Car Nut

Has anyone had the wind noise problems in the recent vehicles?
I am assuming that the problem is fixed in the cars that are coming ashore now.

jmcraney

THANK YOU DARYLL40!!!!!!

Your input is especially meaningful, because as you said, you didn't know you had much of a noise problem.

And thanks for being bold enough to try it on your own. It is a big step to do something like that to an expensive car.

If anyone finds any deficiencies with the procedure I would be glad to hear from you and I will try to make some adjustments to it.

Please let Lexus and your dealer know that you have fixed your car and how you did it. It would probably help a lot of people and Lexus and your dealer too. I am still not sure that they "get it."

Regards,

Jeff

WhitBaby

I suspect they do indeed "get it". I also suspect they're into the Not Invented Here syndrome...or perhaps they'ge going to have to give you royalties or something, even if you said you didn't expect any. Lawyers can be a devious bunch. ;->

I took mine in, they said they did the wind noise kit, no help. They did say they found a gap where the bottom of the window glass rested on the regulator assy, and fixed it, again no joy.

I did the blue tape all over the 'outside' of the places shown in the Rev A photos and no help. Maybe there's a sneak path inside somewhere. I'm about ready to pry off the pieces and do the goop trick.

I'm really kind of disappointed in their attitude on this. They tried the one fix with the wind noise kit, didn't work, they say that's all they can do.

I was a little surprised when they said the 'kit' isn't really a single kit to be applied to a single car. They said it's just a collection of stuff and they just grab whatever they think might work and put it in???

This LS460 is the latest in my four Lexus's. and I've always had quite a bit of confidence in Lexus abilities... not anymore. I'm becoming more and more underwhelmed all the time. This and their obvious 'cheaping-out' on the features they used to have (no passenger side memory seat positions, no compass heading on the mirror, etc.) is beginning to leave a sour taste in my mouth. If the car wasn't such a pleasure to drive I'd really be raising hell with them, Lemon Law, BBB, etc.

I AM finding out that they do make some good will gestures at Corporate in an effort at recompense. I made a counter offer, we'll see...stay tuned.

Whit

daryll40

I think you are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. LS460 is perhaps the finest mass produced passenger car ever made. Yeah, the wind noise thing is an issue but thanks to Jim it's an easy fix. Seal it and get on with it.

Finest Lexus ever made, that's for sure.

encore888

I feel your frustration, however just to set the record straight, no LS has ever had passenger side memory (strangely the SC/ES/others do), and there was no compass heading mirror on the NAVI-equipped LS 430 either. So those features are not ones that have been removed for cost, they were not there before the LS 460.

Still, the wind noise issue, with your dealer's somewhat cavalier sounding attitude, I can see why that is frustrating. Not sure why the dealer said it was 'just grab stuff' as the fix, but sounds like they did not go all-out to resolve the issue. Here's hoping jmcraney's triangular fix may help. Good luck!

jmcraney

Whit,

Thanks for your feedback about the blue masking tape. I don't know if you have proven that it is not a valid test but maybe you have. I am going to quit saying that until we have some indication from someone that it is a good test. Sorry if I have misled anyone. I am still mystefied about how doing the sealing provides such a great improvement.

I had an inquiry, via Private Mail on this site, from an international LS460 owner asking which set of pictures and instructions were correct. Maybe he is about to try the sealing and give us some feedback.

As for Lexus, still nothing from them. I am away from home until Tuesday. When I get back home I am going to share with everyone an email that I sent to them a couple of weeks ago and to which they have not responded, not even indicated that they received it.

I did alter the instructions in response #9 to include metric dimensions, for the international owner, but nothing else was changed.

Jeff

bob321

Finally got around to taking my triangles off to correct their loosened alignment after the TSB repair back in September. After removal, it was obvious that ALL the large and small gaps, along with the 3 registration "holes" had been filled by the TSB tech with a high tech tar like material. While the tar wasn't always high enough to stick to the triangle, it was well pushed down into the gaps and holes, leaving me with the impression that no air or noise was getting through them. The alignment change over time appears to be from 2 of the 3 registration "pins" being completely missing - allowing the triangle to start to walk around the remaining pin. I've ordered replacement triangles from the dealer.

Bad news for me is that now I don't expect much, if any, noise reduction when the new triangles get installed since the "fix" was already in.

Good, or bad, news for others is the a least one Lexus tech recognised the importance of the holes and gaps last fall and did something to correct it. At the time, he told me the published TSB was really still a work in progress - somethings they were already doing a bit differently and some times they would have to try something new when the published TSB didn't work satisfactorily. Whether it made it into the offical TSB or just verbal knowledge in the local shop remains unknown.

jmcraney

bob321,

Thanks for the details that you provided. I am not sure what it means.

Here is what we know as I see it. We have four DIYers (myself, bc07, CEOENG and Daryll40) reporting that they got a significant improvement using the silicone sealant and the procedure in response #9 above. We have not had any reports from DIYers who had no improvement. We do not know that no DIYers failed because some could have failed and not told us.

We have three reports from people who got their sealing done by third parties(they spoke to someone like a service rep and the rep spoke to a technician and the repair was done when they were not present). PatsSoxFan reported that he thought he had some improvement. dimapb reported that he had no improvement. And bob321 is reporting that he has recently become aware that his car was sealed at some time in the past but he continued to have a problem.

In all of the failure cases we don't know for sure what sealant material was used. I am not infering that the silicone sealant is the only thing that will work, but some materials may be more suitable than others. bob321 tells us that the sealant material used on his car was "tar like" and if I understand correctly, remaind gummy. If the other third party implementations were done with that sort of material then they may never be able to get good results with the silicone sealant because the surfaces may be contaminated and the silicone may not adhere to it now. Surface cleanup and prep after that sort of contamination can be very diffficult to impossible. I am not suggesting that they will never be able to get a good seal, but they may have to give that some special attention or come up with something a little different. bob321 seems like a very moxie guy and I hope he is going to tell us what happens when he gets his car back together.

For a while I believed that WhitBaby was justifiablelly cynical that Lexus would not use my findings for some reason, probably legal. Now I see that he is very astute. I do believe that the word is out to all the dealers that they must not fix any cars in the manner that I have suggested. I have visited with two different dealerships, off the record, to get them interested and I now see that something is going on. Tuesday I am going to share with the readers of this site my email that I sent to Lexus making it clear that I was not interested in collecting money from them.

So what now? For anyone who continues to have a wind noise problem: sealing under the triangle trim is one of the elements that must be satisfied to not have a wind noise problem. If your car came with that element satisfied then you don't have a problem. If your car came with a manufacturing defect in that area or it has a premature failure you will have to get that fixed if you want your car to be quiet as possible.

The best scenario would be for Lexus to come up with a fix and do it for you. It doesn't have to be acomplished in the manner I suggested but it has to be done if you want your car to be quiet.

Currently l don't think they will do for you what I have suggested, even if you offer to pay them to do it.

That means that if you want it done now, you will either have to DIY or go to some independent repair place with your instructions and sealant. It might be wise to wait a little and let the bolder folks try it. I hope we will continue to get reports from anyone who has success or failure.

Sulls

Did mine last week. 90% better. Thanks for the info.

jmcraney

Sulls,

Thanks for your report. We will up the success count to 5.

Jeff

2007es350

I did mine this weekend. There wasn't a big improvement in wind noise. The best improvement was moving to the laminated front glass.

bluex5

I talked to Mission Viejo Lexus. They refuse to do anymore repair on my LS 460 L. They will only service the problem with the consent of Lexus Corp. No help. This wind noise is killing me.

WhitBaby

Man, I'll bet Corporate Lexus REALLY hates these Forums.

Before, they could always say "You're the only one having these problems." - and we had to believe them.

Now we have the means to compare notes and find 'taint so.



Thanks again to the moderators and those sponsors whose generosity make this medium available to us.

Whit

daryll40

The internet DOES help level the paying field for us consumers, both in purchasing cars (and other items) as well as in researching maintenance and repair issues. We live in great times! As Warren Buffett recently pointed out, the average American lives better than the Rockefellers of 100 years ago.

PatsSoxfan

jmcraney, now you really have thinking that I should pull the covers off the triangles and try to redo the job myself. If Daryl can do it, I can also ;-). I know for sure that they used some kind of a black glue. I could see a tiny bit of residue on the edge of the chrome. I am convinced that the exterior noise was lessened after the dealer did the triangular fix. However, it really sounds as if some of you folks have a VERY quiet instead of just a quiet car. jmacraney, please encourage me to take this "bold" step and try it. I am a bit concerned that if I do pry the covers off, I will find a mess that I cannot fix.

On another wind issue, after taking a trip up to Duluth, MN and back, I am now of the opinion that the wind seal kit fix that the dealer performed, a week or two back has not done any good. Once again, mine is not a major issue by any means, but from the statements from some of you, I should not even be hearing any swishing type wind sound.