SilverES06

I have a 2006 ES330 that just hit 97,000 miles. I'm the second owner of the car, I've had it for about a year and a half, and have been changing the oil every 6,000 miles with Mobil 1 5W-30 and a Toyota filter. I have the service history which says the previous owner had maintenance done every 5K at the Lexus dealer. I had the timing belt and water pump replaced by Lexus at 90,000 miles, and everything else is up to date.

Anyway, over the last few weeks, the car has developed a noticeable rattle/tick noise that only occurs when the engine revs over 2100 rpm when cold. As soon as the car warms up, it goes away completely. It sounds like some kind of valvetrain noise. It doesn't do it at startup or at idle, only when the car is moving and the engine is revving over 2K. The noise is hard to describe, it's not very loud, but it does it every time the car is cold under the conditions I've described.

So, I brought the car back to the Lexus dealer I bought it from (I have a Lexus extended warranty) and they kept the car overnight to try and duplicate the problem. At first they claimed they didn't hear anything. So I drove up there and roadtested it with the technician. Sure enough, the car made the noise. Upon hearing it, he said, "oh that sounds like a little valvetrain noise. That's normal for this engine."

I still insisted that this was not a normal noise. I've owned the car for a while now, and I know what it normally sounds like.

So, my question is, does anyone with the 3MZ-FE notice a little tick/rattle noise from the engine above 2K rpm when it's cold? I'm convinced that this isn't normal, but the Lexus dealer insists that its not a problem.

Any insight would be appreciated... Thanks!

fgpalmer71

I have an 04 es330 with 85k on it now. It's been around freezing the last few mornings and I can not say I have heard anything like what your describing. I have only owned the car for about 3mos now. My car has been smooth and EXTREMELY quit every morning, from start up through all the gears. I am no mechanic, but that does not sound normal to me. I'm leaving work now so I will listen extra closely at 2k and beyond.

speedkar9

Maybe a sticky valve? There might be some solvents out there that can help.

My ES330 runs smooth and quiet, 205,000km on it, and had it over a year.

SilverES06

The Lexus dealer basically told me (as politely as they could) that they weren't going to do anything about it, and couldn't do anything about it unless a CEL was triggered. It was very aggravating as they are 40 minutes away from me, and I had to drive up there twice while they had the car to demonstrate what was going on, and finally have them admit that there was a noise after all.

I'm wondering if it has anything to do with VVT, especially because it only occurs above the 2100 rpm range. Like I mentioned though, as soon as it warms up, the noise goes away completely.

I'm hesitant to run any kind of solvent through it at this point, maybe as a last resort. I might try another Lexus dealership, there's one very close to where I work. I just hope I don't hear the same excuses from them.

PFB

You should also consider getting an opinion from 1-2 Independent shops that you trust.

Also, If you can record the sound and pst it here for us to hear it could be helpful.

Phil

SilverES06

You may need to turn your volume up all the way to hear it. Each time the engine revs, you can hear the noise.

Also, I would go to an independent shop, but I'm still covered by a Lexus extended warranty, so I really want to avoid paying out of pocket for this.

PFB

Couldn't really hear anything unusual in your video.

I was suggesting that you should go to an Independent shop only for a second or third opinion, and not for the propose of having the work done by them.

Either way, make sure that its documented that you had gone to the Lexus dealer with that complaint. So if something happens at least you have a dated piece of paper showing that you had complained about a noise, during your warranty period.

Phil

SilverES06

Unfortunately it's hard to hear in the video, and I recorded it with my phone which probably didn't help.

I'll ask around to see if anyone in my area knows of a good shop familiar with Toyota/Lexus. The only pain the neck is the car will need to sit there overnight to cool down before they can hear it...

But as you mentioned, I do have documentation from the Lexus service dept that I brought the car in for a noise that they deemed normal. I have the Platinum warranty on the car, so it's covered until 7/2017 or 142,000 miles.

Thanks for your input!

PFB

Please post back when there are any changes in the status.

I'm curious, as to how this will turn out, and I'm sure that so will others on this board.

Phil

hypervish

Sounds like an exhaust related issue to me, but hard to tell from the video.

SilverES06

I don't think it's an exhaust noise, I'm fairly sure it's coming from the top end of the engine. The problem with the video I uploaded is that the normal engine sounds make the abnormal noise hard to hear.

It's very noticeable in the car, but not so much in the video. I'll try to take a better one soon.

Also, something else I wanted to mention, the car doesn't make the noise if I rev it in park or neutral, even if it's cold. It only seems to do it under load.

pearl93'ls

I have a 2006 ES that is making a similar ticking noise at idle. It seems to quiet down as you rev the engine and of course you cannot hear it inside the car driving .it's just annoying hearing such a fine running engine make a tick tick tick sound when you're sitting at a stop light or In park. It's just driving me nuts ! I have heard lots of people complain about this and that Lexus has valvetrain noise but there's got to be an additive or something I can put in my engine to make it quiet down. I know the difference between exhaust ticking. I just went thru the top end of my 350 Buick in my roadmaster just to discover it was a bad exhaust manifold gasket..has anyone had any luck making this tick quiet again?

My car has been serviced by Lexus every 5k since new. It has had a few injector services over the years . Gone by the book. Thanks!

Oro

It's fine to start your own thread instead of resurrecting a 2 year old one; leads to a lot of wasted reading if you don't catch the dates right off.

I would consider a few things to do:

a) Add some MMO or similar for an OCI to clean deposits. Then use a high quality synthetic oil to keep it clean. There are other motor flushes you can do that are faster, but this is a well-respected product.

b) Use a good quality filter with a good ADBV, like the factory Toyota one (sounds like you have been), wix, or Motorcraft "S" which fit this car. The filter mounting on these can cause cheaply built filters to drain down when not running.

c) Consider checking the OCV screens, it could be the OCVs acting up. I had to replace ours recently, but they worked fine up to about 250k in my case. Others have reported them failing sooner; eventually they'll throw misfire and VVT codes when one of them gets bad enough.

One thing I do to keep ours clean is 50 to 100 miles before an oil change, I top up any lost oil with ATF - up to 1/2 to 3/4 quart. Others will add SeaFoam or B12 (8 ounces, e.g.) for this purpose. A lot of the commercial flushes out there are primarily kerosene; you can add 1 qt of that to you crankacase and let that idle 15 minutes before draining, too. This was a factory Mercedes recommended technique, so don't fear that if you want to try it.