Hi all!! This is my first post on this forum!! Great wealth of info on here! I recently purchased a 95 GS300 with 97000 on it. The car is completely stock and it's the misses daily driver. The car is imaculate and has no signs of abuse or neglect.
My question is this, twice now while the misses has been driving about 55 the car develops a vibration/shaking. This can be felt mainly in the steering wheel, however it shakes the whole car. The vibration has both times just disapeared after a few miles about as quick as it appeared. After the first time I balanced the tires and while I had the car on my rack inspected ball joints tie rods ect, but could find no play, but it happened again. Are there any known issues with these cars that cause this shaking? Any info about this or other issues I should be aware of would be great.
Thanks in advance!!
Anthony.

 

Check your Brakes? are your rotors in good condition and balanced? Maybe one of your caliper seized? if the steering wheel shakes while your brake then the latter must be checked.
Otherwise steering linkages are they in good condition? if not get them replaced its about $125 fpr each side but it really improves the feel of the steering wheel and will dampen out any vibrations. Also if your balljoints are ok then I wont worry about anything else . . . in terms of suspension components...
However, your tires what kind of tires do you have? do you have out of round wheels/tires meaning the high point on the rim matches the low point on the tire etc. basically you need to check your wheels whether they are bent or not and run true!
Also get a 4 wheel alignment and wheel balancing from a Hunter GSP9700 Machine which uses roadforce to balance each wheel. . . some lexus dealerships have it some dont have that equipment . . . so find out from the yellowpages which tire specialists have that machine heres some info about it
http://www.autotechnika.com
Other then that I think you should be fine man if the steering wheel vibration is what you are sensing. . .
Let me know how it goes
Good Luck

 

Tanks for the suggestions, lex, however brakes tire balance ect is all fine. I didn't mention last post but I'm a tech at a Honda dealer so I do all the work including balancing/aligning myself so i know they are fine. The reason I posted is this vibration/shaking appears all of a sudden and then just disapears for a week or so. I thought maybe there was a common wear component on these that may contribute to these modles.
BTW do these first gens have the same ball joint problem as the 99ish modles do? I read a few threads on the ball joint seperation woes and I now want to replace mine as PM!
Thanks again!

 

Motor mounts maybe? I get a little steering wheel shake while braking sometimes, but my car has always done that and it's not bad enough that it is a safety issure nor is it getting any worse.

Where is this thread about the ball joints you were talking about? I missed that one.

 

So I got a chance at some more one on one time with the car and found a left front caliper that seams to be hanging up. After driving I used an infared tep gun on both front rotors and found pass side 147 deg, drivers 330 deg!! I removed the caliper and one of the pistons won't push back at all. So another caliper will be here Friday to replace.
Also I flushed out all the BLACK trans fluid and replaced with new type IV Toyota fluid. It never seemed to have a shift issue, actually it shifted great, but I was starting to think this vibration may be a tranny shudder seing as it never happens when I drive only to the misses OF COURSE!! Now it seems to shift even smoother than before, if that is possible. I will post if the new caliper doesn't take care of this issue and thanks again for the replies!!

 

Make sure the rotor has not been warped from the heat

 

Yea tru dat . . .becuz otherwise you will still have the vibration if your rotor is overheated and the steering wheel will start to shake even without braking!

 

I was drivin the other day and noticed this weird vibration. GOing about 65+, this weird vibration/sound comes about. Its not a balance issue because i balanced my tires, but the symptoms arent even the same.

At 65+, the vibration comes from the back, you know how if you need your tires balanced, it will shake harder and harder as you go faster. This vibration is much more frequent and you can actually hear it more than feel it. This concerns me, idk what to even think...alignment maybe? ITs such a crazy sound/feeling, i feel like somethin is going to fall off!!!

 

One thing to check is the parking brake because, like the trunk struts, the strut that is supposed to push the parking brake back out has probably come to the end of it's life.

I have to manually pull the pedal out the rest of the way, otherwise it is about halfway pushed in - which usually does not trigger the "BRAKE" light. Otherwise it sounds like someone didn't balance your wheels correctly.

 

Check driveshaft rubber and all bushingsfor wear or deterioration

 

XL715 - Yes, the first gens are prone to ball joint issues. I just had mine replaced at 119K miles and the tech said the old ones (installed at 58K miles) were done. I am not sure whether they would cause the problem you describe, though. My car did not have this vibration, but instead had camber problems and tire wear issues.

 

I'm startin to think that the clowns at wal mart didn't balance them right, because i was drivin today and my car would start shakin around 60 like the tires werent balanced. Don't laugh, the reason I did it at wal mart is because my buddy said he'd swap out my tires to winter tires and balance them for free, but he didn't even get do it, so i got charged 30$$. Pretty rediculous.

 

Yep, If the whole car is shakin, check everything, lug nuts, balancing

 

very strange ive had warped rotors and it vibrated the shti out of my car

but no ball joint issue with this kind of car!

 

It feels like the vibration is coming from the back of the car.

This isn't related to the balancing issue vibration or whatever it is but has anyone noticed that their shifter shakes a little bit?? Sometimes. Just a little bit, should that be an issue??