2016 RX 350 Excessive noise and vibration
03-18-18, 03:12 PM
#1216
Had the TSB done today on my 2016 RX AWD (non F-Sport). While the droning is gone, there is more vibration across a wider RPM range. My previous droning was around 1500 RPM, very low frequency and seemed to be originating from under my seat. It occurred when the transmission up-shifted 4 to 5th or 5th to 6th (can't tell from the tach) and typically occurred at city level speeds (accelerating from a stop to about 60 to 70 km/h). After the TSB, I now feel increased vibration from 1800 to 2100 RPM. However, below 1800 RPM, the vehicle is smoother and idle is now vibration free (if the engine is warm). If I'm very gentle with the throttle, I can now keep it below 1500 RPM getting up to 60 km/h without vibration. The source of the vibration now seems to be coming from the engine bay area.... 
Engine mounts perhaps??
Engine mounts perhaps??Overall, while the TSB has resolved the droning from the exhaust, I am still unsatisfied with the level of engine noise and vibration. I asked for an RX loaner today and got a brand new 2018 RX (non F-Sport). It drove beautifully without the hesitation issues (although still eco-biased throttle response) and was much smoother and virtually vibration-free. There is still some vibration in the 2000 to 2200 RPM range but it was much less than in my RX. Heck, even the turn signal stalk operated smoother, but maybe that's just wear and tear
.
03-18-18, 09:25 PM
#1217
True story
In Flagstaff , the VW dealer was shut down because they were selling more cocaine than cars , back in the late 1980s , back when coke was good for ya.. lol
How long ago was your “virtually worthless” ordeal? I looked at VWs around 2001 & they were literally falling apart on the lot. No way would I have bought one then. The VW dealer we use is a very old VW dealer & most of the shop & management employees have been with the company a long time. One master tech has been there 30 years. None of our Lexus dealers nor their employees have been around that long. It may just come down to the difference in the dealers. Since VW’s Dieselgate, I would imagine they are motivated to obtain & keep as many customers as possible. Of course, I hope you know 3 visits to a dealer for the same faulty item qualifies for the lemon law in most states.
In Flagstaff , the VW dealer was shut down because they were selling more cocaine than cars , back in the late 1980s , back when coke was good for ya.. lol
How long ago was your “virtually worthless” ordeal? I looked at VWs around 2001 & they were literally falling apart on the lot. No way would I have bought one then. The VW dealer we use is a very old VW dealer & most of the shop & management employees have been with the company a long time. One master tech has been there 30 years. None of our Lexus dealers nor their employees have been around that long. It may just come down to the difference in the dealers. Since VW’s Dieselgate, I would imagine they are motivated to obtain & keep as many customers as possible. Of course, I hope you know 3 visits to a dealer for the same faulty item qualifies for the lemon law in most states.
03-18-18, 09:29 PM
#1218
Let’s get back to the real topic...
03-19-18, 03:59 AM
#1219
Anyone with 2018 model year with the issue, or have they discretely fixed it? Reading posts, does it seem more with FWD have the issue to this point?
2019 model year refresh coming up, could be announced as early as March 30th. Will be interesting if they mention improved NVH as one of the 'changes'.
2019 model year refresh coming up, could be announced as early as March 30th. Will be interesting if they mention improved NVH as one of the 'changes'.
03-19-18, 10:30 AM
#1221
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Greetings from Canada
I was on the verge of buying 2018 RX 350 but walked away after looking at the ripples of the rear center seat.( bottom piece ) I drove around all the dealers in town ( 5) and specifically checked every single one of them half of them have these ripples it while others do not. This is specific only to the RX 350 not the newer RX L and or any other lexus vehicle. I went around and checked other makes of SUV and did not find this problem in any other brand I checked. ( Jaguar , Mercedes, Range Rover , infiniti , BMW , etc
Back to the subject here after reading about the droning issue in this forum. I asked the service manager and he mentions he heard nothing.
Spoke to the GM and told him flat out to be honest he mentions yes there was an issue at specific speeds and there was a memo floating around
and it has been corrected for the 2018 RX 350 that have been built later in production. Fix was applying additional dampening.
I was on the verge of buying 2018 RX 350 but walked away after looking at the ripples of the rear center seat.( bottom piece ) I drove around all the dealers in town ( 5) and specifically checked every single one of them half of them have these ripples it while others do not. This is specific only to the RX 350 not the newer RX L and or any other lexus vehicle. I went around and checked other makes of SUV and did not find this problem in any other brand I checked. ( Jaguar , Mercedes, Range Rover , infiniti , BMW , etc
Back to the subject here after reading about the droning issue in this forum. I asked the service manager and he mentions he heard nothing.
Spoke to the GM and told him flat out to be honest he mentions yes there was an issue at specific speeds and there was a memo floating around
and it has been corrected for the 2018 RX 350 that have been built later in production. Fix was applying additional dampening.
Last edited by astuteness; 03-19-18 at 10:35 AM. Reason: spelling
03-19-18, 12:09 PM
#1222
Lexus Test Driver
03-19-18, 07:56 PM
#1223
Greetings from Canada
I was on the verge of buying 2018 RX 350 but walked away after looking at the ripples of the rear center seat.( bottom piece ) I drove around all the dealers in town ( 5) and specifically checked every single one of them half of them have these ripples it while others do not. This is specific only to the RX 350 not the newer RX L and or any other lexus vehicle. I went around and checked other makes of SUV and did not find this problem in any other brand I checked. ( Jaguar , Mercedes, Range Rover , infiniti , BMW , etc
Back to the subject here after reading about the droning issue in this forum. I asked the service manager and he mentions he heard nothing.
Spoke to the GM and told him flat out to be honest he mentions yes there was an issue at specific speeds and there was a memo floating around
and it has been corrected for the 2018 RX 350 that have been built later in production. Fix was applying additional dampening.
I was on the verge of buying 2018 RX 350 but walked away after looking at the ripples of the rear center seat.( bottom piece ) I drove around all the dealers in town ( 5) and specifically checked every single one of them half of them have these ripples it while others do not. This is specific only to the RX 350 not the newer RX L and or any other lexus vehicle. I went around and checked other makes of SUV and did not find this problem in any other brand I checked. ( Jaguar , Mercedes, Range Rover , infiniti , BMW , etc
Back to the subject here after reading about the droning issue in this forum. I asked the service manager and he mentions he heard nothing.
Spoke to the GM and told him flat out to be honest he mentions yes there was an issue at specific speeds and there was a memo floating around
and it has been corrected for the 2018 RX 350 that have been built later in production. Fix was applying additional dampening.
Good to know info from dealer. If accurate, would think they 'know' what issue was/is, and could put out TSB that fixed it for the folks with this issue, unless is something more than what the TSB is for current models exhaust.
Anyone with a 2018 with the problem?
03-25-18, 05:50 PM
#1224
Driver School Candidate
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Acceleration roar
My 2017 RD has a distinct roar when accelerating ( especially up a grade) until about 20 mph. Anyone else noticed this? Understand it may be an exhaust tuning issue.
04-02-18, 05:01 PM
#1225
Driver School Candidate
Has anyone had the repair(new exhaust pipe) done and had an improvement overall? Just had my 5k service. The dealer just ordered part(on backorder) but I am waiting till my 10k service to have it done.Hopefully by then they get this worked out.
04-02-18, 05:22 PM
#1226
Lexus Test Driver
Yup. droning is minimum now and only occurs rarely but for others it didn't work.
04-04-18, 06:32 AM
#1227
I think the exhaust is only part of the issue and I think the main cause is the gear ratio. If I drive the RX by putting it in drive, I get the drone/roar and hesitation. If I change it to 3rd gear in manual mode before stepping on the gas, I get none of the issues (even going up hill). Once I get to 40 MPH, I put it back into drive and it drives fine until I have to slow down below 40 or come to a stop. I think the root cause is the RX starts out in 4th gear when in drive and it is struggling because the RPM is too low. It also shifts to 5th gear way too fast...this is why there is hesitation.
There is another thread where two RX driver states the drone/roar and hesitation was fixed without any notes on their work order. They think Lexus reprogram the ECU to changed the way the transmission shifts and changed the MPG display so show a higher MPG than what the RX is actually getting....again this is what they are stating...not me. I would take a 1-3 MPG loss any day to get rid of these annoyance issues. I know there are compliance rules behind the MPG so who knows if they will actually release the fix.
There is another thread where two RX driver states the drone/roar and hesitation was fixed without any notes on their work order. They think Lexus reprogram the ECU to changed the way the transmission shifts and changed the MPG display so show a higher MPG than what the RX is actually getting....again this is what they are stating...not me. I would take a 1-3 MPG loss any day to get rid of these annoyance issues. I know there are compliance rules behind the MPG so who knows if they will actually release the fix.
04-04-18, 08:50 AM
#1228
I think the exhaust is only part of the issue and I think the main cause is the gear ratio. If I drive the RX by putting it in drive, I get the drone/roar and hesitation. If I change it to 3rd gear in manual mode before stepping on the gas, I get none of the issues (even going up hill). Once I get to 40 MPH, I put it back into drive and it drives fine until I have to slow down below 40 or come to a stop. I think the root cause is the RX starts out in 4th gear when in drive and it is struggling because the RPM is too low. It also shifts to 5th gear way too fast...this is why there is hesitation.
There is another thread where two RX driver states the drone/roar and hesitation was fixed without any notes on their work order. They think Lexus reprogram the ECU to changed the way the transmission shifts and changed the MPG display so show a higher MPG than what the RX is actually getting....again this is what they are stating...not me. I would take a 1-3 MPG loss any day to get rid of these annoyance issues. I know there are compliance rules behind the MPG so who knows if they will actually release the fix.
There is another thread where two RX driver states the drone/roar and hesitation was fixed without any notes on their work order. They think Lexus reprogram the ECU to changed the way the transmission shifts and changed the MPG display so show a higher MPG than what the RX is actually getting....again this is what they are stating...not me. I would take a 1-3 MPG loss any day to get rid of these annoyance issues. I know there are compliance rules behind the MPG so who knows if they will actually release the fix.
04-04-18, 09:24 AM
#1229
I think your theory is only partly right. I have the 450h, which has a CVT & those models don’t seem to have the droning issue. I think the noise is not the transmission, but the RPMs that are produced during the shifting process. A CVT doesn’t have the same RPMs during its shifting process, that a regular transmission produces. I believe the issue (in a nutshell) is the sounds produced at particular RPMs. Does that make sense?
04-04-18, 09:37 AM
#1230
Driver School Candidate
I think the exhaust is only part of the issue and I think the main cause is the gear ratio. If I drive the RX by putting it in drive, I get the drone/roar and hesitation. If I change it to 3rd gear in manual mode before stepping on the gas, I get none of the issues (even going up hill). Once I get to 40 MPH, I put it back into drive and it drives fine until I have to slow down below 40 or come to a stop. I think the root cause is the RX starts out in 4th gear when in drive and it is struggling because the RPM is too low. It also shifts to 5th gear way too fast...this is why there is hesitation.
There is another thread where two RX driver states the drone/roar and hesitation was fixed without any notes on their work order. They think Lexus reprogram the ECU to changed the way the transmission shifts and changed the MPG display so show a higher MPG than what the RX is actually getting....again this is what they are stating...not me. I would take a 1-3 MPG loss any day to get rid of these annoyance issues. I know there are compliance rules behind the MPG so who knows if they will actually release the fix.
There is another thread where two RX driver states the drone/roar and hesitation was fixed without any notes on their work order. They think Lexus reprogram the ECU to changed the way the transmission shifts and changed the MPG display so show a higher MPG than what the RX is actually getting....again this is what they are stating...not me. I would take a 1-3 MPG loss any day to get rid of these annoyance issues. I know there are compliance rules behind the MPG so who knows if they will actually release the fix.