2016 RX 350 Excessive noise and vibration
09-13-18, 05:57 PM
#1381
Intermediate
You have two RX's? That's fantastic, you're the perfect person to put all your time and effort into finding what's wrong - I want you to give up your job and spend everyday researching your two cars, working out what is different and where this issue stems from. Plenty of people await your results.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Why don’t you take this fix to the next level, and pursue it through the chain of command at Lexus. Plenty of people await your results.
09-14-18, 06:09 PM
#1382
Yup, I have two RXs, and I don’t have to give up my job because I have been retired for over 20 years. There are no discernible differences between my two vehicles. It’s not that easy, even for Lexus engineers. I am also an engineer, and a licensed aircraft mechanic. With previous work done by Forum members, the problem has been solved and confirmed by me, and others. Hang a weight in front of the catalytic converter.
Why don’t you take this fix to the next level, and pursue it through the chain of command at Lexus. Plenty of people await your results.
09-14-18, 08:53 PM
#1383
Lexus Champion
If I had one this RX, I'd have traded in in a neart beat. I don't want to bother with or wait for a patch work fix repeatedly.
Fundamentally something is not right and IMO, Lexus is trying to wear you out until you give up or forget.
When I purchased a brand new '15 Acura MDX, it tranny issues. I had it for less than 3 months. Traded in for BMW X5.
Fundamentally something is not right and IMO, Lexus is trying to wear you out until you give up or forget.
When I purchased a brand new '15 Acura MDX, it tranny issues. I had it for less than 3 months. Traded in for BMW X5.
09-15-18, 04:52 AM
#1384
Intermediate
Here is a thought that might explain what is going on. Perhaps the engine harmonic balancer is not properly designed. The balancer is located on the front of the crank with the purpose of reducing engine vibration. A few grams of weight either way can change the vibration characteristics of the engine. Our problem usually occurs at about the same 1500 RPM. a slight change in the balancer weight might move the problem out of the RPM range that we can feel. Other factors would have to come into play to explain why the problem only occurs on certain vehicles. If the engine and exhaust system is totally done by robot, I have no explanation. If, on the other hand, humans are involved, slight differences in mounting, with a harmonic balancer which is not weighted correctly could explain the problem.
Any thoughts out there? My head hurts.
Any thoughts out there? My head hurts.
09-15-18, 06:36 AM
#1385
Here is a thought that might explain what is going on. Perhaps the engine harmonic balancer is not properly designed. The balancer is located on the front of the crank with the purpose of reducing engine vibration. A few grams of weight either way can change the vibration characteristics of the engine. Our problem usually occurs at about the same 1500 RPM. a slight change in the balancer weight might move the problem out of the RPM range that we can feel. Other factors would have to come into play to explain why the problem only occurs on certain vehicles. If the engine and exhaust system is totally done by robot, I have no explanation. If, on the other hand, humans are involved, slight differences in mounting, with a harmonic balancer which is not weighted correctly could explain the problem.
Any thoughts out there? My head hurts.
Any thoughts out there? My head hurts.
09-15-18, 09:51 AM
#1386
Intermediate
I've always thought that it maybe that flexible joint in front of the catalytic converter - maybe the torquing of the bolts, springs not quite the same, just a thought. Could explain why some cars have it and others don't and appears Jap builds don't have a problem. Maybe the Canadian boys and girls torque the bolts tighter/looser.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that the Japanese builds do not have the problem. I didn't know that. Should have, since our Australian friends don't have the droning. I believe my previous post about the harmonic engine balancer is a non starter. There is obviously a difference between the Canadian and Japanese production lines, and I would guess it is a human problem somewhere in the engine/exhaust system installation. Sure wish I could talk to the right person at Lexus. I think they may have found what was wrong, and the TSB is just a band aid to try and make a few of us happy without doing a very expensive recall. I don't think the 2018s have nearly the problem, if any, that the 16s, and 17s have.
Last edited by rxtimes2; 09-15-18 at 09:54 AM.
09-15-18, 10:32 AM
#1387
09-15-18, 06:49 PM
#1388
The installation of the TSB required the Techs to follow some pretty detailed instructions when they redid the flex joint. they were supposed to use vernier calipers to measure the free length of the two springs and replace them if they didn't meet specs. They were supposed to be extremely careful with the gasket and the flexible joint itself, and the torque values were specified. Then they were supposed to eyeball the assembly to make sure it was true, and consistent all the way around. Whether they did this is anybody guess, but in my case, the droning was not changed.
I've have cars serviced on over 300 occasions (did a couple of very high mileage driving jobs over 20 years) at dealers and the number of times they broke something or did something else wrong (doubled the oil, wheel nuts not tightened, wrong assembly, leaving parts off the engine) was astonishing. I had massive arguments with service managers who said you should always have the car serviced at a dealer as "they know what they're doing, and will do it right", this is when I said I should go to a local mechanic or franchise. Anyway the point of all that is when these dealers are applying the TSB are they in fact doing whats stated on the TSB, I could easily imagine the service guy saying to himself "What's this crap, I know how to install/replace/repair that joint" and take no or little notice of the instructions. This may well explain why some people experience no improvement and others say there's a large improvement, some techies do the right thing and others don't.
After my experiences I have very little faith in dealers servicing. I have a friend who is the same and puts very small marks on items that should be replaced at a service (oil filter, diesel/water filter, air filter,etc) and there's been many times he's caught them out, the replacement is on the invoice but the same old part is still on the car. You just don't know what goes on behind those doors.
The following users liked this post:
ravenuer (09-15-18)
09-15-18, 08:34 PM
#1389
See that's interesting, all that focus on that flexible joint.
I've have cars serviced on over 300 occasions (did a couple of very high mileage driving jobs over 20 years) at dealers and the number of times they broke something or did something else wrong (doubled the oil, wheel nuts not tightened, wrong assembly, leaving parts off the engine) was astonishing. I had massive arguments with service managers who said you should always have the car serviced at a dealer as "they know what they're doing, and will do it right", this is when I said I should go to a local mechanic or franchise. Anyway the point of all that is when these dealers are applying the TSB are they in fact doing whats stated on the TSB, I could easily imagine the service guy saying to himself "What's this crap, I know how to install/replace/repair that joint" and take no or little notice of the instructions. This may well explain why some people experience no improvement and others say there's a large improvement, some techies do the right thing and others don't.
After my experiences I have very little faith in dealers servicing. I have a friend who is the same and puts very small marks on items that should be replaced at a service (oil filter, diesel/water filter, air filter,etc) and there's been many times he's caught them out, the replacement is on the invoice but the same old part is still on the car. You just don't know what goes on behind those doors.
I've have cars serviced on over 300 occasions (did a couple of very high mileage driving jobs over 20 years) at dealers and the number of times they broke something or did something else wrong (doubled the oil, wheel nuts not tightened, wrong assembly, leaving parts off the engine) was astonishing. I had massive arguments with service managers who said you should always have the car serviced at a dealer as "they know what they're doing, and will do it right", this is when I said I should go to a local mechanic or franchise. Anyway the point of all that is when these dealers are applying the TSB are they in fact doing whats stated on the TSB, I could easily imagine the service guy saying to himself "What's this crap, I know how to install/replace/repair that joint" and take no or little notice of the instructions. This may well explain why some people experience no improvement and others say there's a large improvement, some techies do the right thing and others don't.
After my experiences I have very little faith in dealers servicing. I have a friend who is the same and puts very small marks on items that should be replaced at a service (oil filter, diesel/water filter, air filter,etc) and there's been many times he's caught them out, the replacement is on the invoice but the same old part is still on the car. You just don't know what goes on behind those doors.
09-16-18, 12:48 AM
#1390
Car was fixed and we drove off into the sunset through outback Australia, we had done a few days driving and 7,000 km when 100's of kilometres from anywhere the car just died. Long story but the outcome was when the dealer fixed the stalling issue days earlier they forgot to install two support brackets that stopped the high pressure fuel lines from vibrating, those fuel lines vibrated so much that the fuel line became cracked so no pressure and the car died.
I love dealer servicing.....they do such a good job for a lot of money.
09-17-18, 09:18 AM
#1391
Funny story you may like - one of my work cars was a Nissan Patrol diesel, it started stalling on trailing throttle at very low speeds when you went to accelerate, common thing was nearing a roundabout slowing right down and than you think I have time to go before the next car comes through, hit the throttle and......stalled straightaway as the car rolls into the roundabout - some very scary situations came up. Anyway I took it to 5 DIFFERENT dealers plus numerous times to one of those dealers and none of them could work out what was wrong, one dealer said "We know for sure the problem there" and replaced the fuel rail, $3000 later still stalling. All this was over many months until I told my boss he could shove his car where it won't fit, they collected it on a truck and after another week and another dealer worked out the problem and fixed it.
Car was fixed and we drove off into the sunset through outback Australia, we had done a few days driving and 7,000 km when 100's of kilometres from anywhere the car just died. Long story but the outcome was when the dealer fixed the stalling issue days earlier they forgot to install two support brackets that stopped the high pressure fuel lines from vibrating, those fuel lines vibrated so much that the fuel line became cracked so no pressure and the car died.
I love dealer servicing.....they do such a good job for a lot of money.
Car was fixed and we drove off into the sunset through outback Australia, we had done a few days driving and 7,000 km when 100's of kilometres from anywhere the car just died. Long story but the outcome was when the dealer fixed the stalling issue days earlier they forgot to install two support brackets that stopped the high pressure fuel lines from vibrating, those fuel lines vibrated so much that the fuel line became cracked so no pressure and the car died.
I love dealer servicing.....they do such a good job for a lot of money.
09-17-18, 12:52 PM
#1392
That is SO TRUE! Thanks for sharing that story. I think a lot of folks, to include myself, are sucked into this “Lexus can do no wrong” mindset. They make cars just like all the rest & if they see a way to avoid losing money (even at the customer’s inconvenience), they will do it. They carefully weigh if the situation will cost them further down the road & how much it will cost them. I honestly don’t understand how some manufacturers make any real money, because of all of their recalls. Lexus is very good about avoiding that sort of thing.
09-17-18, 01:39 PM
#1393
Forum Administrator
iTrader: (2)
Please let the moderators do the moderating, if you have an issue with a member's post, report it vs making a call out that often escalates and takes threads even further off topic.
I have posted the request below earlier in this thread that I'll remind folks of:
Folks, a moderator has pruned and/or edited some off-topic and rude replies and that seems to be a recurring concern in this thread, so I'm going to help with a couple simple requests:
Please don't reply to this post and take this thread off topic further - if you want to discuss, please PM me or a moderator.
- If you've already posted your opinion or experience here (either my RX is great or my RX has an issue) there isn't a need to keep reposting the same thing unless there is some new development or change. That serves simply to bump the thread with no new detail for members, sends out email notifications to hundreds of people, etc. New members coming into the thread can read your perspective and detail from past posts.
- If you're going to post a rude personal comment about another member, make accusations about their intent, etc. you will be asked to exit this thread permanently. There is no need for that on our community.
Please don't reply to this post and take this thread off topic further - if you want to discuss, please PM me or a moderator.
Last edited by DaveGS4; 09-17-18 at 01:43 PM.
09-17-18, 04:39 PM
#1394
Koetsu,
Please let the moderators do the moderating, if you have an issue with a member's post, report it vs making a call out that often escalates and takes threads even further off topic.
I have posted the request below earlier in this thread that I'll remind folks of: (see above)
I do also ask we keep this discussion on the Lexus RX, not other marques.
Please let the moderators do the moderating, if you have an issue with a member's post, report it vs making a call out that often escalates and takes threads even further off topic.
I have posted the request below earlier in this thread that I'll remind folks of: (see above)
I do also ask we keep this discussion on the Lexus RX, not other marques.
09-19-18, 10:30 AM
#1395
I've started to notice a drone noise when stopped, and a light vibration in the steering wheel. Almost sounds like my RX has aftermarket exhaust.....is this similar to what people have been experiencing? I bought my RX350 F in June, 2017 (about 12k miles to date).....not sure if TSB had been applied once Lexus started to catch wind of the issue.