It was just pointed out to me yesterday that both my back doors stick out around 3/16th of an inch. A neighbour held a credit card on edge against the back doors where they meet the front doors, and showed me this all the way up the doors including the black window frame. We checked a another neighbour down the street with a brand new ES350 and his doors are perfectly aligned. The gap between the back doors and front doors is also larger on mine. When you run your hand over the difference, you realize that this is a serious manufacturing flaw and a result of being one of the first owners of this car. While I continue to really dislike the car (ticky motor on cold start/wind buffeting, poor interior lighting, poor rear visability), this just reaffirms that no one should buy any car in the first model year, especially within the first six months. The risk is too high. My last Lexus was one model year after launch and I had no problems at all. The problems with this car are like the sound of chalk up a blackboard for me. I may have too sensitive hearing as Lexus has told me, but some problems are hard to overlook when they irritate you every day. The door alignment may be a contributing factor to the excessive wind noise although I doubt it.

 

A protruding rear door edge could add to sound of wind noise.

And you do not have too sensitive hearing as too many people complain about wind noise and valve clatter, neither of which should be heard inside the car.

 

Side note...my former ES wind noise was worse than current though both are not good to have in a car, any car..

At different svc dept than selling dealer they pointed out to me where someone had placed their hand on passenger seat edge and had gripped the B pillar from inside the car with the other hand as though they were either forcing the seat inward into car or attempting to pull B pillar outward. You could see the opposing handprints. I had complained about the wind noise on that car to 1st dealer svc. and I had not complained about any seat problem.

 

As you really hate this car, sell it. Life is too short. Or hopefully this is an adjustment the dealer could make. That said, I can't see a door misalignment of 3/16 of an inch as a major manufacturing flaw. Maybe Ralph Nader will take on the matter as a class action suit. Wonder what a minor manufacturing flaw would be....

 

To him it's a major flaw, to others who knows.

3/16 protruding is no small amount considering the thickness of the back edge of driver door is at or near an 1/8 and this is 3/16 outward from the side edge. Seems this is both sides of his car.

He is going to have one hell of a wind noise problem.

 

Brio,

Other than making an appointment to get the doors looked at.

Here is something you can do, try on driver's side.

I worked this out this afternoon so Merry Christmas!

Go to hardware store or Home Depot, other, get yourself 2 packages of those grey foam washable filters for AC units, typically sold for window units.

Before you do anything.......open driver door and look at vertical hollow area between passenger door-entire window height and pillar, you should almost be able to stick your finger back in there, and this area is more-or-less from window bottom edge up to top of where glass is and top of passenger door frame. You'll see it as a hollow area.

You can open passenger door once you see area I'm talking about and you will notice small gasket at top and then a bare metal area for about a foot before more gasket material shows. Now, close the passenger door and go back to where you started looking at hollowed area. Take one filter and roll it widthwise so that it is a roll about a foot long. Stuff that in recess area and take a test drive and see if it knocks the wind noise way back. If so, then clean it up by attaching it from having passenger door open and working it's attachment that way rather than stuffing it in from standing in open driver door area.

Repeat for passenger side of vehicle if success trying it on driver side.

 

No car is perfect. But, if you want to feel better, go pull up some GM car forums and read some of the problems those owners are going through with their cars. My Mother in law has one and the car is junk. She wish she only had wind noise problems. She is more concerned that the car starts!

 

I just hope your mother is not inundated with responses on her GM forum about...well, we know what these forums are all about, or it is a subset of a subset of a greater subset of a minority of owners and the car is just peachy keen, the majority of owners are quite pleased and out driving them around...

 

I agree. I am very **** when it comes to cars. No matter the brand, I can find a lot of flaws and defects in any car. Most folks just do not notice.

 

To me its just a car, nice one at that but I dont keep them more than two years so if mine ends up with probems Ill deal with it and move on...

So far I have no issues such as this, maybe Ill get lucky...that never happens but..

 

Thanks to all except the gentlemen who didn't think that doors misaligned by 3/16th is a major manufacturing flaw. I found his response insulting. Suggesting I buy another car is also insulting to an intelligent person. I can figure that one out without being told. Perhaps he could have a career as a service manager at a Lexus dealer. They are in denial and insulting as well.

I'm a really busy guy, as many of you are, and would not come to the forum if my car was working properly and Lexus wasn't so arrogant. I thought the purpose of this forum is to share problems and solutions in an effort to improve our car buying and owning experiences. Most of you sound really caring and helpful with ideas for fixing problems. However, if I have to get insulted by one of my own colleagues, perhaps I will not bother with the forum.

 

Go to the dealership and see if they have liquid foam in an aerosol spray and have them spray a little on the missing gasket between the driver door and a pillar and see if that helps.

 

Hi Brio. Have you considered getting out of the Lexus and into another brand? If so, what other makes have you considered, and what would your options be to sell or trade the ES? I hope that things work out for you with the ES350.

 

Brio, your right, the car should be squared away before you drive off the lot. Hope you didnt think I was suggesting changing brands, I for one dont think they are all that different, no how much you spend, but it is a pain in the A.. when you have these problems.