Help With Mk 1 Rx300

[Grant moss]

I have owned my 51 plate Rx300 which has 56,000 miles on it for over 12 months and I love the car to bits, and I have to say it was you guys on this forum who gave me the confidence to buy it privately after being let down by a Lexus dealer, This is my first post and would appreciate your help, for 12 months it has been perfect, but now when I pull away slowly I get a grabbing sound and vibration from the rear of the car, and the car seems to be pulling to the nearside, it happens more when I turn right slowly or straight ahead, but never on a left turn, it dosnt happen all the time, and it only happens if I pull away slowly, when I get up to about 7mph the noise stops and it drives great, I first thought it was a brake binding, but can now discount that, as the calipers are free and also when its in drive it moves slowly forward, and only happens when I start to accelerate, a mechanic (none lexus) has looked under the vehicle when I pull away and he can see the N/S rear driveshaft vibrating, a call to a lexus service centre has suggested it could be either a wheel bearing, the CV joint or a universal joint on the propshaft.

All sound expensive except the bearing, has anyone else had this problem ?

Grant

[Boxbrownie]

The only thing I have heard of is the parking brake cable seizing/grabbing. Other than that it sounds a lot more expensive........sorry.

[Grant moss]

Thanks for that boxbrownie, having read your post I tried something which Im sure would not be recomended but I applied the parking brake only one click, and drove the car, guess what, none of the noise, vibration or other problems, I then fully took off the parking brake and the noise and vibration returned, not sure if it was co-incidence, so will try it out again over the weekend, if that does solve the problem I can only think the by partially putting on the brake it takes up and slack and holds the shoes off the drum !!!!! just a thought.

I have spoken to the local Lexus dealer and they have said, now you mention it we have had problems with parking brakes on mark one models !!!!!!

I will let you know the outcome.

Thanks again

Grant

[Boxbrownie]

Glad to hear I may have pointed you in the right direction, fingers crossed.

Also funny how dealers when confronted, occassionally regain memory! :shutit:

[Grant moss]

To update you and in particular boxbrownie, my mechanic today stripped down all of the nearside wheel and caliper including the parking brake etc and couldnt find any faults, what he did find was that he could move the drive shaft clockwise and anti clockwise within the splines and he is not sure if that should be the case, I cant imagine the movement should be there, If I need a new driveshaft, I have located a company that sell the entire shaft with CV joints for £179 + the dreaded vat.

Any thoughts please

Grant

[Boxbrownie]

Well I guess it depends on just how much he could rotate the shaft, if it was "just perceptable" I would say its normal, if it was "oh dear that doesn't feel right" then it sounds much more serious!

Don't forget though it might not be the shaft splines it could be hub splines the culprit.

There will be an acceptable limit to the play but just you try weeding that out of Lexus UK :shutit:

Oh yes, don't forget if he had the parking brake full on when he tried the "play test" it could also have been wear/play in the UJ/CV joint in the hub.....not just the splines, in fact more likely the joint.

I am not familiar with the type of joint used (I would guess CV) so can only give a guess, sorry. I reckon that price is reasonable for a fairly rare assembly (in the UK), it would be a hell'uva lot worse at a main stealer.

[Grant moss]

Well I guess it depends on just how much he could rotate the shaft, if it was "just perceptable" I would say its normal, if it was "oh dear that doesn't feel right" then it sounds much more serious!

Don't forget though it might not be the shaft splines it could be hub splines the culprit.

There will be an acceptable limit to the play but just you try weeding that out of Lexus UK :shutit:

Oh yes, don't forget if he had the parking brake full on when he tried the "play test" it could also have been wear/play in the UJ/CV joint in the hub.....not just the splines, in fact more likely the joint.

I am not familiar with the type of joint used (I would guess CV) so can only give a guess, sorry. I reckon that price is reasonable for a fairly rare assembly (in the UK), it would be a hell'uva lot worse at a main stealer.

[Grant moss]

Hi everyone thought I would update about the problem I posted, I collected the vehicle today from Lexus at Coventry, they spent most of yesterday tracing the fault, the located the fault and have repaired it. The cause for the vibration etc was a faulty ABS sensor, it had corroded and the air gap was wrong, this was sending the wrong info to the ECU, they also adjusted and cleaned the parking brake. They managed to clean the ABS sensor instead of just replacing it like most dealers would do. It is now perfect again, and a pleasure to drive like an RX should be. I have nothing but praise for the service department. The price they charged me was also very fair.

The only negative comment is a salesman offered to do a deal for an 06 400h they had on the forecourt for £22000, the cost to change £19000, which means only £3000, for my 51 plate Rx 300 Navigator with full lexus service history and 58000 miles, the vehicle is immaculate. I will now be keeping it a long time. I cant believe thats all its worth.

Im sure Boxbrownie will be interested in what was causing the problem.

I hope my update will hopefully assist another owner that has a similar problem.

Regards

Grant

[Boxbrownie]

So the play your mechanic found in the driveshaft was "normal" I assume?

I find it odd that a miss-gapped ABS sensor could cause a vibration unless of course it was telling the ECU that you had wheel slip and was sending information to the rear brake to "grab" or apply slightly as it does in "anti skid" mode.

Did the dealer explain this in more detail to you? It would be useful to know exactly........

Best regards David

[Patch234]

Strange question, but Grant is your RX white?

[ColinBarber]

The only negative comment is a salesman offered to do a deal for an 06 400h they had on the forecourt for £22000, the cost to change £19000, which means only £3000, for my 51 plate Rx 300 Navigator with full lexus service history and 58000 miles, the vehicle is immaculate. I will now be keeping it a long time. I cant believe thats all its worth.

Main dealers don't give good trade ins, especially on a vehicle they won't sell themselves. I was just offered £2k for my 2001 RX300 SE with 105k miles but was offered close to £3k from an independent. Will be selling privately instead.

[Grant moss]

Boxbrownie the way you described is what the dealer explained, they said they also cleaned and adjusted the parking brake, I have to say it now is back to normal and a pleasure to drive, Im pleased the dealer cleaned and reset the sensor, as Im sure a lot would have fitted a new part, so well done to Lexus Coventry.

Patch 234 to answer your question my vehicle is smoke grey (not the official name but it describes it well). I have never seen a white one.

Regards

Grant

So the play your mechanic found in the driveshaft was "normal" I assume?

I find it odd that a miss-gapped ABS sensor could cause a vibration unless of course it was telling the ECU that you had wheel slip and was sending information to the rear brake to "grab" or apply slightly as it does in "anti skid" mode.

Did the dealer explain this in more detail to you? It would be useful to know exactly........

Best regards David