ES350Bob

e-man

I tried it only with the one out, drivers forward one.

No high pressure nozzle increase but it did increase tire on road noise and passing vehicle noise.

Since all 4 were upside down, I'm guessing Japan would know not to do that, so leaning toward done here and will next take out remaining 3 and see if I get that high pressure noise as a constant rather than intermittant.

ckon

We drove our ES350 about 2000 miles this week on a tour of parts of New England. Today, my wife was driving between 70 and 80mph and from the passenger seat I could hear wind noise at the rear of the passenger window and also the sunroof. The sunroof noise abated about 90% when I closed the slider. Anyone else heard wind noise from these areas?

e-man

Okay. Keep us posted. You'd seriously have to have SFBs to put those plugs in upside down. Unbelievable.

e-man

Chuck -- you're problem could be something completely different. It's possible that your moonroof is not seated correctly. Much more likely, however, is that your moonroof drain tubes are transmitting noise up into the cabin. These tubes originate in the moonroof and drain out through the rear wheel wells. On the GS, you can find the exit holes inside the trunk on each side. Check out this thread:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...nd+noise+tubes

ES350Bob

I will but it may be a few days as twice been on the pavement in as many days looking up under this car and hadn't done that in years except once in a while for a missing cat or something. Are we sure, absolutely certain they go in the way your post has it and I mentioned they seemed to fit better that way????.....LOL

And the other day literally inside the trunk looking for missing welds and when taking a break sitting in it a real joker shouting..... wrong end, wrong end... and me not understanding and shouting at the fool.... what do you mean.....who then said...... you can't drive it from that end!!!!.....LOL...

Grrr...I'm taking a break from this car's woes.

ckon

Thanx, I looked for the tubes but didn't see them. Has anyone located their position in the ES?

wanderer99

I have some pictures coming. I taped up the rear hole on the driver side and drove at 120kmh. My wife and I think this has reduced the noise considerably at higher speeds. On the way back I removed the tape, and the noise was as loud as ever at 120kmh. Oh, and I just found out I'm actually missing two of the plugs. It wasn't until I looked at the camera while taking pictures that I worked that out!

wanderer99

These plugs are located just behind the front tires on the ES350.

Drivers side


Passenger side


As you can see, I'm missing two plugs. The plugs that are there seem to fit fine, and have this portion that sticks up and into the car - its not a flat surface. Is this the correct mounting from those that have seen theirs?

e-man

Did you pull up the carpeting in the trunk and look into the side wells?

dreyfus

Mine look exactly like yours - except I have all of them.

ckon

Yes, but the light was poor and I only had a couple of minutes, but didn't see them.

ES350Bob

Wanderer, e-man, dreyfus

See how the round plug is set in above in Wanderer passenger side pic--- all 4 of mine are all opposite that. Just pull one out, turn it over and put it back in and you have how mine are all set in there. The way the existing one appears in pic is how I thought it fit better than the way mine are placed.

After seeing Wanderer's pics (thank you wanderer), I have to get back under the car because I only looked at the round ones and I can see a more rectangular shaped missing in wanderer's pics and I didn't look for those.

I will report back later today on this. I didn't look forward enough under the car it seems from perspective in wanderer's pics.....I looked from a position of under driver's door near where it meets passenger door and could see only two half dollar sized plugs each side of car about 6 inches in and then further in there are dime or nickel sized ones. I didn't notice, look at or examine the rectangular areas.

ES350Bob

Wanderer

The pic you show is right behind the wheels.

Now go straight back toward rear of car from those in your pic, go back about 18 inches back from them and then 6 inches in from edge of car and you will see the first of 2 more round plugs each side of car and they are half dollar or silver dollar sized plugs, black in color.

I have both far forward plugs each side as you show in your pic, both round one and rectangular one are where they should be and they are put in like the round one shown in your pic.

My other plugs, roughly 18 inches further back from those shown in your pic, 4 total as a result of 2 each side, are all put in opposite to image of round one you show in your pic.

Starting from front wheel area plugs shown in your pics, there are those two, one rectangular and one round, then moving further back there are 2 more larger in size, total of 4 each side.

Moving further in toward middle of car there are several smaller ones in a line front to back of car, also black in color, no bigger than a dime each side sort of directly in from/across from the larger plugs not shown in your pics.

wanderer99

The larger rearwards plugs that you are talking about Bob seem to be mounted flush and have almost a flat surface - they don't recess up into the car itself like the pictures of my front plugs. The flat surface on the plugs felt like it had writing or something on it.

I have also (a few times now) reseated my rubber around the window. I've let the window push it into its final place. I think that does help somewhat too for the lower speed wind noise. Thanks for that suggestion.

I also looked around in the trunk and couldn't find any location where the drain tubes came down from the sunroof. I lifted out the left foam toolkit block under the liftable trunk liner and there is just nothing there. It looked the same on the right hand side as well.

I also looked in all the wheel arches with a torch from the outside and couldn't see anywhere that it might be draining to. What was interesting is that my rear wheel arches are compeltely lined with a type of felt or some special material. The front wheel arches just have the regular plastic linings and have none of this 'material'.

ES350Bob

The larger rear ones on mine and yours it seems are upside down if the writing is facing downward to pavement on your's as are mine. It seems the writing should be facing upward into hole not downward to pavement and if you pulled one of the larger ones out and turned it over and placed it back in it will fit snug in like the smaller front one does. See below about me driving before doing it though.

Your front round one on passenger pic is put in correctly it seems.

If you take the smaller round front one out and turn it over you will see it is exactly like the larger ones further back including has writing on it that had faced up inside hole, only difference is diameter, or vice versa taking out a larger one just to look it over. They are easy to pull out and put back in.

I drove yesterday with one larger one out, now will take out all three remaining and see what happens as to the worst of the worst wind noise.

I'll let you know my results maybe as soon as today. It may be at much higher speed 60 mph and above, the windstream causes seep around these upside down larger ones if this is part of why we get high pressure noise at much higher speeds on top of nuisance volume level wind noise around windows at lower speeds.

I do think my Dad was onto something letting the glass of window reset gaskets and glad it helped you somewhat.