curt248

I took my car to lexus to have them install my pre-mounted and balanced new 19inch wheels and 5mm spacers for the front wheels. When I left, the steering wheel shakes at over 30mph. It was rock solid at all speeds before this.

They told me that my tie rod was loose and showed me that the right wheel has some play when off the ground. However, they pulled on the bottom of the tire and it did have some play (about 7mm). If the tie rod was loose, it should only move side to side when holding it at 9 and 3 o'clock right? The tie rod controls the steering of the car. My roommate, an auto technician and engineer told me that if when holding 12 and 6 oclock and the wheel shakes, it's the bearings. If at 3 and 9 it could be the tie rod.

I started to do research online and I found out the if you pound out the wheel studs, you can damage the bearings.

I called them back and had the service writer ask the tech how he removed the studs (the spacers come with new studs). He said he pounded them out.

I told this to the service writer. He asked the head service technician and he told them that pounding out the studs is their normal practice.

They are having me come in on Monday to find out what the problem is and if they could have caused it. I printed out about 7 pages from the internet on people saying not to pound out the studs due to possible wheel bearing damage. I even found a tool that said it could safely remove wheel studs without damaging wheel bearings.

I also had the car there last week for a four wheel alignment and nobody mentioned that I had a loose tierod. Wouldn't they know that if doing a precise alignment?

Anyone have any advice?

mrblister

Bark like a dog to them and dont back down. Sounds like they are culpable. I think you make a good case with what you wrote so I believe the dealership will make it right

Buddy

aquanuke

When I put in longer studs my lug nuts did not reach down far enough because they where closed head. I changed them for open headed ones so they bit right down. Was just a fraction too short before and took me a while to figure out.

curt248

Oh yeah I did that once on a Fairlady Z I had over here in the states. I didn't know either. I just kept tightening the nuts as far as possible and they never got completely tight since they were closed head.

While I was going around a corner, I heard a shake and and then nothing, like an airplane when it lifts off. Then I saw my wheel and tire go rolling by me at 60mph. Then the left rear of the car touched down on the rotor and thru sparks everywhere. The studs had all broken off. That was scary.

I just looked at the front tires that I got from the tire rack online. One of them doesn't have any weights on it. I wonder if they forgot to balance one of them? Either way, my wheel shouldn't move and the bearings may have been damaged by pounding the old studs off while the hubs were still on the car.

curt248

update.

The bearings are in good shape and the tie rod does have some play.

I had all four tires balanced and it still shakes the steering wheel, but not as bad as before.

Lexus is looking at the car right now to try and figure out why the steering wheel is shaking.

Baby ///M3

Could you tell us what kind of wheels you installed on your SC430?

The same thing recently happened to me and I didn't discover the problem until I installed 5mm spacers on my rear tires.

It turned out that I didn't get the hub center rings for my wheels. $20 for four rings took care of my problems.

Jon