Boomer01

The other night I was traveling on a narrow road and hit the bump out of a curb. Everything seemed fine but the next morning I found that I had a gash in the tire. I got it replaced and all of the tires rebalanced but the car has a vibration/grinding feeling when I go over 50 mph. It normally doesn't happen under that speed and it is not the road. It is not a very noticeable vibration and doesn't even shake the steering wheel but I hear the sound and can feel it in the gas pedal. It's more of an annoyance than anything because I am used to the quiet smooth ride of the LS. I am pretty sure the rim is straight so my thoughts were a bent control arm or tie rod. I also thought it might be because one of the tires (Michelin PRIMACY MXV4) is brand new. Any ideas?

GeorgeT

Bent rim? Danaged wheel bearings?

CarGuy89

+1 those are the most likely things that happened

Also check your suspension components. Depending on how hard/fast you hit the curb there might be some damage to that as well. I remember on the old 5 series forum there was a common problem of a shimmy at speed which was caused by a bad control arm. I doubt that you damaged your control arms (would have to be a pretty severe impact), but if the bearings and bent rims don't check out, then this might be a contributing factor as well.

V8_Fan

The suspension components are aluminum, so they are likely to bend more than steel ones. My mother hit a curb at 60mph way back in her 1984 camry. After that, it would drive straight, but would go through a tire in less than 10K miles. She tried practically every shop for alignments, etc., but no one was able to correct it and said it was in-spec. I believe the suspension components were permanently bent from the hit. They ended up just replacing the tire every 10K mi for the next 10 years.

waijai

iTrader: (9)

I'd have them double check the balance of the tires.

mewhee

Temporarily replace the new tire and rim w/ your spare tire and its rim and see if it still happens. At least you'll be able to tell if the problem is the new tire/rim or elsewhere.

Just a thought ...

Boomer01

Discount Tire said they all balanced out to 0.

The sound is more of a grinding sound with a slight vibration. The vibration is so light, though, that it doesn't even shake the steering wheel. I don't think it is the wheels or tires.

lexuslspro

Sounds like the bearing to me.

Playdrv4me

You mentioned a "grinding" feeling above 50mph, so I am going to say the bearing is shot. Normally, a light hit like you gave it shouldn't cause that kind of damage, but I (and others here) have found that the bearings on these cars are practically made of fly paper and will fail if you look at them wrong.

I had the exact same type of noise/feeling coming through my gas pedal above 65mph and ended up needing not just one, but BOTH front wheel bearings replaced before 100k. Sucks.

nkoppy

I concur on the wheel bearing diagnosis as the most likely culprit for the sound you’re hearing.

A few years ago, I hit a serious “moon-crater” of a pothole in my old (thankfully, non-Lexus) car. I noticed a humming/grinding sound that emanated from the wheel that bore the brunt of the impact, and it was later diagnosed as a bad wheel bearing. (In addition, that $#&*! pothole wrecked my tire, blew out the strut, and bent the rim!).

Depending upon how fast you were going, and the angle at which you struck the curb, I wouldn’t rule out some minor damage to the wheel too - after all, it was enough of a hit to cut your tire. (I agree that temporarily putting the spare tire/wheel on your car should at least answer this question.)

Boomer01

Did you have to take the car to the dealer to get the bearing fixed? How much per wheel?

Playdrv4me

I have a cheap aftermarket extended warranty that I got for a few months, and as a result their labor coverage is very low so I took it to a local shop my roommate's family uses. The warranty company sent out bearings that they sourced which initially concerned the mechanic at the shop, but once he received them he said they looked nearly identical if not identical to the ones he orders locally. Total cost for all that ended up being 229.00 with 100.00 deductible, that was for both wheels.

Generally however, I would HIGHLY recommend that you go no where other than the dealer OR a Toyota dealer and have this done with genuine Toyota parts as Toyota bearings are engineered to an insane standard of smoothness and quiet (unfortunately not for durability). Out of pocket cost on the bearing job is unfortunately, quite pricey per wheel. If I'm not mistaken, another member here had the same problem around the same time I did and had Toyota do it for around 6 or 700.00. I think that was for one wheel.

EDIT: Here's the thread... $654.95 at Toyota for the left front wheel: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...-but-here.html

warminwisc

I would go to a good frame shop with state of the art laser alignment capabilities and use OEM parts.

I hit a bolder at 70 mph and went to the best frame shop in town. New rim, 2 new tires alignment real fair price drives better than original.

JimsGX

Keep in mind that your insurance might cover the repair if it was an obstruction in the road... Many years ago, I had a pallet fall off the back of a truck in front of me on the highway. I ran over it with both front wheels. Bent the rims and needed an alignment. Insurance covered it.

fergo308

Actually,it's the other way around. Steel arms will bend,aluminium arms tends to FRACTURE when impacted.

If the car is driving normally (the steering wheel is still centred and the car doesn't pull to either side when driving straight) and all you're experiencing is noise/vibration,my money is on a wheel bearing.

The groaning sound will get louder as your speed increases,and will get louder when you turn corners opposite to the side affected as the car loads the damaged bearing up as you corner.


Justin...