sydtoosic

i started feeling vibrations on the highway at 60-70 MPH. after 1 week on the new set up. took it to Poor Freddies and the tech comes out and runs his hands over the tires and says the 2 back tires had a shifting belt or tread, (can't remember what term he used) but he sounded FOS. he tells me the 2 back tires are bad. tells me to call Continental, why when you're a continental distributor... just call them and fill out the form. so i left and went to Whiteys tires... found out the back tires were fine and the right front tire was jumping when being balanced. filled out a form and got the new tire... problem solved, no more vibrations.

djpeakSD

I didn't read every post in this thread and this may be a stupid question but it is worth asking just to be sure. If you do have after market wheels, are you running hub centric rings? If so are they metal rings? What the OP said about Michelin is totally true, to me they are the absolute hands down best tires that I have ever had and I have never had any issues whatsoever. I have had tons of aftermarket wheels in my time and dealt with this more than I care to think about. I would always go down the line of balancing alignment torsions bars blah blah blah, but in the end it was either a tire issue or hub centric rings.

silver305

iTrader: (1)

yes, all centric rings were on the vehicle when they took the tires off. My issue is probably going to be one of the following:
1. bad tires
2. bad driveshaft
3. bad control arms
4. not finding a damn good place that can do more than just a simple road force balance.

I need to tackle it by going the cheap route which would be to replace the tires.

djpeakSD

The easiest way to diagnose it, is to throw on your stocks. Im guessing you don't have stock wheels and tires or you would have done that by now.

ssrfenton

Lets be careful here. Cheap is not good, low cost high value in diagnostics is required. It may or may not be tires. One Low cost place to start is an alignment place that performs on road tests. These guys know the feel of steering, tires and control arms etc and for $25 its a bargain. They know shocks too.

Next, you could go to a Toyota Service Center. They are trained in all service aspects and best of luck you will find an ex Lexus tech working there. FYI, Toyota Service is qualified to perform all Lexus Service but NOT warranty work. Always talk to the tech in person.

Because you drive a Lexus it is assumed you have no respect for money and the Lexus dealer is trained to remove as much of your cash as possible. Be Aware. That does not mean they do poor work but are expensive.

Keep us posted.

CJITTY

have you asked the question in the FL forum? Asked for a solid tire shop that others have used? Have you researched on the car balancing as I have mentioned..I'm telling you, you will be glad you did..not cheap but sometimes you gotta pay to play..no shortcuts dealing with low budget tire shops or tire installers that are more concerned about their shoe posts on Instagram and not trained on tire balancing

ssrfenton

CJITTY is this the machine?

On-the-car Finish Balancing

On-the-car finish balancing can correct most vehicle vibrations caused by low profile tires, upgraded sizing of custom alloy wheels, and/or brake and suspension irregularities. This will not correct brake pulsations or mechanical problems with your suspension, but "balances out" any weighty areas in these components - resulting in a smooth ride. Standard balancing can sometimes alleviate the problem, but not in all cases. If you are having trouble with a vibration in your vehicle, then try this unique service from Metro Wheels. The wheels and tires are taken up to 130 mph - on the car - using our Hoffman finish balancer. As long as your vehicle doesn't have damaged wheels, suspension or brake components, the result will be a smooth ride.

ssrfenton

I don't want to rain on any one's parade here, but I would also go with the Hunter 9700 balancer. It will give you a dynamic and static balance and the wider the tires are, the more important it is to have the tires balanced both ways. The spin balancer on the car will only balance the wheel on center, but will not detect a heavy area on the inside or outside of the tire which will throw the spinning center line off. If the spinning center line is off, you could still have some shake in the steering wheel even though the wheel is balanced on center. I've never been very impressed with spinning the wheel on the car as a method of balancing the wheel.

Maybe best go to each manufacturer website and they will have a locator for you.

silver305

iTrader: (1)

i have located a shop in Fort Lauderdale that does this type of balancing. I would love to see if they can nail it the frst time with these tires. I hope they dont tell me that they can't get it to balance because the tires are bad..

CJITTY

Just you know..on the car balances done at Butler Tire is a "finishing" balance done immediately after a hunter road force balance while off the car to fine tune other vibrations not captured during the off the car balance..this is very popular in Europe as well

silver305

iTrader: (1)

i just bought the Tanabe springs so now i am freaking out about the vibration being worse once i drop it..

djpeakSD

Why? If you don't have a vibration now you won't have one after lowering the car.

I8ABMR

Dude we are so going through the same thing. I will just tell you my vibration is worse some days than others too. The issue with my car was 3 fold. I had bad wheels, bad tires, AND a bad driveshaft. Lexus replaced the driveshaft and its better BUT I still have the issue with the tires. ( Vossen replaced the wheels). Now I have a more mild vibration but it still persists. The tech at lexus told me to just wear the tires and then replace them since they are so damn expensive. I am looking into PS2s or INVO. The INVO is easy to get and cheap. The PS2s are being phased out so they are much harder to find. I have had this annoying vibration from day one. If the tires dont do it then I will be dumping the wheels for stocks and I will keep the car for a little while and then dump it. I have spent too much money on this car to drive it with vibrations. My last two sets of tires have had tread that is visibly moving right and left when spinning on the balancer. I dont give a **** what anyone says.....That is not normal. I have had terrible luck with these larger wheels ( not that 20s were much better). I am a 37 yr old doctor with two kids. I no longer have time for these games and total waste of my very precious time. Next ride is going to be BONE STOCK. Just the thought of having to go in and replace tires just to verify if my car is truly jacked up makes me sick to my stomach. Members here have and will always give their 2 cents on the issue but this issue was even out of scope for the Lexus engineers and foremen so I have pretty much stopped listening because everything that could be checked and evaluated has been checked literally 6x. I never let up on this issues for 29 months. I have waisted evenings, weekends, stressed relationships at tire shops and dealerships trying to get this sorted ALL WITH NO LUCK. Michelins are my last resort and even then there might be a chance they will not be available when I order.

My vibration is worse some days than others and even when it vibrates the vibration cycles through. It starts shaking for 5 seconds then decreases for 5-6 then comes back. I asked the tech why and he says that its the defective tires coming in and out of phase as they spin with each other. In the end if you have questions just feel free to PM me.

I have replaced
1. wheels
2. tires 2x
3. driveshaft
4. brakes
5. parking brake assembly
6. upper control arms
7. steering rack

The car has been evaluated literally 21 times with no luck. The only thing they say is its the tires. After dealing with this for 3 years now I am sure its not the tires unless its possible for one person to get several sets of defective rear tires back to back. ( I doubt it). The only thing left to do is to put the best possible tire on the car and see what happens. Michelins are the most expensive because they are simply the best tire you can buy. In life you get what you pay for

I8ABMR

LOL I was so desperate at one point I was thinking of shipping my ride to Butler Tire on the other side of the country to see what they can do. I called every shop in AZ and NObody has this on the car balancer.

ssrfenton

There is some good info here on what you have done. Just to be sure are the universal driveshaft joints new/replaced with the driveshaft work? If so there may be a bearing issue??

You will note from the thread I copied low profile large tires are the root cause in many vibration issues, I still think it best to call Hunter etc and find out who has their machines in your area. You may be surprised if a local dealer even a GM dealer may have one. The manufactures keep a list of every install so you can be confident they know who has one. In addition the techs are very knowledgeable on their equipment.

Had a similar issue but it was brake rotors. Called EBC in England and they basically told me can't be a warped rotor due to heat but they put me onto ProCut HQ in NY and they found a local shop that turned them on the car. Problem solved.