hawkeye98

Hi Everyone,
I just traded in my 2010 C300 4Matic for a 2014 350 AWD FSport this past weekend. My only other experience with Lexus was a 2006 GS430, so it took me quite a while to make it back to the Lexus brand. I've owned ~12 cars between the GS and IS, with two cars in the garage at any given time. The IS is my new DD and so far I'm loving it. I was originally in the market for a GS, but after a quick test drive in the IS I was hooked.
You can probably guess what my question is from the title, but is the diesel type sound that I'm hearing from the vehicle at idle and low speed "normal" with the 350? I've seen threads on this topic for the second gen IS 250s and older ESs and LSs, but didn't stumble across any for the current gen IS350s. The noise is not terribly loud or annoying, just a little surprising given what I was expecting from a Lexus. It's not noticeable at highway speeds, just at idle and during low speed acceleration. I didn't notice this during the test drive, probably b/c I was doing some much spirited driving and enjoying the engine intake sound! Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks, Wayne

Matroushi

It's normal. That's the sound of the injectors if I'm not mistaken.

hawkeye98

Thanks. Interesting. I know others have hypothesized that the injectors were the cause behind some odd noises. I wonder what makes a Lexus direct inject V6 different from any other V6 that would give it these distinctive sounds.

cbus

All DI engines have loud injector sound, I'm afraid.

Mrg02d

Sounds more substantial to me :-)

I get a lot of funny looks from people when I'm idling passed them in the parking lots.

hawkeye98

Thankfully mine is not that loud to the point where the average Joe would notice. I am just hoping it doesn't get any louder. If I have time this week I am going to stop by the local dealership to check out a 2015 350 FSport AWD (CPO) they have on the lot for a quick comparison. I am also going to start feeding the car a bunch of fuel injector cleaner!

hawkeye98

Drove a dealer's 2015 with 16k miles (cpo) and confirmed the same sound. Whew.

Crossxup11

Check out my vid on this issue:

If yours sounds like that, I assure you its normal.

The350Girl

every lexus IS350 with 3.5L sounds like that plus your car is F-sport package so it should sound harder

JDR76

Agree, the sound is normal, but there's no difference in sound on a 350 between F Sport and non-F Sport.

2Marvelous

I have a 2016 IS350 F-sport AWD (10000 km's) and left the car at the dealership a couple of days ago for this very same sound concerned that it was engine knock. They assured me that this is perfectly normal. It is the fuel injectors doing their thing. I picked it up today confident in their answer after reading this thread and a few other threads on the same sound.

leo877

I thought it was weird when I bought the car but it's actually normal.

flashvdub

my 14 250 sounds so the same just a little softer

benj0

I inherited my daughter's 2015 IS250 and have noticed the engine noise as well. It only has 6K on it. I guess it is normal