SF_Jim

Brake caliper rattles drove me nuts when I first took delivery of my '05. I use my SC430 almost entirely for top-down driving. Most of my driving is in San Francisco. The streets are generally in poor condition. Poorly done trench repairs, potholes, raised/sunken utility covers, and cracked/rough pavement are ubiquitious. All of the pavement flaws are amplified by the runflat tires.

When I brought my SC430 in for service, I specified "brake caliper rattle" as the problem. To my chagrin the Lexus service techs responded, "no rattle found."

Fortunately, my service writer is car guy (Vette ZO6 owner) and realized that I knew what I was talking about. When I picked up my car he was apologetic and offered to take a spin with me to reproduce the rattle. The challenge was finding any pavement in the suburban area of the dealership that came remotely close to the poor pavement condition so common in San Francisco. We had to settle for repeated runs over raised railroad tracks to reporduce the rattle. He immediately heard the caliper rattle.

I had to leave the car again so the service department could take another crack at fixing the rattle. Apparently, this is a known problem since this time the techs installed an "anti-rattle kit."

Hope this helps someone else ...

Jim

Pearlpower

iTrader: (2)

Could you be more specific with what in the caliper was rattling? I am pretty familiar with the brakes on these cars (same as most Lexus cars) and am curious. Now sometimes the brake dust shield comes too close to the rotor and that can cause a noise at times. I have heard of the calipers making clunks due to low pads or out of spec brake pins but not a rattle.
thanks

SF_Jim

PearlPower,

Good questions. Sorry I can't provide further details. My experience has been that dealer service does not provide a personal connection between the customer and the tech who services car. I've asked for this feedback loop but was told no. The only feedback is a general note on the paperwork left with the cashier.

Jim.

MY06LS430

I had a same rattle problem with my 03SC, it was coming from the pass. side (either panel or seat bracket) it seemed to go away when someone's sitting there though. A local dealer couldn't fix it so they replaced it with a new car.

Jet

where are you located....if you dont mind me asking.?