I have a 5 month old 2011 IS 350 with nav with just under 4,000 miles.

Today, while drying my car off after a wash, my audio system failed. I was outside of the car at the time, with the doors all closed. I had music playing while drying the car and heard some odd noise, and couldn't quite place it. Something loud, and discordant.

I walked around my car to listen, as I thought it was someone else's car making the noise (as I was at a manual car wash place) and realized it was mine. I opened the door only to hear nasty, screeching, distorted music at an abnormally high volume.

Immediately I turned the volume down and disconnected my iPod, as I thought it might have failed (it hasn't). I switched to satellite radio to compare and it, too, produced jarringly bad sound.

Promptly after switching to XM the audio stopped completely. The volume **** at that point ceased to change the volume level (the indicator on the nav screen never appears) though pressing it to power on/off still functions.

I now hear one "pop" sound from the speakers when I shut the car off, and two or three when I start the car. The beep I would normally hear while pressing icons on the nav screen does not happen.

Will bring to JM Lexus tomorrow AM

 

Wow thats insane i have never heard of that happening before.. good thing you bought from JM thats where i bought my IS250 great service i have no complaints! good luck with getting that squared away!

 

it still under warranty so i don't think there is any problem for dealer to fix it.

 

dang, that sucks man. im sorry to hear that. hopefully they take care of that for u.

 

I'm at JM Lexus now waiting on my car. Andrew Pickett has been my service advisor in the past (he's fantastic) and said, this morning, that he'd had this problem occur in the past. I asked him how much it would have been to repair out of warranty and was told, "In the neighborhood of $2,000" because they've to replace the entire navigation head unit.

Hopefully this isn't the beginning of a string of unfortunate incidences. On the upside he's getting it done same-day with out having made an appointment

 

So they actually stock an entire NAV unit at the dealership? Wow, seems like they know that these things are quite faulty or something.

 

I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your vehicle, but I can't help but commend you on your excellent command of the English language.

 

Wow. Did your SA mention if this was specific to the newer 6th gen nav systems?

 

maybe it's some kind of software issue???

good luck.....keep us posted

 

The repair is now complete, as of this afternoon. The amplifier failed, and had to be replaced. Everything is well now.

I tweeted about the issues I was having, and actually had a representative from Lexus HQ direct message me asking for my contact information. He said he was going to do everything he could to expedite the shipping of the part. I, apparently, lucked out and got one of the few available at that point in time. He said I beat the next request by only 25 minutes and that there are no other amplifiers currently available. Also, as a conciliation, he is sending a $150 service voucher good for anything at JM Lexus Service/Accessories.

+1 to Lexus for making unscheduled maintenance completely painless.

 

Hey, thanks I appreciate the compliment!

 

I have a IS350 that is also about 5 months old right now and i've had this EXACT same issue happen to me. I tried unhooking my phone, changing stations, etc. Eventually turned my car off and back on again and it sounded normal. Its happened to me about 5 times total but turns back off when i restart the car.
I had the dealer look into this and of corse they coudln't find anything wrong.

Any idea if these are related? What exactly was blown for you? The amp right?

Also just today there is now a pop'ing sound with the stock subwoofer is hitting. I'm starting to question the quality of the sound system.

Any thoughts?

BTW I do not have ML

 

My problem was most definitely my amplifier. Solely that part was replaced and I am now back to 100% working order.

While I was using my car waiting for the replacement part to arrive the speakers would produce a "pop" sound when powering on and off the car. Actually they'd pop three times starting up as power was sent, cut, then re-sent to the amplifier.

And no, I don't have Mark Levinson, either.

 

driving around today i started hearing pop and static noise from the speakers during cd and xm playback. i wounder if i might have a bad amp. anyone else have this issue?

 

I'm not sure how/where the factory grounds out their amps, but the shortest wire to the chassis is optimal. If you are having this problem and no remaining warranty and want to try a DIY fix, try "Teeing" off a wire to the chassis to see if that helps. If the factory ground wire becomes pinched or disconnected, that would be a cause of the amp issue.

GL!