swerve

I own a 2001 GS430.

I have for almost 1 year been experiencing a vibration at 60mph in the steering wheel. The vfibration always goes away for a couple of weeks after every balance and alignment.

Tustin Lexus first stated the wheels need balancing. For a few weeks, that helped until it came back.

They then told me I had cheap tires (Continentals) that was causing the problem and I needed to replace them. I finally replaced them with Falkens and I still have the vibration. I took it back to Lexus and they did a special balance called "Road Variance Balancing" and told me the new tires themselves were off balance. they again rebalanced the wheels and tires and guaranteed me that would fix the vibration.

The vibration came back again two weeks later. Does someone have any other ideas as to what may be causing this problem?

flipside909

Stock or aftermarket wheels?

CompuMan

This is a Wild A** Guess. When i got my sc400 a few months ago, my mechanic had me get a set of 'end-links'. He said that on my model, this was a 'weak' area and should be watched carefully. Does your GS430 have/use End-links? They are part of the steering and could contribute to a vibration and even unstable steering.
Again, this is a WAG

swerve

To answer your questions;

Stock wheels 17" not sure what end links are. Everything is factory stock though other than the new Falkens.

Any other advise or things to look for?

flipside909

How many miles do you have. And are you stock or modified suspension? There is a good possibility your wheels are out of round. Also I noticed ball joints tend to go bad on GS and SC's that are lowered. Not sure. Endlinks are usually on your swaybars...it's what attaches the swaybar to the control arm.

swerve

Everything is stock, 50K miles. Nothing lowered, everything original.

If wheels are out of round, can Lexus check that?

HarrierAWD

Wild guess. I suspect that at least one of your front suspension has worn out. This way the tire will wear unevenly and throw out the balance, thus the wheel shimmy reappears after a couple of weeks.

Do the front suspension "bounce" test. Press down hard in one front corner (slow and steady so you don't dent the sheet metal) then release. The car should return to its original height without much "drama." If you see more than one bounce, that strut has worn out. You need to replace struts in pairs.

Check your front tires with your eyes. Better yet, jack up the car and feel the tread with your bare hands. Find spots that wear more than the surrounding tread. If you can find them, that's also indication that the front suspension has worn out.

Another wild guess is that you drive on dirt road a lot and mud sometimes get stuck inside wheels, throw off the balance. That happened to me a couple of times. Had to go to those self-serve car wash place to blast the dirt out of my wheels.

98LexusGS

Does the vibration get worse after 60 mph? I have a 98 GS 300 completely stock with 145K miles. I replaced the OEM tires twice last year and spent $$$ in alignments. I brought it into the dealer and the said that the GS tends to have lower ball bearings that wear out. I had them replaced and the car runs as smooth as the day I bought her. Give it a shot. I think the lower ball bearings can be bought online for about $60-70 each. It looked simple enough for a DIY job.

HKS_GS430

i was told by my dealer it was a frozen caliper and they tried to get me for $900 bucks.i had my mechanic change caliper,balance wheels and it still vibrates around 70 mph, i am geting alignment tomarrow and having the mechanic check the ball joints too. i hope the dealer covers the ball joint..

damon

These machines are highly accurate & damn near fool-proof. Also note that they use a spinning wheel to do the diagnostics. If the wheel itself was out of round then the machines balance program should indicate that & they would either have to use more weights than normal to balance it or simply tell the customer that they are unable to balance that particular wheel & tire combo.

damon

Fisher503

Hey 98LexusGS you siad you had lower ball bearing problem do you mean lower ball joint?

98LexusGS

I'm not sure. The lexus people said lower ball bearing (could be part of the lower ball joint). Well, when I saw the part, it was L shaped with a bearing inside of it. Mine was so worn that the joint itself was very loose and you could shake it. This accounted for the wear on 4 brand new tires that I had to replace in less than a year, also accounted for the alignment problems I had. My mechanic told me I was lucky that it didn't fall apart as I was driving or it could have been really ugly. The car and steering wheel would shake like crazy when doing 80. Well, I hope this helps but if it's ball joint or bearing it should be covered by Lexus. I believe there might have been a service bulletin for 98 or 99 GS and it might have been covered under recall. Good luck.

swerve

A response I received from a similar post in the "Tires" forum stated that the most likely cause is tires slipping/turning on the chrome rims due to overlubrication of tires when installed. This would explain why I don't feel any vibration for the first few weeks after a balancing.

I am going to mark the tire and rim and watch for the possible slipping.

Any comments?

Fisher503

SWERVE go get your wheels balanced and the put a mark on the inside from rim to tire and see of the tire turns. Maybe the rear I highly doubt the front would.

HKS_GS430

never heard of tires slipping on rims, and i worked at a rim shop for 4 yrs.