A tire or several tires are cupped slightly causing some vibration and noise. It isn't horrible, I've had worse, but the tires are in pretty good shape tread wise. I bought the car several months ago and didn't realize it when I was test driving it. I rotated and balanced the tires, plus had an alignment. Besides replacing the tires, is there a way to remedy the cupping or do I just deal with it?

 

Cupped tires usually indicates a problem.

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Just changing tires will not address the problem as it will recur if you do not fix what is causing the tires to cup in the first place. Take your RX to a shop, or two, for an inspection of your struts.

 

Thanks for the advice. It may not be my driving habits after all. My Explorer that I owned for 7 years seemed to have the same problem with cupping even with rotating every time I got an oil change. I never looked in to what was causing the problem. Hopefully it was the lack of tire rotations on the part of the previous owner, but I will keep the struts in mind now and have it looked at.

 

Cupping is caused by worn suspension parts. Things to check would be struts, wheel bearings, bushings, etc. Rotating the tires doesn't fix the problem, it just moves a good tire to a trouble spot. I've never seen cupping issues corrected via wheel balancing or alignment.

I'd suggest you speak with your Lexus service advisor or take the car to a capable independent suspension specialist. If left like it is, you will wear out your tires in a hurry.