Stu

my OEM Lexus 18" wheels are silver ...

thinkin

I'm at a loss to understand why your 18" would be worse than the 17" beyond tire design except for one critical variable: width. I wonder how narrow one can go on the 18" with a common size and retaining very close to the overall height, and if that would be equivalent to the 17" in terms of the wandering?

thinkin

Using http://www.1010tires.com/tiresizecalculator.asp , 225/50x18 tires (options are more limited but some here http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSe...50&diameter=18) are 26.85in diameter vs. stock 26.68in, very close at only .64% difference or .4mph@60mph. These are good for width 6-8" so we should be fine - I think stock 18" are 7.5" wide, right?

Has anyone ever tried this size on an LS430?

Viper6

Stu - You and I suffer the same symptoms and I join you in the hunt for this white whale my friend! I have ordered rear sway bar (sport) and sway bar bushings front and rear to see if this might help... I'll report out what if any change this makes when I get them on.

Talk about a fly in your soup... damn this is annoying!

Stu

I am sure width is a variable, as wider tires tend to follow the road more the narrower tires, so I would expect if I put 10" wide wheels it would get worse Just a guess, it might improve. My guess is the difference in width between a 245/45/18 and a 225/55/17 is not significantly a factor in my situation.

Well, I know its not my imagination !!!! Its really annoying, and I am pissed that no one knows what to do about fixing it. Bon helped me get the steering rack bushings, and it helped a bit, but didn`t fix the issue, and just buying more suspension components is an expensive route, which I would accept if I had some assurance the car would get fixed. Good luck with your rear sway bar and bushings. Honestly I really don`t know what to do !

I just spent 4 hours on the highway with the 17s and decided that if its not fixed when the snows come off, I will trade in the car, which is a damn shame ! I waited 20 years for my LS and then I buy one with this issue !

hvirgen

Stu, in the same boat as you, waited 10 years to get my dream car and have a highway wander. Drives beautifully up to 60 MPH, but then above that it starts to wander, not alot, but enough to be bothersome and tiring on a long highway drives. The problem didn’t start until I had control arm bushing replaced. Took it back to the dealership, and they checked the suspension and alignment and stated that everything was spot on and that everything "looks good". But there are different physics involved when the vehicle is static in a service bay and when it’s bouncing down the highway. As stated, the problem still exist but because of the holidays haven’t had the chance to go back to the dealership again, but plan to in a few days. To me it would seem that this issue is caused by a soft part like a rubber mount or bushing. I say this, because strangely enough, the warmer out temperature is, the more it wants wanders, just slightly but enough to notice. I'm not giving up on my dream and going to systematically try to have the dealer replace the soft parts on the front end (I purchased a great extended warranty, might as well put it to use). I will post any changes. Meanwhile, I keep limiting my high speed long distance driving.

Stu

So there areother suffering too, besides Viper and me. Sorry to hear it.

Somone on this foum sent me this link a while ago. I have not had this work done but might as well put it out there.
http://www.valvoline.com/car-care/au...cr20060701sr#b

I dont want to repeat the steering bushing replacement where I replaced bushings that were perfectly good, a waste of money and time. Everyone I take the car to, including the Lexus dealer, tells me to get the adjustable arms and fix the camber and then "we will see what needs to be done after" ... and they are saying this BECAUSE, I believe, because they don't know what is causing the problem.

All this while everyone here says the camber is NOT causing my problem.

I can just start replacing other good parts ( I dont have a warranty !) or replace new tires and buy another set of wheels .... and still not get this fixed ?

Needless to say I am not very happy with the diagnostic abilities of the dealer and shops I have been to !

monkeybutt

Wow, this is quite the conundrum = PITA. My LS drives straight w/ 17 OEM or 18" OE replicas.
My LS tracks straight on 17" OEM and 18" OE replicas.

However, I sorely recall the experiance w/ my Acura. I must have changed wheels/tire combos on that car over a half dozen times just for fashion or handling curiosity. A few combos back I switched to some Dunlop Starspecs in 17". I drove into Americas Tire Co. with a perfectly straight tracking car and after changing tires I had to hold the steering wheel 15 degrees to the left of center just to track straight. But depending on the crown it would wander slightly left or right. Of course I was quite upset and thought that they had screwed up the alignment. Trouble w/ that idea was that Americas Tire doesn't do alignments. They merely switched the tires and did a Road Force balance.

So I drove next door to Boyd's alignment specialists and the tech told that the car must have been in an accident because the caster was off on the right. I told him I never heard of the problem before. After several tries he did set the steering wheel more or less in the middle, but the car still drifted depending on the road surface R>L. I lived with it for a while.

I then took the car to Tire Pros where I get most of my tire stuff done and they checked the wheels tires on the Hunter Road Force machine and checked the wheel alignment. They said the tires/wheels balanced out okay and the alignment was within spec. Car still wandered.

Finally I took it to my go-to guys at Westlake Honda/ Acura Independent. I keep these guys in reserve, because they are dealer expensive, but they are the best. After a test drive, checking the balance, a rotation, another test drive, an alignment and another test drive, they concluded that it was a particular tire that had some kind of flaw. When they moved it to the rear and adjusted the alignment, the drift was still there, but a lot less. The owner said that once in a great while he would see this problem, but when you consider the number of tires made in any given model, well **** happens.

PS he also said that my left and right rear camber were slightly too negative, but to just rotate them and watch the wear. He said it wouldn't adversly affect handling. The slight drift w/ the Starspecs bugged me so I switched out to some Toyos and now some Conti DWs in 18" and the drive and the wear is fine.

The short of this long story is that techs will tell you all different kinds of reasons/stories based on their knowledge. It seems the difference w/ my last guys were that they applied some problem solving methodology to identify and actually improve the problem.

Stu it seems like you have taken a reasonable approach to solving this problem. It sounds like the car is straight, the alignment is within spec, the bushings are good and your 17's track straighter than you 18's. So it would seem that the problem is the 18" wheels and/or tires. My guess would be that like me you have a bad tire, except that I think you said you tried some Hankooks that wandered also? So the wheels then? Is there some way to check for trueness of the wheels?

Stu

monkeybutt, yes, it is a problem, and has really prevented me from fully enoying driving the car. I knew it was doing this when I bought it, but mistakenly assumed new tires and an alignment would get it fixed.

I think you are correct and there is somthing up with the 18 " wheels or the Continental DWS tires. I'm trying to sell the 18 inch wheels and tires, and if I can't sell them they will go to the next owner of the car. After the winter, I will keep the 17s and buy new summer or all season tires and new wheels and maybe it will drive well enough to keep the car.

In the meantime, I may put the adjustable control arms on and get the camber fixed, even though I don't expect it to solve the main issue of the wandering on the highway. But once its fixed, I may get some of these service places, including the dealer to go futher in their investigations.

I posted this a couple of days ago, and wondered if anyone has done this on an LS, of if anyone had any idea if this would be a good or bad idea for my wandering issue ....

http://www.valvoline.com/car-care/au...cr20060701sr#b

Bon

Stu, your link doesn't work for me but you must be referring to this link:
http://www.valvoline.com/car-care/au.../ccr20060701sr.

I have made this adjustment on my SC430. I don't recall if the LS has an external adjustment or not. It wasn't hard and it does take out any unnecessary free-play in the steering rack. Too tight and the steering won't want to return to center after a turn. Just back off the adjustment a bit if this happens. Excessive free play in any form is never good and will spoil the precision of the front end.

monkeybutt

Murphy's Law. I've noticed last weekend that the LS felt kind of rough when over less than smooth roads. Thought it might be my imagination since the car felt fine otherwise. My wife drives this car to work a few times during the week so I didn't get to try it again until today when I heard a clunking sound when going over rough roads and exiting the driveway. When I got home I pulled the left front wheel and found the strut had leaked and the insulator torn up. When I pushed down on that corner there was a lot of extra bounces. I checked the other corners and they were fine looking and in damping the bounces. Don't know what happened to that strut since all were replaced in April of last year.
Anyway, I can add to your list of things that DON"T cause wandering: a blown left front strut as the car tracks well to 85+mph.

scottgolf

Seriously? I don't mean to sound like a smart ***, but with negative 2 degrees of camber what do you expect Have you ever driven a race car before? Try setting your camber in positive numbers like 1 to 3 degrees. I ran negative 2.2 in the rear and negative 2 in the front of a world challange t1 corvette. its the road that pulls them all over with that camber. also the stiffer the bushings you put in the worse you are going to make this thing.

The LS430 as everyone tells me firmly on here is not a race car.

Also, set the car to toe in a little any toe out you have will increase your problems. unless you are planning to race your 430, then by all means toe it out a little to increase your turn in.

hlheaton

My wandering problem was cured when I replaced the front wheel bearing hub on the right side. It did not make much noise, but it sure did cause wandering which got worse as the speed went higher.

Stu

I am glad to hear you had this issue AND got it fixed. Just wondering, how did you or the shop detirmine is was a wheel bearing causing the wandering ?

My car now has the snow tires with 17 inch wheels and although it wanders a little bit on some roads, its a HUGE improvement. I drove on the highway in a heavy rainstorm the other day ... and the car drove perfectly - straight as an arrow. I don't get it at all. I am really not sure why it drives SO MUCH BETTER / STRAIGHTER on the smaller winter wheels and winter tires, but it does. Other than being 17s, my winter wheels have a 35 offset and the tires are 225/55 so they are taller and narrower.

I was planning on selling my 18" OEM wheels and tires, but I will be pissed off if I do and the car still wanders afterwards because my issues are caused by a worn wheel bearing, or some other small suspension part, or due to the camber being out ...... I am debationg buying summer tires for my winter wheels and then buy new winter wheels next winter, lol

RavenLS430

Im having the same problem. I have a 2002 LS430 and it also wonders on the highway. I replaced both lower control arm bushings, and the rear sway bar, and i just had an alignment done. It help a vary little but over a period of about 1 month it got worse. Has your car been in a wreck?