This is exactly the voicemail I got from the dealership having solved the same problem on another car (yours I presume!), they just need to order me one.

Can you confirm that your car is cured in the meantime? Thanks!

 

Yes, that would be mine. They asked if I wanted it on Friday, but were still waiting for a replacement console box from Japan, so I opted to leave it there until the work is complete. If that happens before too long, I'll let you know the results. However, Dale told me they road-tested the tranny, and he claims the noise is gone.

 

The vent tube that was changed out looks more like a manifold. I took a phone pic of the one they will use on your car vanlex. It is much larger than I thought it would be; about 2 x 3 ft. The unit on mine was in fact not leaking air, however, there was an internal whistling or screeching noise that may have been caused by air blowing through it at high speed causing this sound, the same way a sound is made by blowing through a blade of grass or a musical reed instrument. For those of you who haven't heard it, it happens on hard acceleration as I stated previously, and may or may not occur depending on the structure of your airflow and its path through the manifold.

 

Thanks Burnaby, looking forward to their call! I would never have suspected it being an engine-airflow related noise since it diminishes as the car goes into higher and higher gears; I was pretty sure it was a belt on the premise that engine torque or what have you would be harder on a belt off the line, then ease off. Further, if it happens at a certain air (engine) speed, wouldn't it be just as loud everytime the revs swung past 5k rpm?

Moot, but...

 

Or...what you're saying is this thing is torquing under hard low-speed acceleration and turning into a proverbial reed, relaxing as the car's speed picks up. Wonder if they needed to build a stiffer part, or re-think the mounting?

 

I'm not sure what precipitated it, save to say that the screech is now gone, and it is air flowing through at high pressure from the hard acceleration. JP Lexus and Lexus Corp spent a week poring over it, analysing it and arrived at the solution. I can only speculate that since these units are blow molded polyethylene, they have not been thoroughly cleaned and checked afterwards to remove excess residue that eventually leads to this. My guess anyway, but the fix is in, and thankfully it's a simple non-invasive procedure. I'm sure some others will experience this, so at least we've laid tracks here to help them out.

 

+1 on the screeching being over. Intake installed this morning.