I hear this knocking/cracking noise from the rear right (around the rear right door) but nobody is able to locate it.
I can hear it mostly when I drive slowly (1-15 mph) and when the chassis twists. Last night i removed the door, I removed the plastic that goes under the right doors, all plastics on the right side but it is not possible to locate it.

I hope somebody had this problem and can share info.


https://streamable.com/7u30gg



It drives me crazy.

 

Sounds like something is loose somewhere. Are you sure that this isn’t coming from somewhere underneath of the car near the right rear door?

 

Closest to the door on the outside is the rocker panel moulding but the noise is there even without it. I am thinking about removing the heat shield around the tank and the aero plastics under the rear right passenger. After that I have no clue.

 

You made me go and check everything underneath and I checked all the bolts and plastics under the car. All was good.

Now look at this:






I started to twist/press the sheet metal under the door, when I pressed with my fingers next to the first hole - KNOCK. The same stupid sound.
It seams like the sheet metal was not tight, I pressed it with these pliers, drove it and no noise. Nothing. Unbelieveable. This crap drove me nuts for more than a month.

 

Was that lip seam in the picture above that connects the rocker panel with the floor panel where you have the pliers separated and what was loose that was making the knocking sound? Were one of those panels that I'm describing hitting and touching the other panel while you were driving? Did you fix the knocking noise by squeezing the lips together with the pliers like you show in the picture above? I don't understand how the manufacturing plant didn't weld these 2 lips securely together to prevent the knocking noise. Aren't those two panels where they connect together that forms the lip supposed to be welded together securely at the factory? Or are they only supposed to be connected together without any welds in them? Which is it do you think?

 

Esh,
Do you have the Palomino interior with brown plastic or is the color of your interior Palomino with black palstic? Also, did you purchase your vehicle brand new or used? I noticed that it's a 2020 ES300h hybrid. How long have you owned the vehicle for? If you purchased your vehicle brand new in 2020, did it ever make this knocking noise back 2 years ago when you purchased it or did it just start making that knocking noise just recently like 1 or 2 months ago? What's the owner history of your ES300h?

 

Yes, the place where I put the pliers was loose, all the panels come to that place and they should be welded but in this case some of the welds are missing. I put the pliers and there was no sound, and then by squeezing the panels and pushing them
towards the seat the noise went away.

Like I said, there should be more welds and also glue between the panels. Also, on some spots there are 2 panel edges, on some spots even 4 panel edges.

 

It’s the flaxen interior with brown plastics. It’s a 2020 model, I purchased it last year with 10000 miles, CPO.
This noise started to appear 6 weeks ago. The history is great, serviced twice at 5000 and 10000 miles, and then certified and put for sale.

 

I wonder why some of the welds and glue are missing from these particular panels? These floor and rocker panels are all welded and glued by robots. I don’t think that the employees at the assembly plant are the ones that welded/glued these panels. I just don’t understand how and why the robots missed welding and glueing these panels. Aren’t the robots computer controlled? How can something like this pass inspection. I bet you that there are other ES350 vehicles that have this similar problem like yours that went through the assembly line that were built on the same day that yours was built. I wonder if the Lexus manufacturing plant is aware of this problem and if they corrected this problem on the 2020 ES model and on the models that were built after 2020?

 

You are correct, these spots are welded by robots and I am afraid there are a lot of other 7ES with that problem.

I don’t think the quality control is able to detect these issues, I bet the movement is measured in microns but still enough to make noises.

 

You don't just miss several inches of welds and adhesives at a Lexus factory. My immediate suspicion is that this car was crashed.

 

Nope, never. All is factory.

 

You can tell by looking at it that it's factory.

 

I would think that the robots are all programmed to do the welding correctly during assembly. There’s something wrong with the robots if the rocker panel/floor welding is done poorly or not at all.

I wonder how many units of the model year 2020 ES350 vehicles have this rocker panel/floor welding problem and I also wonder what other model year ES350 vehicles that were built after year 2020 have the same welding problem. This problem needs to be addressed to Lexus so they can inspect the assembly robots to make sure that the robots do the welding correctly on the rocker panels/floor panels during assembly at the manufacturing plant.

 

I don't think this problem needs to be addressed to Lexus. If it was an assembly defect, it wasn't a very widespread one, considering this is a two-year-old car and it's the first time I've ever seen a post on this forum about this particular symptom or anything related to this part of the body structure. I think the only thing Lexus needs to address is the problem with this particular example.