After the wife and I went into town and the handling scared the ****** out or her I sent my 04 RX to the Lexus of Spokane, 200 miles away, concerning it's scary handling on rough or uneven pavement. After it was there for two days, I had to call them and found out the the service manger and a mechanic took it for a drive and said it drove and handled just like all the other RX's they have and said "it must be the 18" tires. I have driven everything from old Ford trucks to Vetts of the same stretch of highway and none of them handled this bad.

Am I the only one who had experienced this?

 

I wouldnt be able to give u an opinion because I drive all city/hwy. Ill try to take it off road tomorrow and see what it does.

How does it handle poorly? Can you be a more specific?

 

Grouch, you need to be a bit more precise when you say handling (it very well could be that your issue spans all of the categories ..

Steering response (over - under steer)
Throttle response,
Braking.
Suspension,
Body roll.


Other factors like road condition, driving on smooth pavement, off roading, ruts etc.

Salim

 

Seems like you have not liked your purchase since the day you have bought it? i would go to a Lexus dealer and drive an New 07/08 and see for yourself how a new one handles!! Go drive a new one...

 

On flat level Hwy it's fine. On asphalt roads and Hwy's that are warn with ruts it will pull violently to the right and left trying to follow the rut's.
I have a very firm, almost white knuckle grip, on the steering wheel to keep it from changing lanes or going into on coming traffic.
When making a turn, it wants to pull hard back to center requiring a firm grip to maintain the turn.


(Booyah) "Seems like you have not liked your purchase since the day you have bought it? i would go to a Lexus dealer and drive an New 07/08 and see for yourself how a new one handles!! Go drive a new one... "

The closest dealer is over 200 miles away.

Why did I buy this one; In Montana, clean used RX's are hard to find at a reputable dealership. I had been looking for several months prior. I had to drive over 100 miles to find this one and the salesman was smart enough to keep me on smooth roads during my long test drive.

 

Grouch:

I cant tell you from the latest offering of Lexus, but in 98/99 time frame the GS400 was overall the best performance Luxury Vehicle from Lexus. [You can search the word "tram line" and you will get a lot of hits]. Since I had both the RX and GS, I could feel the difference and the RX was superior in how it rolled over the seems in the road.

I changed the tires on the car and that made a huge difference.

The other things that make direct influence are stiffer shocks (I went LTuned).

I have not felt the need to do any thing else, but GS folks have tinkered with the Tensioner in the steering. [May be Lexmex can identify that part in RX].

Salim

 

Following the ruts or grooves in the road is called "nibbling" and is caused by the tires. Try switching the front tires to the rear or replacing the tires. Even try some used tires to see if this helps before speending a lot of money.

 

Bear60

Nibbling to me is the tracking on rain groves cut into concrete Hwy's. I can live with those.


Salim

The tires are Michelins that are about 1/2 worn and have even wear patters on all 4.

 

FWIW, My 04 RX doesn't exhibit that behavior. It didn't with the 18" Goodyears nor does it occur with the Bridgestone Dueler Alenzas. It sounds like your dealer is full of it. Try a different dealer or write a letter describing the issue and what your Lexus dealer said to both the Regional Lexus rep and the NTHSA as this sounds like a serious safety issue.

To me, it does sound like a tire issue.

 

Thanks Jim

I have a call into Lexus Customer Service. I guess that's a starting point.

 

I would agree with the analysis of potential tire issues. Our 05 had a real problem with following ruts cut/worn into roads, and that particular effect is called tramlining. When we switched from the Goodyear RSA’s (POS's more like it) to Michelin's the tramlining just about went away. We had similar issues with our RX300 and by changing tires, it became a dream to drive (went from OEM Goodyears to Bridgestone). I would strongly suggest that you look very hard at your tires and see if there may be some tread separation (internal) starting to occur, or try switching to a different tire.

 

Read this article to start with. It will shed a lot of light on your situation, I hope.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=47

 

Very interesting article.

 

Internal tread separation and/or defect may also contribute significantly to handling issues such as tramlining, and poor turning characteristics. Lower grade tires, often put on by sales lots, can be really evil when trying to make a vehicle handle properly. Sounds to me like you have either a serious tire problem or a combination of tire/suspension issues. I have been very impressed with the handling of our RX and believe me, I've had many opportunities to push it to it's limits (and to some degree, well beyond mine).

 

Great article. They also have a broad index of subjects.

If I was using "Billy Bob's recaps" I'd change tires in a heart beat, but these are the same type and size Michelins that came on the car.

Lexus Customer service only called the dealer's service manager for his input then called me and said to drive another RX when I go to pick up my car and compare.
So tomorrow I travel the 200+ miles to pick up my unrepaired RX.