I love my car to pieces. I truly do. Buuuut when I close my doors - especially the driver door - I get a huge rattle from the mirror assembly. Pressing up on it while I close the door silences it and it sounds normal.

I've searched this forum and found many topics on it so it does seem to be characteristic of the car.

It's at the dealer now and they've essentially told me that it's a normal thing and "characteristic" of my car at this point in its life - model year, mileage, etc. They had a similar GS for sale and showed me the problem on it, too.

Should I just ask them to replace the assemblies or just leave it alone and try to tighten things up myself? I'm sure I can throw a quarter-turn on the mount after removing the door panels, right?

It's still under factory warranty (CPO warranty starts in about 4500 miles)

I'd welcome any insight - and happy Thanksgiving and long weekend!

 

I get the same rattle. I haven't tried to re-tighten them yet as it's a pain to remove the door panels.

 

Drop by a reputable body shop and show them what the problem is. If they aren't real busy when you visit maybe they'll pop the door panel off while you are there and fix it for you. A body shop is where you need to have something like that fixed, not the dealership's service department.

Also, if you have a tint shop you use nearby they also are a good source to help with such matters...

 

I too had the driver side mirror rattle on my '15 GS. After having it replaced by the dealer under warranty, it eventually started to rattle again. I'm beginning to wonder if there's no real fix and its just poorly designed.
I wonder if inserting some strips of rubber between the arm and mirror will lessen the rattle.

 

Poor design? My 2013 GS doesn't have a side mirror rattle...

 

Is the issue truly a matter of tightening up a few bolts? If the only hindrance is taking off the door panel than I would certainly choose to do it myself rather than having a shop or dealership attempt to fix it.

 

Are you saying body shops are just better at rattles and fixes in general...since they deal with them more often?

 

I think there are YouTube videos showing how to remove the door panels. Let us know how it goes

 

Yes, I think a body shop would be the better choice...

The rattle is known to be coming from the side mirror, which is a body part in lieu of something far more mechanical that is found in [say] the power train, or something to do with the brakes, suspension or an ECU for example. Lexus Service Technicians are good at fixing things that throw Check Engine Lights whereas body shop mechanics/technicians are good at fitting/aligning body components.

Most Lexus Service Technicians would probably not be very adept at re-installing and aligning doors, hoods, trunks, fenders, glass, trim parts, etc. on a repaired wrecked vehicle. If I needed to have a water pump replaced I would take it to a technician/mechanic that does power train type work. If I needed to have a trunk lid adjusted or a loose side mirror tightened up I would probably choose to take it to a body shop.