brittho

Hello everyone,

Yes I am new here as this is my first post. I just picked up a 2002 ES300 used with 80K miles on it. Since it had higher than normal milage I got a deal on the car. It will be 4 years old in November so with that in mind I am having only one minor issue. When cruising at 35 mph above depending on what direction the wind is blowing from I am getting a flapping noise from the front of the car. It almost sounds as though it is coming through the vents. I checked the front of the car to see if the wind deflector was loose. It acutally was missing the back middle push bolt so I fixed it into place thinking that this was the issue. Nope. On the way home from the Lexus dealer I kept hearing the same noise. It has to be something simple that is loose but I can't seem to put my finger on where this odd noise is coming from. Is there anyone that has experienced something similar to this? Since the car has no warranty taking it to Lexus to pay top dollar to figure out something like this is out of the question. It does not effect the drivability of the car and the sound comes and goes as it pleases. It is noticably worse depending on which direction you are driving and will go away after passing 65mph on the freeway. Something has to be loose. Thanks for the feedback and I am looking forward to being a member of the forum!

Britt

Lexusfreak

Welcome to the club!

Why not call the dealer & bring the car in for them to have a look at it......if you just picked it up very recently, they shouldn't mind having a quick look at the car (call the sales manager to explain & get him/her to let the service manager know your coming by). Dosen't sound like it's major from your description. I've had to do that on a couple of cars I've owned & the dealer has always fixed the problem no questions asked & no charged. Chances are, the dealer might actually feel slightly embarrassed they didn't notice it when the tech saftied the car. Good Luck & let us know how it turned out.

Pheonix

Welcome! I'm thinking something plastic is flapping. One of the udnertrays, wheel well acess panel, if not a wheel well itself.
I ran over something not long ago that apparantly shot into my friver's wheel well braking a huge 3-4" chunk out of it. I thought I blew a tire when I heard the wind pushing it into the tire LoL! Chalk up another body-repair to my mad fiberglass epoxy skillz yo!

lexus4jess

Welcome to the forum. Yes check the engine bay,you may have a plastic that is loose.

Lexusfreak

I still say run the car back to the dealer.....sounds like it would take them no time to fix the problem.

brittho

I'll run it in next week if I can't find anything loose in the engine bay area over the weekend. We have Rita giving us a visit here in the Dallas area on Sunday so it will at least be cool in the garage due to the rain. If I can't find anything then up to the dealer in it will go. Heigh Ho. ;-)

Has anyone also noticed that there is a squeaking noise on the idle pully when the AC kicks on with higher milage ES300's? The dealer said that it just makes noise and is harmless. It is not noticable when in the car but when standing over the hood it is a noisy little pully. A little WD40 shuts it up for a moment but then later it goes back to making noise again. WD40 is only a cleaner and really is not a lubricant but it did help me determine what was making the noise by temporarily quieting the pully. WD40 was also used becuase it does not adversly effect the rubber on a belt as per their website. I guess my question is would White Lithium grease hush the pully (cheap fix) or do I need to pick up a new pulley or have the bearing replaced in the pulley? Thanks all!

Britt

Pheonix

Any lubrication wil hsuh it up until it get's displaced.


You could try a white lithium grease, or some Tri-Flow. I've bene having great luck with that as of late.

koolaidman

some one didnt put back the plastic plug under on the splast gaurd

brittho

The plug was my first guess as to what was wrong and it was done after paying $1.00 for the new plug. They keep those in stock as they are constatly busting them on accident when in shop or due to a rock hitting near the spot of the plug. If you even pull on the sheild then you can bust it without trying. I am a bit lost as to why Lexus did not just use the same bolt on the cover that was used with all the other spots on the deflector.

The hurricane missed the DFW area but this also meant that I was busy all weekend with yard work. I am planning on looking under for issues this weekend. Thanks for the help so far.

B.

brittho

Wait a second. I was thinking of the guard in the front of the car but splash guard would be in the wheel well area. I'll check that out tomorrow morning before leaving to work. Thanks for the idea!

B.

Xtom73G

Check out the front fender well splash guards. They can come loose and even rub on the tire.