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Comments
Thanks
The service manager guy (I cannot recall his name) already knew the problem.
I tried to reproduced the problem, but failed. However,he could reproduce it at will.
First, I tried to correlate the problem with speed since many people mentioned before. However, it was a resonance that is matched at 1100RPM. Thus, no matter what your speed is, the mechanism generates the noise.
However, at higher speed, you cannot hear it since road noise dominates it.
Thus, you need to try at low speed. As I recall, you will run at around 20 MPH when RPM is 1100 RPM at 2nd gear.
It would be easier if you just press gas pedal and try to maintain at 1100RPM.
Good Luck.
Thanks for posting the TSIB on the AC Whining issue. Could you also kindly post the description of this TSIB as will.
Thanks for your help on this issue!
Technical Service Bulletins - Search Results
Report Date : July 21, 2004 at 01:54 PM
TYPE : VEHICLE
YEAR : 2004
MAKE : LEXUS
MODEL : RX330
Make : LEXUS Model : RX330 Year : 2004
Service Bulletin Num : 00204 Date of Bulletin: MAY 05, 2004
NHTSA Item Number: 10007638
Component: EQUIPMENT:ELECTRICAL:AIR CONDITIONER
Summary: GROAN SOUND WITH AIR CONDITIONER ON. *TT
Make : LEXUS Model : RX330 Year : 2004
Service Bulletin Num : 00203 Date of Bulletin: DEC 04, 2003
NHTSA Item Number: 10005752
Component: EQUIPMENT:ELECTRICAL:AIR CONDITIONER
Summary: AIR CONDITIONING (A/C) PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT. EXPERIENCING LOW COOLING EFFECT FROM THE A/C SYSTEM WHEN DRIVING IN HIGH TEMPERATURE AREAS. *TT
Thanks for posting the full description of the TSIB's for the RX330 AC problems.
Just what we all needed!!!!
Thanks again!
I do have my RX330 for 5 months now. Since the begining I had this issue with Power rear door. I hear loud noises when I was driving but dealers state that they do not hear any thing and explain that " working as designed " in the repair worksheet. So finally I hired a outside shop mechanic today and requested him to sit in the rear and pinpoint the cause while I drive and he found it.
there are 2 noises coming from rear door.
1. the clip that releases the door generating some kind of noises on the right hand side. When he held it away from the door, this noise was stopped and no longer hear it.
2. Rear Power door itself vibrating loudly as it has become standard now a days with every toyota product.
with the combination of both, it was so annoying sitting in the driver's seat.
Just wondering whether anyone has this problem and what is the fix if it's any as dealers are not bothering at all.
thanks,
If so, would you kindly post the TSB# and the description from your repair ticket. It will be most helpful to all of us that are experiencing this annoying problem!
Thanks
Took the car for the 5,000 mile on Wednesday and told them the same thing, I also put a couple of discreet magic marker marks on the bottom of the blade. When we picked the car up I started the washer/wiper while my wife went to sign the paper work. Wiper worked excellent. But on the paper work the dealer marked that they had replaced the blade, AND ORDERED A NEW MOTOR AND ARM ASSEMBLY AS OURS WAS DEFECTIVE. So obviously someone at Toyota knows there's a problem. Since we live about 60 miles from the dealer we'll wait until we're ready for another trip to Austin for them to repair.
I thought anyone else having these issues might be interested.
The Edmunds Maintenance Guide says it'd cost $106.46 in my zip code for the 10k service.
Steve, Host
However, I have indeed heard of some Lexus dealers charging significant $$ for simple oil change services. In fact, a former co-worker said he was paying $125 for each and every oil change on his ES300. When I asked him why, he said this service included many items; such as an oil change, tire rotation, inspections, a loaner car, and a car wash.
Well, for our RX330 10K service, I paid a total of about $50. I had the tire rotation and balance performed by Costco for $16, and then our Lexus dealer performed a basic oil change for about $34. This $34 oil change included the necessary inspections, along with a car wash.
Interesting note: To get the $34 oil change, I have to specifically state that I want only an oil change -- not a tire rotation service, nor additional inspections that are not required by the owner's manual.
Another interesting note: According to my Lexus service advisor, they do not inspect the wheel balance when they rotate the tires! Apparently, they do not have the appropriate wheel balancing equipment in their shop. I wonder if this is true for many other Lexus dealers? Not good! I believe it isn't unusual for one or more wheels to get out of balance after 15K miles or so.
When the time comes for the 30K service (which I hope will wait until next summer), I will take a good look at the owner's manual and compare it to the services performed at my dealer's 30K service. If most of the dealer's services are listed in the owner's manual at 30K miles, then I will pay the $$$.
I've seen a couple postings, from time to time, where Lexus owners considered taking their car to a Toyota dealership for the big ticket services. I don't subscribe to that practice, mostly due to my ignorance and caution.
Instead, I'll stick with Lexus service, but try to work out some kind of a discount, no matter how small. I will try to find a service coupon. If my dealer doesn't offer any discounts, I'll contact the other dealers in the general area to see if they offer any coupons/discounts. My dealer will likely match another dealer's service coupon.
Since I knew these things were anomolies that I might not be able to reproduce if I made an appointment, I drove straight to the dealer. They were perplexed and ordered a new unit.
Part of the delay is due to my insistence that the dealer check my vehicle against all known technical service bulletins (I even included a print out for the service department's convenience).
But I am still not very happy with my dealer. Without naming anyone specifically, it is the only dealer in the Quad Cities.
It took three days to do an oil change, install additional digishield on the front bumper and check my list of concerns. Good thing there wasn't anything major wrong with the RX.
I did have a loaner so I wasn't inconvenienced. However, the ONLY communication I had with the dealership during these three days happened only AFTER I called them for an update. I'm sorry but at 4pm on day one when you know the car isn't ready to be returned to the owner, don't you think you would call the owner to tell them?
And if I wasn't already jaded by the time Queenie returned, she returned with a large ink pen mark on the inside driver's side door panel. Thankfully I was able to remove it with a little nail polish remover. But I shouldn't have to be taking ink off my interior after the car returns. I keep my RX in pristine condition and I expect the dealer to keep it the same way.
I really wish Lexus would crack down on their dealerships. The fees are costly... especially since most other luxury names have free maintenance plans through 40,000 or 50,000 miles (our other vechicle is a Mercedes). If I have to pay such high prices, the least Lexus can do is provide good customer service.
BTW... they had to order parts for a few of the TSB's....so I will have to go through this all over again once the parts come in.
But the "dirty gym socks" odor is caused the same way. The A/C plenum, being dark and dank from the condensed moisture, provides an ideal breeding "coop" for the microbes that constitute mold and mildew.
Because these microbes breed best in a dark and dank environment at about 60F to 70F the resulting odor is more prevalent in southern regions of the US. HOT days force a HIGH level of A/C operation, and mild nights, at least inside the plenum.
The Airsept kit is likely a very good answer for the odor but not a fully complete answer for the windshield fogging.
The windshield might/will fog over during the vehicle's regular operations due to changing the system mode from defrost/defog/demist to one of the other functions wherein the A/C compressor does not operate, or manually turning the A/C off, or having it turn itself off automatically (without any annunciation to the driver) due to the OAT having declined to near freezing.
That latter one is the worse of all, almost instant loss of forward visibility since when that happens the windshield is likely to be already far below the dewpoint of the humid airflow soon to begin flowing from the system.
I solved the early morning problem by simply ALWAYS remembering to open the windows in the garage at night to let the system dry out.
Ok, the dead battery just happened once, but I like the idea of venting the interior in my garage.
Steve, Host
I swear by the stuff. I originally had it installed on the front part of my hood and adjacent sides and the back of the outside mirrors. 13 months after I purchased my RX, I do not have a single paint chip on my hood. The only ones I had were on the front bumper... and that's why I had the digishield installed on it this week (the bumper is NOT the same color all the way through... although my sales guy told me it was when we bought the car).
You can't even tell the stuff is there unless you are really, really close to the vehicle. I have Bamboo Pearl.
Given the high cost of routine maintenance on most luxury cars, we will favor models that offer free maintenance under warranty when we go to purchase our next vehicle. So if I had to buy a new car today, I would look at a BMW before Lexus and Mercedes.
10K: $100
15K: $300~
20K: $100
25K: $100
30K: $400
35K: $100
40K: $100
45K: $300~
50K: $100
Total: $1,600~ in 4years.
And of course the 5K service intervals you can usually do for alot cheaper elsewhere being that they merely overcharge you for a oil change & tire rotation.
With all of that said, my biggest problem with Lexus service isn't the cost...it is the overall poor service at the only dealership within 150 miles of my house. The monopoly they have on the region means they don't have to try to win over customers on good service. Perhaps I expect more because I bought a Lexus but the quality of the service I currently get isn't any better than the service we used to get at the local Ford dealership.
I get my uncle's LS400 serviced at a local shop. $25 for oil changes, $200 for the 30K service, and $250 for the $45K service. It now has 55K miles, spent about $750 on regular maint.
If you're soo stuck up on getting free service(which really isn't free to begin with) better get a Benz fast, since free maint. is going bye-bye for '05.
I suggested we could probably replace the passenger side carpet assuming it was probably 3-4 pieces of carpet when you look under the seats. Golly, darn....appears to me the whole darn car is on piece of fabric....I'm guessing a thousand bucks minimum to remove the seats and replace it. In my internet research to remove coffee stains, I discovered it was used forever as a natural dye. Think twice about that Starbucks drive-thru.
Just aside, oxyclean spray will get out coffee, also baking soda... good luck.
Anyone else have this problem.
GM
GM
Weird. I have ABS on my other cars I've owned (include Toyato products) and none have ever done this.
I wanted to ask what you thought about your MBZ compared to the Lexus in terms of reliability, performance, and quality. Which MBZ do you have?
We are looking to buy an additional vehicle. It has been a while since we owned a 300E MBZ, which was great until it hit 80K miles. I have been reading about how far downhill Mercedes reliability has rolled. I would love to hear your opinions. Thanks and hope to read from you.
1) You don't necessarily need to use an independent shop to save money on the Lexus 5K services. Our Lexus dealer offers simple oil change services for $30 (+ tax). Sure, they would like us to request the full ($100+) 5K service, but why pay so much extra for the tire rotation?
2) I always found it funny how the European makes offer free maintenance with extremely long intervals between oil change services, while the Asian and American cars, who typically do not offer free maintenance, recommend oil changes every 3.5K to 5K miles (for typical driving conditions). Many BMW and Mercedes models go 15K miles between oil changes (with synth oil). I think Audi is now at 10K miles, while Volvo is 7.5K miles. What gives? Are the European engines that much better?? (Answer: Well, maybe. I've never heard of any oil sludge problems with BMW or Mercedes engines!) I also wonder if Mercedes will be making any modifications to their recommended interval schedule once they stop their free maintenance program?
3) Keep in mind not all free maintenance programs are alike. Some makes offer 4 years of free maintenance (such as BMW), while others offer it for only 3 years (Volvo, Saab). Some programs provide only basic scheduled maintenance services, while other programs (BMW, Audi) also cover wear-n-tear items, including brakes, belts, joints, wiper blades, etc.
4) With free maintenance programs, we never know for certain how much we are actually paying for maintenance. This cost is figured into the selling price of the car. Because of that, we tend to forget that the maintenance visits aren't actually free. With Lexus (or Infiniti, Acura, etc), we pay premium costs for every maintenance visit, and we expect courteous and diligent service in return. I sympathize with lovemylexus. She endures poor service from a Lexus dealer that knows they have a monopoly in her area, and I’m sure they gladly take her money whether they work hard to earn it or not. The one benefit is that she hasn't prepaid her maintenance costs to Lexus. Unlike BMW or her '03 Mercedes, she doesn't lose any money by choosing an independent shop for maintenance. The next time the Lexus dealer asks, "How would you like to pay for this?", counter with "Which independent shop do you recommend for my future maintenance services?" Unfortunately, you lose the convenience of pick-up and loaner car services.
If it really is the new firmware version of the VSC/Trac that's moderating accelerating torque to prevent loss of control on FWD then maybe the AWD moderation will not be as great, if at all.
The Acura MDX may seem like a logical alternative, but its interior again, doesn't even come close to the elegance or quality of the RX's. Also, it's an aged platform and is due for a revamp, soon. Moreover, the entire experience, from sales to service is far below the red carpet treatment you get from Lexus.
You can forget about an ML because MBZ is coming out with the new model and my bet is that it will have many kinks that will need ironing out, just like the '98, '99, and '00 ML's. You'll end up being a guinea pig for MBZ, helping them discover what's unreliable in their new offering.
The above also goes for Land Rover and their new version of the Discovery.
The XC90, although very nice looking, is also coming off two years of questionable reliability. I read where some owners were trying to put together a lawsuit against Volvo. Consumer Reports gave the XC90 a worse than average reliability rating.
The Touareg is also attractive, but also a nightmare in terms of reliability. Just read some postings in the Touareg Problems and Solutions Board.
If you're willing to shell out twice as much money, you can get an '04 Porsche Cayenne. They're pretty nice. The only issues I read about are problematic key fobs and tires that wear out or wear unevenly after 15,000 miles, because of alingment problems. Just remember that the tires range in price from $140 to $240 apiece. Also not encouraging, Porsche was ranked second to Lexus in customer satisfaction by JD Edwards, but after the debut of the '03 Cayenne it fell to second to last place. The new SUV's kinks and niggles were enough to cause the small company's ratings to come tumbling down.
The problems you have read about on this forum don't necessarily happen to every owner. I'm very happy with my RX330 and although I did experience the tranny hesitation, it is remedied by the TSB. All RX's now come with the TSB update done at the factory. My RX has been bullet proof. I'm very happy with it.
If you're that worried about reliability, maybe Subaru or Toyota are worth a look. However, in the luxury SUV department, there is nothing out there more reliable than the '04 RX330, except maybe an '05 RX330. Consumer Reports thinks so. It is the only first year luxo SUV it gave a recommended rating to in '04.
Are there other problems? Yes, there have been a few other issues reported by several buyers, but the majority have been addressed within other Technical Service Bulletins. Keep in mind that anything addressed within a TSB is typically quickly addressed at the factory (to help prevent additional costs down the road).
There are other gripes, such as complaints with wind noise, the rear wiper, etc. We've also seen a couple significant complaints regarding poor customer service.
Guess what? Similar complaints, and more of them, will be found with other SUV models. As a comparison, we purchased one of the first MDX's back in 2000. From our personal experience, our MDX definitely had more problems than our RX330. This was reflected, as well, within the MDX forums. Sure, we needed to make a couple extra trips to the Acura service center, but we still enjoyed our MDX.
As gardencar states, the other luxury SUVs have had their share (or more) of bugs; some of them fairly serious problems that have kept the vehicles in repair shops for weeks at a time -- significant enough for the dealer to buy back several from customers. In fact, I dare anyone to find another upscale SUV which has had better reliability during its first model year than the RX330. (To be honest, I haven't researched the FX35, and so I don't know how it compares.) I concur with gardencar that the 2005 model will most likely have fewer problems. It seems like Lexus has always performed well at "perfecting" a model's reliabilty once it has had some field experience. I remember the first model year GS300/GS400 models had an "average" reliability by Consumer reports, but it didn't take long for these models to consistently receive "excellent" ratings.
One more note: When you consider how well the RX330 has been selling since its introduction early in 2003, it shouldn't be too big of a surprise that this forum is as active as it is. I think the RX330 has been the best-selling luxury SUV during the past 15 months, but please correct me if I am wrong.
Yes, we've had a couple problems with our RX330, but, overall, my wife and I are extremely happy with it. It's a winner. (Sorry for the long post!)
I forgot to include the FX series in my comparison. I guess I left them out because the interior is not in the same level of elegance as the RX. The ride is also very firm as it has to be, to handle as well as they do. In the end, I chose the RX over the FX because of these reasons and because the RX has so much more cargo capacity. I suspect both SUV's have comparable reliability ratings.
You are probably right about the RX being the best selling. I remember seeing a post on this forum about it, that included numbers of vehicles sold.
Finally, enjoyed your post, no need to apologize for it was very informative and interesting.
Like you said, this is an active forum and a helpful one. Glad to be back and I think I'll keep on eye on this board more regularly.
I have owned my vehicle since July of 2003 and have close to 20,000 miles on it. Other than the meandering issue there have been some minor problems but the dealer has always taken care of them. I would not hesitate to purchase RX330 as long as that fix can be performed.
I have used it to take out all kinds of stains including coffee. It also works great at generally cleaning the mats and carpeting. Great for clothing, too.