Dash And Glovebox Creaks And Squeaks On My Gs450H

[MrShades]

Having owned my 57 plate GS450h since it had around 6000 miles on the clock, initially - even through cold weather periods of the winter months - the car was rattle, squeak and creak free. However, over the last 6 months or so it has developed a couple of annoying creaks and noises from the dash area, namely:

1. Glovebox - intermittent creak, usually at speed - that stops when the glovebox lid is held / pushed more tightly closed.

2. Upper passenger side dashboard near the in-dash tweeter, creaking noise that became very bad in the cold mornings.

Hopefully, as I hunted high and low on here and on the Club Lexus forum for help/advice before not finding much (other than complaints about noises) and fixing these issues myself, the following information will help anyone else with similar noises.

Addressing each of these in turn:

1. Glovebox.

I was initially convinced that the noise was coming from the upper part of the glovebox lid (mainly due to the fact that it sounded like it was coming from there, and pushing the top of the lid stopped it) - and was probably plastic-on-plastic contact from the catch mechanism. However, I soon found (by covering almost the entire catch mech with felt tape) that this wasn't the cause... far from it.

After looking around for quite some time I found that, on my lid, the lower edge of the glovebox lid was actually VERY close to the trim beneath it - and actually, at the left hand edge (nearest the passenger door) was virtually touching the trim beneath. Using some self adhesive felt tape (bought from eBay very cheaply) I simply cut a small (about 1 square cm) piece of felt-tape and stuck it in the gap. It's virtually invisible (you'd notice it only with the door open, lid open and when looking for it) and has completely fixed the glovebox noise.

You can just see the edge of the black felt tape in this image, showing the glovebox lid closed (though it may well just look like a trim gap - it'll become more obvious in the later images):

With the glovebox lid open it's slightly more obvious:

But a real closeup of it shows you exactly what's where:

If the above helps just one other person, who thinks that his glovebox lid catch mech is worn and rattling (like I did) then this post is worth it. It annoyed the hell out of me (and take it from me, it's not easy driving along the M6 steering with one hand whilst hitting/holding the glovebox lid with the other!).

2. Upper passenger side dash - near the in-dash tweeter (speaker).

This is the classic and quite common GS dash rattle. Fixed to a large extent in later models, and in earlier ones if you are willing to pay or catch it early enough and still in warranty, with the new "felt lined" dashboard clips. Lexus offered to pay for the parts if I paid for the labour for this - so circa £2 of parts vs about £500 to rip the entire dash out, fix and refit. No thanks.

In my case this sounded like the odd creak / squeak - the wife didn't notice it, and thought I was bonkers - that typically happened on cold mornings and after a few miles of driving (or a good pothole or speedbump to unsettle things).

I tried the "silicone spray" fix, found either here or on Club Lexus, whereby you remove the speaker grill and spray the offending dash clip with silicone lubricant. Made no difference at all in my case. I deluged the thing on two or three occasions and it still made no difference, the dash continued to creak.

So - with it driving me up the wall (and if you're a regular Fosse Way driver you'll appreciate the rumblestrips, potholes, undulations along there really don't help) I needed to do something.

I bought a square of standard black craft felt from a local craft shop. Here's a picture of it, along with the only "tool" that I needed (it's a plastic pallet knife that I 'borrowed' from the wife):

I then cut it into four equal sized strips:

...but used only two of them for the 'fix'. I've included my Lexus keyfob in this one so that you can get an idea of scale:

Taking each of the strips in turn, I folded each strip in half and then into thirds - so that when looked at side-on there were 6 thicknesses of felt, but the felt 'wad' was still a reasonably large size:

Now - I placed each of these felt wads in the locations shown in the photo below (which are approximately where the dash-clips are):

and by placing my flexible plastic pallet knife inside the folds and easing the felt firmly down into the gap between dash and windscreen/bulkhead (a credit card may do a similar job, but may not have the 'reach' required):

I 'rammed' the felt down until it felt snug and wasnt visible from the normal seating poasitions inside the cabin.

Here's the speaker felt installed (you can't see it, can you?):

I've tweaked the levels in that photo so that you CAN see it (just):

And the other one (again, effectively invisible but if you look hard you MAY be able to just make it out):

Having inserted both of the above - THERE ARE NO MORE CREAKS! The dash feels more solid and quiet, and rumble-strips and potholes or speed-bumps don't cause any problems or noises at all. It really is fantastic and it's made a huge difference on these cold winter mornings.

If any driver side creaks appear then rest assured that I've got two felt strips left over, and they'll be rammed in on the opposite side a bit sharpish!

Anyway - hopefully this also helps anyone with the very annoying GS dash creak.

Good luck!

Shades

[TonyB]

Damn good post Mr Shades.....

......I don't seem to suffer from the glovebox issue, but the windscreen area around the speaker has blighted me from day one.....not so bad in the summer........and guess what ....I live on the Fosse (or used too until it recently bypassed me)

I tried the stuffing of felt idea myself, but mainly around the speaker area, sadly I have managed to push my VIN number in the windscreen into the depths of who knows............eventually gave up......

.....will defo try the above later and let you know how I get on.

.....It's rather ***** poor that we need to go to these lengths on a Lexus (never had any issues with rattles on Mark 2 )

.........Cheers, Tony.

[Grizzly Man]

Very useful information - thanks OP! My rattles seem to come from the dash area in winter and the back (rear blind I'm guessing) in summer. Although my winter rattles don't seem to have appeared yet this year - or maybe I just don't hear them any more!

[dave1]

Very helpful and informative. Fortunately I don't seem to have the problem on my '52 plate GS (touch wood) but I'm sure it will be of assistance to many members of LOC with later models.

[MrShades]

Well, it was -2c this morning with the car covered in ice - a condition that would previously have had creaks and noises coming from the dash within a few miles.

However, this morning - even when bouncing over regular bumps/holes/rumble strips - the dash was as quiet as I would have expected.

Now, with felt tape and felt to spare, I need to find another noise / creak / rattle to fix!

[TonyB]

Worked for me too Mr Shades............thankyou.............

....maybe you could start a new business.......like the "Dyson Doctor" vans you see going round mending dysons that fall to bits after a few months.....

maybe call yourself "Lexus Medic" or summat

[MrShades]

Worked for me too Mr Shades............thankyou.............

....maybe you could start a new business.......like the "Dyson Doctor" vans you see going round mending dysons that fall to bits after a few months.....

maybe call yourself "Lexus Medic" or summat

Excellent news Tony! Glad to hear that it's helped someone already.

Concerning the "Lexus Medic" - I think, for the sake of my sanity and income, I'll stick to the day job! Interestingly, I do have an original Dyson DC-01 (that I use as my garage vac) that is still running sweetly (with a bit of fettling here and there) after I-don't-know-how-many years. The wife's DC-25 ball thing has lots of bells-and-whistles but just doesn't seem as solidly built. (Mk1 GS vs Mk3 GS!)

[karpetas]

My GS450h has an annoying rattle but not from any of these areas- mine comes from transmission tunnel trim on the passenger side - it is driving me crazy for a while a piece of felt wedged between the trim panel and the stereo unit stopped it but now back

Does anyone know how easy it is to remove this panel to see what is squeaking and apply some silicone?

Thanks

[royoftherovers]

My GS450h has an annoying rattle but not from any of these areas- mine comes from transmission tunnel trim on the passenger side - it is driving me crazy for a while a piece of felt wedged between the trim panel and the stereo unit stopped it but now back

Does anyone know how easy it is to remove this panel to see what is squeaking and apply some silicone?

Thanks

Hi Simon,

Look up YOUTUBE as there are several "how to" videos inc one I`ve seen removal of panels associated with upgrade to the sound system. Good luck

John

[JoshW]

Resurrecting an old thread I know but does anyone or the original poster still have the pictures from above. I have the same annoying dash creak and would be interested to see how you guys fixed it and where you placed the felt?

 

Thanks,

Josh

[Frazzybell]

On 9/12/2016 at 9:11 AM, JoshW said:

Resurrecting an old thread I know but does anyone or the original poster still have the pictures from above. I have the same annoying dash creak and would be interested to see how you guys fixed it and where you placed the felt?

 

Thanks,

Josh

Gents,

 

As previous post, i too am looking for the pictures if anyone has or knows where abouts referenced 

[MrShades]

Gents,
 
As previous post, i too am looking for the pictures if anyone has or knows where abouts referenced 

I’ve dug the photos out of my 2012 archive and hope these help you both...

Glovebox issue:








Dash:















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[MrShades]

Levels boosted in these two to just about make the felt pads visible:








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[lexusgus123]

Thank you for the pictures and for this post. You've saved me my sanity 😅