philthephl

We just purchased a 2007 ES350 as a Certified Pre-owned vehicle with 49,700 miles. When we drove it off the lot the car looked and sounded great. The engine was up to operating temp and sounded great and had plenty of power. We have had the car for one week and I have had several opportunities to drive the car with the engine cold and it has a noticeable tapping noise when under load until the engine is fully warmed up. It pretty much dissappears by then. By best guess is that it is a sticky valve or lifter. Is this common or do I have a problem? The car is still under another 3 years of warranty. Any comments will be much appreciated.

LexBob2

Do a search here for engine noise and you'll find A LOT of information and speculation as to what causes the engine noise in many '07's. It's a pretty common issue with a lot of them. There doesn't seem to be any fix and I haven't heard of any engine failures etc., associated with it.

Just to be safe, be sure to bring it up when you have your car in for any work. It can't hurt to have your concern entered on the service record.

nevernu

Nearly identical situation here (except when does your car get cold?? )

karizma

Mine is currently in the shop for the valve knocking sound and also transmission flairs. They are installing a new transmission under the powertrain warranty, but they haven't finished their diagnostics for the knocking yet. I will let you know what the outcome is. From my understanding, your basic manufacture warranty will expire at 50k miles. Power train is 6 yr/70k according to my dealership. This is unless you purchased an extended warranty. I am driving a 2011 IS 250 courtsy vehicle at the moment and it also has the tapping on startup, although it isn't as loud. Service advisor said Lexus's sound like this.

MDames2

iTrader: (1)

This is not something to worry about. I've had my 2007 since new. I purchased it in November 2006. It has made this ticking sound when cold from day one. It goes away after a few minutes. It does not affect performance. My car has been perfect. No issues at all. This is just an idosyncrosy of the car. Enjoy your ride.

MDames2

iTrader: (1)

This is not something to worry about. I've had my 2007 since new. I purchased it in November 2006. It has made this ticking sound when cold from day one. It goes away after a few minutes. It does not affect performance. My car has been perfect. No issues at all. This is just an idiosyncrasy of the car. Enjoy your ride.

garsarno

Ditto MDames2. Got my '07 in 9/06 and same thing. 48,000 miles later, same thing. Got the Lexus Platinum warranty just in case / covered until 9/2013.

frankbcnt

Most likely a lifter. They can be changed out and are fairly inexpensive but labor will prob be expensive. Pretty much all overhead cam engines with hydraulic lifters end up with this noise. The lifters have to pump up with oil. They drain overnight and on cold starts the oil is thicker too. Once pumped up there shouldn't be a problem. You can try using a conditioner like transvalve fix. I noticed on one of my cars using mobil one seemed to make it worse and thicker oil will too. The stealership may tell you it's the injectors firing hard too I think that's bs if you have a noisy injector it doesn't go away.

philthephl

I will change the oil this weekend to Castrol Synthetic. I have been using Synthetic in all of our cars for over 20 years and I am a big fan. It may help or solve it but will be better overall IMHO for the engine. If it is a lifter or two or even more that is not pumped up when cold, which sounds very plausible, then the synthetic will probably not change it at all. Unless the reason is the oil is thick enough when cold that it takes engine heat to thin it to make it through the small orifices in the lifters. If that is the problem the synthetic will almost certainly help because it stays fairly thin even when cold. I am in So. Cal. Mornings here in winter can get down to mid 30's until the sun is coming up then temps climb fast as in the desert. I will post again after the oil change if anything changes. Thanks to all who have responded. It's obvious I am not alone with this issue.

jagtoes

Oil does not get thinner (viscosity) when it heats up. unless it is a single weight oil. The reason for multi weight oils is for starting purposes. A 5W-30 oil is at a 5 viscosity (thin) when cold so it flows easy and lubricates the engine. As the engine warms up the additives in the oil increases the viscosity (thickens) to 30W for normal operation. Look up oil viscosity's and you'll see how it works. I have not seen info on the 3.5L engine that tells me if there are lifters in the engine. Most of the overhead cam designs have the cam contacting and moving the valves. There have been other discussions on this engine noise when cold and some have claimed piston slap which would occur while cold. There is still some mystery here and the factory has not come up with a satisfactory answer.

frankbcnt

From what I read the new 3.5 has rockers and hydraulic lifters. This means no adjusting. The hydraulic lifters are self adjusting. It would mean that most likely on startup if there's ticking it's a dirty lifter that needs to pump up. I'd say only thinner oil will help the problem. Maybe goto 0w 20 synthetic. Most likely your still going to hear it. My eclipse had dirty lifters for a long time. The only thing I notice is on a cold start it can be a little rougher. I bought a new set of 16 for like 79 bucks and swapped them and not more noise at all end of story. No oil change or anything is going to fix it the only thing inwould try is trans valve fix from blaster. You could try putting some tranny fluid in the oil also.

axle3400

Hi had the same issue just had the valve spring recall done and also mentioned the start up ticking so at the same time they replaced all valve lash adjusters. Noise gone they also swapped out the cam gears for that other start up noise. Hope all stays good for a while but was told minor ticking sound will not hurt engine in long run. If it gets very loud then that will cause something to wear out or break.

LexBob2

The ES350 (and Toyota models using the same engine) isn't included in the valve spring recall. As I understand it, just the IS, GS and LS.

RyanV

iTrader: (9)

Although it sounds like a lifter, it is most likely piston slap, but probably in only 1 cylinder due to a piston having a tad too much clearance even after heat expansion. It would need a new shortblock at this point.

Let us know what happens.

You also have typical forged piston slap, but it's considered normal if it goes away within 2-3 minutes.

The piston slap in our van lasted for 15-20 minutes, but if you pulled next to a building you could always hear it.

Toyota just replaced our shortblock and no more noise.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...ing-fixed.html

Derekc294

Do you use premium or regular gas?