Maximus350

Damn, my hood is hard to close. I have to slam it to close it. I know its not just my car because when I drove the demo at my dealer, it had the same problem. Anyone else experience this?

pinoychris

OMG, man, I went to the gym the other night and I was talking to my friend and he was like "pop the hood" so we popped the hood. Then when we went to close it, we had a hell of a time. We didn't want to slam it shut. We spent 30 mins looking in the manual, checking if it wasn't lock wasn't catching, and just seeing if there was anyway to close it nice and easy. My friend was even apologizing for asking me to open the hood. Then we were like, "screw it" and slammed it and it closed. It wasn't the first time I had the hood open... but the other time was before I bought it at the dealership and I didn't really notice how hard the salesperson had to slam it to close it.

RCFormante

iTrader: (1)

Same here, took me like 15 mins to figure out to close it. I got pissed and slammed it shut. That and the leather on the door panel (so easy to scratch for some reason) is only the flaw I found so far.

Badman Forever

today, i had to call the lexus dealer and get one of the techs on the phone to make sure i was closing the hood right! he told me the new hoods are super-light compared to the old gen, that is the reason why we have to slam the new ones alot harder.

IS350spd

I had one of the first built 3rd Gen TL's and had a similar problem, a tech note was sent out later saying that the early builds were not properly alligned. A later alignment allowed it to close easily. Most likely the striker is set too low, so it does not latch unless a lot of force is used to compress it fully.

And yes, the Acrua dealer said at the time the new cars were hard to close by design (many Dealers said that until the tech note came out).

The IS350 I saw at the dealer showroom had the same issue, I would not say this is normal.

Most car makers say that you will be able to close the hood without slamming it, and buy using too much force could bend the hood.

Just my 2 cents.

picus

Ya that does seem odd. You should be able to close a hood just by letting it drop under its own weight from a couple inches up. Well, you know how these things work - if enough people complain they will put out a tsb and have it fixed.

jyg es3

on new gs's new is , all had same problem, very hard to close. you do not know how much to slam.
Lexus should adress this and the constant clicking sounds from the injectors.

flipside909

That's a normal item with Direct Injection technology. The D4 in the 2GR-FSE IS350 engine puts out 1600 psi of fuel pressure. There's a reason for the clicking...annoying or not, that's how D4 technology works.

wolverine

iTrader: (9)

holy crap I thought I was the only one with that problem. took me about 15 min the first time, thought I was gonna mess up the hood

Maximus350

Yes, I thought I was gonna dent the hood as well. This absolutely sucks. You have to really slam it hard for it to close. Wtf did they do this? Do you guys think there will be a fix for this? Yes, I too am annoyed at the clicking sound from the engine.

Rockville

It always takes me about two times to get it shut because I always underestimate how much force to use.

The clicking sound is not the engine or valves as Flipside said it is the mechanical fuel pump at the back of the engine compartment that increases the fuel line pressure for the direct injection. That is what is giving you the excellent fuel economy, ample power and ULEVII emissions. Turbos make a certain sound as do super chargers and this is the sound of the fuel pump, not a defect.

Rock

pocky

iTrader: (12)

Yep....hard to close. I remember at the auto show, I tried closing it like 5 times, then I gave up and slammed it. Man, it's going to be painful to do it everytime I want to pop the hood.

B.Diddy

iTrader: (1)

damn, all u gotta do is adjust the strike latch height or the rubbers on the ends of rad support.

MR LEX

Same here and I even had several other people trying to figure it out

Lex

Maximus350

MR LEX, have you found a cure yet?