Okay, I have an annoying problem that I can't find an answer for...
My steering wheel is vibrating at 50-70 mph.
1) When I accelerate fast then the vibration appears when I stop accelerating at higher than 50mph. but while accelerating I don't feel the vibration much.
2) If I accelerate slowly, then I can feel the vibration starting from 50mph.
3) Sometimes it feels line there is some vibration on the brake pedal when I press on it at high speeds.
4) In overall, it does not feel like the steering wheel is stable/solid, it's kind a loose or something, don't know how to describe it. I drove my friends truck and felt the wheel was very solid with no vibrations at all, even on uneven roads. Mine does not feel like that. Very hard to describe. It feels soft(okay, it's Lexus), but at the same time it feels kind a weak.
5) The main issue is the vibration. oh, the wheels are perfectly balanced as I saw the process of balancing myself. 00-00.

My mechanic told me that it's my old uneven tires. It happened(coincidence) that I replaced my tires recently and the vibration persists. Now he says that it is because something went bad where a wheel hub and bearing is, something inside he said ( I don't remember how it's called). he said it must have been broken when a wheel bearing was pressed in. I can't trust this and replace everything he says - "might be"... I asked him if my steering components were good and he said yes. May be I need to double check the steering components somewhere else?

I have 4 new rotors, new front wheel bearings, new CV joint axles, new brake pads, new tires, power steering liquid replaced.
I would really appreciate to find the solution to this here. That vibration really annoys me as I can't find out how to fix it.

Thank you.

 

Rotate the tires and see if the vibration lessens. If so... rotate one side at a time back until it gets worse... then you’ve found the tire with a broken or stretched belt.

Its a common issue.

 

Wait... you just replaced all of your tires and still have the issue?


if so... I’d just take each tire off and center them on the hubs. They can get off centered slightly and cause this type of vibration. It’s due to the hub and lug design.

 

But, he is saying that it was happening before said, tire replacement.

 

First of all, thank you for your replies.

Yes, I had the vibration when I had old tires and I still have it on my new tires. May be there was something wrong when I had my new wheel bearings pressed into the old hubs? If so, that's gonna be really expensive to fix I'll need to buy 2 aftermarket sets of hub and bearing assemblies. Cause I don't want to do the pressing again. These shops around me are probably bad.

I'm having an alignment to be performed tomorrow. I also told the shop about the vibrating to check and asked find the reason. I also old them that it is not the balancing issue. I hope they will find out. All the shops just keep telling me it's a balancing issue. I think they just don't have enough knowledge above the balancing tires... I don't understand how they run a shop.

 

Did you road force balance? That can fix the issue a lot of the time if its tire/wheel related.

 

I'm not sure, but at a discount tire they told me that they have a special balancing machine that can tell if anything is wrong with tires and wheels.

 

Not to steer you in a different direction but, Have you read/seen this? Especially if the vibration was there before the new tires/brakes,bearings, etc..

 

OMG, I hope this is not the case. That would be too expensive to repair.

 

Not necessarily. According to that PDF, there are two parts to this fix.. And well, it looks to me like the 55-65 only applies to you. Which should be a couple of hundred dollars.


On the first page of the PDF, it mentions this:

NOTE:

Parts 1 & 2 are applicable ONLY to vibration/drone at 55 – 65 mph.

Parts 3, 4, 5, & 6 are applicable ONLY to vibration/drone at 70 – 75 mph.

 

Before you do ANY type of "Repair/Replace" Try starting your GX, while you are letting the engine come up to temp. Change the switch to Soft, or all the way to Sport (Harsh Ride).. Drive it on the highway, and do your normal 45-70( Giving yourself a leeway in terms of speed variation) a few times... Then a few minutes later, an hour later, a day later (Your choice), try it again, same road same conditions, EXCEPT this time, Change the switch to the opposite of what you had it in the first test. Process of Elimination type of exercise.

See if that changes anything. Report back on your findings.

 

I'll try to do that on weekends. Thank you.
But what will the change in modes give me in terms of finding the problem? Should I compare the vibration during sport and soft rides?
Also, wanted to mention... when I first tried sport mode after soft, I noticed a big difference in accelerating and power. The rpm was higher than on soft before gears changed. In sport mode it really felt like sport.
But recently, I tried the sport mode again several times(normally I drive on soft) and it felt like on soft mode it was accelerating better and I didn't feel the power.
Is there something wrong? Or I don't understand something?

What difference do you see when switching the modes?

Thank you.

 

It has nothing to do with power. It's not an engine, or transmission switch, It is a switch to change your suspension settings (Ie. soft, medium, and sport; for better cornering ability. Although it's a heavy pig already) I ask because I have read that (Including myself) some drivers were experiencing vibrations within that range of MPH. The vibrations got worse or better with the change of suspension setting. Something to think about. I'll keep (Re)searching for you.

 

I'm so noob looks like it was a placebo effect for a noob
Thank you!

 

No, not a noob at all. This is the phenomena which happens when you install race coil overs, race springs, race suspension, etc.. So that you can put the power down on the pavement faster/easier, without wheel hop etc.. And on cornering speeds, without your vehicle losing that racing line due to softer spings/coil overs and crash.... So I know where you're coming from. In layman terms that is..