To the ingeniously helpful folks of this forum :-)

I've an 04 IS200 SE. Straight line braking is fine - no noises. Approach a corner and brake is also ok. During normal driving, if brakes are on when I turn the wheel then there are two clunks coming from front of car (presumably a suspension component). If I don't brake during cornering, no clunks are heard. If I enter the corner without braking, then even softly apply brakes mid corner the clunks can be heard and are very unnerving!!

The noises don't even need speed! If I pull up home, line up car to reverse car into drive (braking during that line up), the clucks are even more pronounced (possibly no wind to take the majority of sound away). These ones actually sound like it's the front pads.

Add to this that the noises don't begin until the brakes are warmed up, it almost becomes obvious it's a caliper knocking noise I'm hearing.

DJWozza has a guide to service the caliper pins... but on one occasion the clunking has continued repeatedly uring the turn to line up the car for the drive

Any sensible thoughts?

Get someone to check your front bushes , sounds like your lex is in need mate , you can do it yourself but a garage will take the front up all in one go , my guess is those .

Thanks for repy. I've it booked in on Monday to get looked at. Any idea of rough estimate for replacement of front bushes by garage? £50/100/150/200? Or how much time they take?

BTW, there is only 40k on the odo!

I haven't a clue about the dough mate but as for the mileage what you have to think about is the time its spent in weather not mileage , these things are rubber and will perish over time , there is always the alternative , let them check em to make sure and then do the bushes yourself , its not hard at all .
Paul.

I have serviced the calipers and new mintex pads all round recently and yesterday the clunk returned.
I would say it is the pads moving in the calipers, or ball joints, but moreso pads moving.

I think it's just the pads re-locating themselves into their caliper slots because when you turn in under braking there are frictional forces acting on the pads and discs that slightly upset the pads original locating position in the caliper, My Mazda 323F was the same when you brake and steer, new discs and pads may solve the problem but I don't know 100% if it will.

Dont worry to much matey sounds like the pads moving around in your calliper housing.they tend to do it more when your pads get low....just take them out have a look at the spring clips on the pads..sometimes they can break and the pad gets loose ...or if they are ok just apply a bit more copper slip on the back of the pad / shim ..or worse case put some new fresh pads in....

Just heard from the great chaps down at the garage who tell me the ball joints are gone. Good stuff I say - at least they've found a fault. Would have been much worse if they couldn't find anything!!

New ball joints in 40k miles though. Bit surprised at that considering my previous cars had around 50k on them without needing any mechanical attention whatsoever. Must be related to RWD setup...

Can you let me know how much a new one costs as I'm pretty sure I have the same problem sadly an a rough cost will help me budget thanks

No probs! Charged me £155 for supply & fitting ball joints to both front hubs (35 for labour). That was a locally recommended independant garage though, not Lexus dealer price. Wouldn't mind finding out out how much I saved though!!

Only for driving her pretty hard tail end of last week I wouldn't have noticed. Having said that, the mechanic did tell me both ball joints were badly worn, the driver's side more than the other so it does make you wonder what else is 'ready' to break.

Think this is where regular maintenance checks really show their value!

Good luck!

Youd get about 15-20 minutes of labour at a dealer for £35 (around £125/hr) - guessing it took a little longer than that to fix (~ 1 hr?)

have you check the dv joint cause thats one that make noise when you turn--checl

Thats great thanks m8 I better start saving if I keep it

Do you mean cv joint, link005? Anyone any thoughts on this?

Anyway, the noise is still there!! After the ball joints got replaced and I got the steering re-tracked, I've driven a few hundred miles but I'm disappointed there is still a noise.

I've taken it to Lexus Belfast and they had a quick look at it up on the ramp but couldn't find anything obvious. I might go and get OEM front brake pads to see if they have anything to do with it...

Is their not any guide to replacing the ball joints? Ball joints cost £30 each then? Seems a slightly above the norm but guess it is a Lexus.
Got my car in for a service tomoz...£70. However Im providing the Oil, have a K&N filter, spark plugs are fine at the moment and I've also got the oil filter. Seems a fair price though....gonna get them to check the wheel alignment to.

Thinking about it, my makes a clunking sound every now and then....mainly when turning corners....wonder if its picked up on tomoz..

yeah cv joint thats what i mean -not dv joint hehehe

Kazi, there is a fantastic guide here, care of MacRS200 and it's full of lots of great pictures.

most likely swaybar links. I have same symptoms and swaybar links are totally finished.

get them checked.

Mine was doin it but then i had new tyres and everything balanced and its stopped

Happy now tho lol

My mate is a mechanic and he thought it might have been the drop link bushes