I've now twice taken my 2022 LS500 to Lexus service in view of a low-pitched rubbing noise that seems to emanate from the left driver wheel well. This week, my mechanic took a short road test drive with me and heard the sound as well. He believes it's coming from the run-flat tires. My brakes seem fine. Tires now have 20K miles. Don't remember hearing this noise until car was a year old. Has anybody else had this issue? thanks.

 

Rotate the tires. Does the sound travel with the rotation? If the tech didn't do this it's a shame. You have to eliminate possibilities.

 

I was also having a similar issue with my 2018 LS500 last year, so I took it to the dealer a few times and they brushed it off. I finally gave up and purchased all new tires (Michelin Cross Climate 2) and it was one of the best decisions I made. Not only has the noise gone away but the ride is much softer and quieter. Only other down fault is you'd have to purchase a small spare/jack for the trunk. Since I rarely ever use the trunk for anything it wasn't such a big deal, good luck.

 

Iridicon, I had the same problem for about a year. My 2018 LS500 RWD currently has just 15,000 miles on it (we need to drive it more). The original Bridgestone run flats were replaced with the same in May, 2019 under the recall, with tires manufactured in 2018. So, they're five years old with 12,000 miles on them. The "rubbing" sound was driving me crazy. It was coming from the driver front tire and was louder when I did a slow right turn. I took the offending wheel & tire off two days ago and rolled it on the ground. I could hear something rolling around inside the tire. It sounded like small ball bearings or BBs. I found nothing inside the wheel well that could have caused the noise, and it wasn't coming from the bearings.

I put the wheel back on yesterday and took the car to the Lexus dealer because they installed the tires five years ago. I told them about the rubbing noise on stopping and turning, and that there was something rolling around inside the one tire. They dismounted the tire and took a video of what they found (see attached). Also two photos below.

The inner (closest to the hub) sidewall inside the tire is completely cracked and the bits of rubber shown near the end of the video are what I heard rolling around inside the tire.
The crack may have been causing most of the rubbing noise as the tire flexes at low speeds.

Of course the dealer (Park Place Lexus in Grapevine, Texas) refused to pay for a new tire or to pursue it via warranty. They just wanted to replace it for $500 and told me I really need to replace all four, since they're probably going to fail the same way. I can't say I blame them, since it's a Bridgestone problem and it's been on the car for five years and 12,000 miles. I think the Bridgestone run flat warranty specifies free replacement the first two or three years, then it's pro-rated until it's five years old.

I had the dealer put the tire back on the wheel (I'm glad they were willing to do that considering the condition), they charged me $55 for their labor, and suggested I take it up with Lexus Corporate or Bridgestone.
So, after hours of research, I've decided to have traditional Michelin Primacy A/S tires put on as soon as I find the best price. There's two versions by the way. They're about $310 each with no sound deadening foam and $330 each with the foam. Michelin calls it Acoustic Tech. I'm going with Acoustic Tech.

I may or may not pursue this with Lexus corporate or Bridgestone. My "damage", so far is limited to $55, unless you consider that I'm "forced" to replace all four tires. Interestingly enough, the recall back in 2018 was related to the original run flats being improperly installed on the bead at the factory, causing them to lose air and to fail like shown in my video. This particular tire of mine has been losing air for years (more than normal), so I had to check it often. The other three tires have not been losing more air than normal.

Mark

 

Boy that's terrible dealer customer service. I'd be livid.

 

Thank you so much for this!