amf1932

Have any owners of the ES350 noticed a slight wind noise coming from the "A" pillars? I was kind of surprised about this and wondered whether they'll have a recall for this minor problem.

psp

1. Where are the A pillars??
2. I sometimes hear what I think is wind noise coming from behind the drivers position. I hear it more when the car is cool and not so much at the end of the day after work. I may be more attuned to it in the morning. I've only had it about a week though. Plus, my last car was a 97 Maxima so this is a big change for me in terms of noise (no squeaks or rattles yet).
3. To heck with the wind noise, just crank up that Levinson. I have used it with FM, Sirius, iPod and CD. Well recorded stuff sounds great and crap sounds like crap. And I do not care what others may say, the Levinson is so much better than the Bose was. I have heard professionally installed monster systems and I prefer the Levinson. You have got to give it a few days to break in prior to evaluation. It was worth the extra charge.

wanderer99

I've been holding off on posting about this as I thought it was only just my car that had this issue. When I test drove the ES350 it was very silent with no wind noise that I could detect at all. I picked up my new ES350 last week and didn't get a chance to drive at speed for a few days. Once we did, we noticed a lot of wind noise coming from around the front window area. It is barely there at 60km\h, very noticeable at 80 km\h and at 110km\h+ it is, well, loud.

My car is going back on Friday to the service dept to see what the issue is. I have an engine issue as well, and a small trim issue to address too. My car is a non-UL model, and this issue has not got anything to do with the sunroof.

I saw that someone at Edmunds.com posted they have this same wind noise issue.

In my local Metro paper here today they did a review on the ES350. Their review only had one issue: "...the only thing Lexus can be faulted for is wind noise coming from the A-pillars, which is rather surprising from a carmaker renowned for its perfected soundproofing".

I did notice that between the front\rear doors there is a strip of soft black plastic that 'seals' the doors together to stop wind noise. It runs from the bottom to the top of the door. This part is fine. I noticed that this same type of strip is also at the front of the driver\passenger door and it fits nice and flush most of the way from the bottom of the door to the top. 5 inches from the top however it disappears (say 3 inches below the mirros) and does not seal - you can see right into the panel gap and it continues upwards like that. I'm not saying this is the issue, it just seems weird that there is a nice air gap here and that is the general area the wind noise seems to come from.

My ES350 test drive = silence. My new ES350 vehicle = wind noise. You will absolutely know if your car has this issue, and you won't like it. Drive at 80km\h (50m\h) or faster with the radio off, cruise on, and listen for wind noise around the front mirrors\front windows. It's loud. If you've got silence, your car has no problem!

amf1932

Hi Wanderer-
Please post back when you find out from your dealer if there is a fix for this annoyance.

mcboard

I took mine in last Friday and was told this was normal. I don't buy it and will try again.

wanderer99

mcboard - Did you ever notice it during your test drive?

I am positive it wasn't there during my test drive. I'm sure they still have the test drive vehicle at my dealer, so if necessary I'll go out and drive that again.

psp

[QUOTE= My ES350 test drive = silence. My new ES350 vehicle = wind noise. You will absolutely know if your car has this issue, and you won't like it. Drive at 80km\h (50m\h) or faster with the radio off, cruise on, and listen for wind noise around the front mirrors\front windows. It's loud. If you've got silence, your car has no problem![/QUOTE]

I drove at 75 m/h this afternoon. It was 82 degrees according to the outside temperature and the car was whisper quiet. I guess I am one of the lucky ones. I don't think I heard any this morning either. Perhaps I am not as attuned to the noise as others?

encore888

I read in Road and Track (or was it Motor Trend?) that Lexus engineers had deduced a wind noise problem from the sides--supposedly the door handles--and were working on a fix.

wanderer99

That is exactly what I expected from my car - driving at 75 m\h and whisper quiet. I'm sure this will get fixed. I'm going in tomorrow. The vehicle I test drove was whisper quiet.

Ingram4868

I've read on other auto websites that this is sometimes fixed by replacing the rubber sealer that runs around the door frame.

amf1932

Are these 'other auto websites' talking about this type of repair on an ES350, or are they just generalizing? If they're talking specifically about the ES350, could you supply a link to these pages?

wanderer99

I'm going in this morning. I think it is that seal at the front of the door that runs up\down and seals between the door and the front fender. It isn't sealing - not even close - on my car.

I checked the front\rear door seals, the window seals, even the hood closing area seals - all are perfect and not a single gap. The two door\fender seals on my car on both passenger and driver are NOT sealing well, and have a big gap in the top5-6 inches at the top of the door. Incidentally, this is where the wind noise seems to be coming from, for me anyway.

I'll be checking other cars - including my original test drive vehicle - this morning. That car was completely silent and had no problem.

amf1932

I just got a phone call from the Lexus Corporation pertaining to this wind noise, and as always they said they were not aware of any problems in this area. This kind of pissed me off, since I originally complained about the transmission problems that I had on my 2003 ES300, and in this case they also said they weren't aware of this problem. I told them to go to the internet and search wind noise on ES350 to see that others were also complaining about this problem.
It seems that they have their heads in the sand.

Ingram4868

I'm pretty sure it was not specifically about the ES350. I believe it might have been one of the BMW forum websites while I was researching cars.

mattvds

I am the one who reported this over on edmunds.com. My car is dead quiet up to about 55 mph. Once i get 60 i can start hearing a little wind wistling noise.... Gets continually worse as I go faster.. at 70-80 mph it's very noticable.. even with the radio on.. you can hear the wind when the song goes to a quiet spot.

I have an appointment with my local service center next wednesday, they are going to look into it.

Also... I noticed that if i am driving on the freeway (60+mph) and open only the rear windows (both or just one) my car starts to shake and i hear a very loud repeating thumping noise (really loud.. it sounds like a huge subwoofer... its so bad it hearts my ears). Anyone else notice this... is this due to the way the car is designed.. or just another quirk with my car?