lex326

Thanks to all of you for helping a noob out with his new purchase on here. I was driving to work today and finally got a pocket of traffic when I could blow it out to 80-85mph. On the test drive and in the past week, i really couldn't get over 75mph in traffic.

I notice that my 08 GS AWD runs a little rougher than my 09 Camry (four cylinder) did. I wouldn't call it a "shake" but maybe a slight vibration. As I'm still getting acclimated to the car and don't know whats normal and what's not, I appreciate hearing others' experiences.

Arantant

May be as simple as needing the wheels balanced... check the tires for uneven wear as well.

Arantant

My car runs silky smooth 100+ mph...

TMF

The RWD has better acceleration than the AWD.

Mesca

iTrader: (28)

Yep, definitely go and balance your wheels. After that if it still persists make sure you get an alignment.

Brian@Vossen

Solid advice. Check the wheels/tires, balance etc.

lex326

Lexus service guy took a look..

He didn't even bother with a re-balance. He said the tires that the 3rd-party dealer put on them suck. "Venezia Crusader HP" tires are what's on there. Not sure if what he's saying is valid or if he just wants to sell me four expensive tires. The tread still looks pretty good on them, but could quality of tires cause the vibration?

Ice350

iTrader: (1)

Tires very well be a cause. Especially cheap tires. Once, I bought cheap tires that were out of round and no balance job could alleviate the vibration. Any quality level tire could cause vibrations if the car is out of alignment for a long time causing uneven wear. There are other situations as well. Bottom line, it could be tires, even if they have a lot of tread.

If it's not tires you have a worse issue. I'd rather it be the tires.

lex326

Looked up the tires, they go for $140 apiece. Not exactly "cheap." I'm wondering now if lexus just wanted to upsell me.

BinaryJay

Even expensive tires can come out of factories defective. If you bring it somewhere to be balanced, they should hopefully be able to tell you if nothing they do can balance one or more of them. The balancing machine should tell them if there is something up.

Arantant

Agreed, you might as well invest $30-$40 and get all four "crappy" tires balanced to see if that fixes it before spending hundreds on new tires. Also, what speed rating are the off-brand tires on the car. I always make sure to get Y rated summer performance tires (Michelin, Falken, Yokohama - the ones on my car so far).

Arantant

I guess you might need all-season tires up north... or get a set of winter tires if you want to get summer tires.

lex326

I bought new all-season tires (Michelin). 17". The lexus dealer/servicer insists they checked the car up and down and found no issue that could be causing the vibration other than the old crappy tires. The car only has 38k miles on it.

I have to say I dont see much improvement at high speeds. Just dropped 1k on new tires and i still feel vibrating in the wheel (and sometimes the speedometer needle vibrates a bit). The bent rim issue (as small as it was) was fixed two weeks ago.

I know were not "legally" supposed to be driving over 65mph, but I expect better from the car.