JackieCF

Aloha all,
First time in this room and looking for suggestions and/or answers to my issue. I own a 2008 RX400h. It has a little over 99k miles on it. About 2 weeks ago, I brought the car in the have the water pump & timing belt changed. I heard a faint rattling sound when I accelerated and it sounded like it was coming from the dash. As the days went by, I noticed from time to time the rattling noise does get louder. I removed everything and anything in the front seats that has the potential of making the rattling noise, like my stainless steel coffee cup, and sunglasses in the holder just under the moon roof, etc. The noise is still comes and goes, but it is driving me crazy. Has anyone experienced this before. Much mahalo! =)

AVSRacing

I have noticed a minor clicking noise coming from the dash near the steering wheel area, not sure if something to do with the Hvac?

pvvdds

I once had my oil changed and the attendant removed the cabin filter to check it and it was full of leaves. I told him I didn't want the filter changed ( I was going to clean it myself). He put it back without shaking the loose debris on it and that's when I noticed that under the dash noise when either the a/c or heat blower was on until I cleaned and vacuumed not only the filter but the blower hose.

AVSRacing

^^ I haven't had the chance to play around with the cabin filter as it is raining but I'm definitely sure it has been changed a few times in the past service records. I was driving today and I heard the "muffled clacking grumbly noise, glug glug noise, hard to describe, kinda like a "muffled water boiling, bubbling sound" coming from under the steering wheel, I turned off the Hvac for a sec but the sound continued. So I'm not 100% if it is related to the blower/ filter. Does the RX have similar motors in the air vents to change where the air blows as the 2GS? I remember mine had some motor noises behind the dash when the car automatically switched between where the air blows. But this was fixed when I had to change one of the motors in the center vent and I haven't heard a noise in the dash since.

pvvdds

Im sure you are correction believing its not coming from a dirty cabin filter. I'm sorry I don't know enough about blower motors to advise you. Perhaps someone more knowledge could join in with some advice for you. Good Luck!

Mesquite77

On the Odyssey forums there is a lot of help for dash clicking noises (plastic gears on motor assemblies that drive HVAC flaps break or jump due to age, wear, and may change depending on temperature settings as this determines gear/flap position in relation to bad gear teeth, etc.) and glug sounds related to perhaps low A/C R123a (freon) and/or cooling fluid noises in the interior heat exchanger in the dash. I.e., if the cooling system has been worked on, it needs to be "burped" to get air out of it.

eventura

I replaced mine after the ac unit sounding like a loud clicking / rattling noise. Check youtube for a demonstration on a RX 300 (2003), mine is a 2004 which has two bolts ( one on left side under by glovebox and one by the glovebox but you have to take of door jam panel along with the foot panels below the glovebox to access it (one on each side and the left side has clips while the second panel underneath the glovebox by the door jam panel which pops off. And the bottom of the glovebox has a black panel underneath that you will have to take off. The Servo Motor should be between on the passenger left side foot area and radio unit. After taking off the glovebox, there will be a vent that has a screw to take off with crosshead I believe. It fixed my rattling. Pretty much take off all panels by passenger foot area. Except the door jam panel that you can pop off a little bit just to get a screw off that is holding the glovebox in place. Search up Servo Dampo Motor so you can see what it is your are looking for. They are expensive so I recommend you buy one off ebay for like 50-100 bucks $$ or go to dealer where a new one retails close to $200. Its about an hour job if youre a begginer.

grafixfrh

I have a buzzing noise coming from the center of dash around the nav unit and center dash speaker on my 2008 RX400 as well. I am unable to pinpoint it but believe it is in that general area from the firewall to the nav unit. Mine only happens at accelerating at lower rpm's as in takeoff to about 10 miles per hour. It sounds like 2 plastic pieces vibrating together like maybe the electric notors gearing up causing a vibration on 2 loose parts in there. Its more annoying than anything it does not seem to be causing any mechanical issues but if maybe a rubber spacer can fix it if anyone else maybe knows what it is and cause I am more than willing to dig in there and fix it. It just ruins my quiet and comfortable cabin ambience.