for a while now, my drivers seat has a constant squeaking noise coming from my rear left back (where my rear left back meats the seat...approx where the kidneys are). I have taken this to the dealer 3-4 times to have sorted along with the front passenger speaker on the door sounds like its "popped". to date it hasnt been sorted. these 2 things do annoy me alot. and the other day I took my is250 down the motorway to london 2 weeks ago and noticed the front passenger side air vent rattling. when held, the rattle stopped. I rang in to my local Lexus dealer, Lexus Coventry, to book it in for the 5th time and was due to take it in on Friday. I sent a letter via email to the coventry/cheltenham principal expressing my dissapointment and in blantant words he said "we have done what we can, and we dont want to have a look at your car anymore, so we will be cancelling the appointment on friday. you will not be supplied with a courtesy car. take it to another dealer or where you bought it from". that was the main jist of it. i still cant believe it. this is totally disgusting and appalling! on all the times i have taken the car back from them, they have said all issues have been fixed. I asked in the letter, if you can't fix it, why cant u order a new part for it, to which he replied "we cant order parts which are not deemed as a modified part". but, when it went in the first time, the service guy there said, "if the speaker problem persists, i'll order a new one". but till today, he hasn't. and i asked him (dealer principal, tim huxley) why he was cancelling the appointment and that if they couldn't get the job done, why wasnt i told so when i booked the latest appointment 2 weeks ago, he said "because they've done what they can and this is the first time he's been made aware of the issue". even this is a total lie because i personally spoke to him the last time it went in!!! ARGHH!!!

i want to take it to another dealer, wolverhampton, leicester, birmingham...anyone have any suggestions on the above (i have emailed lexusgb customer relations) and also on the 3 dealers i mentioned?

i had the same problem with the seat, had a new seat fitted around 4 months ago and problem sorted

Squeaks, rattles from an IS 250 I thought they were a super machine, no problems
The problem you have brings to my mind what I consider to be Lexus's biggest failing Their lack of accessible dealers. If you have problems with your dealer it is a pain changing because it is so far to the next one. So you are inclined to give extra chances or put up with poor treatment because it is too much bother to change.
We only have two Lexus dealerships here in Dublin city, over an hour apart, god knows what it is like in the country where you could have to travel up to 100 miles to the nearest dealership.
Sometimes exclusivity is a pain in the rear.

the principal also said its his right not to look at the car is that right?

I would have thought that any dealer plainly saying "NO", especially when the car is under warranty, is in breach of some certain rules somewhere along the line. I don't think Trading standards would look at it kindly...Afterall, they must get paid to fix cars under a warranty by LGB, so I can't see their problem (unless it's become personal ot there is a mod on the car that is now invalidating your warranty for a given component....).

What I would suggest is that you call Leicester 0116 2688500 and speak directly to the Service manager. They are actually quite good. Even with all the issues on my car, they always treat me with utter respect and are very friendly and helpful...

Leave your car there go and go take a walk down Belgrave Road - have some nice Chilly Chips at a shop there...

my car is not modified at all. the only thing modified is the 18" wheels i purchased from them. i have written to lbg, steve settle, alex kirky and gill want. steve settle has said gill want will be dealing with it. i have contacted the after sales manager, tom at newcastle where i purchased the car and have got him involved now too. will see what the reply from lbg is and then book it into leicester. once i get the reply, depending what it says, i will go to trading standards and bbs motoring advice and autoexpress to get bad publicity to them where needed and maybe get a resolution that way.

the last reply i got from lexus coventry principal tim huxley is:

I presume you bought the car from these people. If so and if the laws in the UK are the same as the ones here, and they normally are, because history being what it is most of our laws were written in Westminister, and you have something like our sale of goods act. Then he is talking complete bs. However I have had a similar experience regarding my boot ( different thread) and I am finding that while not exactly being told to f*** off as you are nicely being told to do so. I am being put on the longest finger they have, presumably in the hope that I will sell the car before they have to fix it again. Following your experience however I am going to make a point of contacting the dealer today about my problem and if I don't receive some kind of satisfaction I intent to discuss the matter with a legal person. I suggest you do the same.
How Lexus can look at letters like this and not intervene beggars belief, so much for customer relations.
IN PURSUIT OF PERFECTION

no i bought the car from lexus newcastle. i'm in coventry, and deal with lexus coventry which is who this letter is from. they were happy enough for take 1000 pounds of me for the wheels i bought of them, but this they say no.

jamboo..u know the service managers name? booked it in for wednesday just for a drive with one of the techs, then they said they would re-book with courtesy car to do the actual job. spoke to someone called emma i think today?

Emma works in the Service Reception - you want Martin Moore

Sounds like you have upset somebody at Lexus Coventry

Maybe it was this:

i got that letter before i posted that comment :|

need to find out if there is some sort of UK law which states that...or even Lexus terms/conditions when u purchase a car.

I think the problem here is that the dealership don't want to expend lots of labour hours (most of which they won't get back, unless they find a specific warranty issue) stripping out the dash etc, chasing rattles that they may never cure. They probably feel why should they as you didn't buy the car from them and they feel no loyalty towards you. This is a bad way to handle the situation but I see where they are coming from.
However, there are certain known issue regarding rattles and there are quick and easy fixes - I'm talking about seat rattles that are fixed by removal of a couple of little lugs, the centre dash rattle, which just requires a small amount of packing etc. These are fixes known about and authorised by Lexus and and good dealership should know about them. I had a slight rattle from my passenger side airvent that was cured by the insertion of a small amount of foam between the A pillar and the dash and then tucked out of sight.
I'd get onto Lexus Customer Relations and let them put pressure on the dealership to apply all known Service Bulletin fixes.

the front passenger air vent rattle..was it the actual air vent? as in normal city driving i dont hear it. just when i drove on the motorway to london at 70mph or more it could be heard all the time there and back. and when i got my wife to hold it/press it, it stopped??

i understand where you are coming from about loyalty etc, but i still dont think it is right. If you purchase a lexus from london and move to aberdeen, you wouldnt expect to travel all the way to london to get it fixed. its still a lexus, and any warranty issues should be handled by any lexus dealer. i did also purchase my first lexus, a is200se from lexus coventry, have had all my services from them, bought any accesories from them (18" wheels, mudflaps, spoilers, tyres etc etc) too. so its not like i'm just using them for free warranty work. and also there is always the idea if a dealer does treat you right, you give them more business either via yourself or word of mouth which applies to any business/trade.

anyone else got any experiences at lex wolverhampton/birmingham?

Imagine how they would feel if you got it sorted at Cheltenham!

I've used Wolverhampton for service and warranty almost exclusively after having problems at Worcester, and without exception have found them excellent and competitievely priced for servicing

I used to work in Coventry & had "my" 200SE serviced by them for 100000 miles until I retired in 2003.Since then I have purchased 3 new cars from them But have received truley excellent service back-up from Lexus Nottingham & ,latterly, Derby who are now my preferred Dealer underlining Chandru's point about service beyond the purchase Dealer.
Tel

This is worrying me as to whether there is any connection between service complaints at Coventry and Worcester closing.

It wouldn't suprise me if there was. Run by same people i believe

still waiting on a reply from lexus gb to see what they say. Think will wait tryin out another dealer till i get a reply. Anyone know which group runs leicester and wolverhampton?

leicester is sytner and birmingham and milton keynes.

and Bristol, and Oxford and Cardiff !!


http://www.sytnerlexus.co.uk/default.aspx?...Car=&gclid=



Woverhampton is Charles Clark.

still no reply from lex gb. On another note am going to test drive the new jag xf tomorrow.

still not a very good response from Coventry or GB. here are all emails...tell me what you think.

sent on 19th of march by Lexus coventry dealer principal, tim huxley (1st reply):


sent on 19th of march by Lexus coventry dealer principal, tim huxley (2nd reply):


sent on 19th of march by Lexus coventry dealer principal, tim huxley (3rd reply):



sent by lexus GB on 4th april to the email I sent on 19th march (1st reply):


look alot like tim's?? called her after that. and this is reply I have now:


so...?? any ideas?
i have sent a email back again..and maybe should speak to this regional manager myself? i think this is a pure joke.

So what again are the problems you still have with the car?

still the same ones:

1 - air vent rattle front left
2 - speaker sounds like its popped
3 - seat belt tensioner drivers side rattle
4 - drivers seat squeaks alot- where drivers back touches seat (not base of seat)


new ones:
1 - gear box seems to vibrate alot now to the extent it makes noise (mainly in 6th gear)
2 - the sat nav seems to wonder off its current position (just for the initial 2 minutes tho?)

Certainly 1, 3 and 4 are known problems. Do you mean the speaker has blown? Is it manual or auto? Not heard of gearbox rattle and sat nav shouldn't wonder if it's set on a satellite or two, is it from just one place or wherever you start from? Have you had wheels off as there is a reset in the hidden menu for when you remove a wheel.

Can you demonstrate these ar will? Have you to Lexus Coventry? If so I can't see why there is a problem.

If you can demonstrate them it seems like you may need to bite the bullet and take it to Brum. then post the results. This may make Coventry look a bit silly.

it sounds like its blown. but its been like that for ages and its not continuosly there. was there alot of the time, nearly 95%, then they changed the door guard/handle and its reduced now. but still pops up now and again. so sounds like something is vibrating in there or something. coz thats what they said when they looked at it, and said the door guard was vibrating causing it. (which brings me to my other point, in them saying there is nothing wrong with it, if there wasnt why did they change the guard. it obviously has partly solved the issue, but not fully). and its not my cds or anything, coz it comes up with the radio too.

its manual. the gearbox thing just started few days ago.

the satnav..wherever i start the car off from. so not just one place. i have had my wheels changed from 17" oem to the 18" hoshi wheels. i've done the tyre alignment thing in the "menu" part of the display and also have corrected the position of the car several times on the orther option there for alignment, but it still is wrong whever i initially start the car. and this wasnt always the case. just recently. didnt know there was something else in the hidden menu?

have demonstrated the seats and speakers to lexus coventry. havent had a chance to demonstrate the others because they wont take the car in now. and about demonstrating the speakers to lexus birmingham, it will be a problem because its not always there?!?

thats what i'm planning on doing too regarding birmingham. and also maybe autoexpress/trading standards/LFS/FSA.

recorded the sound my seat makes. have a listen..just in plain .wav format. let me know what you guys think. normal or not?

That's not the normal noise. Sounds like you are forcing it.

forcing what? if i move back or away from the seat thats what it makes

The "normal" noise just happens when you are driving, you are just sat there driving and it squeaks. Sounds like you will be able to demonstrate your noise fairly easily to Lexus Birmingham.

thought u meant i was doing something wrong. i think i know the noise you are on about..that happened when i was like turning round corners etc n lexus coventry removed the 2 bolts under the seats which stopped it. this just happens whenever i move in my seat i.e. get in car, get out of car, accelerate, brake, go over speed bumps etc etc. have demo'd it to cov so dont know why they cant sort it.

anymore comments? 21 have downloaded but only steve has replied

I have listened to the noise - does the seat make that very noise when you are driving? I cannot hear the other car sounds, like engine. I am sure I could get my IS250 seat to do the same, but as its creaks are not noticeable when I am driving, I have not bothered with having it looked at.

You have showed us the letters from Lex to you, can you show us the letters from you to them? I am not a fan of any dealers, but their letters seem very professional and reasonable, especially those from lex-gb. What I mean is that the dealer who says not to call in sounds like he does not believe there is an addressable complaint. Also if you asked them to look at two items, and then added another two to the list, maybe they think they are dealing with someone who id simply not happy and will not be satisfied whetever they do with the car.

The law on all of this is very clear however. As good as lexus cars are, there is no legal obligation for lexus to supply a car that is "perfect" in all respects. If your car had a fault that rendered it unuseable, or a defect that materially rendered it of less than "merchantable quality", then fair enough. What makes Lexus dealers good is that most of them try and solve the kinds of problems that Mercedes and BMW suffer more of, but fail to address at all. This board is full of stories about owners who have had all kinds of things replaced and repaired, often as no more than a goodwill gesture. If i were you I would take up the offer to have the car looked at again by another dealer, but be prepared, if they find nothing, to accept that wear and tear has set in. I am sorry if I sound unsympathetic, but this is only because I think I have read one side of the story only.

[
still the same ones:

1 - air vent rattle front left
2 - speaker sounds like its popped
3 - seat belt tensioner drivers side rattle
4 - drivers seat squeaks alot- where drivers back touches seat (not base of seat)


new ones:
1 - gear box seems to vibrate alot now to the extent it makes noise (mainly in 6th gear)
2 - the sat nav seems to wonder off its current position (just for the initial 2 minutes tho?)
[/quote]
hi mate i have the same car as yours even the same colour lol. i have some of the same problem. had the speakers replace for the second time. had the driver seat sorted the squeaks stop then the seat start to have a bum inprint in it so had it replace. had the seat belt problem and its was sorted. i think u should try another dealer who dont have a problem with you. good luck

that noise is not made via me forcing anything. as soon as i get in the car and sit that noise is made, when accelerating its made, when braking its made and when i move its made. so i dont think if you had it, you would accept it as "normal" and you would surely claim "it shouldnt be that way". if it is. everyother IS250 SE-l manual should do the same. and surely that isnt wear n tear on a car 1yr old, with 6k miles.
and for a principal to cancel a call-in 2 days before its due i think is totally un-professional. which is why i think he has taken this personally. If he believed there was nothing they could do, surely the service manager who had already seen the car on a previous visit, should have explained the same when i re-booked it, and not agreed to look at the problems that were demonstrated to him.
re. my letters to them, i will post it once lexus birmingham has dealt with the situation fully.



i have..lexus birmingham have agreed to the problems and are dealing with it. so theres a result on their side. the guy there, david the service manager is brilliant. he himself took the car for a drive withme on motorway, a n b roads, city roads for nearly half an hour or more. he is even replacing the driver seat cover and acknowledged the squeak problem and satnav system. he wants me to keep a few notes in terms of the air vent i.e. outside temp, ac settings, gears, speed, roads..so its good so far.

This seems like a goof result - well done!!!! Its a pity that the service manager did not afford yiu tha servive in the last ce in the last garage

It seems wge u visit lxm yiu can have a giid day or a bad day].

I am glad to see that the work is done, Poor marks for the dealership wht wanted you to g on a tour of UK

could u just rewrite what u meant in the 1st quote?

well..been a while since Lex Birmingham have taken my car in to look at various rattles/squakes.

Sat-Nav-they couldnt find a problem, but when they take it in again, will put 17" OEMs on it to see if I experience the same problems, if I do, then they say sat-nav is fauilty. (I have upgraded to the 18" hoshis). problem is when i start the car for initial minute or two, it mis-displays itself and also when i park up using the reverse gear and then 1st gear, it does same again.

seat - service manager has "ordered" a new drivers seat

R.V mirror rattle - new one put in, this one vibrates though, so will get them to look at it.

Gear box rattle/vibration - added padding to stop it

seat belt tensioner passenger n driver- fixed

When I went to collect my car a month ago, the service girl said the new seat cover had been fixed including the seat squeak, but when I got into the car, the seat looked exactly the same with all the creases and squeaks still there. She was adamant it had been replaced. I then spoke to someone her senior who was also adamant it had been replaced and even said "I can show you your old cover", at which point the service manager came to see me and explained that he had ordered a whole new seat to sort out the various problems I had with it, which was awaiting authorisation and once that had been done he would fiit it. Was quite unhappy that I was told by two service staff something completely different, I should have taken up that lady's offer of seeing my old seat cover. lol. Glad though that I know now atleast what the situation is. I also noticed my front right alloy wheel had been damaged, looked like a chunk of the metal had been taken off. It didnt look like a kerb though, looked like some tool had caught it or something. The service manager again has agreed replace it at same time as the seat.

So unlike Coventry, they have acknowledged a few problems and tried to fix it, and will raise these issues with Birmingham again on the next visit. I have also rang Lex GB regarding this, and the £50 they promised me if another dealer acknowledged the problems I pointed out that LExus Coventry said didnt exist, and have since recieved it. Obviously it doesnt cover the inconvenience etc etc, but was just a point I wanted to make to Lex GB as they were so adamant there was nothing wrong.

The only other thing is the front speaker on passenger door, which is proving very hard to demonstrate. anyone know how much they cost?

Hopefully on the next visit, Lexus Birmingham can sort out the remaining issues.

Mine has just been in for this - just on the passenger side though.

Rattle has not been fixed - just a grubby mark on the panel left by a careless mechanic. Great result - NOT.

is one thing that annoys me. dont they have a checking system? someone that cheks the work is done and also the quality of it?

Yep. The rattle is very noticeable as well. I'm waiting til it's service now - I just can't be mythered taking it in again.

I love the latest Lexus Mag. It goes on about how they make sure no car is built with a known problem!! It's hilarious!

I'd heard in Jan 06, before I ordered mine that the early cars had rattles. I asked my dealer to make sure that mine was built with any bfixes applied on the production line...an assurance was given by the dealership, but guess what?...even now, after 2.5 years and 8 remedial visits it still rattles, quite badly in the heat!! It won't be a problem later this week after it's gone, but boy it's been a rattly old car!

All that stuff about 2 visits and then "Lex Tech get involved" never happened...

It'll need someone with much more patience than me to get it sorted out properly. I've decided to chuck in the provrbial towel.

Mine is an early car- Oct 06... 30k miles and no rattles.

The only troublesome thing is the Adaptive Cruise, which is a bit nervous. They have promised me a new radar which will hopefully fix it.

ya it is worse in the heat..much worse. heard a very loud rattle yesterday around the gearbox..not the leather gaitor but the black plastic/rubber panel that surrounds it (where the gear numbers are stuck on in silver)..