97LEXUSES

Hi All,

I own a 1997 ES 300. It only has 47,000 miles.

I am the original owner of the vehicle.

I recently had the rear tires changed. Replacement tires were the exact same brand, model and size.

I also had a 4 wheel alignment perfomed at the same time. After the work was done, the car seemed fine, until we had 4 adults in the car. The rear tires began rubbing in the wheel well. Particularly over medium bumps and around corners. One mechanic told me it was the struts, one told me the struts were ok, its the springs.
How can I tell which, if either is the problem? Tires rub in both rear wheel wells. No issues with the front suspension.

Any suggestions?



Thanks

J. Porter

Dave Mac

I'm not sure I can help you but I had the same problem with a 97 Camry of my wife's. I had replaced the wheels when I purchased the car new and had no problem for years, then with the purchase of new same size tires I experienced the same rubbing you are describing with four adults and got the same responses re. struts vs. springs neither or which seemed likely. It turned out that the wheels had a different offset which only manifested itself with the new (unworn) tires and a little bit of aging of the springs and struts. I rarely had four adults in the car but remedied the problem by returning to the original wheels. If you changed your wheels out you might consider this or if you only occasionally carry four adults you might just live with a little rubbing until your tires wear down a bit. I wouldn't go to the expense of struts or springs.

Dave Mac

Choas

Here is how I see it. The car has low miles so having any suspension problems isn't very likey but then again it has sat around not really being driven for 11 years. So to fix this you have a couple options you could grind or roll your fenders like many members here including myself have done since we have very wide rims. The other option is the springs or struts it really doesn't matter which one it is because it all has to come apart to fix it. That being said most of what you would pay to fix it would be labor so it would be stupid not to replace them both. If you look on ebay I bought a set of 4 kyb struts shipped for 250 which are better than oem ones and cost less. Next is springs most guys here when they buy springs get lowering springs since they will improve that handling of the car greatly I bought my tein springs for 175 shipped. On a final note you might want to think about replacing the strut mount since again your right there and its very easy to do when you are already doing the springs and struts. I went with kyb strut mounts but some say the toyota ones are just as good I don't think it matters. Finally and I should have asked this in the first place do you have avs on your es cuz that would make it a completely different ball game.