Lexalex1

I have hs250h for about 5 months with 6k miles. Recently I noticed single clunk sound (mechanical) on the turn. The sound was noticeable and I could even feel it a little bit I the steering wheel. The sound is coming from the front left side for both left and right turns. After few days I found the way to reproduce this sound: driving on the city road strart braking before the turn. When you get closer to the turn brake a little harder and accelerate on the way out of the turn and this is when I hear a clunk sound.
I brougt my car to the dealership and drove it with the technician. He was able to reproduce this sound. They did not find anything wrong with the car after inspection and told me that they were able to reproduce same issue with new cars same model they have on the dealership. They are claing that this is a normal sound for this car.
In my opinion there is should be no mechanical sound in the car on the turn.

Does anybody experience similar issue?

Magellan55

Haven't heard that on mine but that would worry me - the car shouldn't make any clunking sounds in a turn. Given it's related to loading/unloading the front suspension (braking then accelerating), I'd say there is some play in a suspension bushing, or maybe it's the CV joint. If it exists on new cars too, then maybe it's just a loose spec on that bushing.

hyperme

I also have not experienced this noise, but would agree that it definitely should not be normal, unless it has something to do with the regenerative braking system.

YotaCarFan

I have the same issue with my car, as well as with a loaner vehicle (HS) i've been driving the past few weeks. Of course, the dealer technician says it is normal. My theory is that this is an artifact of a poorly implemented variable assist power steering algorithm. The amount of electric power assist is supposed to be high when the car is traveling slowly and be low when the car is traveling quickly. When you brake or hit the gas while steering, the amount of assistance is adjusted due to the change in the car's velocity. Because there are only a few discrete levels of assistance from which the system can choose, you feel a thunk when the amount of assistance changes abruptly while the steering rack is getting push back from the car's forward momentum with the wheels cocked.

Assuming my theory is correct, nothing is actually "wrong" with the car, like the dealers have told us. However, Toyota typically strives to eliminate these annoyances visible to the customer via production changes and service bulletins. I would not be surprised to see a TSB for fixing this problem in the future. Of course, Toyota won't tell us about it to minimize their expenses, but the word will get out eventually, and when it does I will get the fix done. The clunking is very annoying, and really cheapens my opinion of this car (along with the wheezing brake pedal, craptastic stereo, weak headlights, hard center armrest, and excessive use of hard plastics in the cabin).

Squirrelsb

I havent heard anything like that on mine either. Only weird thing about mine is when I park the car in the garage, as the engine cools down it lets out a somewhat noticeable pitching humm that even my cat can hear. From what I read about Hybrid engines, thats normal.

YotaCarFan

Yes, that whistling sound that lasts a few minutes is normal.

Lexalex1

There is a Touring Package with Sport-tuned suspension in HS. I do not have this option and I wonder if it make a difference with the clunking sound.
I just took my car from dealership. They did everything they could and did not find anything. They also opened a ticket with Lexus but no luck there.
I will meet with a Lexus tech guy in a week or two to reproduce clunking. I hope Lexus can either fix it or explain what creates this clunking sound.