08redES350

08 ES350 with 52k miles. Bought new, nice car overall BUT since new the on-center feel of the
steering is bad. Had alignment checked twice (once by dealer, once by tire house) and only minor changes were made both times which did not change issue. Constant attention is req'd to maintain lane and road crown always causes problems. Time for new tires and maybe this will help. Any suggestions ?

scfz1000

my 2007 is straight as an arrow..very stable and great on center feel....are your tires in good shape? how many miles on the tires.

ThumperPup

some say i go overboard on my alignment of my car's but i want my money worth and i am sticky about my car being straight as an arrow constantly
so i get it done every 6k
have a 5 year pakage with tire kingdom on it
and never have an issue unless the shops alignment machine is off or there tech is bad

mlacomb

Mine floats a bit; but I had a Grand Marquis before so I was used to a bit of float.

RickC5

I run Michelin Primacy MX4 tires @ 35 lbs. pressure and have no problems with wandering or a poor on-center feel. Could be just your tires?

ThumperPup

i forgot did you say if you rotated the tires ?

i mean take the tires and put the Passanger tires on the drivers side and then put the driver side tires on the passanger side
it's possible you have a radial pull in one of the tires
if that's the case then if you have a warranty on the tires still go have them replace the ones that are bad or the one that is bad

if no warranty on the tires
look for a shop that uses a Road Force Ballance with lateral pull option from Hunter i almost gurantee if its a tire pull that will take care of it
http://www.gsp9700.com/

make sure whe you look and locate a Hunter road force that they accutaly have the added option feature on there GSP9700 that has the Lateral pull not all have it

08redES350

The 08 350 has 52k miles and the steering feel has been bad the whole time. It came with Michelin MXV4 tires and I've had them rotated and balanced plus the 2 alignments mentioned, none of which helped the on-center feel at all. I will mention that I do have extensive experience in the auto field and am sensitive to how a car handles but this Lexus is just not acceptable in this area. I have a 05 Bonneville with 160k miles that is much more pleasant to drive on the highway. Anyway, time for new tires on the Lexus and most of the CL posts seem to favor the Michelin tires but it doesn't seem logical to try them again since they didn't seem to do well as OEM. Other suggestions ?

08redES350

oh, RickC5, I was running 35 psi in my Michelin tires as well. Fuel economy is great and, due to alignments, tire wear as even across the tread BUT a bit more in the center of each tire, perhaps due to higher pressure than recommended ?

ThumperPup

its a 08 with under 60k id say take it to the dealer a different dealer and ususualy and tell them its been going on since you first bought it if you really feeling its not good pay them to do there inspection or allighment and when it does the same thing make sure they check all components no reason for them not to want to find something it's not like a repair under warranty comes out of there pocket
lexus pays them after they do a repair

have them hunt for a problem if they have to but make sure you explain and im sure they have another 08 in for service or same model of another year and they can then drive that and figure out its not normal and something is wrong

igzy

As far as I know, alignment is only covered for the first 12 months under warranty...

ThumperPup

yeah that would be the alignment

but what i am thinking is if its been like this since the OP bought it he said
and he's had it in for an alignment 2 times i think the OP said
then i don't think the issue is weather the alignment is on or not
i think the issue might be an actual component or part that the alignment relies on

rhkII

A slight toe in on front, within spec however, will promote straight tracking. Also RE: Tires, do not compare your MXV4 O.E. tires with the Primacy MXV4. The on center feel on my Infiniti M35 was terrible, a known M35 issue. Infiniti replaced O.E tires with Michelin Primacy MXV4, and aligned with more toe in. Problem solved. The next year, 2011, Infiniti switched to Primacy as their O.E tire.

ThumperPup

of topic for a moment but i really don't understand why michenin even makes the MXV4 OE tires they cost more then the primacy and they have no milege warranty where the primacy does
just stupid but hey

igzy

For general public they may cost more, but I think that when OEs buy it they get a big break on cost (volume) vs consumer level tire that they don't mass buy...

ThumperPup

ah that kind of does make seance but still they must know that the primacy is better they give a milege warranty on the primacy and the OE they don't im still a bit supprised that primacy is less if its a better quality longer lasting tire

oh well business is never run with people who have common sence some of the times lol