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Engine Rattle On Warm Start Up


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Hi, does anyone know what might be causing my engine to make a rattle sound occasionally for about half a second when I first start the engine after its been driven previously and is still warm.

The car is a 2008 IS250 with 51K, the rattle seams to be happening more often recently and only on start up, the rest of the time its a smooth as normal.

Luckily the car is booked in for its annual service with Lexus next week.

Thanks.

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If it's like the one in this video,then it's probably a faulty VVTI mechanism.

It's a known problem with the IS250. On the US model, at least, there was a dealer technical bulletin about it, authorising a repair under warranty. Point it out when you go for your next service. If you can, take a recording of it with your phone before hand.

In reality, the only side of effect of the malfunction is a rattle at start up,due to oil draining out of the timing adjuster. Once the engine starts the oil refills the timing adjuster and the car operates normally. There is no harm or excess wear from the rattle.

Mine does this from time to time too but is well out of warranty, and this is a very expensive repair. But I've noticed that it does it much more frequently if the oil level is below the mid-point on the dipstick. Topping up the oil to the maximum line effectively cured it.

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Mine does that too occasionally but ChumpusRex is right, I haven't had it happen if the oil level is full.

I had it inspected by the dealer and was going to take it up with Lexus UK but then decided not to as the 'fix' requires taking the engine apart and I don't think that is a good idea even if the dealer is doing it.

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The noise I believe happens when the VVTi cam adjusters aren't aligned correctly, and combined with no oil at start up, it can seem quite bad. The noise, I was told, happened when metal hit metal....and can cause premature wear of the adjusters. It's not unique to Lexus - our 1.4 TSi Golf did it too, and so did our Mini One.

The golf had the entire top end rebuilt, and (a new timining chain) - the VW dealers mentioned that it must be fixed right away, but Mini said it wasn't worth it! SO it all depends on how pinkity you are!

Some IS250 owners have had to have it fixed - there was a thread running on it a few years ago. So the jury is out on how serious it is.

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I had this issue about 4 years ago when my IS250 was still under warranty and had 60k miles on the clock. i had the TSIB performed under warranty and the noise has never been heard since and since then i've done over and additional 80k miles. My dealers had the car for almost two weeks to perform the repair which i believe involved a top-level engine re-build.

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I get this very often when the oil is getting old. It only happens when the engine is hot. The issue always disappears after an oil change and returns after about 5000 miles so I take it as a cue to change the oil.

I decided against the Lexus TSB as the work was so complex it wasn't worth the risk compared to a bit extra on oil.

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  • 9 years later...

I have a 2007 IS250 it has 160,000 miles on it. I've had that rattle as well at startup usually near oil change time. But now at a loud noise that increases in volume when I take off the oil cap. It's like the noise a smog pump makes when it needs replacement. But I'm sure that that's not the issue here. It's like a metal whisk in a metal bowl. It's increased in volume over the past week and so I stop driving it. Again it gets much louder when I take off the oil cap. I don't know a ton about cars  but I can figure this can't be a good sound. Anyone know what this might be? And can I drive it?

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