Annoying Buzzy Drive You Mad Fault

[SH20]

I wonder what makes a part suddenly start to vibrate inside the car at a frequency that is just annoying and becomes your nemesis and just laughs at your attempts to find it let alone fix it. 

After 6.5 years old  the offside rear window blind roller at certain speeds and harsh road conditions starts to buzz that annoying irritating sound in your ear.   Smooth tarmac it disappears. Having the audio  on will distract me for a while but because I have always admired the quality of robust design of Lexus it's like their reputation suffers in my mind. 

Took the off side rear  door card off,  3 screws behind 3 pieces of plastic, 4 wiring connections and 2 cables, one  for the release handle and the other for the metal pop up lock button.   The door card is a work of art when you see the construction of them on the inside, a £1000 part I bet complete.  

The blind sits inside a metal tube and  was fully secured, nothing loose, no screws loose, no clips fell off or missing or anything to suggest why it likes to buzz at certain speeds and drives me mad.   The blind, whether up or down it makes no difference.  With the side of my clenched my fist and gently bang the roller housing I can hear a rattle or whatever is loose but  likely it's something inside the tube which stores the blind when not in use.   

We've all had these irritating sounds and buzzy type vibrations but having to live with them takes away the pleasure of driving the car because you wait and listen for it as soon as you build up some speed. 

Bummer.     

 

 

 

 

[Scotlex]

It is very annoying when you get a rattle or noise.

I had a really annoying front suspension squeak on a Ford Mondeo years ago. It was a lovely car (GhiaX) but just had to go not long after!!

[Malc1]

Steve, 7 year old's can often be a trifle annoying .......  but you learn to live with 'em !

Have another cuppa Yorkshire tea to calm your nerves 😉

Malc

[SH20]

Agree, but because I know that the issue lies within the metal tube that the blind rolls into after I removed the door card I'm wondering if it might come under the warranty.   This is not really a trim item which is not covered but more of a mechanical defect.  There is nothing externally to tighten up or re secure.  With the door card in place  and if I gently bang the top of the door card it's obvious something has detached itself or become loose.     I'll ask the dealer for an opinion when it has it's 7th year service in August otherwise I'll just live with it.     

[ambermarine]

This problem you have is one of the reasons I am reluctant to move on from 98 LS400 ,as it was the final version of that class, Lexus had ironed out all of the problems in its 10 year production cycle.

As new models appeared the amount of gizmos  increased also and therefore more things can go wrong the 98 model as everything I need to enjoy the luxury it provides so I am thankful that the motivation to better what I have does not exist.

[SH20]

Up to a point I would agree Phil,  My first Lexus was a LS460 SE-L and had the same level of extras as my LS500h.   The specific forums talk about issues which start to fail etc but compared to other manufacturers the Lexus and Toyota brands are streets ahead in terms of reliability and quality.    It will be interesting to see if my dealer will accept the fact that I can pin point the part that is buzzing because you all know how much they hate customers having more knowledge than the them.    My background is all Motor Trade so pulling the door card off because I knew the noise was coming from inside the door was no problem but generally service reception staff don't like being told their job and we should leave it to the experts, HA !     If I tried to do them a favour and took the car in without the door card on and demonstrate the fault they would still think I was interfering. 

[peniole]

Not exactly your problem, as they are talking about the motorized rear blind here: https://www.toyotanation.com/threads/rear-window-sunshade-buzzing.350934/

I would bet it's a similar problem with a plastic gear or potentially spring broken or out of place, but not enough to cause problems other than the buzzing. So, you'd need to take that tube apart.

[Malc1]

2 hours ago, peniole said:

So, you'd need to take that tube apart.

Definitely the Main Dealer issue to resolve otherwise the Warranty Claim will fail methinks

Malc

[SH20]

Had a quick look at the Lexus Tech Manual website  just to see what the repair manual had to say about the procedure to extract a window blind cartridge.   Not an easy task by the look of things even for a Lexus Technician.  So much dismantling is required after the door card removal and is probably easier when you have the cartridge in front of you. The Diagrams are ok and the written description goes into a lot of detail   but it all seems like a big job to  justify removing  the offending part.    But a dealer of course will be paid to deal with it if considered a warranty item.   

Access to the Lexus workshop digital workshop manuals as some of you know is by subscription from 1 hour's access to 12 months access for a fee.     So once you sign in to your personal account on the Lexus Tech website you can pay £4 for one hour's  access to access  the model you are interested in  up to £2,900 for a year's access which I guess a garage might be interested in paying if they specialise in Lexus repairs outside the dealer Network.   I just paid the minimum charge of £4 for an hour's viewing. All models are covered and the digital manuals cover everything.