miop4000

Back from the dealer again.

The Lexus with the reliability of a BMW developed a loud metallic rattle when idling in drive or park.

Rattle disappeared once engine revs increased.

Sound seemed to be coming from beneath the vehicle near the firewall.

Any guesses as to want went wrong this time?

chadhargis

I've seen this in other cars I've owned. More often than not it is the metal heat shield or protective plate on some component rattling. Sometimes you tighten the screws and it goes away. Sometimes you find gravel or debris rattling around inside them.

Being a turbo motor, I'm guessing it's a heat shield rattling.

miop4000

Totally right!

The bolts between the catalytic converters and the exhaust worked loose leading to the cats vibrating against the heat shield at certain engine revs.

The rough idle in the 2.0 turbo may have been the course of the errant bolts.

Fortunately for those of you in the US, there’s a TSB to fix the rough idle issue.

Now to try and sort out the noisy servo motor from the electric brake. How I miss the old foot brake.

By the way, the service department didn’t charge me, washed the car and gave me a nice IS for the day. Typical Toyota dedication to its customers.

chadhargis

Cool that it was something simple. I've seen that happen on a lot of vehicles.

The noisy servo should probably just be call "servo". All of them make that "wurrrrrr" noise. I've had a couple of cars with electronic parking brakes. I love the fact that the NX 300 put it on automatically. I have a foot brake in my truck and I much prefer the electronic brake (until it fails of course!).

The dealer experience is second to none. When I got my 45,000 mile service, I was provided with a nearly new RX to drive, they serviced and washed the car all at no charge. I bought my NX as a CPO for $27k, so it's not like I spent $100k on an LS or anything...but they treat me like I did. I spent more on my Honda and I don't get that treatment from the Honda dealer.

RXWes

I’ve said this a few times

Never buy a first year model car

Always buy the extended warranty if you plan on keeping the car past the original warranty.

Every Lexus I have owned either new or CPO has had issues. And the CPO or extended I purchased has paid for itself.

The G Man

if every extended warranties you bought payout more than what you purchase it for, how does The insurance company make money and cover the overheads?

RXWes

It’s built in to the cost already. Inflated parts and labor costs. Policies purchased but not used.

But for the owner. It’s piece of mind. I you own a Lexus for 7 years. 4 original factory warranty. 3 years extended Platinum warranty. Cost to the owner is 1000 dollars for the 3 years.

One repair not covered under the power plant warranty of 1000 dollars. And the owner has broken even. And saved money on every repair afterwards.

My Lexus ISF was in the dealership for almost 3 weeks with an Air Conditioning issue the regular Lexus technicians couldn’t fix. Some one from corporate had to be sent.

Without the warranty I could have fought with Lexus about getting it fixed. Instead I dropped off the keys. Drove a nice new ES waiting for it be fixed.

If you have the time for lawyers and such. And want to take your chances. Prefer to put the 1000 dollars on Game Stop or Bitcoin. Go right ahead. I sleep better knowing I have no concerns about my vehicle.

GlenK

Guess I got lucky. Bought a 2015 and haven't had one minutes trouble with it. Still love it!!!

The G Man

what they are selling is a peace of mind, not a money saver for the buyer as you make it sound like it is. Most extended warranty policies is a big profit maker for the insurance companies. For every person that got pay out more than the original cost, there re probably 5 person who did not. Like you said, the profit is built into the price. If you are one of the lucky one, or unlucky because your car keep breaking down, you will get back more than what you paid. Its like playing the lottery, someone will win but a lot more will lose.

RXWes

It really comes down to how you own a vehicle. If you lease a new Lexus every 3 years. You got no worries.

If you buy a new vehicle. But trade it in before before the original warranty expires. You got no worries.

I tend to keep a car for 6 to 7 years. Pay it off around 4 years. Get the 3 years of extended warranty right before the original warranty expires. The last extended warranty I purchased through Jerry Johnson for 1000 dollars. That’s a little over a dollar a day for some piece of mind.

Until my current 2016 RX. All of the big ticket issues have been ones that would not have been covered by the power train warranty. Air Conditioning, air bags, XM radio, door actuators, wiper fluid pump, cross vehicle sensors, ECU failure, sunroof leaks and paint peeling.

I plan to keep my RX till I can get one of the new 2022 Plug In Hybrid NX. It will be a first year car. So the extended warranty will definitely be part of the plan.

The G Man

99 Lexus out of a 100 do not have the amount of problems you had in 7 years; Air Conditioning, air bags, XM radio, door actuators, wiper fluid pump, cross vehicle sensors, ECU failure, sunroof leaks and paint peeling. What you have is a outliner, you must be one unlucky buyer. We have had many Lexus and some we kept for 6 or 7 years with a few minor issue beside routine maintenance. That is one of the reason my wife buy Lexus instead of German cars. If we had the vast amount of major issues you had with your Lexus, we would just just buy German if the reliability is the same.

RXWes

I wouldn't buy anything but Lexus. I've had all of the other cars before. So I have learned my lesson.

My list of large issues I have had were for all 4 of the Lexus vehicles I have owned. 3 RXs and one ISF. All of them had major repairs after the original warranty had expired. Major repairs that were more than the cost of the CPO or Extended warranty.

And like I said. It depends on how you own an vehicle. And the year, accessories, where and how much you drive it. If you should purchase the warranty.

The G Man

So you buy Lexus for its reliability, but you had a string of unreliable Lexus. Your Lexus RX is as reliable as it comes, most of the powertrain and electronics are all tried and true. Like you said, the average repair cost and dealer/manufacturer profits are built into the pricing of the extended warranty. Sound like everyone of your Lexus exceeded the average repair cost calculated by the insurance company. For most Lexus owners, you being an exception, there are usually very few issues or no issues at all for the first 7 years, you must be very unlucky or very lucky in your case that you can get your money worth from an extended warranty. For the rest of us, generally, the best way to save money is not to buy the over-price extended warranty and keep the large profit margin of the extended warranty in the bank. After a few cars without extended warranty, you can take that money and self insure, Now you are the house and the house always wins.

lesz

Over the course of the last 20-25 years, I've owned 4 different Lexus vehicles and 4 Toyota vehicles.

Through the course of ownership of those 8 vehicles, other than normal maintenance, the number of repairs needed on those vehicles has been minimal. My Lexus GX, which I owned for over 15 years, needed a repair to fix a leak in the AC refrigerant line. That repair cost me about $250 at the local Toyota dealer. Otherwise, the only other "repairs" that it ever needed were the replacement of a couple of turn signal bulbs. I had a Toyota Tacoma for about 10 years, and the only repair that it ever needed was a $200 repair to the truck's heater switch. The other 3 Toyotas and the other 3 Lexus vehicles never required a single repair of any kind.

If I had had a regular stream of expensive repairs with those 8 vehicles, there would have been a few possible causes. First, I could have been extremely unlucky. Second, I could be going to a dealer who is padding its service department profits by submitting warranty claims for work that didn't need to be done, or I could have been abusing various systems on the vehicles that resulted in the need for repairs.

It may be the case that I've just been very lucky, but, even if my luck runs out, the amount of money that I've saved by not buying over-priced extended warranties would be more than enough to cover the cost of a good number of expensive repairs in the future.

The G Man

Between the wife and I, we had owned the following Lexus; RX450h, ES350, GX450, GS350 and NX300. Between all of those cars, the only maintenance we paid for that would have been covered by extended warranty was a water pump in the ES350, other than that, it was just routine maintenance such as oil changes, brakes, batteries, filters and tires. Had we bought extended warranties for each of those cars, we would be out thousands of dollars. Instead, we put aside about $3000 for all our car repairs in the household, 3 cars, in a way, we are self insured.