clarky86

The ES350 is a great car with 2 exceptions; the standard radio and the wind noise / road noise. I would like to know if is there a solution to the wind or road noise?

Has anyone undercoated the car?
What about Dynamat?
http://www.dynamat.com

jinnjia

So far this is the best personal solution for me, helped reduced the noise about 60%.

http://sr1.clublexus.com/forums/es35...r-diy-fix.html

Many 08/09 owners have also reported with wind noise, but so far Lexus have not issued a TSIB unlike they did for the LS460 with thicker window replacement, I dont think dynamat can help too much in this case since the wind mainly coming from A Pillar.

RobF350

the tech advisor at my local dealership had better luck messing with the window switch.

Back in the day you would manually set when you wanted the power window to stop going up, now its sensors. If you look at the top of the door when the window goes up you will see it pushes out ever so slightly- thats the noise.

Learn to live with it- I have for 3 years.

LexBob2

Hopefully there is a fix for your problem. I'm sure it's annoying.

I've had my car for three years and it is still very quiet inside at all speeds. I never did have any wind noise, so it can be done.

LexPaul

I have a 2009 and I never experience wind/road noise at any speed. I didn't know about it. Do you get wind/road noise only at high speeds? You may want to check your tires for the road noise. Sound system is fine, but then again I'm not an audophile.

rx300mm

Not sure what you are referring too, I have recently acquired a 2007 ES350 with average mileage on it. I have not experienced any wind noise even when driving on high wind days with speed of over 140km ( 87miles) and the Radio/System has is amazing sound quality, not a MarkLevison system, but very clear.

bearone

I also have a 2009 ES 350 and have no problem with wind noise, I do drive on the highway most of the time. Hope you get your ES straightened out.

clarky86

Thanks for the replies. jinnjia - I read that post a while ago but thanks for reminding me about it - I reread it again and will do the search for missing plugs then tackle the rubber molding.

To define the wind noise, when the car is at low speeds - under 40mph, it is very quiet. When I'm at speeds of 60+ the noise level is much greater. Road noise is minimum on the right pavement but real loud on concrete or some other pavement.

I know there is a good deal of soundproofing in this car so I'm hoping there is something a little off that can be tweaked to make it as quiet as a "Lexus".

wanderer99

Your car should be 'quiet'. I drove an 09 ES350 loaner a few months ago and this car was definitely quiet from the A pillars and around the window. So Lexus definitely did some type of fix after the first years cars.

If your car is quiet, then you'll never understand what the OP is talking about as their issue isn't present on your car. Be happy. If you do hear the wind noise, then you definitely have the problem and need to look for a fix. You should maybe take an 09 out for a drive and see what that sounds like. I bet it sounds a lot better! You can then point this out to your service advisor. Once they verify the problem, I'd personally ask for a warranty replacement on the window trim. I think that is how they fixed this issue on later years builds.

JimsGX

The attached 07-08 ES350 wind noise bulletin may be old news for everyone but here it is anyways. The full bulletin and repair procedure is 16 pages. CL's file size limit wouldn't allow me to upload the complete bulletin.

JimsGX

Clarky86,

I had a new 07' RX400h that had excessive road noise and wind noise through the front side windows (in my opinion). For the road noise, I put additional undercoating on all of the wheel wells using a product called "QuietCar". The product was good, but the end result was that it didn't help much. I had Michelin MXV4's on the car and I changed them to Bridgestone Alenza's at around 18k miles. This helped somewhat, but again, didn't really resolve the issue.

For the wind noise coming through the side windows, I bought a 20' long x 1" roll of black 3M adhesive backed Velcro. I cut some long strips (around 3' long I guess) of the felt side of the velcro, about 1/4 to 5/16" wide, put the front windows down, and stuck it onto the full length of the inside rubber seal that runs horizontally along the base of the window.

This solved my wind noise problem and helped with some of the road noise problem. I think some of the road noise I was hearing was coming up through the door and past those window seals. Since its right near your left ear, it works to exacerbate the noise. I could hear the same noise on the right front passenger window as well when I was driving the vehicle. I ended up doing all four windows this way.

Then one day about a month ago, I was at the Lexus dealer having one of my other cars serviced and walked into the showroom to take a look at the redesigned 2010 RX350 that was on the showroom floor. As I was sitting in the drivers seat, the window was all the way down and I took a look at the lower inside window seal. It had the same Velcro type felt on the inside of the rubber window seal!

Jim

wanderer99

Awesome find JimsGX. Looks like they did swap out the window rubber with a revised part, so there is an official fix. That's the great news.

The bad news is that it took Lexus more than 2 years after the release of the car to publish this fix. I'm going by the October 2008 Rev1 release date in the PDF you've attached. 2 years to fix a problem that existed from Day 1 is just, well...

swiftarrow

Has anyone had the dealer implement this fix? Did it work?

clarky86

Thanks to Jimsgx with the awesome TSB find. I had the dealer do the fix and I notice a decrease in the wind noise. I can't put a number on it but it is much better. There is still road noise which is present on different road surfaces - could be the energy saving Michelin tires? On fresh asphalt the car is quiet at 65mph.

On a separate note - I spoke to a tech and he said the es and rx have two rubber molding seals and the LS has three as well as more foam and sound deadening material.

racingt

What wind noise?