bwilder10h

I apologize in advance for starting another vibration thread but I've spent countless hours searching and no avail to this point.

I have a 98 GS400 with 58,300 miles on it. When I bought the car three months ago it would shake at 62mph and beyond. This was on stock 17's and I assumed the wheels and tires were out of balanced so I had them checked and they were fine. I sold the wheels to another member here and he reports no problems on his car with the wheels. Rules that out.

I then got a set of 20's which are on the car now and it has the same problem. After reading multiple threads, I bought Lexus balljoints and Daizen bushings and installed them. Still vibrates like nothing happened. Only disappointment is now it shakes and due to the bushing install, I feel every bump on the road where I didn't with the stock bushings.

When I installed the balljoints and bushings I checked the tie rods and they appeared tight with no problems. I have since tried different tire pressures, different torque settings on the wheels, fooled with the tensioner on the steering rack as mentioned in another thread, got an alignment and had the wheels road force balanced, even though I kinda knew the problem wasn't the wheels... given it happened on both sets and the stock wheels were confirmed to not vibrate on a different car. Nothing has helped.

At this point I hate driving the car and mostly leaving it parked if I wont be driving in town. I absolutely love the car and it's been the most enjoyable vehicle I've owned (with 4 doors) to date but this vibration thing is unbarable and I cant afford to keep throwing parts at it. It has also caused me to think about selling it but who the heck is going to buy it with it rattling your teeth on the interstate.

Please advise on what folks think the problem is... thank you!

JeffTsai

iTrader: (1)

If you do plan to sell the car, put on some stock GS 16" wheels. That should be enough to dampen it(cover up) the problem. If you want to take another stab at fixing, I suggest you try to get the caster bushings replaced. Those are the first to go out of all the bushings.

bwilder10h

The castor arm bushings were replaced with the control arm bushings in the daizen kit.

Of course I would prefer to not sell the car but if I can't get this resolved I wont have a choice. Paying for the fuel to drive my truck daily isn't justifiable...

JeffTsai

iTrader: (1)

Did you have the 20" checked and balanced? I think some people here recommend a road force balance. Not all rims come out from the factory are perfectly straight. There are some minor imperfections at times. Also, the alignement settings can cause some problems as well. Do you have any suspension mods? Just stabbing in the dark here....

bwilder10h

Yeah the wheels have been road force balanced as mentioned in the original post. Even went back and had them check it again.

I also had the car aligned and it didn't seem to change anything.

Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming.

GATO

iTrader: (1)

I was shaking and rattling like crazy at 60 62mph.....it sucks...

I then got the toe fixed and went in for an balance on all four wheels....

no more shaking....

4 months later.............its doing it again....so I drive 80mph to work...lol cause it doesnt do it at those speeds...

but I'm not worried about it....all it is, is a proper balance...

thats what I'll be doing tomorrow.

go somewhere else for a balance.

also, if you want to take it a step further, have them dismount the tires and make them spin on the balance machine......check to see if wheels are bent

bwilder10h

I really dont believe it's balance on the wheels because the same wheels that vibrated on my car, do not on another car.

The shop I took it too for road force also did a set of wheels for me on another car earlier this year immediately found a out of spec tire and helped me resolve that so I'm confident that if I had a bad wheel or tire they would have found it.

ShowGSLuVv

I can tell you from my personal experience. It ended up being a bent rim. I had SEVERE vibrations that would come and go and after many times getting it balanced telling them to check it out, finally I had someone figure out which rim was bent. This problem went on for about 6 months and the vibrations were mild at some times and then very severe where it would shake the whole car and everyone in it. It would always start at about 60 then go away and by the time I reached about 85 it would be rattling you to the bone.

Goodluck.

bwilder10h

That sounds similar to what I am experiencing but the wheels on the car now are brand new so I tend to doubt that is the issue. Also given the fact that two sets of wheels on the car do the exact same thing, I want to believe that rules out the wheels and tires. My stock wheels were placed on another GS and did not vibrate at all which tells me something is causing it on my car...

ShowGSLuVv

Could be your rotors are off balance. I read somewhere on this forum that it caused someones vibrations before too. Maybe do a search.

bwilder10h

Trust me, I've about worn out the search feature on this topic.

I did see somewhere that a guy said he had his rotors turned and it cleared up a vibration issue but didn't know if I agreed that this was possible. I dont know that I've ever heard of a rotor causing vibrations before. It seems to me that if the pads aren't applying pressure to the rotor that it wouldn't make a difference.... but I'm willing to try anything at this point.

Anyone else confirm or deny the rotor theory? My brakes do not pulse or shake when applied heavily but they do squeal a little and it wouldn't hurt my feelings to replace the rotors with a inexpensive cross-drilled set for appearance. Especially if it would cure the vibration issue............

subparrnd

This might sound silly, but go and have nitrogen put in your tires. I have 19" wheels and our dealership started putting N2 in all of our new and CPO cars. We get to put them in our car for free and it was amazing. 3 other guys at the dealership have reported the same thing. Definitely less vibrations!

I had violent shakes at 62-67 mph. After the N2, it made it SOOO much better.

Hope that helps a bit.

Homer

DJ TANTRA

the rotors wud only cause your car to vibrate if they were warped and while you were applying your brakes.

I am in hte line with you..i experience intermittent vibrations going in between 55-60.

I think it is balancing and am waiting to get it road forced. I reccomend doing all these steps one more time:

1. Check roundness or if they are warped...your tires and rim.
(most likely they are not since u said its ur second pair- but better safe than sorry) Make sure the tires you are using are ok.

2. Get the Road Force balancing again! even though i know its like close to 100bux...and ask them for a print out and you want the figures in single digits. Also tell them to make sure your tire pressure is accuarte while you do that.

3. If those things dont work try new rotors :-\


I have made a checklist for the things that I need to do to get rid of the vibration...when I get home I will put up what I left out.

I didnt do any of the steps yet because I have a transmission leak and my car is sitting in the garage until i have the funds to get her up and running..

--but ill add if I left anything out.

Goodluck man

and keep updating even if you decide to sell!!

sung35

Do you know anyone around your area that that has the same set of wheels in stock form that you can borrow. There are many of us here who use set of stock wheels for winter. You can borrow a good set of wheels (and tires) with no history of vibrating problem from them for a day (or a week), install it onto your car and see how it feel. If you happen to be around MD area, come by my house. I can lend you the stock set for a week.

I had my vibration problem before with 18" wheels, but the balance did fix it.

bwilder10h

I think we covered that already...