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This was a lot easier than I thought it would be. So when I'm moving around in my seat or lean over to the passenger side to grab something, my body presses on the bolster which then presses on the armrest lid which in turn causes the plastic panels to chaff (squeak). As you can see, Lexus designed the car so that the seat is pretty much touching the armrest.
Perform at your own peril. For education/information purposes.
Flip arm rest up and you'll see several small black screws. Use a small tip star-screw driver to remove. There's about 8 or 9 of them. You may need to undo the armrest on the passenger side by pressing the button and temporarily wiggle and lift it so you can access one small screw on that side (if you have a stubby this will help you)
Then the armrest simply pops off. It's held in by one retaining clip and two additional plastic locators.
I then used pieces of gaffer's tape around all plastic contact points that sit on the lower armrest lid. You can use your tape of material of choice but I had gaffer's tape around for photography my other hobby. I used tape on the parts that clip into the lower part as well as on the screw stand-offs. Basically anywhere and everywhere where bare plastic touches bare plastic. Be creative and be generous--tape is cheap and plentiful.
Reassemble in reverse and it's super satisfying how smooth and tight the armrest clicks black into place with the tape on it.
The armrest is now super quiet.
From the looks of it too, one could easily switch out the console lid for another color. The trim piece in front would need to match as well but with enough time these will be floating around ebay for pennies. just a thought for the future.
I do wish the armrest lid wasn't as flimsy or cheap feeling. could also use a wee bit more padding. but it's not terrible compared to other cars.
Note the little rubber isolating fingers that help give the armrest some cushion and isolate from vibration.
Edit: edited photo w/ red lines to show roughly where i put tape. half of the areas highlighted are probably unnecessary but without wanting to spend too much time finding out exactly where to put tape, i just put it everywhere. it's cheap.
A little preview of some of the tape i applied (i put more in more locations after this photo because i didn't want to remove the armrest lid again) One of the areas I put tape is on the screw standoffs as to the left. just a little piece over the hole. When you drive the screw in, it pierces the tape creating a nice tape sandwich.
Forgive me for reviving an old thread, but I just did this today, HUGE improvement! Definitely worth the $12 and 15 minutes of effort. It's much more solid now and FAR less squeaky!
Awesome. glad i could help people out. it really is easy to do. I never think about it now, but these things are probably why my car is so quiet. don't forget about my "massage your sunvisors" thread which fixed my sunvisor rattle LOL
also my shifter play thread. if your shifter clicks as you move it/touch it/slide it up and down, look me up!
Also to add to post #1, the reason why my seat was touching the armrest (mostly) was Lexus had a bad batch of seats for some early 2021 MY cars. i since traded this older 21 for a newer 21 which doesn't have "leany" seats. but still this mod will still work for the armrest when you put your arm on it and it squeaks.
03-15-21, 03:10 PM
7th Gen ES armrest lid disassembly
