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I sold mine around 24k miles (I think). I never had any knocks. Im going to order a bespoke edition next summer. I would love to know what comes of this.
Please keep us posted on the results of their findings! Thanks.
Yet another update to the one I posted last week.
As of today, the car has been picked up by an approved and very local body shop for a "small amount of welding around the rear suspension brace". I've come across this on this forum, but it has never been reported here in the UK. Hopefully this will be the once and for all cure with some prospect I will have the car back middle of this week.
I sincerely hope this is the final solution and will let you know as soon as I've picked up the car.
Final update, the click is no more, gone, never to be heard again!
Picked up the car and what a relief to drive without the clicking noise. The solution wasn't quite as was suggested in my previous update but in practice it did require some welding but inside the car.
To explain, there is a cross member underneath the rear seats that runs across the car. It is bolted to either side of the car and onto a bit of steel work that effectively floats but tightens to the "B" pillar as the aforementioned bolts are tightened. It sometimes seems no amount of tightening will completely stop any would be movement between the floating element, and when the body flexes, this is when we hear the click. The solution is pretty straightforward and requires the rear seats to be removed along with the "B" pillar internal panel trim. Then it is a case of physically welding the floating element to the "B" pillar.
I gather this is a very rare problem, and you might simply get way with tightening the 3/6 bolts which I think has been the case for some on this forum. I'd also say everything I have read about the problem has been related to your passenger side and indeed that was the case with mine albeit in my case the drivers side.
Furthermore, I have to say I have received truly excellent service from Lexus, their dogged approach to solving this problem has been quite remarkable!
Final update, the click is no more, gone, never to be heard again!
Picked up the car and what a relief to drive without the clicking noise. The solution wasn't quite as was suggested in my previous update but in practice it did require some welding but inside the car.
To explain, there is a cross member underneath the rear seats that runs across the car. It is bolted to either side of the car and onto a bit of steel work that effectively floats but tightens to the "B" pillar as the aforementioned bolts are tightened. It sometimes seems no amount of tightening will completely stop any would be movement between the floating element, and when the body flexes, this is when we hear the click. The solution is pretty straightforward and requires the rear seats to be removed along with the "B" pillar internal panel trim. Then it is a case of physically welding the floating element to the "B" pillar.
I gather this is a very rare problem, and you might simply get way with tightening the 3/6 bolts which I think has been the case for some on this forum. I'd also say everything I have read about the problem has been related to your passenger side and indeed that was the case with mine albeit in my case the drivers side.
Furthermore, I have to say I have received truly excellent service from Lexus, their dogged approach to solving this problem has been quite remarkable!
Both the lead tech and I were thinking it was most likely the cross member under the rear seats. I didn't want to go through the process of trial and error and having them dismantle my entire vehicle to discover the source of the noise. I'm glad you managed to resolve the issue. Thank you very much for your detailed update!
I really wouldn't be too bothered about disassembling the rear cabin, it seems to be a very straightforward process, and certainly the master tech who worked on mine was not in the least fazed by the prospect. The cross member reveals much of itself once the seat pad is removed, which I know from personal experience can done in less than 5 minutes.
I know the following pic has been posted before but hopefully it shows the car construction and the second pic shows the car after much of what needs to be removed has been.
[QUOTE=Brinylon;11619367]I really wouldn't be too bothered about disassembling the rear cabin, it seems to be a very straightforward process, and certainly the master tech who worked on mine was not in the least fazed by the prospect. The cross member reveals much of itself once the seat pad is removed, which I know from personal experience can done in less than 5 minutes.
I know the following pic has been posted before but hopefully it shows the car construction and the second pic shows the car after much of what needs to be removed has been.
I really wouldn't be too bothered about disassembling the rear cabin, it seems to be a very straightforward process, and certainly the master tech who worked on mine was not in the least fazed by the prospect. The cross member reveals much of itself once the seat pad is removed, which I know from personal experience can done in less than 5 minutes.
I know the following pic has been posted before but hopefully it shows the car construction and the second pic shows the car after much of what needs to be removed has been.
I can't be sure, but I would think quite possibly. There will almost certainly be the cross member where the structural pic shows it, i.e. under the rear seat. This could be confirmed very easily by simply lifting the seat out of the car, but I also suspect there could well be additional bracing to give the convertible more rigidity. The attached file gives some guidance on how to remove the rear seat.
Man, those translations are crap; no word how exactly to remove the freaking seat. Is it latched, meaning you need to press (or pull) a tab first? And if yes, where exactly is it? Or it's just friction fit, meaning you just pull the seat up? It looks to me like there might be a tab you need to push first, but hope to hear clarification from somebody here. Thank you.
Man, those translations are crap; no word how exactly to remove the freaking seat. Is it latched, meaning you need to press (or pull) a tab first? And if yes, where exactly is it? Or it's just friction fit, meaning you just pull the seat up? It looks to me like there might be a tab you need to push first, but hope to hear clarification from somebody here. Thank you.
Nowhere near as bad or difficult as you're thinking, trust me.
Where the diagram shows the spots to lift the seat, then do just that and the front seat clips will disengage but bear in mind they are clips and will do their best to hold the seat down fairly firmly or in other words you might need to apply some force. Perhaps before doing so then simply work your hands along the underside of the front of the seat(s) and you'll feel some give before you then come across the clip positions of the seat and I would suggest pull up one side at a time. In practice you've only got to lift the underside of the seat a couple of inches and it will be clear when you have unclipped, i.e. it becomes like a flag in the wind. The two on either side at the rear of the seat simply push in to location points. Again once you've lifted and disengaged the seat, then simply pull the whole seat forward and the hooks will simply slide out of their respective locations.
Once done you can lift out the whole seat assembly as one. You'll then be able to see the cross member and in particular the metal work where the nylon seats clips are located. Removing the B pillar trim is a leap of faith because I didn't go that far but I suspect if you are super careful you'll be able to carefully pry away from the body. Probably a good idea to look at the second internal photo I posted and make an assessment from that.
Hope the foregoing assists and has provided some further clues.
Thank you. But a close-up photo of the white plastic parts attached to the car would be great. I still think there might be a tab to push, so seat releases either without any force, or minimal force. If the seat is just forced up, that's when parts can break. I remember removing the Tesla seat, to check where to disconnect/reset the battery pack if needed, and it had tabs, which looked very similar to the white part on the LCs (hence my asking). Somebody posted a close-up on the Tesla website that showed exactly where the tabs were (they were right in the middle of the part, so easy to push with a finger, then lift seat with the other hand). So I'd like to see a close up of the LC bracket to see if there's a tab somewhere, or just hooks that are meant to be overcome with force. And yes, all rear seats I've seen have 2 'tongues' at the rear, so seat slides out towards the front seats once released upward from the front brackets. Thanks gang.
I can only offer up what I can find on Amazon/Ebay and the clips are very generic, it could well be the same pattern as Tesla. Anyway, for what it's worth, here follows a couple of pics. I bought two from a supplier but in the event I only needed one and that was to replace one that was already broke.
Hope this helps.
Can you circle by chance where exactly is this floating element that interacts with the B pillar ? I got this slight click sound too when the body flexes and it’s driving me nuts.
11-17-23, 07:00 PM
