Wow, Rx 400h Bestowed Upon By "the Rattles"

[JimsGX]

well I'll post my thoughts. This freaking thing is a rattle trap, honest to god, it rattles more than my wifes(now mine) Jeep Wrangler.

1st, I got a sound like beebies or something rattling at drivers ear level. Sounds like maybe the seatbelt height adjuster or something. Only when I drive over serious bumps like brick roads that we have a fair amount of in Florida here.

2nd, something from the back of the car. The privacy screen was making noise, like the fabric is just rubbing together or something. I had it in the back fully extended but with those clips that touch the tail gate pushed back so there should be no noise. Then I tried it with the screen not fully extended. It was about the same. Now I have it laying in the back of the trunk, its almost just as bad. Service tech said, thats just the way they are. Are you kidding me??

oh and its gets better. The roof rack rattles and they tell me its designed like that. No joke, it really is, go touch your cross slats, you will notice once side is kinda loose, thats the spring mounted easy one handed movement design. apparently, there is no noise if you load the rack up. So I just have to listen to a metallic noice from the roof rack every time I drive.

Honestly, the best part about this car at this point is the RES and they didn't make the volume loud enough so I can barely hear the damn thing.

Sorry to vent, but I'm pretty frustrated, I can't even use most of the phones with the blue tooth as most have next to no functionality.

I would have to agree. After 3 short weeks of ownership, I've been back to the dealer three times to fix 6 different rattles / squeaks... On the last visit, the tech tried to convince me that some rattles were "normal"! I had to contain myself. I was ready to flatten him! There's no way a car in this price category in its 5th or 6th year of production should have these kind of quality issues. I've had two in the engine compartment, one in the drivers side door, one in the dashboard (they took out the dashboard when the car was only two days old), one in the rear seats, and one in the cargo area. I'm still chasing a couple too... One more in the rear, and one in the front passenger area. oh, and while driving along, the left bottom console panel that houses the outside mirror, gas door, rear door controls, etc, actually fell down.

I'm vacationing in Florida at the moment and I'm driving a Pontiac Grand Am rental car. it has an ugly as sin interior, but it doesn't have a single rattle or squeak... This is pitiful. Is Lexus losing its edge? I'm in a 3 year lease on this puppy. I'll be taking a much harder look at the competition in 2 years 11 months and 5 days if things continue in this direction...

Jim

[Jim Nazium]

HEEEEEEEEEEERE comes the shaft. I knew it was too good to be true. Apparently, the 2006 RX400H never came with the wood interior option. My May 06 production model did, in the USA. As well, Lexus USA has confirmed this. Lexus dealer here in Canada has informed me I'm SOL. Great, just great. Also, they failed to find the rattle coming from the rear cargo area. Peachy. I'm trying to entice them by getting them to quote me for a 4 wheel alignment. Give and go I guess...

MadloR

[Robl45]

did you ever get this drivers door vibration fixed? I have a vibration from the divers door that happens alot when driving down the road. Seems like its from the door or the left cupholder area. I drove with the tech for an hour and of course could not duplicate it.

Well, it has been one month of ownership and I guess the Lexus brand is not exempt from the dreaded Rattle Bug.

I'm getting a few so far. The first one is in the front DASH. Here is a link talking about the repair procedure.

2004 –2006 LEXUS RX 330, 2006 RX 400h, & 2007 RX 350; INSTRUMENT PANEL RATTLE

I'm still not completely satisfied. I occassionally hear a vibration coming from the drivers door that I haven't taken the time to isolate yet. At times, I also hear other noises coming from the rear. They're more subdued though, and are going to be more difficult to isolate. The noises aren't "Lexus Like" though.

I

[RXREY]

I found all of the little annoying rattles. I don't like having a dealer or anyone besides me take care of such things unless it proved to be something too difficult to get to such as in the dash. I never had anything in the dash so my little rattles were: The flap on the rear seats.....I put padding in between the flaps and the seats...fixed. 2. the rear rattle..the first one...the little locks for the privacy screen needed to be pushed in and I also added felt to the ends just in case...fixed....3. the height adjusters on either side of the front seats. I got rubber pads, (they have a peel back adhesive side and look like rubber dimes), from a hardware store and shoved them in between all contact points in the slider and the slider handle...fixed...that one was annoying because it was right at my ear so even the tiny rattle was heard....fixed. 4. The hatch, the second rear rattle... ...by the area that has the felt material meeting the metal, facing you when the hatch is open...I placed the same types of rubber,sticky on one side...pads, four of them, running in between the fabric area and the metal...by the pull down handle...fixed. My car feels really solid...no squeaks at all..oh, and conditioning the leather seats all around took care of the annoying rubbing sounds...which is the case for all leather interior cars...I really don't like leather seats...anyway, that's it for me, hope this helps. I too was very surprised at the rattles but I took care of each one myself and it was fun for me actually. I've never had a luxury car before so rattles was just the way things have been all of my life.....heck, I wish that was all that I had to worry about with other cars! But with this car, the rattles stood out as not being right so I really wanted to find and kill the squeaks and rattles...and I did! Happy trails and be grateful that you can actually have such a nice car. Rey

[Robl45]

3. the height adjusters on either side of the front seats. I got rubber pads, (they have a peel back adhesive side and look like rubber dimes), from a hardware store and shoved them in between all contact points in the slider and the slider handle...fixed...that one was annoying because it was right at my ear so even the tiny rattle was heard....fixed.

do you mean the seatbelt height adjusters? I believe I have heard a noise from their too when driving. I'm not sure what you mean by the contact points?

[RXREY]

3. the height adjusters on either side of the front seats. I got rubber pads, (they have a peel back adhesive side and look like rubber dimes), from a hardware store and shoved them in between all contact points in the slider and the slider handle...fixed...that one was annoying because it was right at my ear so even the tiny rattle was heard....fixed.

do you mean the seatbelt height adjusters? I believe I have heard a noise from their too when driving. I'm not sure what you mean by the contact points?

Yes, the height adjusters...the contact points are anything where separate pieces touch one another. In my case, since I don't adjust the seat belt height, I put the buffers in between the slider and anything it touched. Also the space in between the plastic slider mechanism and the shaft that it slides against. Basically get the little rubber,dime sized, adhesive on one side deeliebobs and put them anywhere things touch against one another! It'll make your day and you'll smile at strangers afterward. rattle free in L.A., Rey Bustos

[Robl45]

but did you take the panels off? I don't understand how you are getting the thngs in the way you are saying. Its just a plastic piece inside a panel that moves up and down.

3. the height adjusters on either side of the front seats. I got rubber pads, (they have a peel back adhesive side and look like rubber dimes), from a hardware store and shoved them in between all contact points in the slider and the slider handle...fixed...that one was annoying because it was right at my ear so even the tiny rattle was heard....fixed.

do you mean the seatbelt height adjusters? I believe I have heard a noise from their too when driving. I'm not sure what you mean by the contact points?

Yes, the height adjusters...the contact points are anything where separate pieces touch one another. In my case, since I don't adjust the seat belt height, I put the buffers in between the slider and anything it touched. Also the space in between the plastic slider mechanism and the shaft that it slides against. Basically get the little rubber,dime sized, adhesive on one side deeliebobs and put them anywhere things touch against one another! It'll make your day and you'll smile at strangers afterward. rattle free in L.A., Rey Bustos

[RXREY]

but did you take the panels off? I don't understand how you are getting the thngs in the way you are saying. Its just a plastic piece inside a panel that moves up and down.

3. the height adjusters on either side of the front seats. I got rubber pads, (they have a peel back adhesive side and look like rubber dimes), from a hardware store and shoved them in between all contact points in the slider and the slider handle...fixed...that one was annoying because it was right at my ear so even the tiny rattle was heard....fixed.

do you mean the seatbelt height adjusters? I believe I have heard a noise from their too when driving. I'm not sure what you mean by the contact points?

Yes, the height adjusters...the contact points are anything where separate pieces touch one another. In my case, since I don't adjust the seat belt height, I put the buffers in between the slider and anything it touched. Also the space in between the plastic slider mechanism and the shaft that it slides against. Basically get the little rubber,dime sized, adhesive on one side deeliebobs and put them anywhere things touch against one another! It'll make your day and you'll smile at strangers afterward. rattle free in L.A., Rey Bustos

The little plastic spacers that I am talking about are almost exactly like dimes so they are thin and have a peel back adhesive side, you simply pushed them in between the moving pieces. It's easy. You'll see what I mean if you look at that slider area. The way I found that rattle is that as I drove, I pushed on the height adjuster and there was no sound...so I figured that it was vibrating against each other, the slide handle and the track it is in. It's really not complicated....

[RXREY]

I am rattle free as all of you know. I found all of the various rattles, squeaks, etc. that I heard the first few weeks of owning my 2006 400h. They were all silly things that shouldn't have happened with a Lexus but they were all benign. For example,leather seated cars have always been prone to squeaks, etc. The lock tabs that hold the privacy screen in the cargo area need to be pushed up when the screen isn't being used. The seat belt adjuster,slide needed a gasket to buffer it from moving against itself. The newest one that I finally found was my sun roof! All of a sudden there was a squeak and I couldn't tell where it was coming from. I was frustrated since my car had been silent for so long. I found it! It was at the front edge, insulation rubber strip, front part of the sunroof. I simply retracted it back a little to be able to get to the front of it, the part that fits snugly with the car roof... put a little Vaseline on the front of that strip and voila! Silent. It must have dried a little from time and it needed a little lube. There, that's it. Rey