Hey all - I struggled with the title for this thread because it's difficult to describe what exactly I am experiencing. A little over a month and a half ago my front end developed what I would call a death wobble. Since then I have replace UCAs, inner and outer tie rods, and I have the LCAs (all four) arriving this week.

I took the car for an alignment after the tie rods and on the way there and back noticed a new issue where the car started to vibrate somewhat violently when accelerating, and it would sort of wobble/vibrate when decelerating - unless I put the car in neutral then it was like smooth as glass.

​​​​​​This led me to believe I should do a drain and fill on the differentials, transfer case, and transmission which I will also be doing this week.

Now I am getting a new (awful) noise when accelerating which you can hear in the video I've attached. The periods where the noise stops is when I let off the throttle.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I am sort of at a loss. Thanks.

I cropped the video down a few times so the file would be smaller and since the audio is what matters here. The Google drive link is .mp4 and I've attached .mpeg just to cover all the bases.


Google Drive Link - Video

 

I don't need to hear your vid to say this.
You have bad u-joints in your drive shaft. You described that symptom perfectly. If they are that bad you should get it checked out real soon and avoid highway driving as much as you can. Good luck with it.

 

I agree about getting joints and shaft checked.

 

Is it AWD or RWD?

 

It sounds like you have a good lead on it but if it does not turn out to be the u-joints you may want to check the engine mounts. Seems to me that I read a similar post and it ended up being the engine mounts.

 

AWD or not?

 

It's an AWD.

​​

 

Well that's something! Here I thought I was doing a terrible job of trying to describe what I was experiencing lol. Thanks everyone for the insight. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it!!!

I honestly thought of everything BUT the driveshaft of course. I think I am also going to need to replace the engine mounts, unless the driveshaft issue would cause a vibration/noise when revving the engine in Park? Also sounds like an exhaust rattle but I can feel a slight shake of the general engine bay area.

 

Driveshaftstore.com has new driveshafts with a 1yr unlimited mileage warranty (looks like brand is DuraShaft) for $488. This appears to be a pretty great price from what little research I've done so far. Anyone know what replacing one of these entails? Haven't looked into this yet 🫣

https://driveshaftstore.com/Lexus-LS...ft-2011-339360

 

Before you start replacing anything, you need to confirm the issue. If the driveshaft u-joints have a play, you will be able to confirm it by holding the joint on both sides and trying to rotate in opposite direction. You will need to check the support bearing as well. If any parts of the driveshaft have issues, you will have to replace the entire thing, I believe.

 

If it happens when you rev in park it can't be driveshafts or anything in the driveline actually, none of that stuff is moving in park. It is likely the engine mounts

 

Hoping you find the issue. For future posts. Always list year, mileage, and RWD or AWD.

 

Thanks Anfanger, I remembered reading something similar at one point but couldn't find it again so I appreciate you sharing this here. I am going to check the u-joints for play this morning, and will research how to check support bearing as well.

I did see someone else mention here having to replace the entire driveshaft also.

 

This was my reasoning for thinking engine mounts as well. It really odd though because when I started the car to put it on ramps this morning I felt and heard (if that makes sense) the vibration even more pronounced even just at idle. Also felt like I could feel the vibration underneath me somewhat like extending through the front half of the car. Definitely not a comforting experience either way.

 

Thanks swfla, and of course your absolutely right. I was so preoccupied with the issue at hand and in my head I had listed this on previous posts so of course you all should have already just known lmao. My LS is a 2011 SWB AWD with 158,230mi. I have owned it since just under 80k.