Are My Rattles The Rattles

[Steve-L]

3 weeks into ownership and after reading many of the threads on here about the dreaded rattles I am wondering if what I am hearing are these rattles.

Its hard to describe but a snippet of conversation with my wife goes like this.

Dashboard Rattle when driving over bumps

Me "There it is did you here it ? "

Wife "No"

Me "Listen.. did you here that ?"

Wife "Okay I did here a slight creaking noise but its not exactly loud"

Me "Yeah but it is a rattle"

Wife "Well I guess so but if you can only just about hear it , only when you drive over bumps, only when we are not talking and deliberatley listening out for it I would not call it a major issue".

From what I have read on here it seems these rattles/creaks are a lot louder than mine so I am thinking it may be hard for me to get Lexus to sort these under warranty.

[iandlm]

It doesn't sound like the same issue I had. My rattle came from above the central instrument panel and appeared to be somewhere in the bit where the front speaker would go in the dash, if you had one (there is a plastic grill covering it). To describe the sound, well I think the closest I can get is is like the tapping that the old morse code machines used to make, but speeded up a bit.

This noise didn't just happen going over bumps, it was constant during the drive on the A21 (a smoothish road) when I was driving back home after pickingthe car up. I could even hear it over the stereo!

Incidentally, I also get a slight creak which comes from the gearstick where the leather cover meets the plastic housing. This creaks more when I keep my hand on the gearstick (bad driving, I know) so I'm trying to ween myself off of that habit.

Hope this helps a bit in locating your "background" noises!

[GaryC]

Steve,

Get the car booked into Lexus and get a tech to drive out with you while you demonstrate the rattles. Have a look at my threads on rattles - I've had a whole host of them and the worst one is the central dash area rattle when going over bumps. They drive you mad !!!

Get them to line the dash console with felt - that should cure it.

I've just had my car in today to get the last rattle/creak fixed - it's a noise near my right near (near seatbelt housing) when going over bumps.

The tech who I drove with acknowledged the sound and said it can be fixed so it's booked in in a few weeks.

One very annoying rattle that occured near the centre armrest and lasted months was fixed by pure accident on Saturday.

I tried everything to locate it to no avail but the source of the rattle was bizarre !

My missus pressed the CD eject button by mistake and I had to take all CDs out to get the right one out. I just left them out til I got home and guess what - the rattle is no more !

So basically felt pads around the centre consoles should cure most rattle. Lexus will do this under warrranty.

Hope this helps !

Gary

[kenfoxy]

Yes, insist that Lexus fix it. It's not your fault it rattles.

My son has a Mazda 3 which had a rattle from the passenger door. In the end it was the inside surface of the door rubbing against the surface of the door seal. I found it by noticing that the sound wasn't a metal to metal type rattle but a multiple creak which sounded like a rattle. As my son drove very slowly, I opened the door a fraction and the sound went away. It's not the sort of thing which can be diagnosed by the driver. Your passenger needs to get down to the sound and concentrate.

Fixed by smearing cold candle wax on to the relevant surfaces. But I suppose there are many lubricating things that would do the same job. Probably caused by plastics and rubbers becoming brittle especially when cold.

Best of luck.

[Steve-L]

Thanks for the advice guy's.