I have an '07 RX 350

When I start my car, I hear a rattling sound from the engine. It only happens after cold starts however. Ill turn the car on and immediately after I release the key, the rattling occurs. It always occurs during cold weather, and occasionally during warm weather (I live in Florida).

I took it in to Lexus cause its all under warranty, but it just so happened that when they did the cold starts, the noise did not occur.

Any suggestions?

 

Keep it parked at the dealership. Problems are never duplicated there.

Seriously, have someone else start it while you're under the hood. Could be the higher RPMs on initial startup is causing a loose part to rattle.

 

I had this same problem this winter. The noise would stay for a min when I start in the cold and then goes away each time. since is summer now the problem went away.

 

Are you guys using synthetic motor oil ?

 

I do have a crackling sound which started recently. It is so irregular, but consistently crackling, similar to popcorn po, but instead crackling.

 

Any luck solving it? I know this is very old topic, but maybe you found and fixed the problem? Sometimes I have the same issue; rattling noise from engine for 1-2 seconds after I start the engine and release the key.

 

Are you Guy`s talking about the "Death rattle" that occurs from bad anti drain back valves in the oil filter?

 

What is it? I entered Death rattle into forum search and found only 4 topics, but NONE of them describes the issue.

 

If you have a can type oil filter, some times the drain back valves dont work properly. Which allows the oil to escape out of the filter, thus creating a dry start each overnight start. But, if you have the filter that is not the canister type, this should not apply. I have found the absolute BEST canister type oil filter to be the Bosch Distance plus filter. D3330 Terrific filter, and I never get the rattle of Death on this filter . However it is a very expensive filter.

 

I don't think it's filter issue. The car has always been served at Lexus dealer, so I guess they place the proper filter every time. Anyhow, next service is due in 500 km... Who knows, maybe new filter will fix it...

 

I`v had bad Denso/Toyota filters before too. Not often though.