l33cher

Hello everybody,

first I want to apologies for my English and my lack of technical knowledge. The reason why I'm wasting your time is because of the lack of good mechanics in the country I live in.

The problem is that in the community I leave there are lot of speed bumps ( I think that's how they are called the thing put on the road so you have to slow down ) and for me to get out of it I have to pass at least 10. So after I pass 2-3 whenever I accelerate slowly a strange metallic noise that I think comes from the engine starts to squeak. This goes until the car dosn't pass 3.5 - 4 RPM. When it shifts gear to 2nd i guess its the same thing but not when it goes to 3rd. The strange thing is that when the car is on N and I force the engine there is no noise. Also when I drive the car faster or avoid the speed bumps everything sounds good. This started around ~7k km ago.

The Lexus is ES300 2003 116k km.

Thank you for reading this!

l33cher

After reading about the transmition problem I can say that this happened after changing the battery. I'm the second owner of this vehicle and it seems that the person before me probably did a software upgrade. My question is if the problem I'm describing has something to do with this massive transmition problem and could the battery removal reset the software version to the factory one?

Thanks again!

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

Does the noise increase the faster you go? You should get your suspension looked at.

l33cher

Yes it dose. But when it shifts to 3rd it goes away. The sound gets louder the more bumps I pass.

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

Could you record it and upload it somewhere? The type of sound makes a huge difference, so hearing it would greatly help our efforts.

l33cher

I tried this morning but the sound could not be captured with my phones audio recorder. I will try again later with another recorder and hope its better. Something strange is that this time I had to force the acceleration more in order to hear it. It seems the problem occurse between 2k RPM and 3.5k RPM. Another strange thing is that for the last months the fuel consumption increased with ~3 liters for 100km. It used to be around 12.5 max 13, but now it goes up to 16! I don't know if this could be related in some way. Or if there is a part that needs changing.

Thanks again and I will get back hopefully today, but TS IRENE is coming this way and we'll see if the car is not blown away

l33cher

Hello one more time.

I was browsing over the net for this kindda problem and I don't know how but I found this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=PDWIVdHnjrg this is no my car of course, but the noise that it makes is very similar. The difference is that it needs some time of driving before I'm able to hear it and its speed dependant and goes away most of the time on gear shifting ( to 3rd ).

l33cher

Here is the video from my car with the noise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyGaklb8660

you can hear the sound after second 24. I think anyone should be able to hear it very well. Just after that I stopped and put the car in N and forced the engine, but there was no noise.

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

It sounds like something is scraping another piece of metal. A bad pulley is a possibility, but why would the transmission change that noise? Maybe it's just intermittent and unrelated to your transmission. You said it happens after going over speed bumps, well maybe that bump throws something off and makes that noise. Have you had any kind of work done recently? Any incidents that you might remember? I suggest opening the hood and looking for anything strange near the belts, while the car is idling.

I also think it could be something with your brakes - since you use them when stopping for a speed bump. Because the noise sounds like a bent piece of metal (brake shield) that is scraping your rotor. Or maybe it's something with your brake shims... Either way, check your suspension (take the wheels off).

l33cher

All this happened after I gave the car to some local "mechanics", because there was a problem with the charging of the battery. They took a lot of stuff apart and at he end they said that they had 1 piece missing and that I had to go to lexus dealer to find it and to fix another thing they made, because I had the VSC and DSC light on. When I went there they fixed the lights problem and I don't know what else happened. It seems I will have to go again the problem is that is a bit far. I just hoped it was not something coming from the engine itself .. BTW any clue why the fuel consumption might have jumped suddenly so much? Thanks again for your time.