clearm3

Hi i'm not really new to the forums just brose around. I posted more when i owned a is300. Anyway my father is still very loyal to lexus and currently owns a rx300 1999.

We bought the car used maybe 2 years ago. Now it wasnt until recently maybe a few months ago we heard a noise only when the cars ignition is on. It sounds almost like boiling water. We brought it to lexus and they claimed they fixed it however the noise now came back. The problem now is i cannot replicate the noise always. It will pop up for maybe 2 days and go away. Then come back a week or two later. So this creates a problem with scheduling services. I went to a friend who knows alot about cars and he claimed it was the heater core. Then i saw a mechanic friend of the family and he claims its definitely the AC and to have lexus work on it.

So basically just wanted some info and maybe others have had this problem so they can guide me in the right direction to get rid of this noise.

By the way the noise is very low and easier to hear when paying attention for it. If the ac is up maybe just 3 notches you will not hear it. If the winodws are down too chances are you wont hear it. It also seems to be heard louder on the passenger side. Again its like a boiling water noise. It almost sounds like it was the cd changer too but i checked that and it definitely wasnt. It makes a shuffling, boiling water noise. Cant really match it exactly to anything.

thanks

Lexmex

There are two possibilities:

1) It is your AC. I hear something similar to what you are decribing and what I usually do is press on of the air direction buttons and then it goes away for awhile and sometimes comes back. Yet AC works fine and blows extremely cold air. I cannot remember the name of the part, but it is something related to the AC

2) I removed my airbox to make way for my modified air intake system. Maybe others with such systems or the Weapon-R air intake may hear this.

When I had my airbox, I could not hear the sound, but now it sounds similar to boiling water as I can hear the air being sucked in by the engine.

MOST IMPORTANT, I can only here it as the car is warming up and after nothing.

Maybe you have a vacuum leak along the air intake somewhere that is creating this sound.

To me it sounds more like the AC.

clearm3

i am pretty mad my dealer hasnt contacted me in a few days now. Going to call them tomorrow and try to resolve this however once again the noise went away. I know it will come back though

Lexmex

There is a fix to that. I now have heard exactly what your are describing. It only lasts a few seconds then it comes back and goes away and comes back. Someone on CL stated it was something like a compressor or evaporator gone bad, but I cannot remember where I saw it.