Thanks for the tips, guys. Mine is a 98 with 68k miles on it.

I'm also wondering if the front end does not go out of alignment easily. My tech told me the camber was way off after he installed the tie rod end - much more than it should have been considering. I am thinking of getting a shock tower brace to see if it helps, then realigning and balancing the tires one more time.

Lower control arms are expensive - how can you tell if the bushings are shot?

 

my 99 does the exact same thing, it vibrates like crazy from about 55-75, but it started doing it right after i lowered it on tein H tech springs. at first i thought something was left loose so a buddy and i went back and checked everything again to make sure every nut was tight, then i had my wheels balanced, and it still did it. I finally got my 20s in the other day and it still does it, but its a little worse now. does anybody have a link to how to tighten the steering pretensioner? i wanna do that that and ckeck the bushings and ball joints while im at it, i hope it goes away after that!!

 

Had it swapped out for free even no warantee on the car?

 

I think so. ask Rominl

 

Rominl?? Any info on this?
bump

 

When I was at my Lexus dealership, the service manager told me Lexus specifies road force balancing as the ONLY way to do balancing on all Lexus cars..

 

So I change my outer tie rod ends, ball joints, rotors all around, brake pads, aget an alignment, and wheel balancing, and the vibration is as bad as ever. So I go to the dealer to have the TSB to the steering rack done, only to find out the prior owner had it done. I test drove the car with the stealership tech and he turned out to be a great guy - incredibly knowledgeable about this issue. He load force balances my tires and the vibration goes away. $1500 later. I wish I hadn't replaced my ball joints and tie rods - didn't do a damn thing, and were probably fine. Oh well. Lesson learned.

 

BTW, ball joints did not change the feel of my front end, but the TRD shock tower bar sure did! Wow, is this a beefy piece. Steering feels tighter since I put it on. Highly reccomended mod!

 

no worries. Ball joints normally go bad by 50-60k.
Your steering is pretty much 95% new

 

i had the same issue. vibration from 63 - 80. what i did this weekend was just pop my wheels off, got myself a torque wrench, set it to 76lb-ft, and torqued the lug nuts in a star pattern. afterwards, vibration was gone. my car is riding on original ball joints, everything, except for new bilstein struts installed 3 months ago. my car is at 110,000 miles.

 

Yeah, I had tried all that. Even removed my locknuts.

Billstein, eh? The service manual does mention worn shocks as a possible cause of steering wheel shimmy. How much stiffer are the Bilsteins compared to stock?