Vibration

[chilphil]

97' es 300

Fellas,

I just recently purchased 215/60R...Goodyear triple tread tires on all four wheels. Handles well and there is just slight overstear which was to be expected. I searched on some of the threads and read that it is very common and doesn't really pose a problem to go wider on your tires. This being said, about half a week after I got them I started feeling a vibration at speeds above 60mph. I went back to Discount Tire and they re-balanced the tires for free stating that all of the tires had gone out of balance. I read another post on the forum where someone said that it was natural for you to have to re-balance tires on es 300s after getting new tires. So I thought no big deal. Well the tire guy also stated that my rear passenger wheel was bent and was bouncing all over the place when he tried to balance it. Well the car still vibrates at speeds above 60 and it is annoying for 1 reason, a lexus is not supposed to vibrate. You buy the car for ride quality and it is annoying. My questions to you knowledgeable Lexus guys are:

My car was not vibrating prior to the tire change and I have not hit any other pot holes than I normally hit coming to a from work. Why is the wheel bent now, or why is it causing an issue if it was bent before?

Should I have Discount Tire re-balance the tires again for the 3rd time in 3 weeks?

Or are the tires not being of "factory spec." causing the problem?

thanks

ps. the wheels were aligned two months ago with a strut replacement....

[camlex]

Lexus wheels are hard to balanced.

Been there.

Request them to do micro balance(Accuracy balancing)

Instead of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 weights.

0.05 to 0.10.

Good luck

[akkuma2k]

check the rear trailers arms.

[steviej]

I have never had a problem having my tires balanced, fours sets on two differenct sets of rims.

Find a shop that has the Hunter Road Force Balance machine and let them go to work.

It may cost you $20 for each tire but it is worth it if the tech knows what he is doing and you have a rim that is slightly bent.

steviej

[tckcumming]

97' es 300

Fellas,

I just recently purchased 215/60R...Goodyear triple tread tires on all four wheels. Handles well and there is just slight overstear which was to be expected. I searched on some of the threads and read that it is very common and doesn't really pose a problem to go wider on your tires. This being said, about half a week after I got them I started feeling a vibration at speeds above 60mph. I went back to Discount Tire and they re-balanced the tires for free stating that all of the tires had gone out of balance. I read another post on the forum where someone said that it was natural for you to have to re-balance tires on es 300s after getting new tires. So I thought no big deal. Well the tire guy also stated that my rear passenger wheel was bent and was bouncing all over the place when he tried to balance it. Well the car still vibrates at speeds above 60 and it is annoying for 1 reason, a lexus is not supposed to vibrate. You buy the car for ride quality and it is annoying. My questions to you knowledgeable Lexus guys are:

My car was not vibrating prior to the tire change and I have not hit any other pot holes than I normally hit coming to a from work. Why is the wheel bent now, or why is it causing an issue if it was bent before?

Should I have Discount Tire re-balance the tires again for the 3rd time in 3 weeks?

Or are the tires not being of "factory spec." causing the problem?

thanks

ps. the wheels were aligned two months ago with a strut replacement....

Just a thought....

I've had slight tire vibration problems a few times after the car ('93 ES300) has been in the shop. An Acura I once owned had the same problem. It can be frustrating since the tires/wheels seem to be balanced OK but they still have a bit of a "shimmy", especially at high speeds.

I've discovered that mechanics often put the wheels back on the car and tighten the nuts with an impact gun. This can sometimes cause a vibration, even if they use one of those torque - socket things. Using a good torque wrench and tightening all the nuts evenly to the same torque will often cure a small vibration.

I'd take it back one more time and have them loosen all the nuts slightly and torque them properly, with an actual torque wrench. Simple and quick to do - worth a try, eh??

tck...

[monarch]

I got rid of my so called "state of the art" Goodyear Comfortred tires because they are so prone to vibrations and because they transmit every tiny road imperfection to the passenger compartment. I wouldn't be surprized if the"state of the art" TripleTreds have this problem too. Ironically, to get my bump smothering and vibration free luxury car ride back I bought low tech, low priced Uniroyal Radial A/S tires from Walmart !!

[mburnickas]

I got rid of my so called "state of the art" Goodyear Comfortred tires because they are so prone to vibrations and because they transmit every tiny road imperfection to the passenger compartment. I wouldn't be surprized if the"state of the art" TripleTreds have this problem too. Ironically, to get my bump smothering and vibration free luxury car ride back I bought low tech, low priced Uniroyal Radial A/S tires from Walmart !!

Some of my family members have the Goodyear TripleTreds and they are better (all around) then my toyos TPT...

[chilphil]

I have my mechanic checking it out for me today (somebody I really trust to inspect what is going on rather than a 16 year old at Discount Tire). He said that if the wheel is balanced correctly, even if the rim is slightly bent, you will not feel any vibration. He also stated that tires are sometimes defective from the factory which is easy to tell once placed on the balaning machine. I'll know what he says by this afternoon and post by next week to hopefully help others with similar issues. Thanks for all of the feedback.....

[chilphil]

All-right, my mechanic basically told me what Discount Tire told me....that I have a bent right rear wheel. He also stated that my left rear whell is defective. I asked him how he could tell and he said that you can just tell when you put it on the machine. I don't know what measures you take to determine a tire defective but we have a language barrier so I just dropped the inquiry at the time. If my left rear tire is defective, I am certainly going to take it back to the tire shop before ever thinking about changing my wheel...

Have any of you every heard of a defective tire (I guess except for the firestone/explorer tires a few years back) and what are their symptoms?

How much should I expect to pay for a new/used wheel? Can I get them from a salvage yard or used? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

[steviej]

yeah, occasionally you can get a tire from the manufacturer that is "not quite right".

Take it back to Discount Tire with what the second opinion stated. Have them replace the defective tire.

Also, have them swap your bent rim for the rim that is currently on your spare. If that rim is fine, then use the bent one for the spare and you won't have to spend any money except for what they may charge you to swap treads on the rims. The spare is just that, a spare. Even if it is slightly bent it will do the job intended...get you to safety if you need to use it.

steviej