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Road Noise In Is250


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One thing that has been mentioned in various posts on this forum is the road noise in the IS250. I took delivery of my IS250 in Dec 05 and found that the road noise was excessive, especially in light of Lexus' claims of class leading refinement. So I decided to report it to the Lexus dealer when it was in to have an airbag warning light diagnosed.

I did a bit of investigation myself first and have listed below the findings I had reported to Lexus service.

. Road noise is intrusive on driver’s side of car. Thought the IS was just poorly insulated from road noise until I rode as a passenger in my car for the first time just recently. Was surprised that road noise was not intrusive when riding as a passenger.

. Occurs on any road with a textured surface, not just coarse chip roads. Worse on coarse chip roads.

. Appears to only be coming from driver’s front wheel direction even though the driver’s head is closer to the rear wheel.

. Noise is over and above normal road texture noise almost if it is being amplified by something on that side.

. Gets louder when you brake, even lightly.

. Found that if you lean over to the passenger’s side of car the road noise is still noticeable from the driver’s side and is not replaced with the same level of noise from the passenger side.

. I got hold of a sound meter and found that the driver’s side is up to 4 decibels noisier than the passenger side of the car in the front. May not sound like much but every 10 decibel increase is double the noise level.

. No noise level difference between passenger and driver’s side of the car in the back seat.

. Registers higher difference as you go measure the noise lower in the car.

When I collected the car in the afternoon the Lexus service centre advised "they all do it". After checking I hadn't accidentally wandered into a Ford or Dawoo service centre by mistake I said "thank you" and left.

I then followed it up with a letter to Lexus head office citing all the Lexus claims of refinement and noise suppression for the IS250 (quite an extensive list). Interestingly, these claims made no mention that they didn't apply to road noise suppression. Lexus head office called a week later and another week after that it was booked in the Lexus service centre to have a look at the problem.

They had it for 3 days and advised the following:-

. confirmed the road noise is louder on the driver's side.

. thought it might have something to do with the brake, accelerator or steering passing though the firewall.

. had replaced the standard Bridgestone RE030 tyres with Pirelli P7s and advised that the road noise was now less.

I have listed the changes noted with the Pirelli tyres.

1. The road noise generated on coarse chip roads appears to be less.

2. Unfortunately the Pirelli's are considerably noisier on smooth road surfaces and whine like a 4wd. This may be why they appear quieter on coarse surfaces as the noise jump from smooth to coarse roads is smaller than the noise jump with the Bridgestones. However the coarse chip road noise may actually be the same as the original Bridgestones. The Bridgstone were quiet on smooth surfaces.

3. The Pirelli's have much stiffer sidewalls resulting in a rougher ride, although letting some air out has reduced this a little.

4. Road noise doesn't increase under braking anymore.

While it was nice of Lexus to replace the tyres they haven't fixed the problem only changed it. I was hoping that they would simply plug the noise path on the driver's side. Also thought it might just be the door seals.

I am also hoping the Pirelli's will quieten down with a little with wear and hope Lexus haven't got rid of my original Bridgestones. Will give them some feedback soon.

ps My car came back from the Lexus service with black marks on the cream leather on both front seats and the centre console (possibly brake dust). I couldn't get it all off and this required a trip to the sales centre for advice on how to get it cleaned off. They managed to get it clean with Metho.

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Hi Crispy.

Have noticed that there seems to be noise travelling through the Gearbox area but not so much the other areas.

As for being a passenger in my own car, hmmmm...

I have Dunlops on mine and they seem to be good for road noise.

Taking it in on Friday for a noise (vibration type) in the driver's side pillar. Also, adjusting the handbrake (on manual model) as doesn't seem to hold on steeper hills and have to really use some musel to get it on far enough.

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I have spoken to my service centre who are very attentive We are going to try some 16 inch wheels on friday to see if that reduced the road noise I did a test drive in a new BMW 320 over the exact same roads What a difference ! Almost no road noise or vibration at all

alan

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  • 6 months later...

When my 250 SE went in for some work to be done I was given 250 SE-L as a loan car. I was surprised by how quiet the car was over my SE model on all surfaces. When I checked the tyres it was running on Dunlops and my car is running on Bridgestones. I am thinking of changing the tyres to the Dunlops as they seem a lot quieter. Has anybody else found this?

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When my 250 SE went in for some work to be done I was given 250 SE-L as a loan car. I was surprised by how quiet the car was over my SE model on all surfaces. When I checked the tyres it was running on Dunlops and my car is running on Bridgestones. I am thinking of changing the tyres to the Dunlops as they seem a lot quieter. Has anybody else found this?

Mine's running on Bridgestones at the mo...I'll let you know the difference in road noise when I fit 19" rims with Toyo R1's :whistling:

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Why are Lexus so bad with road noise? Are roads in Japan so good that they overlook it?

Why would the roads in Japan have anything to do with it? You don't think they design for the home market surely?

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Road noise can be tiring in the new IS. You do get used to it, but as soon as you jump into another make of car, and go back tothe IS, you realise how loud it can be.

I've driven both Bridgestone and the Dunlops in the new IS. IMHO both were similar, and I couldn't tell the difference. Both were as noisy as each other. The Dunlop one was an SE-L and mine has the Bridgestones.

In fact from my experience, even in the GS, whilst not as pronounced as the IS, the road noise is the loudest thing you'll hear at moderate speeds. Overall the GS is much quieter though.

Only the RX was quieter - much quieter from a Road Noise perspective.

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Did a little research and found of various Forums that the Falken Azensis tyres had a reputation for being a quieter performance tyre. Fitted a new set of Falkens and sent Lexus the bill (anything to get rid of those awful Pirellis). Interestingly Lexus paid up without quibble and threw in a set of reversing sensors as an apology. They also promised to retrofit any noise reduction solution if/when it becomes available from Lexus Japan. No word so far but I have their promise in writing (for what that is worth).

The service staff told me that they have had a lot of customer complaints about road noise.

The Falkens are much quieter than the Pirellis and marginally better than the original Bridgestones. They have got a little noisier on smooth surfaces with wear. However, the noise problem is still the car, not the tyres. I noticed the doors have virtually no noise insulation inside so am going to give that a go soon.

The only problem with the Falkens is the have a very stiff sidewall. Great for corners but give a firm ride. You need to run then at lower pressures than the bridgestones. Doesn't seem to affect handling, fuel consumption but probably accelerates wear a little. Fair trade as far as I am concerned. A check of the sidewalls confirmed the lower pressures are not causing the tyre to lean over in corners (not even a little).

Have had a couple of ES300s as loan cars when mine was in for rattle fixes (so many visits I lost count). They have much better road noise suppression but were noisier at highway speed due to increased wind noise. At 100kmph (62.5mph) the IS has virtually nil wind noise in still conditions. As a result any noise induced by a road surface change is more noticeable.

Lexus really need to do some serious work in the noise suppression area. Get to drive a friend's Mazda 6 every couple of months. Here is a car that has a comfortable ride and still handles like it is on rails. Lexus take note. However on the noise front it is a marginally noisier on smooth surfaces but gives the impression as being quieter overall as it has better noise suppression on course road surfaces. Road noise suppression is something most manufacturers have made dramatic increases in lately and Lexus has been caught napping on their laurels.

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