lazura

I am having a 'heck' of a time getting a smooth ride on my 99' GS400. I got rid of the lousy knockoff rims (Niche) and went to one of the recommended brands (Moda). I am running a staggered setup (18x8 front, 18x9 back) with Yokohama AVS db tires (245 front, 275 year). This setup got rid of my bad 'shimmy' problem, but now I get annoying vibrations in the steering wheel above 60 mph. My Lexus dealer has already checked the rotors and says the problem is in the aftermarket rims. But, my local tire dealer says there is nothing he can do and I may have to 'live' with the vibration. Since the Moda rims are not 'hub-centric' (but they do have centering rings installed), what manufacturers make rims that are hub-centric for my vehicle (I already heard of the HRE rims, but they are WAY out of my budget)? Note: I have the Moda R6 model rim and I would prefer to stay with the '5-spoke' design, but I'm getting tired of this lousy vibration!!!!!

dt21823

Have you had the wheels balanced on a Hunter GSP9700? I had the same problem with steering wheel vibration (my wheels are hub centric), and the Hunter machine was able to pinpoint the tires as the cause. You can read my post for more info:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...threadid=51378

Ray

SharpLS-96

DT21823 is correct!! Thats the best machine by far!! The Hunter GSP 9700 Vibration Control System. It actually does a simulated road test on both the wheel and tire. You can’t get a better balance job, period!

BananaGS

you need to have the hub centric to eliminate the vibration. who ever sell you the rim w/o the correct hub centric should be sue.

Call tire rack (tirerack.com) they may be able to get them for your car. I got the hub centric for my OZ wheels from Tirerack or from OZ manufacture. They have the hub centric build exactly for OZ rim and lexus. they fit perfect on the rotor.

I don't think your wheels are not balance, it is not that hard to balance the wheel, using Hunter machine or not. It's more important to keep your wheel from slipping on the rotor after the wheels are balanced.

good luck
Anh

lazura

Actually, I do have the centering rings installed from Moda. I just had my car in the shop for 1/2 day and they re-balanced all the wheels, cleaned the rotors and re-installed the centering rings. The ride is definitely better, but I still get some shimmy and vibration in the steering wheel above 60 mph. Even though Moda are high-quality rims, I'm just about convinced that the only way to get the smooth ride with aftermarket rims is to get the ones made especially for Lexus with a hub-centric design (i.e. HRE). Unfortunately, these rims are EXTREMELY expensive and Lexus also charges way too much for their upgrade rims. I guess I'll have to save up for the HRE, L-tuned or L-sportline rims to get back to the vibration-free ride....

Note: I could find very few tire dealers in my area with the new Hunter 9700 machine. Most have the older Hunter machines and my Lexus dealer refuses to even attempt to balance aftermarket rims. Their advice was to buy Lexus-only rims (thanks a lot!!)...

dt21823

It's your money, but I would really pursue getting all your wheels checked on a GSP9700 before you go after a new set of rims. It could be nothing more than one tire or one rim that is out of round. I paid like $40 at a Napa service center to have all 4 of my wheels checked. If all 4 rims check out OK for runout and all 4 tires are within tolerance for road force then the problem is probably with the wheels not being hub centric.

I believe TXSTYLE has Moda R6's. You could PM him to get his experience with getting them mounted and balanced.

Ray

SharpLS-96

Most likely then you have one bad tire or rim that is out of round. Don't try looking for which one it is because you can't tell by the naked eye.