ES350Bob

No problem, short of having someone drive you leaning over the hood with a recorder with the hood up....... .....it's a PIA to record the sound and why I totally understand him stating turn the volume up in his post to anyone interested in getting an idea because it's his idle.

PaJaHa1

I thought the problem could be heard inside the car?

TRI H2O

PaJaHa - I am with you. Cold start engine noise with the new high mileage engines is not a big deal. Once the engine is warm, it is extremely quiet. My old S4 used to sound like a sewing machine when stone cold - however, once warm it was one of he sweetest sounds eights around.

ES350Bob

Without question you can hear it, the diesel knocking tapping, in the car under acceleration, that is when it is at it's loudest under the hood, so loud you get it in the car.

Otherwise at idle in the car, not likely, unless you have the windows down talking to a neighbor or something then you can, or also in a drive through.

But for diagnostic reasons I had recorded under the hood under acceleration, that and a ride with me hearing the knocking tapping in the car= valve job required as diagnosis.

dunnojack

i'm with es350bob on this. at a red light, after driving 30 miles of freeway, and with the radio turned off, i can hear muffled engine clatter from the driver's seat.

it's like those old 19th century steam trains. it screams:
ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-(cheap.)

When accelerating, there's the usual growl plus the ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch steam engine sound.

I think lexus went cheap on the sound dampening materials. My 03 es300 doesn't have the choochoo train sound coming through the cabin.


when i was at the dealer today, i noticed other es350's had similar engine clatter; I initially thought my noise was unique. So i'm not gonna be fussy about this anymore.

osokuko

WOW, LIKE MAJOR never heard that before, now I know.

kingofire

Yep, anybody that hear the noise in the video and shrugs it as normal, doesn't know much about cars aka PaJaHa. I am liking my decision to not buy that car more and more.

ES350bob......pardon my ignorance but what in the world is "cannery works" Never heard of that phrase before.

ES350Bob

I wish I could take credit for that King...but Garsarno authored that phrase and it is a good way to describe the worst of it when you have it hearing it INSIDE the car.

Picture a place that has thousands of empty cans rustling along a fast moving conveyor system on their way to getting filled and clattering against each other the whole trip..

When they knock and tap they can go from sewing machine level volume all the way to cannery works and then the really bad, cannery works with overtime employees brought in for the increase in production..

TRI H2O

Are you guys using low octane fuel?? - I only get a little clatter for the first minute of warm up - after that , even with the hood up the engine is very quiet . No noise on acceleration ever. Sorry to hear your engines are a little crook.

Perhaps try high octane for a few tanks and see if the knocking goes away?

ES350Bob

Odd, you use the same terminology in describing car woes as my Australian American mother---crook.

The gas octane doesn't seem to matter at all as I was using 93 on former car and current. Former had near cannery works and current, lucky for me??, only has sewing machine level.

dunno did not include the interior results of an engine like this....other than an engine you always hear, there is vibration in steering wheel, armrests and floorboards......

He or anyone with this can take the car from park to R and the vibration starts feeling it immediately in steering wheel, place in N and it ceases, back to D or R and back it comes.


You or anyone can somewhat simulate this by immediately switching to R or D the instant your car starts from overnight sitting, then amplify that vibration at least 5 fold for those whose engines do not quiet as your's does.

I know they do make them quiet as your's as the demonstrator I drove was, but all others I have driven since, 4, were not.

onsknht

Mine sounds the same no matter what type of fuel... To clarify, I have no complaint about the noises my car makes from the engine. There is definitely piston slap, which is odd if you ever saw the pistons in the 3.5, they're small heightwise like a Tuna-fish can compared to a Cambell's-soup can... There's not a lot of skirt material to clank back and forth in the cylinder.

IMO - I hear cold al-u-min-ium and steel parts with different gap tollerances mating up when I first start the car along with a little piston slap, especially when I put a load on the cold motor. After that I hear almost nothing, nor do I have a vibration... When accellerating though, the exhaust growl is more pronounced (they're getting some ponies out of a relatively small block) and I notice when the valves open the exhaust note gets kind of "pingy," like anything else would at higher RPM... All normal to me.

garsarno

My dealer has told me that its the fuel injection process / noise when cold and he notated the work order at 2,000 miles as such (combined with transmission replacement). As stated before, when I arrive at church and some in the congregation ask me or comment what is that noise, I explain to them it is normal for a Lexus. Wonder how many people will remember that when looking to buy. But - when we had the RX350 loaner, there was zero noise (cannery works - lifter type noise - knock tap, and it will last depending on cold it is). This RX350 just had it's oil changed and I'm thinking when Lexus does the first 5,000 miles free oil change, it may go away. The IS250 we also had had no cold knock noise either. Our new 2007 Grand Cherokee Hemi has no cold knock noise except for the nice exhaust rumble (would not even consider a Lexus or Toyota SUV).

2007es350

I heard from a Lexus rep that the unusually loud engine noise is due to piston slap like Ons was posting. Unfortunately, Lexus is saying that this is normal and within the normal tolerances for their engines. I also heard that on more recent builds, this engine noise has been resolved.

ES350Bob

If that pans out to be the definitive reason for this, then an extended warranty seems only fair offered to those with it as the article posted by Ons indicates that if this happens longer than a few seconds or during acceleration engine work is in the future.

2007es350

If I had this noise, I would ask the extended warranty...at least for the engine.