lowrider

Hey, I wanted to put up a post because I've seen numerous posts on this site and other websites about brand new Lexus models with steering wheel vibration at 60+ miles an hour.

I too actually had this issue. I bought my Ruby Red, UL edition from Lexus of Serramonte and because this dealership is in San Francisco and the traffic was bad on the freeway at the time I purchased my car, I failed to get it on open road and rev it up to the 60+ MPH mark on the test drive. "I know, slap myself on the wrist", I will NEVER EVER skip the freeway drive again!!!

Anyway, on the drive home, after passing all of the bumper to bumper traffic I finally was able press on the gas and doing so, experienced a VERY bad steering wheel shake. It was too late to make a U-Turn and drive back so I continued on my 80 mile drive home. Let's just say it was a very long drive home with a bad feeling in my stomach feeling that I just got duped by the dealership.

Note: I have a Lexus Dealership 5 miles from my house but worked a VERY good deal with the one 80 miles from me and considering this is my first $40+ vehicle, It was worth the drive.

Now, with that said. I had the vehicle checked by my local dealership and they were very surprised that I was experiencing this already. The Lexus of Roseville, CA have a very helpful staff by the way.

They had to keep the vehicle overnight and what they did to repair it was that they used a Road Force machine to re-balance the tires. What they found was was that the tires(Michellin) were not up to specs at all. (I have the E-Sport 17" wheels option on Michellin Tires).

Needless to say, this is actually a happy ending. I picked it up from the dealership and WaahhLaah, smooth sailing.

I wanted to share this for those Lexus owners that experienced this steering wheel vibration and also for those that are doing their research prior to buying an ES. This is a FABULOUS vehicle and I am completely happy with the performance, all materials used for the interior, tech controls, wood, Everything. For those that still have steering wheel vibrations on a new Lexus and the dealership is unable to fix it, I would recommend taking it to a reputable tire/wheel shop and have them do it. I actually considered doing this if the dealership couldn't fix it. I read somewhere that someone had re-balanced it 4 times at the same dealership with no resolution and that scared me a bit. Hence the consideration of paying for the re-balancing.

I hope this was not too long of post but I am trying to put in my 2 cents on a bad starting experience on my first Lexus with a very happy ending.

PsychDoc

Happy to hear of the "and they lived happily ever after" outcome!

I'd just caution about using a non Lexus place for what should be warranty work. I'd be worried that it might void parts of the warranty and that the dealership might "blame" the private place for any future problems that might develop with the car.

Also, with something like this I'd let the dealership do the work and refuse to take the car until I had a tech come with me on a test drive where I'd keep the car over 60mph for at least 5 minutes to be sure the vibratation was gone. If it was still there back it would go to the shop.