Something Is Rolling Around In The Shift Console

[mckellyb]

This has been making me crazy for a couple of years, now, and I know eventually whatever it is rolling around is going to either come loose, break, or break something else. It makes noise only when accelerating or stopping from a very slow or standing start, and it's gotten louder in the past week or so. Seems to be moving more as well. It sounds like it is just to the right of the driver's middle right calf, but looking under there reveals a maze of ducting and a plethora of plastic I reallly do not want to dig into if I do not have to.

I tried to remove the curved piece of plastic, the large one, below the shifter, but I cannot figure out where to remove fasteners after I take the part next to the accelerator pedal off, then the two bolts for the plastic panel under the steering wheel. This is only four fasteners, I know there must be another half-dozen, given how this car doesn't squeak or rattle. Well, there is one odd noise which comes from the RF lower windshield area, but only if the sun and temperature are just right. Happens about three times per year.

Having been in situations like this in the past and I have learned not to pull on them until they come loose if I can ask someone who may have done it.

Has anyone been here?

[Grumpa72]

I think the answer is obvious and I am surprised that you haven't figured it out! You have lost your marbles! ;)

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[mckellyb]

Part of the problem, a large part, is I cannot get under the dash, at all, thanks to being partially crippled in a bike accident about five years back. I just cannot turn the correct way anymore. As it was, it took me a good half-hour to get the four very easy to remove fasteners out. Embarrasing, but I'm still trying to do stuff myself.

I'm not trying to elicit sympathy...hey, the really fun hobbies can kill you. I'm good with that. Live life while you can...it would suck to have a tree fall on you while on the way to work and you'd been living a conservative life, only to regret it as you're being squashed.

So, for those of us who cannot see the obvious, a little help?

Although, I see your sarcasm, and can dig it. It must be hidden somehow. Clever people at Lexus... On my Suzuki Grand Vitara, if I look at an interior part with the right 'tude, it falls off. I've gotten lazy...

[Grumpa72]

Please don't confuse my poor attempt at humor as sarcasm. I am only 3 months out of cancer surgery so I appreciate those who are having issues too.

Gary

[mckellyb]

Please don't confuse my poor attempt at humor as sarcasm. I am only 3 months out of cancer surgery so I appreciate those who are having issues too.

Gary

Dude, my bad. I didn't mean to come off curt. I've been seriously miffed about the transmission, and moreso about the local dealer. It's Vegas, so they're rolling the dice, IMO, with a $4K transmission....

Don't type while angry or frustrated.

[SAM-RX]

I had the vent motor tryign to adjust the vents on its own, once i unplugged the control wire plug to the motor the rotating noise went away therefore i found the culprit

take out the glove box, few screws and pop it out, u need to look down and there is a white plastic bracket, the 2 motors are there, there are 2 vent motors, mine that was makign the noise was the secodn one on the left.

hope this helps :s

[mckellyb]

I had the vent motor tryign to adjust the vents on its own, once i unplugged the control wire plug to the motor the rotating noise went away therefore i found the culprit

take out the glove box, few screws and pop it out, u need to look down and there is a white plastic bracket, the 2 motors are there, there are 2 vent motors, mine that was makign the noise was the secodn one on the left.

hope this helps :s

I appreciate it, but the noise I have is related directly to acceleration/decceleration. I can get it on turns, occasionally, but not often. The RX, to me, isn't a car which inspires exciting driving. Plus, the VSC beeps at me on cloverleaf exit/entrance ramps, so I know I can't get away with much.

This noise is definitely on the driver's side, and I'd swear I can feel whatever it is sliding along the plastic. It sounds like it too is plastic, though of the hard sort. Whatever it is has mass, it's not like a wire loom junction sliding about.

[notme]

Kelly, when you figure this one out..... PLEASE let me know what you find. I have a 2004 RX330 that I bought about two weeks ago with the EXACT same issue. Sounded like something rather small rolling maybe under the passenger seat or below the glove compartment on the front passenger side. I tried several times to find out what it was by starting and stopping. Managed to take out the glove box by pushing in the clips on either side, but nothing was there. I only get it in a stopping and starting motion. Not side to side.

Nancy

[mckellyb]

Kelly, when you figure this one out..... PLEASE let me know what you find. I have a 2004 RX330 that I bought about two weeks ago with the EXACT same issue. Sounded like something rather small rolling maybe under the passenger seat or below the glove compartment on the front passenger side. I tried several times to find out what it was by starting and stopping. Managed to take out the glove box by pushing in the clips on either side, but nothing was there. I only get it in a stopping and starting motion. Not side to side.

Nancy

Oh, I'll share. This is the kind of thing which will send some of us to the nuthouse in a hurry.

I'd have thought the Suzuki Grand Sucktara, the first car I bought new...embarassingly, would have cured me of having rattling/squeaking/odd noises bother me, but now I'm just more sensitive to it. Good in that vehicle, as it's broken three rear diff pinion gears in 75K miles. Sigh.

[notme]

So took the car out today and I heard it when backing out of a parking space. Stopped, tore apart the seats, console and looked under the driver seat on the outside chance it was something there. This IS going to send me to the nuthouse. Especially since nobody else hears it but me. It seems to happen when I am the only one in the car! It truly sounds like a small hard plastic marble floating around on the floor under the console box.

Nancy

[LVheretic]

On 3 lengthy occassions I have had the same "rolling" sound...each time it was not predictable (made tracking almost impossible) and sounded like it originated somewhere between the console and base of the dash.

FYI, I found the acoustics of the cabin are disorienting.

Anyways, here were the causes:

1) a crayon rolling around in the base of my sons car seat (positioned in center of rear bench)

2) part of my keychain swinging along the base of the dash

3) coins rolling in the dash that had fallen out the little storage door left of the steering coloumn

Also, the dealer in Las Vegas (Fletcher Jones) has been good but I wouldnt want to pay the shop rate for something like this. :-)

[notme]

Thanks LV, I went out and checked to see if there was a coin holder or some other little door by the steering wheel. There was none. I don't have a child seat so that isn't the issue either. My guess now is that a coin or some other flat hard object has been dropped on the plastic runner below the center console and it has slipped back under the console. I don't know how to remove the center console so my next bet would be to slide the darn thing back and slam on the brakes to see if it will slide out??? Ok.. bad idea. Maybe something flat will slide under the console and will dislodge the offending object. I don't know where else to look

[mckellyb]

Also, the dealer in Las Vegas (Fletcher Jones) has been good but I wouldnt want to pay the shop rate for something like this. :-)

Fletcher Jones is gone. Bought out by Lexus of Las Vegas, morons that they are.

I'm with you on shop rate. $260 to change the transmission fluid. Um, I think not. The waiting room is nice, bit it ain't that nice.

I've actually 'felt' where the noise it and it on the left side of the shift console, almost exactly next to your knee, if you're of 'average' leg length.

[notme]

I think the noise I hear is on the right side of my console, right by the knee of the front passenger. Today I listened carefully and I think mine sounds like a pen. It doesn't roll like a marble, but actually sounds like there is something that makes it stop rolling like a pen clip. LORD, this is going to drive me to drink. I am sure it is somewhere in the console.

[alfred213]

I think the noise I hear is on the right side of my console, right by the knee of the front passenger. Today I listened carefully and I think mine sounds like a pen. It doesn't roll like a marble, but actually sounds like there is something that makes it stop rolling like a pen clip. LORD, this is going to drive me to drink. I am sure it is somewhere in the console.

Well you guys aren't alone. I hear the same marble noise during accelerating and stopping but I can't figure if it is from the center console or where the shift knob is. I've given up and decided to turn up the radio but would love to find out what you guys discover.

[notme]

Well I should have my answer in a couple of days. Last week a fellow ran into my bumper while I was at a stop light. The guy was the son of the service manager at the local Lexus dealership. Luckily, they have given me a new loaner Lexus to drive while they look to make sure my bumper is in good shape and repair scratches. They are doing a detail on my car for me and this is the one issue that drove me nuts that they offered to find and fix for me. So I will have an answer and I will let you know what they find.

[guslom]

I thought that I was the only one with this problem. I also was hearing a rolling noise during acceleration and coming to a stop. I had to take my 04 RX330 in for service and I mentioned it to the service advisor. After keeping it for one week they finally found the problem.

According to the tech notes they heard the noise coming from the center floor area. They removed both front seats and the front carpet. There is a hollow portion in the center floor where they found a loose bolt. They removed it with a magnet, and the noise is gone. It seems that this bolt, which I don't know why it was loose, was rolling back and forth in the narrow hollow trough in the floor. I also don't know if they installed another one, and tightened it down, or if it was just bonus parts during the manufacturing process.

The bad news is they took apart my dash during their search and now it squeaks like crazy. Looks like another trip back to the dealer.

[notme]

Bad news is they said they could not "replicate" the problem. My "object" is minor so I will forget it and not tear apart my car looking for it. Funny that this has happened to so many people.