Sihorn

I bought my RX330 AWD a month back. I have started to notice that the car tends to vibrate a little and I think it gets worse on highway speeds. This vibration is definitely more pronounced on stretches of road that are not perfectly smooth. There was a long stretch of road when the vibrating feeling got annoying and the ride just did not feel normal. The vibration can be felt on the floor, the accerlerator, the steering wheel, left door panel sometimes even the back rest of the driver's seat.

I have also noticed that with the stereo running, the left door panel vibrates noticeably.

During the 1,000 mile checkup when I took it to my dealer in Fremont, CA they said everything was normal and that they even compared it to another RX330 and did not find anything wrong. They also said that a little vibration is normal and would go away after 3,000 - 4,000 miles (I have about 1,400 now). However, they only had the car for about 20 minutes total which makes me wonder how well they checked it out..

I read some past threads about this issue most of them from earlier this year. Some have said balancing the tires will solve the problem and in one case someone actually returned the vehicle for a refund because he found the same problem on other RX330s as well.

I am planning on taking the car to another dealer and will also try to get a test drive on a different RX330 AWD for comparison.

Has anyone else have to deal with this recently? Has Lexus acknowledged that this is an issue?

JRB

I strongly suspect that one or more of your wheels is out of balance. If the vibration wasn't there previously it probably was caused by a wheel weight coming off, maybe from hitting a pothole or curb. Or it could have been marginally out of balance from the factory and has gotten worse. I recently purchased a new set of winter wheels and tires for my other vehicle (FX45) from TireRack and I found after they were put on that they were terribly out of balance and caused a severe vibration when you got it up to 45+ mph. A complete rebalancing totally eliminated the problem, and the car now runs smooth as can be.

My advice would be to take it to a tire shop that has the latest in wheel balancing equipment. This gives them the ability to do a precise computer spin road force balance on each wheel. They can do a printout that shows the results for each wheel.

In the event this does not work, the next most likely scenario is that your Lexus is out of alignment. In that case you will need a four wheel realignment, which I would have your dealer take care of, hopefully under warranty.

Good luck - I know how these vibration issues can take all of the enjoyment out of driving your car.

BrickHead

If balancing and realignment doesn't help then you could try rotating the tires front to back. I had a similar vibration problem in my LS400. Long story short, the dealer found out that one of the tires had a slight 'defect' and is causing the vibration when it's mount in the front. You could leave the defected tire permanently in the rear or purchase a new tire. Good luck!

nineback

I had a similar problem and posted an email earlier. I thought perhaps it had something to do with the Goodyear tires I hae versus the Michelins on other peoples 330. I just had my 5000 mile service done and the dealer could not find anything wrong. They did rotate the tires and it appears to have solved the probelm. I too noticed the same vibration from the radio in the door panel and would actually turn off the radio when I was trying to isolate the vibration.

Tom

RickC

I did not have any vibration problems until I took it in for the 5K maintenance and they rotated the tires. I am sure that rotation is what has caused it. Mine isn't bad enough to worry about it yet.

RickC

Sihorn

Thanks for all your suggestions. I went to another service center yesterday but they too did not feel any vibrations. One of their technicians took a test drive with me and said that the slight vibrations that I was feeling were normal for a 4 wheel drive SUV. In any case, I asked him to check the alignment and tire pressure, and to rotate the wheels but that has not changed anything.

I am planning to drive another RX330 AWD at a dealership tomorrow to find out if all of them actually have the same amount of vibration.

Maybe this is something that I will just have to get used to since I won't have much choice!