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Wheel Balancing Problem On Rx300 Mk1


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Hi there,

I am writing you because it has been 3 years since I am experiencing vibration on my RX300 with my set of winter wheels. I have bought these from Lexus dealer but the rims are not Lexus genuine parts. They are AUTEC wheels in 7.5x16 and tires are of original size 215/70/16. I experienced vibrations on steering wheel and even seats above 120 km/h since first time mounted. The dealer has tried about everything: new tires (I got about 18 winter tires!!!), new rims and still the problem is there.

Nobody else ever complained about this (as per my dealer).

Problem is that once I fit the original set of wheels (17 inch) there is no vibration :question:

Anyone experienced anything like this?

Thanks for your help.

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When you're changing the rims are you having the new rims balanced and the tracking / geometry etc adjusted?

That could explain why everything is okay when the old rims are put back onto the car as it is set up for those?

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Are the wheels hub centric? The standard wheels are centered on the hub by the center hole in the wheel.

Non standard wheels sometimes use tapered nuts to center the wheel. If this is the case then the wheel nuts need to be tightened as much as possible with the wheel off the ground. The best solution would be to purchase a set of centering rings for the wheels.

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Are the wheels hub centric? The standard wheels are centered on the hub by the center hole in the wheel.

Non standard wheels sometimes use tapered nuts to center the wheel. If this is the case then the wheel nuts need to be tightened as much as possible with the wheel off the ground. The best solution would be to purchase a set of centering rings for the wheels.

Actually my rims use plastic type centering rings, which are no the best, but they have also been changed twice. I will try centreing the wheels with the nuts while off the ground, this would explain why the behavior changes every time they are mounted and re-mounted. Also I will try checking the centering rims dimensions against the hub.

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if i had bought these from a lexus dealer and they were not suitable for the vehicle i would have taken them back and got a refund - there must be other people complaining about these  also????

I there! I have got some news on my vibrations problem:

I just made a few checks to my rims hubs and adapter's rings: what comes out is that the hubs dimension is 59.9 mm (nominal should be 60.0 mm, but we can tolerate 0.1 mm on machining) while the plastic adapter's rings are at 60.15 mm. At last this gives a total play of at least 0.25 mm of the rings on the hubs (adding to that a tolerance of 0.1 mm for the rims machining and at least the same for the assembly of the rings on the rims). If you followed me until here it means that we are now talking of around 0.45 mm total play of the wheels on the hubs (actually it is visible only by placing the rings on the hubs and trying to move them around)! Now I can better understand where this vibrations are coming from...

Actually I decided to make some experiments to prove my sayings ...

What I did was simply to decrease the play by adding a thin tape on the inner side of the rings and to try center the wheels on the hubs as good as I could (hand tightening each nut one after the other) before thightening them strong while still off the ground.

I first did this for the front wheels and the results was much little vibration and vibration amplitude, it improved to the point that I could easily feel the vibration coming from the rear wheels on the seats. Thus I decided to repeat the experiment on the rear wheels, and it had the same effect as for the front wheels. Overall I now have a much lower vibration level (only noticeable on a perfect flat road and above 130 km/h). Of course it is not perfect but at least I know where these crazy vibrations where coming from.

As a conclusion, although my AUTEC rims are adaptable to the RX300 mk1 through the adapter's rings, they are far too bad for it. Therefore my advice is to always use genuine rims (or other parts) on a Lexus, this vehicle ride quality is so good that it becomes very sentitive to any deviation in tolerance you could not feel in other cars.

Now I am gonna go back to the Lexus dealer that sold me the wheels and could not figure out the problem for 3 years and see what they say...

Thanks for your contibution.

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if i had bought these from a lexus dealer and they were not suitable for the vehicle i would have taken them back and got a refund - there must be other people complaining about these  also????

I there! I have got some news on my vibrations problem:

I just made a few checks to my rims hubs and adapter's rings: what comes out is that the hubs dimension is 59.9 mm (nominal should be 60.0 mm, but we can tolerate 0.1 mm on machining) while the plastic adapter's rings are at 60.15 mm. At last this gives a total play of at least 0.25 mm of the rings on the hubs (adding to that a tolerance of 0.1 mm for the rims machining and at least the same for the assembly of the rings on the rims). If you followed me until here it means that we are now talking of around 0.45 mm total play of the wheels on the hubs (actually it is visible only by placing the rings on the hubs and trying to move them around)! Now I can better understand where this vibrations are coming from...

Actually I decided to make some experiments to prove my sayings ...

What I did was simply to decrease the play by adding a thin tape on the inner side of the rings and to try center the wheels on the hubs as good as I could (hand tightening each nut one after the other) before thightening them strong while still off the ground.

I first did this for the front wheels and the results was much little vibration and vibration amplitude, it improved to the point that I could easily feel the vibration coming from the rear wheels on the seats. Thus I decided to repeat the experiment on the rear wheels, and it had the same effect as for the front wheels. Overall I now have a much lower vibration level (only noticeable on a perfect flat road and above 130 km/h). Of course it is not perfect but at least I know where these crazy vibrations where coming from.

As a conclusion, although my AUTEC rims are adaptable to the RX300 mk1 through the adapter's rings, they are far too bad for it. Therefore my advice is to always use genuine rims (or other parts) on a Lexus, this vehicle ride quality is so good that it becomes very sentitive to any deviation in tolerance you could not feel in other cars.

Now I am gonna go back to the Lexus dealer that sold me the wheels and could not figure out the problem for 3 years and see what they say...

Thanks for your contibution.

Went back to the Lexus dealer and they are ready to replace the AUTEC rims by ... Toyata RAV4 genuine steel rims! The problem is that in Luxembourg all cars sold were equiped with the optional 17 inch wheels, thus there aren't any Lexus genuine 16 inch available over here. So the only option is RAV4 rims.

I am not sure what I'll do because after my findings and a full geometry check the car now feels close to perfect.

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Can they not give you the 17" wheels that come on the MKII RX300?

problem is colin the cost of winter tyres in 17" is :tsktsk: so 16`s would be better

If they would exchange the 16" rims by 17" ones, they would need to supply new set of 17" winter tyres and these are :tsktsk: expensive.

That is exactly the point of fitting 16" wheels (16" rims + tyres cost the same as 17" tyres).

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