darrude

There is minimum legal clearance between bonnet and hard parts (suspension/engine), for as stated above pedestrian head impact. So basically a car company has to balance out styling / aero / ground clearance and engine height requirements, an easy win of a couple of inches is to have the bonnet pop up. You wouldn't believe how limited space is on some cars, literally Swiss watch engineering...

I wondered why mine didn't pop when I had and accident...

Finally found time to do this... It was annoying me so much I was actually thinking about getting rid of the car. Anyway, took the panel off, covered every edge in felt tape, covered the knee airbag cover fixings in tape to get a good fix, covered some of the redundant electrical connectors, and taped down some of the loose harness. Did the clip as suggested although it already had tape on it ... And this morning.... No annoying rattle. Thanks so much for the help. Now to find the passenger side rattle! Can't believe how truly awful theses cars for rattles, worst car I've ever owned for rattles.

Wow, great detailed replies. Thank you guys. I'll hopefully get chance this week to have a go at fixing this..

I have a really annoying rattle which I think is coming from the drivers side knee roll panel, or knee airbag. I've tried about 5 times to fix it, and spent the last 1000 miles pushing in various places to isolate it. I can stop it by pressing relatively hard pretty much anywhere on the panel, but cannot find the source, or work or how to fix. Anyone else had this, or have any ideas? I've had the panel but nothing obvious. Thoughts and ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks, Daz

50000 miles now, no mechanical issues but quite a few rattles in the cabin.

Never happened on mine at 40 mph, only when the needle was just above 50. Not sure if the same for others, it's a few years ago now, but sounds like it could maybe be something different..

I paid for paint protection when I got mine. Complete RIP off, basically paid £400 to have £10 of paint sealer applied. For that price I could have had a ceramic coating applied at a detailer. Gap insurance, wish I'd gone elsewhere. Dashcam wasn't an option at the time for me, but installed my own, front and rear, there is a guide on here somewhere, cost £120. If you're not comfortable doing it yourself you can always get a quote from a local place. I'd say no to all and see if they lower the price, you can always take it out later, I'm sure they salesman will happily take his commission for add ons even its it's a couple of weeks after the main sale.

Personally I'd go 18s. I think the 17s look a little small for the car. The Lexus owners club UK on Facebook is worth an ask, quite a few on there that are into pimping their cars out.

I use CD mount, only issue is phone blocks the hazard switch.

I nearly bought a set of genuine 17s off Ebay to use for winter tyres, £200, with Bridgestone on. I regret not bagging them. I tend to find if you search collection only there are bargains to be had. But obviously might be an issue for you....

Today I was very glad I did. I think next time a car with no spare wheel option will be a deal breaker for me.

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/viofo-a129-dual-channel-front-and-rear-dash-cam-10180-banggood-3173912 only negative is the cable to the rear cam is really thick and not very flexible

I paid £110 for a viofo unit that got great reviews, very pleased and reasonably stealthy.... Front one just squeezes in next to the rain sensor.

Please do Herbie, I'm just about to switch the 12v battery in our RX so I'll do this at the same time, My wife is only getting mid 20's Mpg from her RX!!

Mine is going in for a 50,000mile service on Friday, I think when I get it back I will check mine out. I've been renovating a house so filled the car multiple times with rubble, plaster board etc, plus 2 kids and a dog so can imagine mine is quite bad. Can't say I've noticed any MPG drop off though. Thank you very much for taking the time to post so a detailed overview.

I changed jobs just before Christmas, 36 Mile, country lanes, then mainly smart motorway and some road work zone. This morning the traffic conditions must have been hybrid ideal as managed to break the 70 mpg barrier, just kept to the same speed as the trucks (even went past a few). Only added 5 mins onto my journey over normal. Normal average speed is around 40mph, today it was 38! Quite impressive for a 2.5l petrol!

Clean the door seals, or add an anti creak tape on the inner seal to stop an annoying rattle that sounds like it is coming from the belt adjuster. Ground clearance is poor, avoid bad roads!

Wow that's bad, could you have maybe partially unclipped something, I can't imagine vibrations have traveled and shaken something lose. There is normally a sealing strip (foam) in that area any way, maybe you could have accidentally pushed this out of position. Can you influence the rattle by holding the dash in that area.

I wanted an reliable, comfortable, efficient, safe motorway car when I got mine, and this ticked all the boxes. I was torn between the IS, a Jag XE and BMW 420d. Reliability was definitely why I went Lexus. My Wife had a Rav4, but after driving mine wanted an automatic and also a petrol so the RX hybrid made sense. I really wish we'd kept the RX400h, I think that was my favourite Lexus. Wasn't thinking rattles at all when buying, to be honest, I'm a bit disappointed in that regards, worst car I've owned for rattles since a Rover 200! Mine is pretty much 100% rattle free now, get yourself some 'anti creek tape' from ebay and stuff it in any panel that rattles. I am exceptionally sensitive to it, at one point I got annoyed with a rattle I couldn't find which turned out to be my new watch (weirdly only rattled on one road in the same spot every time!) From Driving quite a lot of hire car's Golf interiors seem very good. The most annoying rattles on the IS were the door seals (sounded like it was the belt adjuster mech) and the door switch pack trim, if that helps).

All car bodies flex, it the interfaces and material choices that cause BSR (buzz squeak and rattles). I'm guessing that you are like me and quite prone to it. My Is isn't great for this, but I have spent quite a bit of time going round solving the issues and now only on the worst roads do I get any issues on my nearly 5 year old IS. We have had 2 RX's in our houshold, and I'm afraid to say neither have been better than the IS for these issues, however a bit of anti creak tape, cleaning the door seals works wonders. There are still a few outstanding on our RX450h that I have yet to resolve, but only poor road surfaces and certain conditions show any type of rattle now. PS, My Last job was an Interior Design Engineer at Bentley Motors, which is why I'm so tuned in to rattles.

If you do go Criss climates look out for the Michelin offers, we got 4 19" fitted for £530 (or around that) after the cashback offer, £300 on the is!

Cross climates on both my is and wife's RX. Noticeable quieter, good grip. I swore I'd never go all season after a set of hankooks on my last car (which were the highest rated at the time), but these are in a different League, they actually seem more balanced for all season rather than just snow focused. Which seems a perfect fit the UK imo.

Lexus was the oldest in the list, most complicated (only hybrid) and parts more expensive due to the brand / size of car. Don't think you can fault that really.

Not caused any issues on mine, you can always remove. Positioned mine the same.