rxdriver

In the last couple of weeks, I've noticed an annoying rattle that is coming from under the rear end of my RX330 every time I close a door (front, rear, or hatch).

I finally crawled under there and found the culprit. There's a piece of metal that hangs between the sub-muffler and the spare tire. Presumably, it's some sort of heat shield. It's riveted to the underside of the body in 3 spots, and then it's bent in an L-shape so that it hangs down and does it job.

I fixed the problem for today just by wiggling it. I'm sure that won't last! The noise comes from the metal vibrating because it's just hanging there in free space. If you bang on the end of it, you can watch it vibrate and hear the sound. It doesn't appear that the rivets are loose; I think it's just that the metal isn't rigid enough.

Has anyone else noticed this, and if so, has anyone taken it to the dealer and found out what they do about it? It doesn't seem like a big deal to fix, but if someone already has a solution it would save me some experimenting!

crkao

I had the same problem as you mentioned. The dealer fixed it during the 10,000 maintance. I did not know what the dealer had done, but the problem went away. But at about 15,000 miles, the heat shield start to rattle whenever the car speed reaches 70 mph. I got that fixed during the last visit (30,000 miles). Hopefully in the future, new problem will not arise from this heat shield.

Trexus

Today I brought my car in for service and the dealer gave my an RX 330 loaner. I turned down the radio to zero and the engine is much louder than I thought (not Lexus like). As I was driving on the freeway I also notice a rattling sound coming from the rear. I read many complaints about the RX 330 and low and behold everyone was correct. I am surprised that the quality of the RX 330 is not up to Lexus standards. Over all the RX 330 is very nice, but disappointed that it's not as quiet or rattle free as the rest of the Lexus model line up.

HarrierAWD

I test drove an RX330 a while back. I did not experience the rattle or engine noise. I thought the overall quality is on par or better than the RX300.

My guess is that the engine was made in the West Virginia plant, not up to the standard of the Kyushu plant.