speedracer

I just switched tires from Continental ContiTrac SUV to Goodyear Fortera. The ride and quietness is apparent right away. Goodyear is a far superior tire. My question is I have had a steering wheel shimmy at 63-68 mph now with both sets of tires. They have been rebalanced numerous times and switched front to back and still I have the vibration in the steering wheel. The tire dealer said he has a problem with all Lexus cars/trucks with balance. Same vehicle in a Toyota no problem ie Landcruiser/LX470 or ES300/Camry. Is there something inherently difficult about Lexus vehicles in getting a good balance. Any ideas on how to get this shimmy out of my LX470?

tinygs

Ive never heard of any car being hard to balance, certainly not an entire brand of car...... Brandon probably has as much or more insight on this than anyone on CL, but, I know that almost 100% of wheels/tires are balanced off of the car...... I wouldnt think the wheel/tire would know the car it was destined to be mounted on.......
If both sets of tires were repeatedly balanced by the same shop using the same machine and balancing techniques, that could be the problem right there.....

Brandon@TR

Tiny is %100 correct we ship the great majority of our tires and wheels and they of course don't know what they are going on. That said, there are some vehicles that are more sensitive then others in this regard. For example 7 series BMW is very sensitive. Some tires may be balanced correctly but if they are out of round then you will still get the vibration. Even a brick can be balanced. It is my guess that you may have a single out of round tire or the shop you are going to does not have the latest and greatest equipment. Check our list of recommended installers below in your area for a place with a Hunter 9000 or greater machine and they should be able to balance the tire or determine that it is out of round.

Recommended Installers

Lexkost

I just went throught this with my LS400 rebalanced over and over and no luck,believe it or not but it turned out to be warped rotors..........Problem Gone!!!!