Rattle In The Rear, Squeeky Windows

[RXREY]

It sucks to be someone with good hearing. I have found a couple sources of noises in my RX400h.

1 - leather rubbing against leather between the two rear fold down rear seatbacks. if you put a cloth in the crack between the two sections, the noise stops. Some kind of leather conditioner may also work.

2 - rear tonneau cover - this thing makes some noise when you go over bumps because the vinyl/plastic rubs on the rear seats or where it attaches to the rear headrests. remove the tonneau cover. I just leave mine in the garage. I find it kind of a pain to use anyway.

3. rear tonneau cover attachement brackets (not what these actually called, but it's the plastic things attached to the sides of the cargo area that the tonneau cover slides into. There is something inside there that can become loose, I'm not sure what it was, but my dealer was able to fix/replace it.

4 - glove box light switch. if you hear a faint rattle that seems to come from the front passenger side, check this. with the glove box door closed, press hard on it. If you don't hear rattles while you are pressing on the door but do hear rattles otherwise, try putting some felt pads on top of the round flat black plastic piece on the glove box door that is opposite the switch.

5 - slight ticking noises seeming to come from the B pillar near your left ear or the driver's door or window. noises stop if you pull and hold your driver's door shut tighter when you are driving around. this has gotta be the door seals. This happens in regular RX'es and other vehicles also. I was in a 2006 RX330 with only 6000 miles and it had the same sort of noise that I hear occasionally in my RX400h. Not sure what the best permanent fix is (replace door seals? somehow get door to cinch tighter?) I've only tried talcum powder so far, but that either doesn't last very long or it doesn't help. If anyone has better suggestions I'm all ears :)

←

I went into the back while someone else was driving and i found your reason number three to be the cause of my main rattle, thanks again for posting that. All this time i thot it was the rear seats.

I think that I found out the problem,at least it worked for me. I don't use the privacy cover in the back cargo area. Fine,so why a rattle I asked myself. Well it turned out that when I drove the car a few feet with the rear hatch open...no rattle. So for me it was that the little plastic locks for the privacy cover were back against the hatch and should be pushed forward towards the front of the car and away from the hatch, make sense? "Voila"! Rattle gone...well.... Then I had a different rattle...oh darn ( I didn't use that exact term..) what now?...well the new rattle seemed to be coming from the back seats. I finally found the problem and here's the solution...ready? The back seats when pushed all the way back create a tightening of the back of the seat,which actually vibrates at a cetain speed and rattles against the main portion of the seat...so by moving the seats forward a little the back panel attached to the seats loosens up and doesn't contact with the main seat so...voila#2! No rattle. I hope all of this makes sense. We paid too much for this great car for it to rattle! Rey

[resmer]

I had a similar rattle and tried all of the areas identified in this thread with no luck. Finally my dealership found the problem - the back seat was not bolted down properly to the floor - once they tightened the bolts the noise went away.

[LexRexBlue]

My back squeaks, too but we still haven't found the problem. Service dept thought it was the leather rubbing. They put tons of conditioner on it. It worked for 2 days. For some reason the noise is gone when someone sits in the back seat. It is also better when the back seats are in the forward position. However, I don't usually need that much room in the trunk and people would prefer the space in the back. Any thoughts?

[dadetigl]

As mentioned earlier, pushing the little locks/releases for the privacy screen on each side IN and leaving them in, fixed the rattle that irritated me for several months. I don't use the privacy screen. When they were in the out position, I guess they were banging against the rear door when it was closed. Ahh! Peace and quiet again. :)

[austrianlex]

I found the source for the rattling and sqeeking in my lex to be the latches that keep the trunk cover in place. i put some transparent film on them and now the rattle is gone.

[SOMEONE ELSE'S GOT MY NAME]

Yep, Ours has done the squeeek thing for about a year ... starting around 2K miles / first 2 months. We're at about 15K miles now. We just leave the rear armrest in the DOWN position to solve the problem.

[Robl45]

Well , It seems our 400h that we just got with 22K miles has the rattles too. I'm not sure if its the same as what you guys are describing. I kinda here like a faint metallic sound, seems more like maybe its the roof rack or something. Thats what I hear when driving normally, quite annoying with the radio off since I can't hear the middle frequencies well but hear like a dog in the higher squeak frequencies.

I also seem to have an air leak or something when driving on the highway. Its not normal wind noise, its a little louder, like the rear hatch isn't completely sealed or something, any thoughts on this?

[Robl45]

Was this ever fixed, they are doing this on our car now. So far, the rails they are replacing are worse than the originals.

I have a rattle that sounds like it's coming from the rear of the vehicle also. When my daughter sits in the back, she says it sounds like the noise is coming from the front. It's not very loud, just sort of "there". Took the vehicle in this week for service and it turns out to be the roof rack. Apparently they have to replace part of the rail system. Hope this helps.

[Scottishman]

I have a 2006 rx 400h, the rattling has been diagnosed as the spare wheel under the car,  so next time I am at the garage I will either remove the plastic cover or pad it with something to stop it rattling,