crkao

Here in Taiwan, owners of RX330 received recall for the catalyst converter. It will be replaced free of charge. The work time is expected to be 2 hours. According to this recall, the ceramic catalyst in the converter might crack and make noise, although the owners are affirmed that there will be no performance or safety issue with this problem.

It will not be cheap for Lexus to replace the converter on all RX300. A few hundred dollars a piece I think. I am really impressed with Lexus be willing to issue recall like this.

parula

crkao, is that the 330 or 300, you mentioned both models in your post?

crkao

Ooop!

It is the new RX330.
Sorry about that.

lextek

The converters are coming apart internally and scattering throughout the exhaust rearward of the converter. The converters, exhaust pipes and mufflers will be replaced. A few have had acceleration problems in worse case scenarios. The countermeasure will be 3LE campaign. No big deal, no need to worry.

Lextek.

crkao

I am thinking about not bringing my RX330 back to the Lexus for recall work right away, and wait until maybe one year from now. So that at the end of the year I will have a new converter and new tailpipe.

cmstahl

Lextek --

Although crkao speaks of a recall in Taiwan, you seem to be "in the know" about this. Does the problem and/or the recall affect US vehicles also that you know of?

Also, what's the 3LE campaign you mention as a countermeasure?

Thanks...

--cmstahl

lextek

Yes the countermeasure affects all RX330's produced within the first 3 months of the start of production. Approximately 12,000 vehicles. The campaign will include RX330's here in the U.S. as well.

Regards,
Lextek

parula

Who is the OEM on the converters? Englehard, JMI??

smalcom

Just went onto Lexus.com website/Owners section. Sure enough, in the My garage section the link to the service advisories now indicates the recall.

cmstahl

I just registered on lexus.com/owners. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. The service advisory was right where you said it would be.

Oddly, when I registered on the site and it produced my vehicle profile, along with color, body type, etc. it listed a 4-speed auto trans. I thought the RX330s all came with *5*-speed auto transmissions, no? At least that's what my sticker says...

Does anyone else registered on the lexus.com Owners' site notice this, or am i short a gear???

smalcom

No, your not crazy. Mine is also registered as 4-speed automatic. I guess they haven't updated all of their internal fields yet. Just like the picture, which on mine is an open road, not a picture of an RX330.

cmstahl

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one.

When I saw the blank picture of the open road you talked about, I thought I got skunked out of the "invisibility option" too.

MatadorIS

I just had the work done on our 330. We brought it in because some of the leather on the door handle was peeling, and they told me that they were going to replace the exhaust manifold. After giving me an ES overnight, I got back to my 330 today.

cfisher

We are getting set to leave on a pretty good road trip in our 330 - Chicago to Charleston.

Is there any chance for further mechanical damage if we wait for a fix or are we simply talking a little rattle here and there and if there's a chuck big enough to inhibit exhaust flow, acceleration degradation?

Local dealer has no appointments but I could always get it done while in SC...

jeffknet

contacted my service tech about this today - they said they're still awaiting parts - but should have me in next week to take care of this issue....

maybe THAT'S been my mystery rattle????