ES350Bob

Wanderer,

almost forgot

Front wheel well and rear wheel on mine are as you describe yours, felt lined type fabric material in back, plastic like material in front.

Also nstan had posted his plug(s) had gone up inside hole, the larger upside down ones could do this FAR easier than they ever could if put in right side up.

If motivated, pull out a larger one, easy to do whether they are right side or wrong side up, and look it over and place it back opposite and see what you discover as to fit. You may also discover they are currently loose and floating up in hole somewhat as upside down there should be easily 1/8th inch to 1/4 inch lip hanging down not flat to surface or not even with surface. They would get even with surface if they ended up going in hole further because they are upside down.

theredkid

I checked my undercarriage this morning.. all 4 oval shaped plugs are missing. The round ones are all present. Then I called my dealer.. they said those 4 oval holes supposingly are plugged by them before delivery and asked me to drop by and they will plug for me. I just dropped by my dealer's place (it is only a few miles from my work place) at noon and they plugged all of them in less than a minute.

On the side note, I don't hear much difference in wind noise before and after though. They both sound pretty quiet to me.

toneman

All four holes plugged on my ES...unfortunately for me, that means I have to look elsewhere to figure out why I'm getting wind noise near the A-pillar area. I'll have to try the suggestion of reseating the window gaskets to see if doing so helps minimize the wind noise I'm hearing.

wanderer99

toneman - At what speed do you hear the noise starting at?

toneman

Believe it or not, I can hear it starting around 50 mph...but in all fairness I can't be certain if it was due to perhaps slightly (i.e., around, but not greater than, 10 mph) windy conditions; but at around 60 mph and higher I can hear it no matter how much or how little wind there is outside...and the wind noise at 60 is louder than what it is when I hear it at 50. Not deafening loud, mind you...but not necessarily whisper-quiet either. Now some folks will say that at those speeds you'll definitely hear some wind noise (or, buffeting?) around the A-pillar no matter what; fair enough...but that doesn't explain why I've seen posts from a few other ES 350 owners claiming that they hardly hear any wind noise at all at freeway speeds.

Maybe my expectation of "quiet" in the ES 350 is a bit too high? I mean, how quiet should it be at less-than-freeway speeds--is it a "you can hear a pin drop"-type of quiet?

ES350Bob

Toneman,

You posted wind noise starting at around 50 mph.

I have said approaching 50 mph, above 40mph it is getting noisy and yes the faster the worse it gets.

This did not happen in either of 2 prior Lexus ES300 I owned or the MB C240 either. A convertable with a leaky top maybe, but not a Lexus.

cowdung

I have an associate,(hooked me up with LS460 early)that i order my Lexus' from and we were talking about the wind noise issue with the ES350. He told me that all the complaints he has heard about the noise comes from the UL's. He said that lexus might not offer the UL next year due to this noise issue. He's never steered me wrong yet.

glock22x

Just wondering guys, like people say that wind noise comes from the A-pillar, but where is the A-pillar? I don't know much about cars

wanderer99

A pillar is the front up\down metal pillar that connects the windscreen to the car. The driver\passenger door also touches this when closed.

dreyfus

And the B pillars are between the driver & passenger doors, and the C pillars are on either side of the rear window.

There! Now you're an automotive expert.

coolcow

My car is like yours. The noise is noticable but not deafening loud. I wasn't sure whether it was normal until I drove a 08/06 build loaner car, which has no such noise at all!

However, the technician could not find the cause at the moment. I am kind of waiting for Lexus to issus a TSIB..

BTW, I found the plugs behind front tires (thanks, wanderer), but I couldn't find the ones at rear tires. Anyone can decribe them (or even have a picture)?

toneman

They are very similar to the front ones (almost right next to each other, and are of similar shape/size/color), and are located--if they haven't been removed, that is--just forward of the rear tires, if my short-term picture memory serves me correctly.

wanderer99

My expectations on wind noise are pretty simple. I drive a lot. I drive at highway + speeds, which means pretty much 65-85mph. I expect the car to be tuned to be quiet at those speeds as a luxury car should. I spend most of my time at those speeds. Obviously anything below 65mph should also be very quiet as well. This is one of the deciding factors in us purchasing a Lexus actually.

My car will have its plugs installed early next week. We'll see how it fares then.

I don't think a TSIB is coming on this one anymore. I've been waiting patiently for 5 months now and the only thing we have to date for this is some clever dealers coming up with the shims idea - which is good, and CL members finding missing plugs which may help.

Does anyone here who had wind noise have both the shims and all plugs installed and still have the issue?

wanderer99

I've got some more info on this. I came across all the ES350 TSIBs that are hosted on Tundrasolutions.com. This is a pay service, so I'm not going to physically post what was in the PDFs.

TD010-06 - Installation of Body Plugs during PDS (seems relevant )
Summary: There are four plugs that need to be installed. They are all of the oval shaped variety, two behind the front wheels and two in front of the rear wheels. The pictures in this thread show the large oval plug and a smaller plug I am missing. The smaller plug is not in this document, so it means its probably not a PDI item! I am missing one large oval plug - the other 3 are there.

Quote: "NOTE: If the rubber plugs are NOT securely installed, road (tire) noise may transfer to the vehicle interior through the torque box holes."

Amongst the other ES350 downloads is a PDF called lowvibra.pdf. This lists the steps Lexus has taken to kill sound from coming into the vehicle. This includes diagrams and explanations. Part 3 is entitled "Reducing Wind Noise" and shows all the rubber seals on hood\doors\windows\windshield and how they operate to block wind noise.

The plug I did patch with tape was the small round one in my picture. I think that reduced the wind noise, and that plug looks like it should have been there from the factory!

Kaius88

ok... i hear it. Im pretty sure its wind noise from the A-pillar, and it just started like last week. At 75+ mph I can hear it....coming from the A pillar on driver side. When i dip below 50 mph, that sound is gone completely. The wind noise is not loud...just noticeable... My Highlander doesnt have the wind noise, but overall the SUV is just plain louder. This is not a big deal at all... I find that the radio cand drown it out easily. Even my phone call drowns it out.