunt for a start-up glitch
The Part 573 report lays out a long chronology. Toyota says it began receiving reports of a blank meter in 2023. Between August 2023 and July 2024, it pulled parts from the field for analysis but found nothing abnormal.
More reports followed, so the supplier ran a fault-tree analysis focused on how the meter starts up. Then, in March and April 2025, bench tests that cycled the ignition on and off produced a blank display. Even so, Toyota says it was not clear whether that matched what customers saw.
Next, engineers built special software to capture the meter’s internal communication data, and they reproduced a blank screen between April and June 2025. Later testing pointed to interference between processes inside the meter’s graphics microcontroller. According to the report, that happens when the start-up processing time runs short.
The final clue was text. From November 2025 to January 2026, Toyota and the supplier compared meter software across NX versions. They found that the total amount of text in the software changes how long start-up takes. Finally, on October 14, 2026, Toyota decided the vehicles may not comply with FMVSS 101.
For the record, the report names two Denso operations as suppliers: Denso Manufacturing Tennessee in Maryville, Tennessee, and Denso Corporation in Kariya, Japan. It does not list any crashes or injuries.
Which NX models are covered
Toyota breaks the 68,356 vehicles down by version in its filing. All of them are 2022 to 2024 models, built between April 8, 2021, and March 28, 2024.
- 29,099 NX 350 crossovers
- 26,554 NX 350h hybrids
- 11,458 NX 450h+ plug-in hybrids
- 1,245 NX 250 models
The turbocharged NX 350 and the NX 350h hybrid make up most of the total. By contrast, the base NX 250 accounts for fewer than 2 percent of the cars involved.
What Lexus dealers will do
The Lexus NX recall remedy is an update to the combination meter software. Lexus dealers will do the work free of charge, according to NHTSA. In addition, Toyota’s report says the update may later be offered over the air for vehicles that support it.
Owner letters should go out starting December 7, 2026. Toyota’s report describes a phased mailing that runs to December 21. Owners who want an answer sooner can call Toyota customer service at 1-800-331-4331 and give the Lexus recall number, 26LA10.
Until the update, there is a simple habit worth keeping. Autoblog’s report on the recall advises NX owners to check their oil and coolant levels regularly. That way, a blank warning light is less likely to hide a real problem.
Not the first Toyota gauge recall this year
The NX is not alone. Autoblog points out that Toyota recalled more than 500,000 Camry sedans in August 2026 for a similar fault in a 7-inch meter. It also notes a May 2026 recall of more than 81,000 vehicles, including the Lexus UX and Toyota Land Cruiser, which use a larger 12.3-inch display.
In our view, that pattern shows the trade-off of an all-digital instrument panel. When one screen carries every warning, a single start-up error can hide several of them at once.
For NX owners, the dates are set. Toyota told NHTSA about the defect on October 20, 2026, and the first owner letters for recall 26LA10 go out on December 7.
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