More evidence why the LX is quieter than the Land Cruiser

[TheForger]

Looking more carefully in daylight, there appears to be

*The previously noted plastic trim piece on the leading edge of the rear door.
*The previous additional seal (feels like felt on plastic) on the bottom of the door.
*A plastic trim piece inside the rear of the front fender.
The usual rubber seal around the door that you see on a LC.
A second rubber seal around the door opening top/front/rear on the body (same as LC).​

If possible and at your next convenience, do you mind taking pictures of the weatherstripping that has not already been posted? So far the lower front pieces have been posted and I don't really need pics of the lower rear because I'm assuming they are almost identical, just shorter in length. What am looking for is a full image from top to bottom of the previously noted seal in the joint between the front & rear doors (also try to get a pic of it from the bottom of the door while it's open, I want to see the groove in the seal that the door fits into), as well as the "*plastic trim piece inside the rear of the front fender" since I do not know what you are referring to.

Most likely I will purchase just the 4 lower seals on all doors first to see how much of a difference they make. It will be sometime midweek since I am a college student and I have an exam Tuesday that I need to prioritize over this. But if everything goes according to plan I should have all the seals by mid-to-late next week. I also purchased a sound level meter (A.K.A. a decibel reader). Instead of doing a traditional review, I am opting for a both a written review as well as a video review where I will show how I test my rig with and without the seals while recording the decibel readings from both test groups inside the cab. I will try and keep the experiment as controlled as possible and eliminate as many outside variables as I possibly can to give my honest and as closely accurate as I can get results. Give me about 2.5wks before I have & install everything, run all my tests & collect data, and edit the video and post it on YouTube. I will keep this thread updated with all progress!

 

[jLB]

If possible and at your next convenience, do you mind taking pictures of the weatherstripping that has not already been posted? So far the lower front pieces have been posted and I don't really need pics of the lower rear because I'm assuming they are almost identical, just shorter in length. What am looking for is a full image from top to bottom of the previously noted seal in the joint between the front & rear doors (also try to get a pic of it from the bottom of the door while it's open, I want to see the groove in the seal that the door fits into), as well as the "*plastic trim piece inside the rear of the front fender" since I do not know what you are referring to.

The plastic piece in the rear of the front fender is near impossible to get a picture of, I get a glimpse of it with the door just right, and I can stick my hand in and feel it, but the leading edge of the door obscures it with the door open, and there is nothing to see with the door closed. Let me see if I can figure a way out to get some kind of picture.

Showing the leading edge of the driver's rear door:

 

[jLB]

Best effort at inside rear of front passenger fender (shot from outside with the front door open all the way, sequence top to bottom):

 

[TheForger]

@jLB Thank you very much for the pics! I do appreciate them as I do not have access to an LX in my area to look at.

Update: I placed the orders for the extra seals on all 4 doors earlier today, and I should be receiving them early-to-mid next week. These are the 4 secondary seals that have been previously noted in this thread so I figured I would give them a shot first. If anyone is able to find any pn's for the previously stated seals (preferably the one at the joint between the front & rear door) it would be greatly appreciated. That "inside rear of front passenger fender" looks interesting as well and I would like to get that too but I just cant seem to find a single pn?? I figured the 4 additional seals + the seal at the door joints + possibly the "inside rear of front passenger fender" would provide a significantly improve for in-cab noise reduction. Again, if anyone would be willing to provide pn's for those 2 I would appreciate it tremendously! I've had absolutely no luck throughout all my research but if any of you all happen to stumble upto the pn's I would gladly add those to the order as well. The decibel reader is coming in tomorrow also. Hopefully I will be able to run my tests mid-to-late next week (it may end up being that weekend 4/8 due to school), have all of my data, and then the video production begins. I'm excited to see what the results turn out to be, and like I said in my last post I will continue to update this thread with all progress!

 

[Mark WV]

FYI - I cant vouch for the accuracy, but there are free apps available to turn your iPhone into a decibel meter. always fun at concerts...

My 03 LX is away at college -I'll run a test when it comes home against my 06 LC - I always assumed the LC was louder due to the brigestone tires -vs- the michelins on the LX. I guess I can run them both on the same set and see the results.

Please post your results once installed

 

[TheForger]

FYI - I cant vouch for the accuracy, but there are free apps available to turn your iPhone into a decibel meter. always fun at concerts...

My 03 LX is away at college -I'll run a test when it comes home against my 06 LC - I always assumed the LC was louder due to the brigestone tires -vs- the michelins on the LX. I guess I can run them both on the same set and see the results.

Please post your results once installed

Yeah I looked at using one of those at first but none of the free versions really seemed to work that well or give out what seemed to be accurate results. I figured for $17 on Amazon a basic decibel reader would keep all the results as accurate and consistent as possible.

I planned on doing 3 trials for both the control group (OEM seals) and the experimental group (w/LX seal). Those trials would reflect the 3 most common environments in which we drive - mall parking lot (<10mph), city streets (stop & go), and interstate (75mph).

 

[TheForger]

Update + Concerns: Nothing too important other than I received the decibel reader and that the seals are "Preparing for Shipment" according to LexusPartsNow.com.

That brings me to my next question though: has anyone ordered from or have any experience with this website? I do not have any negative comments as of now, it just seems like the shipping process is taking a while considering I placed the order Thursday at 8:30am and it still hasn't shipped yet. I'm assuming it will ship tomorrow (hopefully) and maybe I'm just spoiled with the Amazon Prime shipping perk, but after Googling Genuine Parts Giant Inc. the first hit was their BBB page and it listed them as 1.3/5 stars. It's based on only 1 negative & 1 neutral review, but 7 complaints have been filed against them and they failed to respond to 5 of those...I definitely should have done some research on the company beforehand but there's no turning back now In hindsight I should have gone to our supporting vendors and that was my mistake in the first place and I'll make sure it doesn't happen again considering this whole forum is built around supporting those who support us. Hopefully this all works out and they don't send me the wrong parts...But back to my original question, does anyone have any experience with them??

I will edit this post tomorrow if I receive a shipping notification & tracking number.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Update + Concerns: Nothing too important other than I received the decibel reader and that the seals are "Preparing for Shipment" according to LexusPartsNow.com.

That brings me to my next question though: has anyone ordered from or have any experience with this website? I do not have any negative comments as of now, it just seems like the shipping process is taking a while considering I placed the order Thursday at 8:30am and it still hasn't shipped yet. I'm assuming it will ship tomorrow (hopefully) and maybe I'm just spoiled with the Amazon Prime shipping perk, but after Googling Genuine Parts Giant Inc. the first hit was their BBB page and it listed them as 1.3/5 stars. It's based on only 1 negative & 1 neutral review, but 7 complaints have been filed against them and they failed to respond to 5 of those...I definitely should have done some research on the company beforehand but there's no turning back now In hindsight I should have gone to our supporting vendors and that was my mistake in the first place and I'll make sure it doesn't happen again considering this whole forum is built around supporting those who support us. Hopefully this all works out and they don't send me the wrong parts...But back to my original question, does anyone have any experience with them??

I will edit this post tomorrow if I receive a shipping notification & tracking number.

I hope all goes smoothly.
When ever I have vendor concerns I pay with AMEX to eliminate any worries of a possible bad experience.

 

[TheForger]

I hope all goes smoothly.
When ever I have vendor concerns I pay with AMEX to eliminate any worries of a possible bad experience.

Yeah I am considering getting an AMEX card in the far future. I say far because as some of the members on this forum can probably assume, I'm only 20 but have been a Cruiser fanatic since I was 3 when my uncle bought it new off the lot. I actually learned to drive when I was 7 with the same Cruiser which I currently own. It was passed down to me by my uncle when I was 15 (by "passed down" I mean countless hours of yard work as well as applying my mechanical knowledge to fix and repair a couple of my uncles other vehicles, + countless other manual labor chores, + monetary help from my father; I did manage to save up $4,500 for it so my father and I went in halves on it since I was only 14). Wow I totally went off on a tangent there...

Anyways, during my experiment I will also be testing whether it limits or completely eradicates the "air flow between the drivers door pocket & seat" I mentioned earlier in this thread. I'm excited to find out how well well they actually work and like I said earlier, I hope they're the right parts

EDIT: I have a ram mount that comes up to my right knee and is just below the drivers right air vent that I use to hold my iPhone. I was thinking about using that to hold the decibel reader, A/C and fan off of course. Any opposition to this??

 

[Mark WV]

I've used Lexuspartsnow a couple of times without incident. I would assume with these door seals that their supplying dealer(s) did not have the parts in stock and they had to order them from Lexus which adds 2-4 days to the process.

your location makes sense from a practical viewpoint however how about attaching the decibel meter to the passenger headrest to accurately measure sound level closer to ear level?

 

[TheForger]

I received shipment notification and a tracking number so all is well, there's no ETA as it hasn't been 24hrs since they shipped but hopefully I will be receiving that soon.

@Mark WV I like that idea as well, nothing a couple bungee cords or zip ties couldn't handle. I'll definitely be thinking about this more and more as the parts are on their way.

 

[SmoothLC]

Thanks for the update @TheForger - keep us posted.

 

[TheForger]

The seals will be arriving Friday and I attached a screenshot of the tracking info showing where it is. Unfortunately, a dear childhood friend of mine (remember I am 20yrs old) who I grew up with since I was 4-5yrs old recently passed away a week ago. He was also 20 & attended San Fran St. Univ. & often long boards down the infamous San Fran hills. He suffered a traumatic brain injury sustained from trauma to the head after falling off his long board and face/temple planting into a curb with no helmet on. I am attending his funeral this Saturday (4/8) and will be back in Fayetteville that Sunday (4/9).

My plan as of now is to run the experiment either Wed. (4/12) or Thu. (4/13) weather dependent. I've also added a few more variables to test with the decibel meter so stay tuned to find out what those are. I will post the final results before I post the video so y'all won't have to wait on the video production. Really excited to see how well this turns out!

Also, I just realized I completely hijacked @LandCruiserPhil thread on this topic so my apologizes Phil I have considered starting my own thread once I complete the experiment where I will post the final results and video. Any opposition to that idea as well?

 

[planomateo]

Unfortunately, a dear childhood friend of mine (remember I am 20yrs old) who I grew up with since I was 4-5yrs old recently passed away a week ago. He was also 20 & attended San Fran St. Univ. & often long boards down the infamous San Fran hills. He suffered a traumatic brain injury sustained from trauma to the head after falling off his long board and face/temple planting into a curb with no helmet on. I am attending his funeral this Saturday (4/8) and will be back in Fayetteville that Sunday (4/9).

Sorry to hear. Never easy losing a friend/loved one.

 

[2001LC]

I've found a difference with 01 LC & 07 LC between the doors over B pillar. The 2007 has raised rivets anchors that a plastic strip attaches holding on rubber seal. No rivet anchors on the 01 LC rear door.
This piece was broken:

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

The seals will be arriving Friday and I attached a screenshot of the tracking info showing where it is. Unfortunately, a dear childhood friend of mine (remember I am 20yrs old) who I grew up with since I was 4-5yrs old recently passed away a week ago. He was also 20 & attended San Fran St. Univ. & often long boards down the infamous San Fran hills. He suffered a traumatic brain injury sustained from trauma to the head after falling off his long board and face/temple planting into a curb with no helmet on. I am attending his funeral this Saturday (4/8) and will be back in Fayetteville that Sunday (4/9).

My plan as of now is to run the experiment either Wed. (4/12) or Thu. (4/13) weather dependent. I've also added a few more variables to test with the decibel meter so stay tuned to find out what those are. I will post the final results before I post the video so y'all won't have to wait on the video production. Really excited to see how well this turns out!

View attachment 1434932

Also, I just realized I completely hijacked @LandCruiserPhil thread on this topic so my apologizes Phil I have considered starting my own thread once I complete the experiment where I will post the final results and video. Any opposition to that idea as well?

Zero worries

 

[SmoothLC]

Very sorry to hear about your friend @TheForger - 20 years old is very young.

 

[TheForger]

Thanks all. USPS shows the LX seals arriving tomorrow so I decided to start recording the control data without the LX seals during some free time today. I quickly realized a few things:

1) There are sooooo many variables that play into the noise that enters the cabin making it very difficult to obtain accurate results. Think of every variable you can, multiply by 3, and that's how many there really are. I just want people to realize the results I get are my results and that yours may vary. I don't run oversized mud or even aggressive all terrain tires like some of you (I'm sitting on Yokohama Geolander's), I don't run real high psi in my tires either (36), also Arkansas roads suck and there are a ton of potholes that make the decibel meter spike significantly, I can go on and on...

2) I figured out the best place to mount the decibel meter was on the passenger seat arm rest closest to the center console. My reasoning for this is that if I put it in the Ram mount by my knee I noticed a ~3dB increase as opposed to when it was on the arm rest. I contributed that to sound reflecting off the dash and also that is closer to the engine. It is also in a very good location inside the cab - almost in the center and away from anything that might reflect sound back and skew the results

3) I still managed to record what I think are accurate results for the control group after quite a bit of trial and error, as well as multiple attempts at each trial. After running a trial, adjusting a few things, running it again, and then running it a few more times to see if I get similar results I believe I finally got the technique down

Should have final results and my thoughts on if it's worth it by Wednesday. My expertly constructed experiment:

 

[PADDO]

Wish I could locate the sales brochures, glossys and literature that supported the introduction of LXs to the Aus market. There was a whole section on cabin comfort and sound insulation improvements over the LC - along with +$40k price hike.

 

[TheForger]

They are velvet-lined plastic strips. You actually have to remove the screws at the bottom of each door panel and there are matching holes on the weatherstrip that line up when you replace the screws. The ends are flexible and there's nothing holding them against the door, but once they are bent to the desired curvature they seem very rigid and won't move freely. I'm happy with them so far and first impressions are good!