Really? You must have excellent hearing.

 

Well last Friday I brought her in for my '8,000 km check-up'.
It's 8K km or one year I think.
Anyway I have only 5800 km on mine. And it's more than a year since I bought her.

They made me wait two hours there for not much.
The car was sitting outside for the first hour.

I played the Geiger sound for the service manager but he didn't have clue about it.
I asked him if any other customer had come in and complained about it.
Of course he said no. But he also said the sound is probably normal !
Huh?
He said he thinks it's from the fuel tank sensor!
But later he wasn't sure anymore.
I turned on the engine with him stationed in the back but of course it didn't sound then.

He poked his head in the trunk and saw this part that we need to identify.
I noticed it many months ago when I was looking for something else and
didn't pay much attention to it.
But now it's very suspect.
It's right in the vicinity of where the Geiger noise is coming from!
Does anyone know what this part is for? It's a black rectangular box.
Every ES-350 would have it and probably many other models as well.
Its dimension are a few inches by a few inches.

When I got home and looked over the job sheet I was pissed!
They basically did a visual inspection, rotated my tires and washed my car.
They didn't change the oil or filter!
I called them the next day and asked why they didn't.
They had no excuse.
It's been over a year and my oil still hasn't been changed.

 

That box is the rear belt housing.

 

Thanks ESh!

A while back you mentioned the noise was coming from my 'belt adjuster'.
Is that the same or related to the 'rear belt housing'?

Could you please fill me in with as much detail about these two because as I said,
it's location (the black box) is right in the vicinity of where the noise is coming from.
What are their functions?
Are they supposed to make any noise?
If they are making the noise that I am hearing and they are not supposed to make that noise,
what does that indicate? Is the box broken/defective? Does it need to be replaced?

 

I want @noisefree to find the source of the irritating noise but I will miss this thread its been very entertaining.

 

Yeah it will be a bit of a downer when the source is finally located.
I just started a dialogue with a fellow working in Lexus Parts Dept. at my dealer.

First I asked him what the black box is. After sending him a photo of it, he told me it is the cover for the seat belt tensioners.
I guess this is what ESh has been talking about.
I just took off the cover and can only see the end of seat belt wrapped around a few times.

If that part is simply mechanical then it can't be making the noise. But if there is/are some electronics associated with it
it definitely could be the problem.

 

That black box is only the cover for the rear seat belt. Try to pull all 3 seat belts until max and fix them so they cannot retract and then drive the car. I bet you will not hear the noise if the noise is coming from
the belt mechanism.

 

I'm pretty sure they are suppose to change the cabin filter too. They did not change mine at the one year mark.

 

I'm going to give that a shot. You might be onto the solution.
The tricky part will be fastening them so they can't retract.
But as I said the location of that middle seat belt box is pretty much exactly where I am hearing the sound
coming from.

I just got a response from my dealer's parts guy on this. I asked him if the box contained
any electronics.

This is what he said:

"The seat tensioner (thing inside the black box) will have some form of electronics in it and so does the buckle located in the base of the seat. These are plugged in to the electronics on the vehicle that deal with the air bags - so that if there were someone in that seat during a crash, the correct air bag would deploy, and the seat belt tensioner tightens up to keep them in the back of their seat. But I am not sure what sound (if any) they make and can't tell you if that is where the noise you're hearing is coming from."

 

Thanks hotwings.
Here's what they said on my work order sheet:

Cabin air filter: Okay
Engine air filter: Good
Oil level: Good

 

At the 10k or 1 yr whichever comes first the oil, filter, and cabin air filter should be replaced free of charge. What I did was have them give me the old cabin filter which was fine.

 

Good for you.
My brain was fried the whole time I was there.
I need to drive an hour to get there and back home.
Then they made me wait two hours just to inspect my vehicle.

Nothing was resolved with my noise issue and they just topped
up my windshield washer fluid, rotated my tires and made visual
inspections for the rest.

To me the most basic thing would be to change the oil and filters (engine/cabin).
But they didn't do that. They know I've had my car for over a year now.
Of course when I called they offered to do the oil change. But
I'm not driving an hour and waiting there just to do that.

I'll do it here in my city.

 

Did the service writer write it up as a 10k/1yr service? It's possible in Canada they don't do that free service. It will be in your manual.

 

Well it's called an 8K service here and it is a free service.
I checked the special service card.
Oil change is part of that service.

 

Ok if it was written to do the 8k service and it was not performed corporate Lexus would be unhappy with them as that is required maintenance to keep warranty in force. If you do the oil change local I would keep receipts just in case.