Steering Vibration/judder

[minus_1uk]

Hello All,

I posted my first post last wekk to say that I had just bought my first Lexus and how pleased I was. Well this has lasted a week until I was really able to really take the car for a drive.

THe sysmptoms I am getting are like others on here, but wanteed to post to ask the questions so hope that's ok.

The car seems fine until you get to about 50 mph, it then develops a shaking in the steering column which is bad enough to vibrate my watch and hads and arms. THe gets worse as you increase speed through to about 80 mph when it seems to lessen.

However it is not there all the time, it is worse when you start driving the car and seems to last for about the first 10-15 miles. After that it seems to mostly go away.

On driving the car on Sunday night back from Glasgow, I had to break from about 60 mph to go through a chicane section of cones and change lanes, this caused an extremly violent shaking of the whole sterring wheel and column and I had to literally fight with the car to keep in a straight line.

Now before I bought the car, she had had a non Lexus set of front discs and brakes fitted by the last garage who had her when the previous owner complained about the same thing. They fitted after market versions, not official Lexus parts due to cost.

I have had the car to my own mechanic and he was dismayed by the feeling of driving and the shake. He thinks the car may be a complete lemon, is this the case does anyone think?

As there have been a few posts re this problem is it a common one?

My car is a Lexus GS300 Sport Mark 1 Nov 95, with 52K miles and previous full Lexus history.

Now I spoke to the selling (non Lexus) garage, who had said that there was a vibration, when I bought the car and did say that they new that it had non lexus discs & brakes fitted, alhtough they had not done the work, they know of the problem. THey certianly did not describe it as being a violent as it actually is and in my test drive it did not really come up at all.

After arguing with them, they have agreed to go to Lexus, pick up new brake discs x2, full Lexus set of pads and the pins (was told that these are needed & may not even have been fitted via after market) required and will fit them. They have quoted £280 for this and have agreed that I only pay half. Will this fix the problem and does this seem fair?

Or is there anything else lurking and hidden?

Sorry to go on so long, but it is a concern and the car did seem so nice, I want to want her again and not be concerned. Is there anything else I should get done?

Thanks again

Andrew

[ColinBarber]

I don't think it would be the brakes. You would normally only get vibration when braking if the discs are warped.

Firstly the wheels (all four) need to be fully aligned (balanced/toe/camber/caster etc) by somebody who knows what they are doing. If there is still vibration the wheels need to be checked to see if they are buckled. If there is still a problem then ball joints/tie rods/steering rack need to be looked at for any wear/play.

[minus_1uk]

Hi Colin,

Thanks for this. yes, I thought that too, but both my own mechanic (who has not wanted to look at it as he said that the garge I bought it from should do any work necessary) and Lexus both said that with after market discs and pads, they may not have fitted properly and mated correctly, so both Lexus and my mechanic said best thing to do is fit proper Lexus parts & go from there.

The garage I bought the car from, said that they had this problem on a car they service and fitting proper Lexus parts fixed it.

I am hoping that this is the case and not anything more serious.

Any and all thoughts are appreciated on this.

THanks again

[SteJ]

I've just had similar problems, and eventually bottomed it as the rear tyres. They were not down to the tread bars, but already on my list of 'things to do' due for replacement.

I initially had the wobble down to tracking/balancing.

Took it to one 'specialist' who balanced wheels; tracking was tested as o.k., but identified play in both ball joints. A suitable quote for around £200 for replacement of both sides was givenby the gentleman, as was a 'leave it with me' from myself.

A friend of mine in the car game took it to one of his garage-mates, who said that there was nothing wrong with the ball joints, tracking was a touch out, but more importantly, and correctly (as the problem was remedied) diagnosed that the wobble was caused by rear tyres. One was starting to egg, which didn't help. This would be hard to spot unless wheel is off.

Might be different problem than that affecting yours, but symptoms appear the same. My initial theory that the wobble was generated by the front-end, as opposed to the back.

Steve J.

[mudzs]

tyre wear was the problem on mine to seems as the tyres wore out the worse the shake got i had four new pirrillis put on last week and now all is fine not the slightest wobble .this could also be due to the fact that the tyres were balanced when new tyres added .as for tracking it is only as good as the bloke using the equipment so find some one who specialises in it rather than kwik fit etc ,lexus would be my choice but will be pricey.i think your disc are fine as colin said you would notice warped discs when braking but i can not harm going back to lexus pads and discs.

[randyreindeer]

It would take some doing to warp those discs on the front.

[Kudu]

Check the Tyres.I bought my Gs300 5 months ago.When I test drove the car it was great but I noticed It needed 4 new tyres.The dealer put 4 new tyres on it and when taking it home vibration from 60-80mph(very annoying)Had wheels balanced about 4 times which never solved the problem.Spoke to guys in tyre place who were pretty convinced that the tyres were to blame.

I took the car back to the dealer and he agreed to put new tyres on.4 new tyres later(same brand) no more vibration.Might have been a bad batch but anyway the tyres sorted it.

Push the guy who sold you the car to fix it.They knew about the vibration when they sold it to you and never said anything about it so surely they must be obliged to fix it without you paying for it.Ask your local citizens advice about your rights under the sale of goods act.

good luck

[minus_1uk]

Hi Giys,

Well found out that is cosing the problem. Took the car to National Tyre to get the weels balanced (even Lexus do not balance on the car ehre and said that it is not different) and all 5 of my alloys are goosed.

Every alloy is kinked on the inside, there wasn't even any point in balancing.

Solution is new tyres for the Sport & new 18" alloys all round to cure the judder.

Lexus are 300 pounds per wheel and 200 per tyre.

Can anyone suggest a solution please?

Is there a good source for new alloys as I like the look of the original sport alloys. Never had to do this before, so is there some advice anyone can give.

Cheers

Andrew

[mudzs]

So all five are totaly shagged ,i would get a second opinion seems a bit much all five being like it .would cost you a fortune to replace origional wheels i think they are closer to £400 each .Also to kink every wheel i would start loking to see if there is any suspension damage as car sounds like it has hit a kerb very hard with all four ,i would take it to lexus for a full inspection and see what they turn up than i would give full report to the garage that sold you the car they are responsable for putting the car right and if it has a kink in every wheel then they should replace them as you have only owned the car a few weeks

[greve]

Lexus are 300 pounds per wheel and 200 per tyre.

Can anyone suggest a solution please?

Is there a good source for new alloys as I like the look of the original sport alloys.  Never had to do this before, so is there some advice anyone can give.

I also agree that it sounds a bit excessive if all 5 alloys are damaged. But to answer to your question about sourcing of alloys and tyres, I happened to look at this when I was at my local Halfords this afternoon. They have 4 17" alloys looking in the direction of the original Sport alloys (they're 12 spoke design) with 225/45R17 (I think it was) BF Goodrich tyres for £699 for the 4 as far as I could see from the pricing small print. I know these are not original 18" Sport alloys but they look alike and I also know that the tyres are not the best around but probably not the worst either.

[EDIT] Sorry, I mixed up the pricing. £699 was for a 16" solution whereas the 17" was £969 or thereabouts. Sorry

[MAC_600]

Have you been to any of the wheel refurbishers to see if they can straighten them?