RX450h Rumbling noise when driving

rayaans · January 10, 2023

So for the past 2-3 weeks Ive started noticing a strange rumbling noise in the RX450h. Its just ticked over 52k miles.

No vibrations or funny noises at idle and no lights on the dashboard.

Seems to be worse at 50-60mph and when letting off the throttle and theres a very faint vibration that can be felt in the carpets. Its doing crap MPG too. Normally at 70mph its doing 30-35mpg, Ive not got any more than 24mpg out of it now!

Any ideas?

Spacewagon52 · January 10, 2023

A trip to the dealer asap would be my advice - drive it as little as possible ib between going. Never read anything like this about an RX.

Are spark plugs due at 50,000 miles? Is it due a service soon?

Hope you can shed some light on the issue.

rayaans · January 10, 2023

1 hour ago, Spacewagon52 said:

A trip to the dealer asap would be my advice - drive it as little as possible ib between going. Never read anything like this about an RX.

Are spark plugs due at 50,000 miles? Is it due a service soon?

Hope you can shed some light on the issue.

It's in for a service and mot now. Passed the MOT no advisories

They're saying the front tyres have worn on the inside. 1.5mm between outside and inside. Tyres were only changed 2000 miles ago and the set that came off were evenly worn all across

They're also suspecting an offside rear wheel bearing.

The advice they've given is change the front tyres, alignment and change wheel bearing and the noise should go.

The Relax apparently doesn't apply because my service was on 5th Jan last year and today its on the 10th 🙄

£1400 down the gutter. Oh well. As long as it fixes the racket I'll be happy.

Bluemarlin · January 10, 2023

14 minutes ago, rayaans said:

The Relax apparently doesn't apply because my service was on 5th Jan last year and today its on the 10th 🙄

That seems a bit harsh

Illogan · January 10, 2023

29 minutes ago, rayaans said:

The Relax apparently doesn't apply because my service was on 5th Jan last year and today its on the 10th 🙄

£1400 down the gutter. Oh well. As long as it fixes the racket I'll be happy.

That seems very tight of them!

Maybe 'Customer Relationship Management' is not your dealership's strongest suit!!!!!

Edited January 10, 2023 by Illogan
Punctuation! (apologies)

rayaans · January 10, 2023

23 minutes ago, Illogan said:

That seems very tight of them!

Maybe 'Customer Relationship Management' is not your dealership's strongest suit!!!!!

Its part of the T&C's. Relax is only 12 months from the date of the last service and the service has a 1 month/1000 mile leeway.

So basically if you book the service even a day after then it's not covered.

Learning point noted. I'll be booking the service a day in advance from now on at the very least, the only reason I had it late this year was because I went on holiday!

Spacewagon52 · January 10, 2023

FIVE days? That is harsh.

Out of interest have you bought both your cars from that dealer and previous ones?

Is your relax warranty completely void now?

Surprised a rear wheel bearing would drop your mpg so much.

08ISF · January 10, 2023

So, if you contact them to book your service and due to holidays, staff sickness and workload they can't do your service before the year is up then where do you stand? I would challenge their assertion that it only lasts 1 year exactly, there has to be some leeway and if they are not going to send out reminders that your Relax is expiring, I think it's a poor show.

This post and others that are appearing on this site suggest to me that some Lexus dealers are trying to get themselves knocked off the top spot for Customer Satisfaction. Does anyone else detect a general hardening of attitude to customers? If Lexus are going down this road then they will have a problem as their USP is customer service, the cars themselves are reliable but dynamically pretty average and if they're going to level up the playing field in favour of competitors......

Bluemarlin · January 10, 2023

1 hour ago, rayaans said:

Its part of the T&C's. Relax is only 12 months from the date of the last service and the service has a 1 month/1000 mile leeway.

Now I'm confused. You say it has a 1 month/1000 leeway. Surely 5 days is well within the 1 month leeway.

Spock66 · January 10, 2023

I suspect the tyres and alignment would not have been covered by Relax anyway, so you probably only lost out on the wheel bearing.

Barry14UK · January 10, 2023

I also don't think a slightly worn wheel bearing would cause such a drop in MPG although the colder weather would account for some of this.

Maybe a bit of a lesson here about 'Relax' but if it's not too bad and you are a little late getting it serviced, see if they pick it up and if not go back soon after the service?

rayaans · January 11, 2023

14 hours ago, Bluemarlin said:

Now I'm confused. You say it has a 1 month/1000 leeway. Surely 5 days is well within the 1 month leeway.

The service does. The warranty doesnt

14 hours ago, Spock66 said:

I suspect the tyres and alignment would not have been covered by Relax anyway, so you probably only lost out on the wheel bearing.

The tyres and alignment aren't. But the problem is they don't know if it's the tyres or the wheel bearing causing this noise.

Tbh I don't even know if the tyres need changing. Surely an alignment would balance it out. It's only 1.5mm difference across the tyre

Spacewagon52 · January 11, 2023

1 hour ago, rayaans said:

The service does. The warranty doesnt

The tyres and alignment aren't. But the problem is they don't know if it's the tyres or the wheel bearing causing this noise.

Tbh I don't even know if the tyres need changing. Surely an alignment would balance it out. It's only 1.5mm difference across the tyre

There has been a few posts on wheel alignment. With all the pot holes on the roads it might be prudent to check our tyre wear more often. My 400h needs an alignment, it was spotted by someone else - not me!

Really hope the bearing is the cause, please keep us informed Rayaans.

rayaans · January 11, 2023

8 minutes ago, Spacewagon52 said:

There has been a few posts on wheel alignment. With all the pot holes on the roads it might be prudent to check our tyre wear more often. My 400h needs an alignment, it was spotted by someone else - not me!

Really hope the bearing is the cause, please keep us informed Rayaans.

Well yes, but the tyres were only changed 2k miles a go and the set that had come off were evenly worn all across.

Not sure what happened between then and now

rayaans · January 11, 2023

So an update on the situation. Some good news and some bad news. Firstly, the tyres are not £311 each as quoted, they are actually £225 each including fitting which aligns with blackcircles so thats good. They've done the alignment for me at £60, normally £80.

The noise is still present and does require a change of the bearing which is about £700 including fitting.

Spacewagon52 · January 11, 2023

24 minutes ago, rayaans said:

So an update on the situation. Some good news and some bad news. Firstly, the tyres are not £311 each as quoted, they are actually £225 each including fitting which aligns with blackcircles so thats good. They've done the alignment for me at £60, normally £80.

The noise is still present and does require a change of the bearing which is about £700 including fitting.

Really hope that solves the noise for you. That is not cheap for a bearing replacement but hopefully it will b e a one-off! Fingers crossed!

rayaans · January 13, 2023

On 1/11/2023 at 2:38 PM, Spacewagon52 said:

Really hope that solves the noise for you. That is not cheap for a bearing replacement but hopefully it will b e a one-off! Fingers crossed!

So the noise is solved and it was down to the bearing. Its back to its very smooth self. Bit unusual for a bearing to be going at 52k miles I would have thought

royoftherovers · January 13, 2023

1 minute ago, rayaans said:

So the noise is solved and it was down to the bearing. Its back to its very smooth self. Bit unusual for a bearing to be going at 52k miles I would have thought

So, was that replaced under the RELAX Warranty at no cost to you ?

rayaans · January 13, 2023

16 minutes ago, royoftherovers said:

So, was that replaced under the RELAX Warranty at no cost to you ?

No it wasnt. Its covered under the warranty but the warranty had lapsed 5 days prior as my service was 5 days after I should have had it done apparently.

royoftherovers · January 13, 2023

45 minutes ago, rayaans said:

No it wasnt. Its covered under the warranty but the warranty had lapsed 5 days prior as my service was 5 days after I should have had it done apparently.

oh dear, that`s tough. 5days late is a really poor show by Lexus and it reveals inflexibility, so we all need to take care in future.

Spacewagon52 · January 13, 2023

1 hour ago, rayaans said:

So the noise is solved and it was down to the bearing. Its back to its very smooth self. Bit unusual for a bearing to be going at 52k miles I would have thought

Even well looked after Lexus cars can go wrong!

So pleased the ussue is sorted for you Rayaans.

Spock66 · January 13, 2023

3 hours ago, rayaans said:

No it wasnt. Its covered under the warranty but the warranty had lapsed 5 days prior as my service was 5 days after I should have had it done apparently.

I'd suggest taking this up with Lexus UK, yes technically it's not covered but they may make a goodwill gesture even if not the full amount.

rayaans · January 13, 2023

34 minutes ago, Spock66 said:

I'd suggest taking this up with Lexus UK, yes technically it's not covered but they may make a goodwill gesture even if not the full amount.

Ive sent an email to Lexus UK Customer Relations. We'll see what happens.

Bluemarlin · January 13, 2023

40 minutes ago, rayaans said:

Ive sent an email to Lexus UK Customer Relations. We'll see what happens.

Good luck. It would be nice if they were to honour the spirit of the agreement over the strict wording.

rayaans · January 13, 2023

20 minutes ago, Bluemarlin said:

Good luck. It would be nice if they were to honour the spirit of the agreement over the strict wording.

Yes it is taking the ***** a little bit. My car is actually registered on 14th January. Its just had its 7th service at 52k miles and it doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out its been serviced before its 7th birthday.

In my view, theoretically they should have done the service and renewed the warranty before starting to look for problems which I feel would be a more logical approach