okay guys I need some help. I have a 2003 gs430 and I've had two sets of wheels on this car in the last few months. It came with stock 17's. I have had a set of staggered 19's on it and now 20's there is no steering wheel shake and no pulling with the 20's the 19's yes I had shake and pull. Now I have these staggered 20's on it and the car has the same vibration that the 19's did but no vibe with the stocks (obviously). So this vibration comes in waves and it's not really bad but enough to annoying me. Has any one had this issues before ??

 

I had that whole wave vibration thing too in my 01 GS300, it was like that when I sold the car. I never understood the whole wave pattern thing, didn't make sense to me. I had alignments and tire balances done at every oil change and it never went away.

 

I'm wondering if it's my hubs or axels,

 

tires not running straight usually, causing tire side to side,lateral, movements, transfers to tie rods and steering wheels shakes....oscillating waves of shaking the wheel is the result.

 

wel the wheels balanced to zero and the steering wheel doesn't shake at all. It feels like it stems from the back and progresses forward in waves

 

Waves are always a balance problem.

Theres no reason to even look at the car, you said yourself that theres no vibrations with your stocks, so "obviously" its not an issue with the car. Regardless what is said after balancing, still check your tires and inspect the hell out of the wheels for bends.

Question, are your wheels hubcentric, or are they oversized and incorrectly matched to stock as everyone does? What lugnuts are you using? I'm willing to bet its one of those 2 issues.

 

I never thought about it being the lug nuts I put hubcentric adapters on both sets of wheels I have had in this car and it vibrates with or without them when driving in the aftermarket wheels I'm running a staggered 20 now and before I was running staggered 19's. I went with the nitto Invos this time and I'm not happy with the tires at all they are very loud however that doesn't cause a vibration. The wheels and tires are straight and true. I'm going to change my rotors next just to see if maybe that's the cause also I'm lowering it with H&R springs next week so we will see what else needs changing

 

Measure the front rotors with a digital caliper at various points of the rotor.. more than likely they are no longer true/out of spec. Not saying that's causing it all.. but that has been known to add vibration.. i know mine were out of spec/warped.

 

Again, theres no vibrations with the stocks, so theres nothing wrong with the car. Its totally narrowed down to the wheels themselves...


OP, I forgot to mention, check the tires for any imperfections. Look for micro bubbles, It doesnt take much to throw it out of balance. Cant rule out moronic tire shops not telling you they cant balance it 100%. I dealt with a wobble problem for a long time until I found out that the shop didnt tell me that they couldnt balance my wheels 100%. I found that one of my wheels was bent and they just balance them "the best they could".

 

I fought with this issue on my GS also with brand new aftermarket wheels and tires. The factory wheels are not only hub centric but they are lug centric also. What eventually eliminated it was using both hub centric rings and ET Lug nuts to center the wheels on the hubs and lugs. I purchased the lugs off ebay for about $30. Keep in mind that some aftermarket wheels may not accept these types on lug nuts (I don't know what to tell you if that's the case). They worked perfect on my XXR wheels though.

 

My bad didnt see that initially when i read it.

 

It could be the car. Non stock wheels just exacerbate an underlying issue. With my car, as tires would wear, i would get all sorts of vibrations. With my current set of tires, I was getting my standard vibrations as the tires were half worn. I ended up replacing all my control arms, ball joints and tie rod ends and the vibration disappeared and the car now drives like new even with the older tires.

 

Vibrations can be all sorts of issues, ball joints, bushings, drive shaft bearings and damper plates. (These can be checked by putting the lower control arms under partial load then wiggle the wheel. Should be solid no slack)
Changing the rotor will only help if you notice vibration during braking.
Switch back to the stock 17s to see if the shaking is still there. If it is, then it's suspension related. If it isn't then it's wheel related.

 

I replaced a bunch of parts and still got slight vibrations. The one thing that helped was getting a good alignment. You have to make sure they get it within spec and match up side to side. I never really understood the alignment spec sheet, but once I learned, I was on the guy about getting everything in spec and on point! Car drives like butter even though one of my wheels were cracked a fixed. Check your alignment sheets and keep going back and get them to do it right! And throw some hubrings on.