JTS09

Got it, and thanks for your discovery on that. We actually did both areas in tandem, which probably had a cumulative effect in resolving things. Now if I can only find some online solutions/product to revamp the handling. Great car but the understeer and body pitch driving me a little crazy. Obviously a luxury car and not known as a major "Drivers Car" in the likes of BMW/Mercedes,but I come from the High Performance /Racing World ,and am just hoping to make a great car even better! Have been researching Sway Bar replacements etc. Exhaust and Intake already modified successfully. Thanks again for your efforts.

jmcraney

JTS09,

Congratulations on the successful repair of your car and thank you for sharing that news with us. Although it has been a year, almost to the day, since I fixed my car it still makes me almost as happy as I was that day, when I hear that some one else has fixed theirs. I am especially happy for you since you were able to effect a solution before animosity impaired your judgement. I know you are going to enjoy your quiet ride. I think I will go out and strut a little for you.

smileman83

Had my 07 windows changed and no major improvement, but its not a big issue with me. But in asking the dealer about the triangle, they truly became a bit defensive and even implied that the "fix" comes from someone who does not own an LS460 and appears on many sites claiming ways to improve things. I found that really surprising!! I may if I have some time try and see if the triangles change things on my own. But in reading the old threads and the new threads, has the original fix been replaced by replaceing the triangles with newer designed triangles?

jmcraney

Just to set the record straight, I think I am the only person who has posted a claim of a "fix" for the wind noise problem that affects many LS460s and LS600s. I did post that claim at several, but not more than six, locations and I clearly identified myself with the ID "jmcraney" and all of my postings were a link to the "wind noise discussion thread" on Club Lexus. I am the owner of a 2007 LS460 that I purchased new from a dealership in October 2007.

For the first six months that I owned my car, I was aware that it had a wind noise problem. At that time I was always sure that it could be fixed if I could get the right person interested in the problem.

During the first six months, I took my car back several times and the dealership always seemed interested, changed the windows and other things but finally said that all that could be done had been done and if I wanted anything else done I would have to speak to Lexus. At the dealership there was this sort of strange attitude about all this, sort of like I must be imagining that my car had a problem or that it was a problem that could not be fixed.

I remained confident that the problem could be fixed if I could just tell them exactly what was wrong. I called Lexus Customer Service and arranged an appointment for one of their specialist to look at my car and I decided I would write a description that would give them enough information to point them to the problem.

I left my description and my car at the dealership on April 9, 2008. They called me to pickup my car on April the 10th. When I picked up my car a representative of the dealership told me that the Lexus specialist said that the noises that I was hearing were normal and that my car met all specifications and that there was nothing else that they could do for me. I got a phone call from Lexus Customer Relations a few days later saying about the same thing.

It is interesting to read my description of the problems that I was having with my car in light of all that has been said on this subject during the past year.

Here is what I told Lexus a year ago:

April 4, 2008

Dear Lexus Representative,

Regarding my 2007 Lexus LS460 VIN JTHBL46F075051819.

Thank you for taking the time to look into my “wind noise” problem again. Before I contacted Sewell Lexus I had not looked at the Internet at the Lexus Users Forum where, you are probably aware, there is much discussion on this subject. I feel bad for you. What a mess. This sort of thing feeds on itself sometimes and often the criticism is over blown.

I have tried to be objective and fair about my concerns. First of all, I love my LS460, except for the wind noise. I traded in a 1997 LS400 that had 67,000 miles. As you can see I keep cars a long time, so how you resolve this problem will probably not have a big impact on your future sales.

It was apparent early on that there was some sort of air leak around the front windows but I kept trying to convince myself that it was my imagination. There also seemed to be a noise leak too. I often had the sensation that the window was not fully up or that the door was not closed fully. I would have cars pass me while I was stopped and I had the sensation that a window was partially down. And I noticed that as I increased speed that the noise level inside the car quickly overcame the audio system even though I had the ASL enabled – I am confident that I understand how to enable the ASL properly and that it is working as it is designed to. I don’t drive fast so I am not talking about speeds over 65 MPH. It seemed to be much noisier than my old car.

I took my car back to the dealership in January to tell them about my concerns and they said that there was a service bulletin to deal with the wind noise problem. It involved replacement of the glass in the front doors. Having that sort of thing done to a new car was a little disconcerting. But they did an impeccable job and I don’t have any concerns about that anymore.

After that there seemed to be some improvement in the noise problem. In trying to assess it I have used my 2004 Toyota Sienna as a reference. I noticed that when I am stopped in traffic that the Sienna has better isolation from the noise of cars that are passing. I would expect my new LS460 to be much quieter than it is. Also when I am driving my LS460 I notice noise from vehicles if they overtake me. This is much more evident when compared to my 1997 LS400. You might argue that this effect is due to the LS460 being quieter overall. But that is not my perception. The noise seems to come from somewhere on the front doors.

As for the wind noise: that has been a major problem, mainly because I have had great difficulty in understanding it and being sure if it is a problem or not. Sometimes it is barely noticeable and other times it is terrible irritating and even fatiguing.

Over the past couple of months I have tried to be hypersensitive to all aspects of this problem so that I can give you a chance to help me with it.

I tried driving the car down a perfectly smooth road on a day when the wind was calm and at 40 MPH it was as quiet as it could possibly be. I noticed that as I increased speed to 50 MPH there was slight increase in the noise over my left shoulder and that at 60 MPH this was very noticeable. You might again argue that this effect is due to the car being quiet overall. It would be difficult to resolve this without instrumentation to quantify the noise.

It finally came to me that the real problem happens on windy days.

I noticed that when I drove the car at 60 MPH and the wind was coming directly behind the car it was as quiet as it was at 40 MPH. But, when the car was driven into a headwind the noise level increased dramatically. Aerodynamically, it is kind of like driving 90 MPH, if you are driving 65 MPH and the head wind is 25 MPH. This effect becomes much worse if the wind is not coming from exactly 000 degrees relative to the motion of the car. For example, if the wind is coming from 045 degrees or 315 degrees relative to the motion of the car and the wind has a gust component too, it produces a kind of noise that is very irritating. Along with the roar there is a noticeable air leak around the front door windows – seems to be mainly in the front corners – that is sort of whoosh sound. This only happens under certain wind conditions. In fairness I have to admit that most cars don’t perform well in these sorts of conditions. But, my LS400 seemed to be much better than my new car.

I want to tell you about another observation that is sort of interesting. Recently, on a windy day (wind speed around 20 kts), I was driving on a circular ramp (cloverleaf), going about 25 MPH, to enter the freeway. As I drove around this ramp I changed the car heading 270 degrees. At some point in that rotation I noticed a sensation that the wind was blowing through my car. It was so noticeable that it caused me to consider the potential for rain to might leak in under certain conditions. I spoke to the Lexus service representative about this and he assured me that he is unaware of any rain leak reports for the LS460.

Recently I was driving approximately 35 MPH on a windy day, wind 15 MPH and gust to 25 MPH, and the wind direction relative to the motion of the car was about 120 degrees and the wind noise around the front door windows was very annoying.

The wind noise problems only occur under certain driving conditions that are not easy to demonstrate to you and it is not easy for me to immediately evaluate any fixes that you might implement. But I assure you there is something wrong.

A luxury automobile should not have this problem and I am very disappointed that I have acquired this problem at such a high price. It never occurred to me that I might have a problem like this with a Lexus.



jmcraney

JTS09

Jmcraney;

You have gone well above and beyond the call of duty to communicate with Lexus, locally and at the corporate level, to get them to acknowledge this issue. Clearly, as evidenced by the incredible volume (no pun intended) of internet chatter on this item , a problem exists. Your fix, along with the efforts of a handful of responsible Dealer Tech's, have yielded some results. I expect more from such a distinguished brand as Lexus, on all fronts. As a postscript, did you see the thread response today regarding the new TSB Lexus issued on 4/1? That being TSB # L-SB-0033-09. I'll be eager to see the feedback that comes forward as this fix gets put in place. Regards, Jim S.

smileman83

Jim, well I solved one problem and that was the brake actuator that was making a clicking sound- I traded the 07 in on an 08-lol. I was missing my ML stereo anyway and the deal was too good to pass up. Driving the 08 home last night (which by the way has a Vin # that is later than both repairs done in the TSIB, it does sound quieter than the 07. I am going to give it some time and see, but thanks for the triangles and I am sure I will eventually do it anyway.

Now to play with all the new goodies and put the mudguards on when they arrive!!!

jmcraney

smileman83,

Man, you really know how to solve a problem - hope you got a two-fer.

Congratulations on your new car!

Keep your patches where you can find them, you might need them.

smileman83

No two fer but no damage either, thanks the Lexus fast start incentive and my ability to do the deal yesterday before the 15th was over-lol. Actually ended up at the same place I would have just starting with teh 08 in the first place, but at the time I bought my 07 there wasnt an 08 in the color combo I wanted.

I also know how to make your wind noise seem minor- have your brake actuator switch click everytime you apply and release the brakes- man what a PITA!! And the now infamous Lexus shrug- "Nothing we can do at this time- engineers are working on it"- yeah right! Hopefully this one doesnt develop it, but its way more of a nuisance than the wind noise ever was.

Patches are in safe storage!!!

I8ABMR

what bothers me about all of these wind noise issue on the new GS's and LS's is that when you buy a new lexus you usually only get to drive the demo car, not the actual car you are going to buy. at least thats what they did to me. when I had wind noise issue off of the mirrors in my car I made it very clear to the service guys that I could not have caught this before buying the car because I only drove the demo. Is this the same with the LS. I can imagine so, because they are so damn pricey

justfixit

Try putting masking tape on outer mirrors covering up the puddle lights underneath. You might be surprised. If this improves your wind noise concern, replace masking rape with clear packing tape.

jmcraney

A year has passed – ONE YEAR – since I made a major effort to tell Lexus about the triangle trim defect and how it relates to the wind noise problem that plagues many of the 07-08-09 LSs. When I gave up trying to tell them about this, a year ago, I just knew that they would find out about it some other way in a few weeks. But as far as I can tell they are still not tuned in.

As for the latest wind noise fix from Lexus, I have a contact at the dealership who told me, over three months ago, that a sure fix for the wind noise was coming soon and it would be an attachment to the windshield trim. I was sure that he had gotten one of the drum signals in the rumor mill wrong because I remained convinced that the major cause is the triangle trim defect, so when the fix came out I was very disappointed even though I don’t have a problem with my car. A few days ago I had an opportunity to look at a car that was recently configured with the new crosswind turbulence TSIB. Those of you who have gone that route have my sympathy.

Lexus needs to know, and I am sure that somebody at Lexus wants to know, about the triangle trim defect. If you have some success repairing your car, you need to be sure that Lexus knows about it. CALL LEXUS CUSTOMER RELATIONS AND TELL THEM! SEND LEXUS CUSTOMER RELATIONS AN EMAIL! CALL YOUR DEALERSHIP GENERAL MANAGER AND TELL HIM! WRITE A LETTER TO YOUR DEALERSHIP GENERAL MANAGER! DO ALL THESE THINGS! HELP LEXUS UNDERSTAND THAT THEY HAVE A PROBLEM!

As I’ve told you previously in this discussion thread, a year ago Lexus told me, in response to my concerns about wind noise in my 07 LS460, that my car “met specifications” and the noise was “normal” and that they would not be able to provide any further assistance on that problem.

Soon after that I found a defect that was causing the problem and fixed it myself. At the time, I felt very strongly that Lexus would want to know about my discovery and my initial approach was to inform my dealership, which I did via several emails. The following quotes one of those emails.

Quotation from my email to dealership sent on 18Apr08:
(Customer Relations Manager),

I have driven my car and it is much quieter, both from the wind noise and the noise from passing traffic. It is never going to be completely isolated from crosswind noise, nor would I expect it to be, but it is much improved. I think my car is now quieter than the 2008 that I drove on Wednesday.

I realize that this noise problem has been a complex issue and that what I recently did may not have been the only problem. The car now fully meets my expectations. Thank you for your efforts and patience and wisdom in dealing with this.

When I took the pictures and wrote the description of my efforts yesterday I did that with the intention of posting it on the Lexus Owners Forum on the Internet. It occurred to me that you or one of your employees might have a way to capitalize on this information through an employee suggestion program and if that is the case I would be happy for you to do that. And it is also possible that my information is only applicable to my situation and of no value to anyone but me. Let me know if you want to use my information, otherwise I will post it on the Owners Forum and let the readers decide for themselves.

Regards,

My Name
End Quotation

The response that I got from the dealership was that they would pass it on to the Lexus rep the next time he came around. When I asked when that would be I believe the response was that he would be around in a few weeks.

I then decided I would get the information to Lexus directly because I wasn’t real confident that the dealership or Lexus rep would follow through and I began a telephone and email campaign with Lexus Customer Relations.

I also spoke to the dealership general manager about my wind noise problem and I wrote a letter to him soliciting his help to inform Lexus about how I had fixed my car.

Quotation from my letter to dealership general manager sent on 23Apr08:
Dear Mr. (general manager),

I spoke to you on the phone a couple of weeks ago regarding a wind noise problem with my 2007 Lexus LS460 (VIN JTHBL46F075051819).

Your (salesman) and (customer relations manager) promptly followed up with a suggestion that I consider a 2008 LS460 and I came out to your dealership and drove one. I decided not to go that route for several different reasons. Subsequently I discovered a fix for my car and I am very happy with it now.

I wanted to share my discovery with Lexus because it might be of value in solving this kind of problem for other customers and I tried to get my information to them several different ways but the harder I tried the harder they pushed back. I am not sure why all the resistance. I explained that my phone calls were not hostile but could not get them to acknowledge me.

The details of how I fixed my car are enclosed. This information has also been sent to Lexus’ legal department via USPS mail (I had an email last week from them last week requesting my “proposal” in writing). This information really needs to go to their engineering department so I am not sure why it was directed to the legal group. I am not presently considering any type of legal action and I have not intentionally given that indication either directly or tacitly. While my information may have limited applicability I think it is important that someone who can appreciate it gets to review it. I hope you will use one of your contacts to insure that Lexus is aware of this – it might be very important to them.

I want to acknowledge the help and wise council I have received from your (customer relations manager) on several different occasions – he has been my main point of contact at (dealership). Lexus was not returning my calls and when I had my car in for service recently I visited with him and told him that Lexus was not returning my calls. He tried to call them while I was in his office but it was too early to speak to CA. I did get a voice mail later that day and I spoke to them the next day and arranged an appointment to have my car “evaluated” by a Lexus representative at your dealership on April 10th. That evaluation brought the message that “sorry, nothing else can be done” conveyed through (customer relations manager) and a phone call from Lexus Customer Relations a few days later and another “sorry.” I did tell that person who called from Lexus that I had fixed my car and I expected that I would get a call from someone else wanting more details but they never followed up with me.

I am enclosing copies of some of my communications on this topic. You will see that I aired some of my concerns on the Club Lexus forum. That was a desperation attempt to get some attention from Lexus. I tried to stick to what I knew about the problem while being careful not to disparage Lexus or (dealership). If you see anything that offends you please give me an opportunity to explain.

I would also like to acknowledge your (service writer – he listens well and is very attentive. My compliments to you on your dealership, where I found everything just about perfect.

Regards,

My Name
End Quotation


I never received any kind of acknowledgement from the dealership general manager that he received my letter. Several weeks later, while getting my car serviced, I visited with him for a few minutes and he was cordial but noncommittal about the wind noise.

I continued trying to get the attention of someone at Lexus to tell them about the wind noise fix until I got a telephone call from one of their attorneys telling me in rather harsh language that they were not interested in anything I had to say. I was really taken aback by the call from the attorney because I had not ever had a harsh or unkind word with anyone either at Lexus or the dealership and I was wondering if they had gotten me mixed up with someone else.

I ended up sending Lexus Customer Relations an email on 04May08 telling them that I would try to get the word about the wind noise fix out to LS460 owners some other way.

Quotation from my email to Lexus Customer Relations sent on 04May08:
May 4, 2008

I bought a new Lexus LS460 in Oct 07. When I got the customer survey that comes along with a new car purchase I entered it electronically and the main thing I said was that I was so embarrassed by the wind noise that I was reluctant to have my friends ride in my new car. I just knew that someone from Lexus customer relations would be contacting me to help get that problem fixed. Time rocked on and nothing from Lexus. I kept trying to figure out if I was imaging this problem or I had a real problem.

One day in January I was in the Costco parking lot about to get in my car and an Indian man (the kind from India, not Oklahoma - we have both types here in Texas) approached me and asked if that was my car, pointing to my car. I assured him that it was mine and he inquired, with a heavy accent, about any problems I was having with it. I told him I had a wind noise problem. He made that international gesture for frustration, when you sort of flop your hands out as you roll your arms down and said something about his car driving him crazy. His car appeared to be a 2007 LS460. He told me that his dealer, the other DFW dealer, had told him that nothing could be done and if Lexus came up with something they would call him and that had been 6 months ago.

I then decided that it was not my imagination and that I would go back to (my dealership) and see if I could get some help. They told me that there was a fix for the noise that I was experiencing and that they needed me to leave my car for a day or two. I did that and found out that they had replaced the windows in the front doors. I could not tell that it made any improvement. And along about then I looked on the Internet to see what I could find out about why the front door windows needed to be replaced. I found that many people were experiencing a wind noise problem with their LS460s. At that point I felt that Lexus had knowingly sold me a defective car or one that had a high probability of being defective. I became very resentful about this and I decided to seek some sort of resolution. I called (my dealership) and spoke to their customer relations person and he advised me to call Lexus customer relations and he gave me an 800 number. I called and was told that I would receive a call back within three days. The call didn't come so another six weeks passed and when I went to (my dealership) for my first oil change I spoke to their customer relations rep about my concerns. He said that he would call Lexus to get them to call me and I received a call that day. The person I spoke to set me up with an appointment to have the Lexus factory rep look at my car on Apr 10. I left a two-page memo in the car for the rep detailing my concerns. The results of that was a message delivered by (my dealership) that said that my car was up to specifications and there was nothing else that could be done.

After thinking about that for a few days I decided that legal action was not desirable because you would prevail through delay and besides I have never sued anybody and I really don't like that sort of stuff anyway. I decided that I would just take my lawyer money and use it to buy a new car and move on. I figured that Lexus and (my dealership) would feel a little guilty about all this and make me a fantastic deal. Wrong. I test-drove a 2008 LS460 and it had the wind noise problem to some extent too.

So, I went home in a real quandary. I had looked on the Internet at some of the things others were saying about their wind noise problem so I decided to look at mine a little more carefully. Everything including my own observations pointed to a problem with the front doors. I looked very carefully and I have to say that it looked like a "battleship quality" design. There just didn't seem to be any possibility of anything that I could see could cause the problems that I was experiencing. I then decided to remove the little plastic triangle shaped trim at the front corner of the front door windows. That is a bold step to do something like that to an $80,000 car that is 6 months old. When I looked at that I instantly knew there was a problem there. There were several obvious paths for air infiltration and because it is located near the base of the side mirror there are probably some concentrated air currents too. I had a tube of silicone seal so I used that to seal up the areas that I thought were problems, a process that took about 10 minutes to do both sides and used about a quarter of a $4 tube of sealant. I let it dry for 24 hours and test-drove it and the results were stunning, no wind noise and a big improvement in the isolation from outside noise. This is the car you told me was up to spec and there was nothing else that could be done for it. I wanted to share the good news with you with the expectation that you would use my information to get yourself and your customers out of a terrible mess. I shared my information with (my dealership) and that night I had a call from one of your customer relations people that I thought that was going to be a thank you for sharing my find. That person was calling to tell me again how sorry you were that I was still unhappy but the car was performing as it was expected to do. I explained to her that I had fixed my car and that I was now very pleased with it. And she wanted to know if the dealer was aware of that. I assured her that I had sent an email to the dealership telling them all was well.

I waited a couple of days expecting a call from Lexus thanking me for the information. When I didn’t hear anything I decided to call to see if Lexus was aware of what I had found. I told the person that took my call what I wanted and they said someone would call me back but a callback didn’t come. I then got the email address for the person who I had spoken to several months ago, (name withheld) I think, and sent her an email with details of what I had discovered. I then got an email from your (name withheld) admonishing me for using Lexus’ internal email server. I called again and insisted that I speak to a management person. After a long hold, I spoke to a very nice person – I think this person was (name withheld) - and she told me she understood that I was trying to get some information to Lexus and that I should enter it through your Lexus.com site via the “contact us” link and she would try to see that it got to somebody who could appreciate it. I made a couple of tries at that but since your site is really not structured to accept an input like mine – there is no category for giving you information – I was never sure that you got my details.

About then I got an email from (name withheld) asking that I submit my proposal in writing. I was very pleased and immediately got my information into hard copy and mailed it, in a larger brown envelope, via First Class USPS mail on April 25th.

On April 30th I called Lexus to confirm that you had received my information. After a long hold I spoke to (name withheld) and explained that I wanted to confirm that you got my package of information. She said that she would have someone call me. On May 2nd I did finally get a call from one of your snooty attorneys - she made me so mad I didn’t get her name and I hung up on her – telling me that Toyota was not interested in my ideas and inventions.

Are these people I mentioned Toyota/Lexus employees? I guess it is possible that we are both victims here – maybe I have been caught in some sort of Internet phishing deal. Sometimes it feels like I am dealing with the Keystone Cops instead of a luxury automobile manufacturer.

I am not selling anything or seeking a reward or compensation. I am not seeking publicity - I am a very private person. I don’t want to embarrass you and I have tried not to do that.

I am aware that many other LS460 owners are having a wind noise problems too – it is all over the Internet. You had to know that my car had a possibility of having this problem when you sold it to me. You evaluated my car just a few weeks ago and told me that nothing else could be done. There even seems to be some evidence that there is a campaign to convince people that this problem is imaginary. I assure you there was a problem with my car. The problem was so annoying I was going to have to get rid of the car so I could get some relief. I fixed it in about 10 minutes for about $1 in materials. I believe that something like what I did to fix my car could fix the wind noise problems that some of your other customers are experiencing and I believe that the 08 LS460 that I test drove could benefit from that kind of fix too. If it is a remedy for some of them it would also help you.

I want to share that information with you and I have tried to send it to you several times. I am unable to divine from anything so far, if you have received my information. Or if you have received it and don’t “get it.” Or if you have looked at it and see that it is Overtaken By Events because you were already aware of the things that I found and are in the process of getting a fix out to help everyone who suffers. The only indication I am getting from you is that you are not interested in my ideas. I have not tried to sell any ideas or inventions to you – I am trying to share information. A good thing for you to have done would have been for you to look at my correspondence carefully, thank me for pointing that out to you and sent me a coupon for a free oil change to help compensate me for the postage and the multiple trips to the dealership trying to get this problem resolved. I would have been happy.

My car is now exceptionally quiet. I didn’t know it was possible to make a car as quiet as mine. It doesn’t even have a whisper of air noise around either door. I have no reason to continue to pursue this – I should just be pleased with my car and let it go. I am still mystified as to why you are working so diligently to keep me from telling you about this. It is conspicuous that many of your customers are unhappy and that your reputation is suffering.

There are other ways for me to get my information out. So, if you are not interested I will just move on to share it some other way. We are a connected society today and the Internet is a very powerful tool for sharing. I will continue to try to keep you informed if I find anything new in this regard. Anything that I send you is FYI of course.

Please don’t have one of your attorneys call me again with a warning about “ideas and inventions.” I would like to let this cool off and I hope you understand the wisdom of doing that too.

Respectfully,

My Name
End Quotation

After all of this I made one last effort to get the word to Lexus by going to the other dealership in my area and presenting them an envelop containing the details of how I fixed my car including several 8X10 color photographs. The response to a follow-up call to them was that they could not do anything that was not approved by Lexus.

I watch what is being said on the Internet regarding this subject and the only active source of information about this problem is Club Lexus and I firmly believe that without CL this problem would have gone down in history as a problem with the mirror design that had no solution. All of you who have helped with this discussion are owed “Big Time.”

Midwestuse

This is a very typical "business protection" mentality response that you've been getting. They have NO interest in admitting to having any knowledge of this wind noise problem becauase once they admit to someone that they are aware of it "admit it in some sort of trackable format" they are now liable to fix it. What you are basically experiencing is their collected effort to avoid any acknowledgement of this issue. This behavior has hurt many companies reputations and it will only get worse as now "design flaws, defective products" are known much quicker by the masses now a days due to the internet.

All company's should be very aware of how the internet informs consumers and make sure they adapt their behaviors accordingly.

This unfortunately is a true testimate to what the majority of businesses are like.

The most annoying part of all of this is you are actually just trying to help them make customers happier and they still don't care. That is utterly pathetic.

If Lexus had any brains they'd offer you a job in their Engineering department!!!!!

rwg21

"brake actuator that was making a clicking sound"

I'm not sure but if I havesomething like thia going on when i braek to coming from front end of car. its when i break its like a dull tapping sound. Between that and the wind noise I will never buy another lexus. Disappointment.

roadfrog

Wow.....what would you get that's quieter or "better"? Those are tough to match or better on a Lexus.

CRowe14

I believe that "dull tapping sound" is normal.
To me, its not a tapping sound (if we're speaking about the same sound) its a very faint tap/click that emits only when you apply the brake.
I personally think its a transmitter (im not an electrician-sorry guys) that sounds...once the pedal is depressed, it triggers the brake system to engage and the lights emit.
I did this in my garage in the dark and the sound was simultaneous with the brake lights coming on.
Just my 2 cents.