XYZLexus1

Does anyone find it annoying that the car voted one of the best luxury sedans in the world sounds like a bowl of rice crispies. I am talking about the center vent noise when you first start the car with the AC after it has been sitting and the interior has gotten hot. I am talking about the noise the instrument cluster benzel makes when you first start driving. I am talking about the noise from the center console area even after the TSB was performed. I had a 97 bonneville with 128 K and never had a rattle or creak. My buddy paid 15K for his ford ranger and it has not creaks, pops etc. I drove an ES300 while my GS300 was in the shop and it exhibited the same characteristics. Are these cars as good as we make them out to believe or are they legends in our own minds? I will not even get started on the sunroof noises. I have a 2001 with 21K miles, ceritified, never wrecked etc.

If anyone has solutions I would be more than grateful. I am ready to start taking the dash apart and felting everything like I did the glovebox. At least I eliminated that one, but Lexus wake up, rattles have been out for 20 years.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

man, must be you, i have no noise?

PHML

iTrader: (33)

no noise here...must be some extreme weather you got there.

Captain Bone

Ditto on the no noise. I'm not sure what to tell you.

-Anthony

XYZLexus1

I am 100% positive it is not just my car. I went to complain to Lexus today, and as usual they are very accomodating and sweet but that is not what I want, I want the noises gone, I have a wife to tell me how great I am. The service advisor knew exactly what noises I was speaking of and explained the expansion of the plastic is different than the surround material and therefore until everything reaches the same temp they will make noise. They offered to felt, but I asked him to show me how to take off the pieces and I will do it, to my surprise he just popped the vent out with a screwdriver and then yanked the instrument benzel off with his hands!! If I knew it was that easy I would have done it. He went ahead and put some felt on where he felt(haha) it would do the most good and gave me some extra felt strips. Once again Lexus service was suberb, Lexus engineering is lacking. He even made the comment the 99 and 00 were much worse.

I asked about the sunroof cover and he said the best solution is just slide it forward when it makes the noise, they have had good luck and bad luck with felt in that location. Like I said I heard the exact same noises on an 2003 ES300 with 10K miles so it is in the design. That was the worst car I ever drove it would randomly leap for no reason. This is one of the reason I did not want to leave my GS300.

1niceride

Are you talking about the grinding noise that come from the telescoping steering wheel ? When you turn the key and the steering wheel telescopes you hear a grinding noise.

If that's the case, take it to the dealer to have them check it out before your warranty expires. They will either change out the gear assembly or try to lubricate it. That was a problem on some 98 models, but i thought they were fixed after that year. Most occurences were from the humid south.

PHML

iTrader: (33)

Ahhhh!! You talking about the bezel / glove box / sun roof noises? Yah...there are TSBs on them....they just add felt to strategic locations to stop the creaking noises. Fortunately for me...I did'nt need any of that...no noise yet ((knocking on wood)).

Pete

koreanpers

yeah, the front of my dash creaks sometimes when its really cold..or just anytime it feels like it. so we can go to the dealer and have them fix it for free with felt?

chicagoblknazn

I have this strange creaking sound from the side pillar clothes rubbing against the pillars. It drives me MADD!!!

BkLexZ

I get that sound as I begin to accelerate, sounds like a bowl of rice crispy cereal, I learned to ignore it but it is annoying, I heard its excess air traped in the cooling system and the sound is heard from the middle ac vents.

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

I have a 99 and no other strange noises besides what you might be talking about. Yep-crackling noise behind the ac vents as you accelerate. Anyways, I'm gonna get the timing belt and water pump change this weekend. They're also going to do the coolant flush, I'll let you know if this is going to help.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...oolant+problem

SC400-V8

iTrader: (1)

I get the snap crackle pop sound from the a spot in the windshield defroster in a rib that meets the windshield, passenger side. Theres a spot about 2 inches long that bubbled up, but I cant find how to get the dash up so i can stuff some felt or cotton, or even glue it down in that area. Noone with an SC has experienced this problem except me.

duster

Don't forget to check where the A-pillar interior cover meets at the dash.

Pull off the cover and you will see a hard plastic tab that inserts into another hard plastic piece. I never realized the noise was coming from there....I thought it was the dash cluster, but I felted the dash three diferent times with no improvement.

Stage3

iTrader: (3)

i had that same thing when i first bought my car in september. just thought it was part of the car, so i lived with it. when it went in for its first service, the must have fixed it, because i never heard it since then. it kinda sounded to me like one of the "rain" sticks that make the noise that sounds like rain when you turn it upside down.

SilverLexo

Here's the solution to all your problems: 2 12W3's on a JL1000x1, Seperates up front, seperates in the rear well powered. You won't hear any creaking....guaranteed. Maybe a couple more rattles, but you can use dynomat for that.