2006 Gs450H Hid Bulb & Engine Noise

[SimonG]

Noticed last night that my drivers side headlight is out :(

Assuming (hoping) its just the bulb, so Does anyone know what type of bulb I need to buy - is it a D2R?

On another subject, I've had the car about 3 weeks now and when I fist drove it the engine was very quiet, but now seems quite noisy with tapping noise until the cars warmed up for a good 20 mins - never really goes away but certainly more noticeable when cold.

The trader (not dealer) I bought the car from did an oil change, so could he have used the wrong grade of oil? I'd be surprised if he had, but just wondered what else could cause it?

I've checked with Lexus and my cars not subject to any outstanding recalls, so I don't think it's related to the valve spring issue experienced by some cars.

Many thanks

Simon G

[SimonG]

Hi guys

I eventually managed to remove the suspect bulb from the car.

The sphere in the centre of the bulb wasn't clear but was white so I assumed the bulb was faulty. however, on refitting the bulb it appears to be working ok again. I'll probably replace both bulbs anyway as I'm sure it's not quite right and is likely to fail again.

Incidentally, every search I've done on my car says I need D2R/S bulbs, but the one I removed is a Philips D4S XenEco - I assume I should replace with the same D4S bulb as is already there?

Cheers

Simon G

[simon L]

exactly the same experience

Done a search on my car it says D2R/S and i actually bought the bulb and it doesn't work (it blows within 3 secs)

you would need D4S

cheers

[SimonG]

Does anyone have any thought on the engine noise?

It's now very noticeable on cold start but disappears after about 20 mins or so.

The odd thing is it started doing it all of a sudden, and in hindsight after I'd removed/ refitted all he engine covers to give the engine a good dust with a dustpan brush ........ Could I have disturbed something?

The noise sounds like the tappets and I've topped up the oil with no change.

Cheers

Simon G

[ColinBarber]

the noise could just be the fuel injectors.

[SimonG]

Hi Guys

My car went in for a major service with Lexus a couple of weeks ago and I asked them to check out the engine rattle on start and tapping until warm issues - I took it in the day before the service so they could start from cold.

They said they were unable to find anything obvious, but did say that as the previous owner had changed the oild just before I bought it that they could have used the wrong grade and to see how things went after the service - If the problem persisted they said it could be valve-train related would be expensive to fix.

Anyway, the issue is still there and if anything seems to be getting a little worse now that the weather's cold (Made a horrid rattle the other day when I started it). Lexus have confirmed that the valve spring recall was carried out in 2010 but the symptoms I'm getting sound identical the the original valve spring problem so has anyone heard of this issue coming back on recalled cars?

I've read on some US sites that Lexus extended the engine warranty to 100k miles on cars that were recalled so does anyone know if this is true, and if so was this also the case in the UK?

My car's approaching 99k miles and I have an option of taking out a Lexus extended warranty but to be honest I really can't spare £1k at the moment, but I also don't want to find myself having to pay for an engine rebuild if something breaks as I suspect the cost would be even higher.

Any advice really would be appreciated :)

Cheers

Simon G

[tonyricha]

Hi Simon, I don't thing the noise is related to the valve spring re call, the problem was only a very few valve springs snapped, a spring only works or it doesn't ie snapped.

My 450h has always sounded "raw" on startup and occasionally awful, I have learned to live with and ignore it as it seems no worse at almost 180,000 miles. I did get it checked at about 100,000 but Lexus said all normal/

I have kept mine under the Lexus warranty until next year when it is too old but really have had almost no issues except the usual rear brake calipers.

[SimonG]

Hi Tony :)

Thanks for the reply.

I hope your right, and I do have a but of a reputation for being paranoid over my cars, but what worries me is that the issue started suddenly one day and has done it since. Prior to this you couldn't really hear the engine at all but now when it's under load it sound like I'm driving a sewing machine until warmed up.

If the issue had increased gradually then I'd probably be less worried, but to my way of thinking if an engine is quiet one day and noisy the next then something must have happened. Maybe I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

I did see a new US recall in sept this year on cars with the 3.5 later engine that looked strangely similar to the original recall for the valve springs (see here www.lexus.com/recall/) but the 450h doesn't appear to be affected even though I'd assume the engine is the same.

Cheers

Simon G