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Fantastic! Great work Walt1953. Your intuition about adding some weight and then follow through with a solution will help us all. I don't understand why Lexus has not used this previous solution on the current RX.
I plan to take your solution to my dealer and have them do it. Wish me luck.
BTW, where exactly did you place the dampers? Not sure from the photos.
I used a 2 1/2” Muffler Clamp and secured it in front of my Catalytic Converter, being careful to leave clearance for and not to interfere with the Spring Loaded Connection Joint's up and down articulation. The picture is taken from the passenger side, so the Damper "bulb" is on the drivers side of the exhaust pipe - pretty close to parallel to the ground. I think you might be satisfied with just one Damper.
I hope you can get Lexus to pay and install this for you. Today, I emailed my information with photos to four different Service Managers (three in Arizona and one in Kansas). In addition I emailed two Lexus Executives and invited them all to improve my method and to produce a Technical Service Bulletin for others. If you do not want to wait for the TSB (which may not happen soon enough), order this Damper and install it yourself with a 9/16" deep socket (that was the size of my Muffler Clamp's nuts) and ratchet (or you can just use a wrench). Make sure the exhaust is cold so you do not burn yourself. It's not a dirty job, it's an easy job! Good luck! I hope all have as good as results as I did, and hope Lexus or maybe You, can improve what I have done.
Think Positive! I'll leave you with my favorite affirmation: I AM Strong, I AM Healthy, I AM Wise, I AM Wealthy. (Whatever your definition of Wealth may be.)
Love and Light.... Walt (Photo was taken in Sedona)
We bought the same car just after its release (luxury edition - 2WD non-f-sport). The racket upon initial acceleration is unbelievable. We went to our dealership the day after we bought it (Keyes Lexus in Van Nuys CA). They had the car for an hour, returned it and said they saw nothing wrong. After a month or so, I had enough of the noise and wrote the Lexus Customer Service. Finally, I spoke with a representative who called Keyes Lexus and confirmed there was nothing wrong per their tech. He suggested I take it to another dealer. I went to Lexus of Glendale (CA) on 2/2. I know one of the service consultants well. He arranged for one of their tech guys to drive it with me. Immediately he said he felt the vibration in the wheel and the gear selector - and hear the noise. He told me that they have been getting a lot of complaints about this! When we got back to the dealership, he checked for bulletins on it - found nothing. The Consultant (friend) said to call him the next day that he was going to do more digging. He called me 2/3 to say that Lexus is aware of the issue but does not have a fix for the problem. He will call me when he hears something. This is a gorgeous car - love the technology and looks, but hate driving it with this vibration. I have a new Denali with the Vette engine. It is as quiet as a church mouse (unless you put your foot into it). Why Lexus let these out of the factory with this issue is beyond me. I would tell people - do NOT buy one until this has been fixed. If it is a drive train design issue, it may not be fixable. If I could undo the transaction and get back my money and older (quiet) EX350, I would do it in a heartbeat.
Folks, I have indeed had the problem of excessive noise and vibration with my 2016 RX 350 FWD. Believe me it is a problem with these vehicles and I have had it confirmed by a Lexus service manager although at first the first dealership refused to acknowledge but they have now had enough complaints plus their service techs have indeed verified it. I drove another RX like mine and it too exhibited the same problem. It happens at a certain RPM...from about 1400 to 1500 and it is most noticeable in city driving when you cannot accelerate briskly. Also, it hardly shows up in the sport mode. This is my eighth Lexus (I have owned 2 ES, 1 GX and the rest, RXs) and this 2016 RX 350 FWD does not sound as a Lexus should! There is no repair order from Lexus and its going to take all of us with the problem to complain to get Lexus to come up with a repair solution. The vibration is definitely felt and it is not caused by any tire problem but rather it is at a certain area of engine RPM possibly with enough roughness that it causes a transmission or possibly exhaust vibration which goes away when you are above 1500 RPM. The problem is most aggravating in city driving when you cross that RPM range repeatedly. It has gotten to the point that I will sometimes drive our 2013 ES 350 to take a break from this aggravation.
Good Luck with your install mcfancy! Please post your results.
My fix has greatly improved my car, but I too like many have had other Lexus and RXs before this one, and they all had quieter engines and or exhaust systems and lesser vibration.
I hope Lexus comes up with a real fix for our vehicles soon... Walt
Good Luck with your install mcfancy! Please post your results.
My fix has greatly improved my car, but I too like many have had other Lexus and RXs before this one, and they all had quieter engines and or exhaust systems and lesser vibration.
I hope Lexus comes up with a real fix for our vehicles soon... Walt
Walt, with the damper install. Can you still hear a low deep exhaust tone at about 1000-1300 rpm? Not a low deep should like a muscle car.
Walt, thank you for your dogged persistence, information and photos. I'm going Monday to order the dampers. Questions: when you installed the second damper did you just put it on the other muffler clamp bolt? So you have a damper on each side of the muffler clamp? Did you notice much difference between one damper installed and two?
Can't wait to get these installed. Wish I had checked back on this site a bit sooner.
S2000zr, I did get a schematic for the FWD, AWD, Sport, and the Hybrid Exhaust. I did see that the 2016 rx450h had a Damper on the schematic (single final exhaust), but I didn't know that vehicle had the vibration too. The schematics for the 2016 RX350 FWD and the 2017 RX350 FWD were, I believe, identical.
Yes, I can still hear/feel the low deep exhaust tone at around 1000-1300 rpm on my 2016. My wife drives it mostly and she is so much happier with the Damper installed. My Damper install has removed the horrendous Drone noise which would grow louder and louder (even without an increase in rpm) and cause vibration through the floorboards, and steering wheel.
Your sister's 2007 RX350 had a 5-speed transmission, that's why maybe the rpm was hanging out above 2,000.
I can't believe there are so many of us unsatisfied with Lexus regarding this new model. Does anyone have contacts with Consumer Reports or Motor Trend or ???
I'm wondering if one of the exhaust pipes coming off the engine is made by two different manufacturers, maybe one is made out of slightly thicker or different metal blend???
Maybe just one supplier. Maybe at the end of a manufacturer's run for the day, the last pipe made is poured with a little less metal and has a different harmonic value, causing the vibrations???
Before trading in your rx450H for a regular - Test drive the one you are going to own. I was going to take the loss (approx. $14,000, 7-8 months depreciation, fees) and trade it in for an AWD 2016, thinking that maybe the driveline on the AWD would reduce the vibration, but it still had the vibration (but no drone). We drove a 2017 RX350 FWD and it had a vibration (no drone). We drove another 2016 RX350FWD, like mine, and it was really smooth and quiet. I wish I knew the answer.
Maybe Lexus needs to re-flash some electronic module because perhaps a small percentage of vehicles that belong to us unlucky ones are off a little and allowing the engine's Otto/Atkinson Cycles to be out of sync or something causing the harmonics/vibration/drone???
KJRodder, I used a separate 2 1/2" Muffler Clamp for each Damper. In this picture you can see the one in front of the Catalytic Convertor (way up there on the left in the photo)-(this one was the winner). The second one, I put in front of the Muffler. I don't know if yours should be where I put mine. I don't really know if this is the solution for others. I know it took away my unacceptable drone. I know there is still room for vibration improvement.
I look forward to hearing about your results... Walt
PS: Something I did one time that seemed to help is to slide your Shifter over to S and start from a stop in Gear 1. You do not have to shift to a higher gear. If you keep it floored, it will shift itself to the next higher gear at about 6,000 rpm (note: If you are in S Gear 1, 2 or 3, etc and push the shifter and hold it forward, it will shift up to 8 - by your speedometer. I also ran the transmission up and down in each gear pretty hard to see if anything would "loosen up" and quiet down. (I don't normally drive like this - I left my wife at home.)
Another PS: The fiber washers on my Damper from Lexus were kind of crumbly. I don't think I was able to use them on the 1st Muffler Clamp because they came off broken on the Damper. I ran a drill bit through the Damper bolt hole on the 2nd one as to ream out / align their glued on fiber washers so they wouldn't break off and when I ran the Muffler Clamp threads thru.
I just got off the telephone with the Lexus representative about two hours ago. I have been complaining about the droning noise for almost 10 months. The dealer has acknowleged there is an issue. However, the Lexus representative stated my vehicle is performing within normal parameters. . .
Evidently their operating standards are very low. I highly recommend everyone avoid the new RX350 like the plague. This will be my first and last Lexus.
10-24-16, 04:00 PM
2016 RX 350 Excessive noise and vibration
