CotyR92

Hey everyone I have a bit of a issue, I bought my wife a 2000 RX 300 and she loves it. I knew about the transmission issue and worked on it and got it to the point of barely being able to tell it had a hard shift. Well she goes to work and calls me and says she was passing another vehicle and when she did it started making a metal ball bouncing noise everytime she hit the gas and it got louder and louder until it sounded it something broke. Well I had the car towed home and I'm in the process of taking the motor apart now. Well I tried to turn it over and it makes a loud squeek noise like it wants to start but can't from top passenger side. Same location the ball noise was coming from, I'm unsure of what this could be... The car was low in oil when we got it home but I had just changed the oil 2 weeks before this and it hasn't been leaking so im confused. Someone please give me some guidance so I don't have to pay the dealership $500 just to LOOK at it.

Thanks, have a blessed day everyone

fastnoypi

whats the milage and known last maintenance history? engine passenger side noises are bad...could be anything in the timing belt area. Possible cause for knocking metal would be the tensioner.

salimshah

Welcome to Club Lexus.

Did the oil light come on?

Before you tear up the engine, analyze the oil.
Next level would be to open the front cover (timing belt) and verify timing is good and also open the valve cover (front).

I hope that the problem is trivial.

Salim

CotyR92

Thanks y'all, the oil that was left in it wasn't much but it has no metal fragments in it and wasnt horrible dirty and I took the front off and everything looks fine I poured marvel mystery oil all over everything and down in the motor I haven't pulled the back off or timing cover yet. The motor isn't locked up it trys to turn over but makes a squealing noise and won't start and the oil light flashed 3 times and the car cut off she said it didn't stay on so I'm really hoping it is the timing rod instead of me having the replace the motor and it has 172k miles always serviced the previous owner has records they left us

CotyR92

Also as I said earlier it was like a metal ball bouncing sound that only happened as she hit the gas and the "ball" sounded like it landed and was still when she took her foot off the gas she said. Wonder why it happened when she went to pass someone at 45-50mph. Also she just told me the noise only seemed to happen at 3k rpm

2KHarrier

Interesting diagnosis. I'm thinking you did some damage with the oil level so low, hence the rather odd plethora of noises..

I'd still get it into a shop and have them look it over. Unfortunately, it may be too late to save it...

6.0PSD

I'm guessing the sound being heard was being bounced off the other vehicle, I hear one of my brakes everytime I ride fast lane on highway with concrete divider and can't hear it while in open roads...

Anyways, have you checked your cooland level and if it is clean, was it ever changed? Could the water pump have failed and it seized because coolant maintenance was never done and engine overheated? Temp gauge working when this happened? Power steering fluid clean and was it always maintained and is pump turning freely?

Figured some extra things to look at would be the turning external accessories first then work your way into the water pump timing belt area... I believe your post stated the noise got louder as the car got revved so hopefully it is something as simple as an accessory part of engine and not the whole engine.. Hopefully you can get it to start... Good luck and please come back when you find the fix

6.0PSD

Edit: I just reread post and guess the sound was loud enough to hear without needing to be bounced off of something...

sktn77a

iTrader: (2)

Did it sound like metal ***** bouncing around in a glass container? Or was it more of a knocking sound?