riley2620

I've had my ES350 for about 5 weeks with 750 miles currently. The car has been a major disappointment with several problems that should not occur in a 40k car much less a Lexus. The most major problem has been with squeaks and rattles. The car arrived with a major metallic rattle in the rear package shelf and a less serious one in the from passenger area. The dealer had the car for 8 days and had to dissasemble the entire rear of the car - remove glass, decklid, back seat, headliner etc. It was a defective weld in the frame of the car. Technician said it was the 2nd car they had with this problem. So far it appears to have been fixed. The rattle in the front dash/seat/door area was not fixed and is getting worse. The car was delivered out of alignment, has the cold engine/lifter noise and rides just terribly above 65 mph on the highway - very jittery and busy - very tiring and bothersome, tires also appear to be very noisy at higher speeds.

Has anyone suffered these problems? Any suggestions? Thanks!

redman

Riley.....Fortunately I haven't suffered any one of these problems in any of the four Lexus autos we've owned since Jan 1990. I have an early-build ES350 (Mar/06) and am more anxious (nervous) about owning this car than any of the others. Between the Transmission, wind noise, and NAV issues so many folks are experiencing, I'm just waiting for the "other shoe to drop" with mine. However, as it's very early in the game for you, i.e., 5 weeks and less than a thousand miles, I think I'd try "really hard" to get them to give me another car NOW! Good Luck

The Redman

wanderer99

Very jittery ride at speed - check your tire pressure. Some cars (mine included) had odd tire pressure settings. One of my tires was +10 PSI over the others and I had the ride you are describing. Setting tire pressure to recommended settings fixed it completely.

I've had a rattle in the passenger door fixed already. Passenger seat belt in retractor mechanism was then rattling and that's been fixed too on another visit. I have a car from the first shipment to Canada.

I've booked my car in for 8000km service and have asked them to look at......... the rattle coming from the rear parcel shelf area behind the seats. Man, it better not be what you had. My trans has the issue with the slipping (RPM flaring might be a better description) between gears and its also harsh sometimes when its cold. The Lexus USA TSB should take care of this...but we'll see next week as i'm in Canada.

savon

Welcome to the club. You are not the only one who is disappointed with the car. Mine has driver side window rattling mostly in bumpy and uneven roads (which is most of LA streets and freeways). they werent able to fix it first time( they claimed they fixed it). I am taking it for the first service this month and going to raise hell if they dont fix it. If I were you I would ask for a new car. Just ask yourself do you want to drive this car everyday with all these problems or not. The choice is yours.

PaJaHa1

Riley- I have that same metallic rattle in the rear of the car. I hit the heck out of it with a mallet all over the place and cannot fix it. It's is coming from underneath the rear speakers somewhere and I can hear it on bumps and when the bass hits when the stereo is on. I thought it was just me being a stickler but it's very annoying. I'll have to have the dealer check it out. I can't believe you lost your car for 8 days!

ES350Bob

My car was also delivered out of alignment, pulling hard to the right, believe it or not I'm used to it now and categorize it under nuisance though hate it on a road in right lane where road is more than adequately sloped for rain runoff because there is constant steering wheel pressure-clockwise on your hand at all times on roads like that.
I have both the cold engine excessive lifter noise PLUS a sound of a rod as though it is about to go through the engine block and it is every day, several times a day when cold or cool starting the car and it lasts at least 5 or more miles and now seems like it wants to be present at times even when engine is hot. That is newer as it is easy to hear it then now and again where before when hot you had to have hawk hearing to segregate it from other engine noise..
My transmission downshifts spiking RPM and upshifts spiking RPM and slips or flares.
My wipers rock my car back and forth.
Excessive wind noise at speed but the ride is smoother at speed than lower speeds where your's is worse at speed.
I'd guess you are still out of alignment and also you have unbalanced or out of round tires. Believe me those who truly know how to align a car seem few and far between anymore, same for checking tire roundness and balance, few and far between who truly know what they are doing. Take the car to a Discount Tire branch and ask they check it for balance and roundness of tires, they won't be able to check alignment though but you will love Discount Tires for sure for as helpful and economical as they are. Pep Poys is good at alignment in my area.

PDG810810

I have 1500 miles on mine already. I do have some rattles in the passenger and driver door area that has something to do with the windows. If I lower them about 1/8 of an inch it seems to go away. I'll have the dealership check this out on my first visit (LPS setting)
My only other complaint is some minor vibration above 70 MPH on the highway. Could be out of round tire(s) or balance issue.
Other that that no complaints so far. Very impressed with the power of this car. Huge change from my ES 300.

amf1932

I bought the first UL Edition(manufacture date 3/06) that was shipped to my dealer the beginning of April, and so far I haven't been plagued with any rattles, transmission problems, or anything else that would be a cause for my concern. This car has been a complete joy......so far.

LexBob2

Ditto for ours which is a 4/06 build and a 5/06 purchase. No problems...So far. My fingers are crossed...

Our car was delivered with tire pressures that were way too high, by at least 10 psi per tire which caused a very hard ride. The service dept. tried to tell me it was OK when I called them. I had to take it in and insist they set them at 30 psi per the sticker on the car. Actually, I have them at 32 psi now. Lexus Cust Svc agreed that 40 psi per tire was unacceptable.

amf1932

That's another thing that amazed me.....When I checked my tire pressure the first time after delivery, every tire had exactly 33lbs psi. This was quite different then when I got my previous car, a 2003ES. The tire pressures were all over the place, from about 27psi to 40psi. This was a good sign.

riley2620

Sorry you have the same problem. Mine did the same thing with the bass and not even high high volume. If your dealer is not familiar with the problem have them contact Lexus of Glendale in Glendale CA, so far they appear to have fixed this problem in my car and mine wasn't the first with it.

Macklin

riley, sorry to hear about your issues. I'm happy to say I have been very happy with mine. Keeping my fingers crossed on the tranny, but it continues to just get smoother....knock, knock, knock.

How do you know the car is out of alignment? All cars will pull to the direction of the slope if the roadway is not flat. As mentioned it sounds like you have one, or maybe more, tires out of round. Just one can ruin the ride for sure.

Good luck and keep us posted.

toneman

Okay, maybe I'm just misinterpreting your comment but please don't take the following as my being an a**--did you really drive your car to your local dealership just to insist that the dealer set the correct tire pressure? I mean, I dunno how mechanically inclined you are when it comes to cars, but quite frankly it is not too difficult to bleed air out of a tire--if you are capable of going to a gas station and putting air into your tires, then you should be able to easily bleed them as well. It's one thing to argue w/ the service dept. that the tire pressure in your tires is much higher (or lower) than acceptable, but another thing to bring your car into the dealer just to make them bleed the air out because it's at the wrong pressure. Okay, maybe perhaps you insisted that they do so on principle, or perhaps you drove to the dealer to have them look at other issues and figured that they could bleed the air while they're taking a look at the other stuff, or maybe you have some sort of physical condition which would prevent you from putting/removing air out of your tires (in which case, please accept my apologies for my blunt commentary)--but still...I would have just bled the air out myself.

hcdesign

Mine also has passenger side window rattling in bumpy road condition.
But, when I lower the window about 1/8 of an inch rattling seems to go away.
I decided not to go through the service dept for this because it might cause more rattling on other areas.

LexBob2

I understand what you're saying and would have bled off the pressure myself until correct. However, when I checked the tires just out of curiousity one day, and saw 40 psi all around - Then checked the sticker on the door jamb of the car and saw 30 psi recommended - I called the dealer to see what's up with that and if I was missing something. The service person I talked to said 10 lbs over was OK, not to worry. I called the Lexus 800 # just to confirm and they said no more than 30-32 psi was strongly recommended for ride comfort, tire wear & safety, and suggested I take it back to the dealer in case the tire pressure monitoring system might need to be reset after bleeding off that much air from each tire. I was out running errands and drove right past the dealership, swung in and had them do it. In my previous note on the subject, I just tried to keep it brief without a lot of the details.