Rattle,from Underside Of My 400H Se

[CJHYBRID]

Had noticed a vibration whilst accelerating from low speed and also a rattle in the background whilst travelling at Motorway speed this has been irritating me for a few weeks now . The noise appeared more of an irritation than a serious issue hence did not go to the dealer.

On Saturday I spent a couple of hours crawling underneath the car which whilst not my idea of a great weekend was time well spent. After inspecting the underside of the car I noticed that the rear exhaust heat shield was loose and rattleing on top of the exhaust. Car has done 73000 miles and overtime the stress has caused the plating to sheer away around the retaining bolts.

Have not yet checked cost of replacing which I assume for parts and labour at a Lexus dealer will be quite expensive. Assumed that as long as the shield is in place it will do its job and that if it is held in place the rattle would stop.

Hence to sort it I drilled some holes in the plate with a dremmel tool and fitted several tie wraps to as many fixing points as I could. Whilst difficult and not much space to play with the beauty of an suv is you can actually see the underside of the car and gain limited access without a ramp.

Since fitting the noise has gone completely and other than my time it didnt cost anything.Not sure on the longevity of the repair but so far so good.

Hope this may help anyone experiencing any similar rattle from the underside as I can imagine this to be a regular issue with 400H's of a certain age !

Best regards

Chris

[ChrisKaye]

Hi CJ,

I also have a rattle and was going to remove the heat shield and patch it with Abrosteel - it's a putty/epoxy that bonds metal and is good upto 260 degrees C.

It's also only a few quid plus delivery - check out:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-x-ABRO-STEEL-QUICKSTEEL-EPOXY-PUTTY-QUIK-REINFORCED-METAL-REPAIR-WELD-/111225922252?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item19e594e2cc

I also read that you can fix/make "threaded" screw holes with it which is also kind of neat.

If I patch up my heat shield with it off, I can also clean and spray it up to make it look good and rust proof.

[CJHYBRID]

Thanks Chris the putty looks pretty handy stuff and something to have in the toolkit.

Best regards

Chris

[Parrot of Doom]

> overtime the stress has caused the plating to sheer away around the retaining bolts.

Just get some great big washers and fix it back in place with the original bolts.

[ChrisKaye]

Good thinking Mr PoD!

I'll also bear that in mind, too!

[Assa1974]

I'm chuffed I found this thread! I've had an annoying rattle at MWay speeds for a few weeks now. Thought it was some loose trim in a rear wheel arch but once patched up the rattle was still there. Just had a crawl under the car a lo', it's the heat shield. Thanks to those who went before I can now fix this easily enough. Forums to the rescue again!

[Gliderpilot]

I took mine off and left it off, not had any problems with the spare wheel getting hot from the exhaust. The mounting bolts are seized and when I tried to remove them it nearly ripped the mountings off.