Hello everyone,

So my car (2015 RX350, 65K miles. 10K miles on tire) has been vibrating at highway speed of 70+ mph, and I’m not sure what exactly is wrong. It initially started after I did a balance and rotation on the car. After taking it back to the mechanic and being told nothing is wrong, I took it to Lexus of Rockville, and they said to contact the tire manufacturer (Michelin). I contacted tire rack instead (i bought my Michelin Primacy Tour A/S from them) and they told me to get the road force numbers. I went to a German specialized shop (couldn’t find any other road force machines near me) and they returned with RF numbers of 9,11,17,26 lbs. 26 lbs wheel had a gash in the tire, so I replaced that with a tire that gave a RF value of 18. So now I have 9,11,17,18 lbs of road force in my tires. Then I got an alignment, and they said my front right camber was off by a lot (-3 degrees), but otherwise the car drives straight.

still, I’m having really bad vibrations. Sometimes when I get on the highway and go to about 75mph (or even 80), it is driving smooth. But a minute or two later (I did have to slow down and then accelerate again), the vibration kicks in and it does not go away, unless I go down to 55 mph or less. Even at 60mph, the vibration is still there. And the origin of the vibration is weird. Today around 70mph, I was feeling it on the steering wheels and pedals, but at 75mph, the vibration on the steering wheel became marginal, but the pedals were vibrating quite a bit. I’m really not sure what I should get checked. My front brakes were done around 10k miles ago. I’ll be doing the rear brakes with new rotors this month. Can someone guide me at figuring out what exactly is the issue? I’ve been draining way too much money into trying to get this vibration solved.

 

You need a good independent shop to inspect your total car. It could be many different things from wheel bearings, CV axles, motor mounts etc. I am surprised no one has investigated this further by now.
Attached is a list of Rockville area car repair shops that were top rated by Washington Consumer Checkbook Magazine readers during their survey. Find a few near you and check them out further to see if they do a lot of work on Toyotas - Lexus vehicles. The RX is basically the same as the Highlander.

 

I wouldn't throw money at anything brakes, unless you are feeling it at various times braking, even at lower speeds.

Higher speed vibrations are typically tire related, but it seems you have been chasing this down with the tires? My wife had a similar issue, and it completely went away with our next set of high speed rated tires. If I remember right, it may have even been Michelins we had the problems with? Do you know anyone else with an RX nearby that you could quickly swap rims/tires with to see if it goes away? A bad tire is a bad tire, no matter how much balancing is done. At least that has been my experience. I've had a similar issue with one of my 35" tires on my Land Cruiser. I ended up figuring out which tire it was and it is now a full time spare. I had 5, so it was easy enough to rotate through the tires.

As far as other mechanical problems causing vibration....driveshafts, gears...that's about it. But usually you will get other symptoms/noises associated with both of those.

See if you can get a loner set of rims/tires to swap with a friend. If the problem goes away on your car and starts on his/hers...problem solved

P

 

An easy check for your brakes. After driving touch the discs (careful can be hot) and see if any of them are abnormally hot. If one or more are hot that is probably your problem It costs you no money to check and you don't have to have been driving on the highway.

I would also point out that you say this started after a balance and rotation. It seems this is the cause.

 

Thank you for the list Clutchless! I'll definitely visit a mechanic from that list. I understand why you mentioned things related to the suspension/drivetrain, but what doesn't make sense is that this vibration started after I rotated my tires (Around Christmas 2020). I swapped out the damaged tire, and the replacement had a road force of 21 lbs, so I got a replacement for the replacement which had a road force of 18 lbs. So I've gone down in road force value (thats good), but the vibration is still there. And the pattern of vibration just doesn't make sense to me. It started after tire rotation, but now the vibration pattern (intermittent on the highway) points a lot to something wrong in the drivetrain/suspension. Can intermittent vibration be caused by wheel/tire?


Lexus of Rockville also mentioned that a lot of their customers have been having issue with Michelin tires. I'm done buying Michelin, need to find a brand I can trust without breaking my bank. I don't know anyone (new to the area and covid doesn't help) near by with SUV tires, so I can't really swap them out. So I'll do a tire rotation tomorrow to see if that helps figuring out if my tires/wheels are the issue, or if I'm about to go broke fixing my suspension. I was thinking the last mechanics might have messed up the balancing (their machines might not be calibrated) because they did inflate all 4 of my tires to 44psi, so I might just get a balance done before I do anything.

Exactly. It started after a balance and rotation. But the vibration pattern (intermittent) seems to point to something wrong with the suspension/drivetrain? I'll definitely do a brake temperature test next time I go for a drive and get vibrations.

 

Have all of your wheels been inspected to see if any are out of round or bent? They should have been able to detect that on the tire balance machine.
If you do need your wheels repaired, I have used Ye Olde Wheel Shop in Elk Ridge, MD
​​​​​​https://www.yeolewheelshopmd.net/

Maybe 9 years ago when I had the ES350 I bought a set of Yokohama tires that could not be balanced and I had vibrations at various speeds no matter how much they balanced them.
I returned them to Tire Rack and bought a set of Michelin tires which solved the problem.

 

The mechanics doing the road force balancing said the wheel doesn't visually look bent/out of round. Also, compared to the tires without the gash, the replacement tire has a lot of weight on it (about a pencil length). So at this point I just feel like buying a set of rim and tire. The car is still under 70k and 7 years, so it still has the powertrain warranty. So I'm hoping if the tires and wheels are not the issue, hopefully Lexus will take care of it.

 

I have a 2000 4runner and I have had the same issue as you are having (I think) ever since I replaced my wheels with aftermarket wheels at around 15K miles or even less. I have 138K now the problem appears about 65 mph but mostly goes away when I drive over 72-75. I say mostly because sometimes it never does. So if I were you I wouldn't replace your wheels with AM right away, your problems might get worse. I had so much problems that when they finally get it right, I don't even bother to rotate my tires anymore. I only get the best tires thinking that the extra money means better quality. Nope!

Now I always ask the tire shop to do the following (hopefully I remember everything):

1. Calibrate the machine beforehand
2. Zero out the balancing, do not let them use Smart Balancing or whatever mode that saves them time and on weights. Make sure its reads 0 oz. weight needed!
3. Unmount the tire from the machine and re-balance a 2nd time. They don't have to remove the wheel from the shank, just loosen the big nut that holds the wheel in place, re-tighten and re-balance the tire again. You'd be surprised how many times it'll say that it needs more weight! If it's really bad, I have them remove the weights and start over again.
4. Of course Roadforce, check for out of round wheel and tires. Flat spots and wonky seams on the tires.
5. Have them try re-mounting the tire 180 degrees with respect to the wheel. So basically you're trying to get a lower Road force number by match mounting.
6. Drop the car so the wheels are just touching the ground, not the carrying the full weight of the car, then torque em before fully lowering the car.
7. Most importantly, TIP the tech! $20 goes a long way specially if they never ever ever receive tips! Just some lunch money.

You RF numbers seem ok but I think I have lower numbers on my 265/65/27 truck AT tires. The shops will blame your suspension, warped rotors, crappy AM wheels, etc... But IMHO its the tire quality which varies from the same batch and how they are mounted and balanced.

If ever you decide to get AM wheels,of course the lighter the better, and make sure you get ET lug nuts. They have extra long shanks to help center the wheels. Not sure if the RX wheel is lug or hub centic but these extra long shank lug nuts are a must.That is also a problem when a wheel is lug centric because the balancers are using the hub to mount the wheel to the machine.

Hope this helps.

 

Great tips on getting a perfect tire balance!

The RX and all Toyota/Lexus wheels are hub centric. 60.1 MM is our bore diameter. It is the same on most front-wheel drive platform Toyota and Lexus vehicles. So Highlander, Venza, Camry, ES350, Avalon, Sienna, 4th gen RX wheels fit perfectly.

 

Hello Members,

I have a 2015 RX350 F-Sport, which has about 65k miles, I have noticed that when I go above 75-80 MPH, i feel vibrations in the cabin and the steering. When I reduce speed every thing is smooth.

I checked the tire pressures, all are set to 35 psi.

I had an alignment done a month ago by a Lexus dealer.

Do the tires need balancing ?

What could be the problem ? I would appreciate if some one would direct me in the right direction.

Thanks

 

Having the tires balanced would be an appropriate next step. I would also lower the tire pressure to 32 psi. Lowering the tire pressures may not fix your issue, but it will keep the center of your tires from wearing out prematurely. You could have a bad front tire. If so, you may want to consider swapping your front tires to the rear and see if your issue disappears.

 

thank you for your quick and valuable response.
I will rotate tires and reduce pressure and report back if things are better.

 

did the rotation fix your issue. I have recently acquired a humming sound that is not related to engine or transmission engagement. I only notice the noise once speeds hit 53-58mph. From what I've read I am leaning towards hub/bearing failure.