ES350Bob

I'm glad this forum is here, finding it today. If I hadn't I'd feel I was the only person with the bad luck to have driven off in a brand new ES350 that has an engine knocking/tapping sound you can hear in the car that was NOT present in the demonstrator I tested which was cold started, excessive wind noise at speed, idle set way too high and all of which are deemed normal operation for the vehicle.
No matter what I am told, I know the ability to hear that knocking/tapping clatter is not normal, certainly isn't from any injector, likely the valves. And Lexus should quit excusing it away and FIX it and cease telling people it's news to them, after reading all of the posts by people who have been reporting to their dealer long before I bought mine this isn't news to Lexus to complain about engine noise.
Just researching hydraulic lifters let's you know when that sound is present, there is air or other compressable material present where it should not be beyond the first few seconds or a minute, yet mine does this until the car reaches the hot point on the gauge, every day, several times a day if the engine has cooled down and it is not normal. And that this can allow HOT gasses to do even more damage.
There is excessive wind noise at speed, also explained away as normal and nothing short of a design change will fix it, they just redesigned the car for goodness sake. I was told I was just not used to it. Darn right I'm not used to hearing anything like it, never heard anything like it described as something normal in either of 2 ES300's I owned or the C240 Benz I traded in on the ES350.
Then there is that idle with a mind of it's own, no need to apply gas and better be sure your foot is on the break at all times in reverse. And something new this morning in drive I noticed and will keep an eye out for it to see if it is repetitive, a jump in RPM when backing off the gas.
After my recent exprience in bringing this to the dealer, Lexus attention, I am ready for the standard answers,...We've not heard of this before when they darn sure have and the... all of this is normal operating parameters for the car when your common sense and car experience and several mechanics you know, tell you it's NOT normal.
On the wind noise, my 87 year old father fussed around for quite a while with all four windows and all the door edges, then told me to go drive it at speed, I did and somehow he minimized the wind noise, though still annoying, he has other ideas to make it even less annoying, but he cut it in half or less as it is, so there are things that can be done instead of being told this is normal after first claiming they never heard of any wind noise issues.

Kaius88

what was the build date of your ES350? What does the wind noise sound like? Is it a whooooosshhhhhhh or a hooooooooooof? Im trying to decide if i have wind noise. I lean forward to the A frame and the sound i hear is the same as if I were just sitting there.... its w whoooooosh sound on the freeway...mainly from other cars passing by and from the ambient environment... This is at 80 mph. It gets a lot quieter at 60 mph or less.

Regarding engine noise... when i cold start i can hear the engine running.... How loud is it supposed to get I don't know. I can hear it but im sure there are car with a quieter engine maybe.

I figure if anything goes wrong, Lexus should take care of it. This is what we get for being the 1st to buy a new platform model. Theres a risk of course, but so far so good. I suspect if your transmission has a defect, the condition will gradually worsen over time instead of a sponteanous *boom* and you're out of control on the highway. Im concerned about when i have my daughter in the car, so i try to observe as carefully as possible.

ES350Bob

Kaius... If you had the wind noise you would know it for sure as it is a noise you would not have experienced in other cars, especially other Lexus like ES300 series or Mercedes, but to try to describe it: like being at speed in a constant high velocity cross wind to the direction you are traveling.
The engine knocking/tapping is best described as others on here have....like you are driving a diesel vehicle with a distinct knocking/tapping noise that seems not to be present in road test review vehicles for magazine articles because they never mention it and seems not present in the car or cars they have you test drive either..

savior02

My valves are noisy as well at cold start, reminds me of my old honda civic i used to drive back in the day.....It goes away after the car gets warm but to me a brand new car is'nt supposed to sound like that and especially a lexus..so i was really concerned about my ES thinking damn am i driving it too hard or what b/c this cant be normal....but just the other day ii was at the dealership waiting for my car to finish getting washed and as i was standing on the sidelines waiting for the porter to bring my car i had saw a girl just receiving her IS250 and driving away and as she was driving away i noticed that her valves were sounding also......after that i felt alot more comfortable about the valve noise......

wanderer99

The engine sound is almost like a 'clatter' or something similar. I used to have a Nissan inline 6 cylinder engine that needed lifter work done, and it sounded similar to the new ES. I think that is why I don't like the sound too much, it reminds me of that old Nissan engine!

I had my car approx 3 days when I called the service dept and logged an issue with the wind noise and engine tapping. Wind noise they agree on. Engine, they said this is similar to the IS and is how things are now. I've gotten used to the engine as I only hear it at low speeds. It is still annoying though. Idle speed - no real issues for me
. Maybe 1500rpm for half a minute while it warms up, if that.

Wind Noise - I am positive something can be done to fix this as its just an air seal between the glass and the door frame. In my car both passenger and driver had the noise starting at 40mph (56km\h). Even the Lexus service tech picked that up. The shims at the front have helped a great deal to seal the window there, but this kind of pushes the top and back of the window outwards, which is where I have accoustic\air leaks now. Still its much better than what it was.

I'm thinking once Lexus gets the Trans issue organised, they'll be able to issue a TSB on the wind noise. If nothing comes in two months, I'm going to ask my dealer to replace the run channel rubber with a new set to see if that fixes it. I've got a feeling the rubber mould is screwed up.

ES350Bob

Savior, I'm talking about a knocking/tapping you can hear in the car until it gets hot not warm, I thought midpoint on the temp gauge was warm, but it's not I'm told, that is hot and you don't want it any hotter than that is what a service dept. foreman told me.
If you had this in the car noise, you'd want to take it for service for sure because you would know something is wrong with the car. Read the road tests by authors, none of them mention this engine noise, and the demonstrator I drove and others on here mention too before buying also didn't make this noise. Hearing noise outside the car is another matter, inside they should all be either noisy like a diesel engine or none of them should be. Many make no noise at all like many of us are hearing, so none of them should, same with excessive wind noise, some do and many don't.

jeffofla

My 2002 ES does not have the clacking of the valves sound when it is cold, but my 2007 ES does. It's a little annoying because I actually find the engine on the ES 350 louder than my ES 300. But will I trade it off for the power compared to my 02 ES 300? You bet. This doesn't mean it is a little annoying though...

ES350Bob

Jeff, I would accept a louder engine which I believe the ES350 engine to be compared to the ES300, a knocking, tapping noise for 5 minutes solid plus or minus though is another matter, that's metal on metal when you hear that sound and odd not present at all in a cold started demonstration vehicle before buying and not present in cars of other owners posting on here.
Some just have the excessive wind noise, some only the engine noise and many have neither and instead seem to have a window problem I don't have or not yet anyway and many have none of the above. Some of us seem to have been unlucky enough to have both engine and wind noise.
They should all be near equal in engine sound, near equal in wind noise or something is wrong when some are put together and very right when others are put together.

Rockville

ES350's so it doesn't sound normal to me. The IS250's and IS350's have a tapping sound that originates at the mechanical fuel pump near the firewall at the back of the engine since their engines have direct injection. The ES350 has port injection and doesn't have the high fuel pressure. Now it does have variable intake and exhaust valves that change their position constantly for fuel, emissions and power output reasons. The ES350 also has three timing chains which have replaced the single timing belts of the past. These improvements are what gives it the 50 extra horses compared to the ES330. Wind noise is usually a seal or glass alignment and can take patience to find and correct.

Rock

wanderer99

Rock, have you had any ES350's in for wind noise issues?

rockdaddy7

i had this exact same problem! they told me the BS about the fule injection thing to. but mine only does it wen i start up. when you push the start button, towards the end of the start, it sounds like my whole engine is "jing-iling"

coolcow

Sometimes, I can hear a little bit wind noise on highway. But I don't drive fast here, typically 60-70. I figure that it also depends on the road condition.

What bothers me most is the shift shock on my car. It doesn't shift gears as smoothly as my Accord, especially for low gears. I can feel a little bump as the car shifts. Kaius suggests that is normal and it should get better after break-in. What about your guys?

Jbuckey09

This is probably 14 years too late but I just bought a 2009 lexus es350 which had 113k miles when I bought it. I 100% noticed the wind noise from going on the freeway..it almost seemed like my windows were not rolled up all the way. Also, the vehicle stability control constantly comes on with ththe abs light. This is also the first forum I've come across where you've mentioned the rpms rev up when letting off the gas! Mine is doing that too!??? Also, I noticed it sounds like a damn dirt bike when I punch it from 0 to 40 or so. Also, when I get on the freeway and really get after it it smells light rotten egg?? I replaced the battery in it and air filter so far and did the front brakes, the sulfur smell might have been fixed with the new battery? Researched and it said my battery was bad, which it was though and 6 years old. It just seems like the timing is off when I get on it and the sound of the engine or whatever noise I'm hearing just seems like a 2 or 4 stroke dirt bike...

Wilson2000

These two issues indicate you have an exhaust leak, and/or a catalytic converter issue. When you stomp on it, unburned fuel can overtax an old cat and cause the rotten egg smell. You shouldn't smell it, however, unless you also have an exhaust leak which also seems feasible since it sounds like a "dirt bike!"

Clutchless

Did you get the car inspected by a mechanic before purchase? That would have identified the cause of these issues and maybe given you room to negotiate a lower price for the repairs.
You need someone to check the stored codes and check emissions to see what is going on with your engine.