Noise During Low Speed Acceleration

drifter · February 10, 2004

03 ES300 owners! Listen to your car! Drive the car for 10 minutes to allow it to warm up. Find a quiet location where you can drive next to curbing, or a wall, a metal crash barrier, or almost anything that a sound coming from the car can echo off of. Now open all windows so you can hear the noise coming from outside. Accelerate from a stop slowly but firmly and continue accelerating up through 40mph. As soon as the car starts moving, you should hear a clicking/rattling sound coming from outside the vehicle. It will continue throughout the acceleration until the wind noise drowns it out. Now that you've heard the noise, can anyone tell me what's causing it? Has anyone gotten a fix from Lexus yet? What was the fix? Oh yes, I also have the famous chronic tranny hesitation problem also! Anyone have a fix for that yet?

:angry: :angry: :angry:

steviej · February 10, 2004

There is a software upgrade (if you can call it that) for the tranny. Read the pinned post at the top of this forum.

As for the noise/rattle. There is a TSB about heat shield rattles. If may be one of yours is a little loose. Have the dealer look at it.

I have an 02 (same thing) and have never had this kind of noise.

go to www.alldata.com to get a print out of TSBs (technical service bulletins).

steviej

SW03ES · February 10, 2004

It definately sounds like a heat shield rattle, its a simple 5 minuite installation of a clamp.

drifter · February 11, 2004

Back to steviej and SW03ES....thanks...I guess my service department isn't on the list for fixes. It amazes me that I have to tell them what to look at to fix the noise. Yeah, they installed the TSB tranny upgrade and it did nothing. Thanks again! If I get it fixed I'll let you know.

SW03ES · February 11, 2004

Well, any mechanic would look at the heat shield when told about a noise like that...

If I were you I'd find another dealer and subscribe to www.alldata.com so that you can view the TSBs yourself. This lets you stay on top of all the latest info and you can instruct the dealer.