tllee

When I open the oil fill cap of my 2002 RX300,I can see a "felt" like cover right under it. I can't see any mechanical parts because of that. You'll have to pour oil on it to get oil thru. I never see a set-up like this, I touch it and it seem like easy to be crumbled,what if it fall off to engine and it could clog the oil pipes.What is it and what is the function of it?

code58

It's not felt, it's metal and part of the valve cover. Just a diverter plate to keep the oil from splashing out when running and the cap is removed I guess. I gets covered with baked on oil and seems to be something it's not. Trust me, I cleaned it off when I had the valve cover off my DIL's RX. It's not easy to clean off because the oil really gets baked on, almost like carbon, but it is metal. Most cars don't have it, you can see right into the innards, but for some reason T/L didn't want you to see all the gore!

hypervish

Welcome to Club Lexus!

Yup, what code58 said, it's a baffle. Many people mistake the baked on crust on the baffle as sludge.

tllee

Thanks for the information. But I found that metal plate is change its shape(look like it's sink down a bit) after 3-4 years( I own this car for a long time).
Can you gut tell me why is that? Thanks in advance.

thomas1

shouldnt have....unless the plate got bent when adding oil.....

trhs75

I knew I shouldn't have pounded the funnel into the hole....
Seriously, though, I wonder if it just appears to be in a different place. I can't imagine how that plate could move. When I first looked in there I thought it was covered with corrosion or sludge or something.

tllee

I'm very careful with that plate,never push it with funnel or anything. It's just happen to go down a bit after 3-4 years. Could the vacuum inside suck it down or what?

hypervish

No, that baffle is pretty stiff I don't see any way it could have been pushed down further. Have you tried comparing your oil fill hole with another's oil fill hole?

Take a look at Lexmex's engine oil change thread, and look at the oil fill hole does it look like yours?

EDIT: NVM, just realized Lexmex's thread doesn't have a picture of the oil file hole without the funnel. If I get a chance today i will upload a picture of my RX's fill hole.

tllee

Thank a lot! Is this baffle just for sound proof ? can I remove it?

99rx

iTrader: (6)

Here I have a picture of it in this thread I made. It is the last picture in the first post.
There is no need to remove it. If you have to, and it's bugging you so much, get one of those funnels that screws in to your valve cover rather than probing in to it.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...er-engine.html
and dispite the fill hole looking like that, scroll down on this post and look how clean under the valve cover on my RX is.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...belt-time.html

tllee

Thank for the pictures, it sure look same as mine. Now I have peace in mind. The reason why I'm concern is the noise from engine(knocking sound). Some guys told me that's normal, but compare it to my Honda, this is consider too loud. I tried to listen to a couple of friend's Toyota's engine(it's loud too), well, maybe it's the way of Toyota's design. Is the Lexus engine always sound like that.

hypervish

My engine is extremely quiet in both my RX and ES.

My ES is ridiculously quiet, I can't even tell it's running nor can I hear it.

I'm pretty sure my RX has a pinhole leak in the flex pipe, and even then it's still quiet compared to other cars. I will replace the flex pipe after this winter, because no point in putting a new one on before the winter and all of the stupid road salt that comes with it.

99rx

iTrader: (6)

+1. Mine is super quiet.

tllee

I'm talking about the noise when you open the hood. I'm 100% agree that it's quiet when you sit inside the car. The sound -proof of Lexus is very good.
But we have to compare the engine noise under hood-opened situation. Toyota's old engine(1990 and earlier)is good, not this one under my Lexus's hood. Please give me any feedback related to this issue,is it normal or I have to do something about it?

**PS** I always changed my oil no more than 4000 miles. Only bad thing I did is run this car under very short distant a lot(less than 2 miles).