camlex

No miles no other info I read, but engine vibration and steering wheel has no connection. 1. check engine mounts.
what was the last time you have clean throttle body, Mass air flow, Air filter and PCV ?

UKEE

If you're asking me, never. I've had the car for 1.5 years and have just over 7,000 miles on it. I had Lexus do the 10k service at 5k because it had been a year even though they didn't want to do it (not sure why).

As for engine mounts, the service adviser didn't know whether they were checked or not but the technician and factory tech. did go under the hood as well as under the car with flashlights and check things in the engine compartment.

I feel like they are just trying to blow me off.

camlex

Please don't tell them service adviser, because they are not , to advise you need to have knowledge. they are writer, who make ticket for tech.
you can check your self with other safe driver.
let other safe driver by using two feet, pressing brake hard and put in drive and reverse with higher rpm and you can see engine movement. if its a lot then your mount is bad.( I also use hand brake as a safe guard)
Simple theory, if you getting right air and fuel ratio, then your engine rpm should be 800---900 rpm without any hesitation/vibration. now let say, you have problem there, then mount job is to take care of it.

zes

Looks like a resonance, smells like a resonance, sounds like a resonance, feels like a resonance. You can get the engine mounts checked and it is possible they may be defective, but all that means is that there is not sufficient damping. But your car is new, and defective mounts would be a surprise in a Lexus. It may be possible that the steering rack & pinion or other hardware may be loose?

chrisexv6

I figured why not, Ill add myself to this list!

2015 ES350 bought brand new, had 42 miles on it when we got it shipped from another state. Everything was perfect with it. its my wife's car, so I dont drive it very often.

Drove it tonight and am appalled at the level of vibration at idle. There was some vibration around the first service (1K miles) and I mentioned it to service..."within spec" is of course what they said, but now its much worse. You feel it in the steering wheel, floor, console and even in the seat. There is also some sort of low "booming" or "rumbling" noise associated with it, like the engine is running at too low an RPM (but the tach says its OK). Put it in park or neutral and the noise and vibration disappear. This happens with or without climate control on.

It feels like the idle RPM while in gear is set too low. The engine runs fine otherwise and once you are off idle you literally cant tell the thing is running other than the fact that you're moving.

I plan on giving them hell tomorrow or Friday but Im expecting the whole "normal characteristic" bs. It's gotten worse from the first time I mentioned a slight bit of vibration, so it will be interesting to hear them tell me "worse" is "normal".

UKEE

That describes exactly what I'm experiencing. It literally is a 'booming' / 'rumbling' from the vibration. Good luck though....as I've already discovered.

wdlugitch

I have a 2015 Es300h and no vibration at all. I did have a 2002 ES300 and it developed a vibration which was finally diagnosed as a broken motor mount which, when replaced, resulted in no vibration at all.

UKEE

I wrote Lexus well before Christmas about this issue. I received a response on New Year's eve stating that they could not find any record for the last 30 days indicating that I had tried to get this issue resolved. I responded that it had been exactly 31 days at that point, which they promptly replied back that they found the report. They indicated that the factory technician was essentially a master technician, knew his stuff very well and indicated no issue with the car, even compared to others at the dealership.

I then replied that, basically, I am giving up on this issue and that I would be looking for my "Pursuit of Perfection" in another brand in the future.

Fast forward to today: Received a reply that I have now been assigned a case manager who will try to resolve this.

I guess I'll see where it goes. Pretty annoyed by the whole process so far.

GES

It always amazes me to hear stories like this. You would think that it is easy for two reasonable people to agree on whether a car has excessive steering wheel vibration or not, especially when there are other identical cars to compare it to. Having said that I feel very lucky that after 5 years and 66,000 miles my car is flawless, no issues what so ever.

UKEE

I sat in another 2016 ES-350 with the adviser and it was so much different than mine. The wheel was vibration free and no resonance sound. He said mine sounded and felt like that one after sitting in mine for about 10 seconds. Of course, this is the same guy that argued that is the way that direct injection, high fuel pressure fed engines run, feel and sound (LOLOLOL).

SW17LS

Just to follow up on what I said earlier in the thread, having just taken delivery today of a RWD LS460L to replace my AWD LS460, the cause of this vibration is the FWD. The slight vibration I mentioned in my AWD LS460 is totally gone in the RWD LS460L.

UKEE

Lexus case manager called today. Was very nice but slightly confused. She said that a fix was just released for the droning noise that so many ES-350 owners were experiencing. After listening to her, I asked her if she was sure that she wasn't referring to the RX-350 as she mentioned exhaust issues with resonating sounds. After she paused and read for a few minutes, she said that it might be the RX-350 instead of the ES-350....oops. She is now doing more research and will call back next week. I gave her the details of the vibration and noise and offered to leave the car with them for a longer time to evaluate, other than a 5 minute drive.

chrisexv6

Keep us posted! Curious if anything comes of your case.

I havent gotten a chance to go to the dealer yet, nor have I driven our ES again since I felt it. My wife (who drives it everyday) swears she felt nothing like what I was describing, but I had driven it much further the day it happened than she does usually. Not sure if the car has to be REALLY warmed up or not.

UKEE

Funny, same story. My wife and kids said that they never heard any 'funny' noise coming from the car. They drive it with the radio (or bluetooth phone audio) up much, much louder than I do and to be honest, they wouldn't know what to listen for anyway, lol. I'm supposed to get a call back by Friday.

Oh, should I run over to the RX 350 forums and tell them that she said a fix that is 90% has been released for their RX 350 droning noise? (Sarcasm - they have heard that hundreds of times over the last year plus, lol).

zes