Jagstyles

So as many of you know from my previous threads, I've been suffering from nothing but issues with my new IS 350 here in Canada. The issues are summarized below:

1. Brake Squeal Upon Reversing When Car is Cold
2. Buzzing sensation throughout footwell and gas pedal causing tingles in my foot after 10-15 minutes of driving (by far the biggest issue and pet peeve of mine)
3. Thump from trunk when going over pot holes as if the car is bottoming out
4. High pitch noise when fan/ac/vent is on higher than a speed of 4 notches

Here's the outcome from my visit with Lexus:

1. Rear brakes lateral runout were out of specs 0.07MM on both sides causing rear pads to bind on contact surface. Resurfaced rear rotors and serviced pads. Runout after service 0.01MM left rear and 0.005MM right rear.

- sad to say that despite this work, brakes still squeal albeit perhaps not as loudly as before
- I do have a new issue that came up yesterday which I've summarized at the bottom of this email

2. Road tested vehicle and could not find faults after performing scan test on vehicle. No error codes present.

- this to me is completely unacceptable. The vibrations/buzzing sensation clearly resonates through the gas pedal to the point that even my wife has noticed it. After driving the car for 10-15 minutes, you almost don't want to drive any more because of how it makes your foot feel
- It is really noticeable in the 1,500RPM - 2,000RPM's when kept steady at that RPM for a while i.e.: highway driving

- car is going back in 2nd week of March for a more extensive test on this issue, already booked the service appointment

3. Right rear suspension coil upper insulator not fully seated in pocket. Re/Re Right rear coil and reseated insulator

- how the hell does this even happen on a brand new vehicle?
- sad to say that even after this repair, the thumping sound is still there

4. Blower motor excessive play and noisy. Replaced blower motor assembly.

- again, on a brand new vehicle?
- happy to say that at least this issue has been resolved as a result of this repair.

So to summarize the above, the only issue permanently resolved was the blower which had been causing a high pitch noise to come from my vents when the fan speed was set to 4 or higher.

New Serious Issue Appeared Yesterday

After visiting my parents, I get in my car, start the car. I'm exiting their parking garage, go over a few speed bumps softly, and then I notice a metal on metal screeching sound coming from the right side of my vehicle. As the tires rotate slowly (slow speed) it's extremely loud and sounds like there's metal rubbing up against metal. At first I thought my tail pipe was dragging along the ground. I couldn't figure out what the hell was wrong.

I had no choice but to keep driving and as you pick up some speed, the noise gets quieter but as soon as you slow down, you can hear it again until you firmly hit the brakes. I park my car, head into Golf Town (turn the ignition off). I come back out 10 minutes later, start my car and the noise is completely gone as if there was never anything wrong with the car.

This one really puzzled me. How can it sound like there was something clearly physically wrong with my car on one drive, and then on another it be completely gone? Could be something related to the brakes or callipers?

Needless to say, I am not at all impressed with this vehicle. Nothing but issues thus far and I'm really starting to regret coming to Lexus from my old Audi A4 which almost never gave me any issues.

Any ideas/suggestions on what the latest issue might be related to? Anyone else experiencing any of the above problems?

Thanks

IS3F

I've got a couple of the issues:
-Brakes squeal occasionally and for a few seconds when backing up out of my garage sometimes. I thought this is normal for every car that has disc brakes so thought nothing of it. It's quite rare.
- I do have the high pitched sound from the blower and always find myself trying the fan down in speed. I will bring this up at my next visit- thanks for sharing
-for the climate control- I always wonder why it defaults to the 'foot' area when I push 'auto'. I've changed it many times to face/foot but it changes back
-for the scraping while driving- I know my car has a bunch of slush stuck to it that falls off every so often- since you're in Canada, do you think it could be related to snow/ice that was stuck and got released when you parked?

Jagstyles

You bring up a great point about the auto climate control. It's quite silly to me that it defaults to just the feet when in fact what it should do is default to Defrost and the Feet at the same time. Almost every other vehicle I've had with auto climate control will default to the defrost setting. In the winter, this is almost am just given how easy it is for the windows to fog up.

With respect to slush in the wheel well, that was the very first thing I checked for. I got out of the car and checked all four tires and wheel wells, no slush or snow anywhere. I really think there's something wrong with either the brakes/pads/calipers mechanism on the right side of my vehicle. What I'm puzzled by is why the noise went away after I turned the car off for a few minutes and started it back up.

hotrodder1

You guys don't have any recordings of that blower noise do you? Because I think i have a similar issue in the cold the blower seems to make noise... When I took it in they thought I was nuts. Guess others are experiencing the same noise.

bhvrdr

1. In reality that level of runout is within spec for most rotors. They tried to get it better to hope the noise went away but the real cause of the noise is the more aggressive pads they use in the IS cars. Since they are not going to put aftermarket pads on at the dealership, this will likely not be fixed for you ever unless lexus comes up with an updated compound. That said, these pads are very aggressive and sporting and they will stop the car in the most demanding situations. I havent ever seen a street pad this durable. It can actually handle track days.

2. NVH complaints are tough as heck to get right. Especially when they only happen after awhile of driving or only in certain conditions. They can be subjective too. Some people are more sensitive than others. An example is that BMW cars used to always have the subjective "tingle" or vibration of the steering wheel but that was just because they tuned in more steering feel so you go a bit more tingle too. Just keep on them. Try and bring in the car while it is experiencing the problem and have a tech hop in the car with you.

3. Yeah, what they fixed probably didnt cause the clunking either. They made an adjustment hoping it would go away. You could be hitting bump stops or you could be getting a bit of normal or abnormal noise from shocks vibrating/impacting in their mounts. My MB was better insulated than this car. You do hear a bit more in it.

4. Glad it is more quiet now.


The screeching noise from the brakes sounds like a pebble got stuck in the caliper or heat shield. Sometimes it can work its way out as you press/release the brakes. Other times you have to find it and take it out.

Mike

computerwi

In my experience with numerous Toyota/Lexus vehicles, AUTO has always defaulted to feet for heating. Although it says feet, there is actual a small amount of airflow from the driver and passenger side vents and the front windshield. It was the same on my previous vehicle, an Acura TSX. My guess is that they use the principle that heat rises.

That being said, the IS does not appear to produce flow from the driver or passenger side vents rather only the small defroster vents closer to the front of the vehicle. I have found this to be sufficient at keeping the front windows clear, but rear (particularly driver's rear) windows fog up unless the vehicle is very evenly heated after a long drive. The slightest amount of humidity, say after a car wash, in even modest winter temperatures (say -10C) will fog up the entire rear.

computerwi

I'm not sure that a recording would be able to pick up the sound. I experience it in fan speeds 2 and 3 occasionally and it is quite faint but fairly high pitched. To me at least, the slightest amount of radio will easily drone out the sound so I'm not too bothered by it.

computerwi

I noticed since day one of owning the vehicle. I ruled out the parking brake because I always use it when parking. I ruled out the spare tire by removing it and all the associated spare tire gear. I ruled out any leaking struts.

I've come to accept this as just being part of the F-Sport package. I wouldn't say it's clunk, but just sharp bump probably in response to the pothole/bump.

I'm sure the roads out east aren't as bad as the Prairies. Frost heave and this year's melt-freeze cycles are wreaking more than the usual havoc on our roads.

Jagstyles

No recordings of the blower vent issue but when I booked my service over the phone and mentioned it, he said it was common among the 2014 models as well and he ordered a replacement blower motor for my service appointment - so this must be a known issue.

Jagstyles

Today was another horrible drive. The buzzing sensation in the gas pedal and foot can be so predominant that it sometimes feel like something electrical buzzing the pedal/foot. I can't take this any more. I have my service appointment booked in two weeks and going to ask them not to give me the car back until they fix it or provide a replacement. It's just not enjoyable to drive and after 10 minutes of driving, I really don't want to put the foot on the gas pedal any more.

You can also feel the buzzing sensation very subtly in the gear stick (automatic transmission). There has to be something wrong. I've never experienced this in any vehicle I've ever owned before.

Avet

Contact your lawyer, they can exchange your car......I know people who did that. (But with bmw)

Regards
Avi.

AndyL

Glad you and IS3F brought up the issue of climate control with respect to why it defaults to just the feet.

First of all, I have no problem with the climate control in my 2014' IS (and all other previous Lexus vehicles I owned).

However, I paid more attention to the climate mode in the past 2 days as I was curious about how it works.

My observation is that it doesn't always default to feet only. Sometimes it defaults to feet and front windshield defrost.

Here is my observation:

Day 1: garage was -2C, and when I first started my car in the morning, the auto climate control defaults to feet+ defrost. After driving for some time, the mode was changed to feet only. When the car was outside for a while where the outside temperature was much colder (say -10C or lower), the climate control defaults to feet only when I started the car again.

Day 2: garage was 0C and this time the climate control defaults to feet only. After some time of driving, it got changed to feet+defrost.

I also noticed a similar pattern for my wife's RX.

So I guess the climate control adapts to situation and when the need arises, it would default to feet+defrost. Honestly, I couldn't clearly define how it works (yet).

And I am sorry for the issues you have having with your IS. Did you get Lexus Canada involved? My past experience is that they do care about customer satisfaction. Hope your issues get resolved soon.

magne

Also had this issue with my IS.
The noice was very high pitched, and most notisable in level 4 and 5 for me.
Lexus did swap out the fan unit, and told me that it was the bearing for the fan that was broken\worn out. They said allmost all of the early cars had this problem.

Also have the thump noice from the rear some times when driving into holes or speed bumps. But if you slow down, this noice dissaperars. Haven't complained about this, as you have to hit holes pretty hard before the noice appears.