My Lexus dealership asked me to post this problem that we are beginning to have on our RX in the hopes that maybe someone has experienced this and may know what the problem is:

We took our RX400h AWD up to Big Bear again and the temperature was still brisk; 30s at night and 60s in the daytime. We started noticing that upon starting the car, when we applied the brake, there is a clunking noise that sounds like it is coming from the right front wheel. Then, when we make a turn, there is a sound coming from the same area that I can only describe as sounding like the word "torque" if you were to make a like a bird call [and this is not a joke] where you make a "tor" sound at a lower note and then a "que" sound at a slightly higher note. This continues even after the vehicle has warmed up and it continued for the 5 days we stayed in Big Bear. The technicians couldn't duplicate the noise/sound and talked among themselves as though it sounded like it might be a bushing gone bad or something in the ABS. They have offered to meet us up in Big Bear again if the problem persists, but I'm posting this as they asked. We aren't due back in a couple of weeks and the temps are starting to climb.

Has anyone out there in high altitude/cold areas had the same/similar experience, as it isn't occurring here in the hot desert.

Thanks.

 

It just the system doing its job to save you, and particularly in cold weather. I moved from So Cal recently to WA so it never happened in hot weathers like so cal. So apparently it didn't appear at first. Until I driven in cold conditions like snow and rainy cold seasons. The torque noise your hearing is the system working like ABS, VSC, and the AWD keeping you from deviating in the undesire direction.

 

Was the weather wet as well? Was the undercarriage wet when you were hearing the noise?

 

Interesting. My parent's take theirs through the mountains of SC & NC cold and hot pretty regularily and nothing like this has ever happened. I even drove through there myself in the RX once and the only noise to complain of was a howling cat in the back seat.

 

the howling cat noise is from the rear engine kicking in to give you an AWD traction. Unfortunately, our RX is not full time AWD it only kicks in when in needed. In other words, even if you buy the RX 400h AWD it's technically not AWD, only when needed

 

No, the weather was dry and no snow except on the ski slopes; just cold.

 

Did you learn this from Lexus or are you just supposing this? I wasn't doing anything other than turning a corner or backing up the car. I wasn't doing anything that would require the car to make a computer-generated correction.

Thanks

 

Oh, I see where your going with this. Well, first of all I made the assumption based off your explanation that you were making turns at snowy mountain roads, so my first impression that your torque noise is caused from the various possibility I've mentioned above. But, now you have mentioned that the torque noise even backing up, I'm kind of confused by your situation. How was your driving when you backed up? It could be a factor that could ignite the system from transfer to an AWD system.

 

Thanks, but it sounds like you haven't really experienced what I'm experiencing, and neither has Lexus. I'm going up the mountain soon, and if it repeats the same noise, I'm taking Lexus up on having the technician come up the mountain and drive the car while it is doing that. I'll let the forum know what the result is, if it happens, and IF they can determine what is the cause. Their fear is that there are many, many bushings in the front-end systems and trying to isolate one out of a dozen or so is going to be frustrating [for them]. Thanks again for attempting to help me solve this issue but I think the best thing is to turn it over to Lexus now.

 

Great, hopefully you can get that resolve, because I'm worried about your situation too. So anyhow good luck!