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Wheel Balance


Rosario

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I bought this RX in 12/06 with 64000 miles for $18300. Not a steal but I thought fair value in my market area. So far I have only had to replace the thermostat. I took it to a local Toyota dealer who happens to be in my town and he flat out told me "they don't work on Lexus". I found that rather curious but I took it to a Lexus dealer about 15 miles away who charged me $105. to diagnose check engine light (that should have been my 1st clue to rip-off) then quoted me an additional $325. to replace the thermostat, coolant etc.

As a matter of principle I paid the $105.( after much protest ) took the car to another Lexus dealer about 20 miles in the other direction and the did the whole job for $217.55 including the diagnostic. Based on the previous experience I thought that was a fairer price and had them do it. Don't you hate to get ripped off by these new car dealers!

Anyway my posting today was to find out if anyone is having a problem with wheel balance? For what has always seemed like a simple procedure for an auto repair shop to handle I brought my car in to Firestone (you know the tire and wheel people) They balanced the all the tires and rotated them... NO GOOD. I took the car back. They again balanced the tires and road tested it in their parking lot??? I took the car out and at 65+ the car starts to vibrate and gets increasingly stronger if I get it to 70 or 75. I took it back again this time had a "mechanic" take it on the highway ,with me in tow, and saw how bad the car shook at those speeds. No problem says he, brings it back to the shop. Five minutes later my name is called. They claim I have a slight dent in one wheel and maybe a new set of tires would solve the problem. RIGHT! My tires are like brand new. They agreed to refund the $48.00 I paid for the balance and rotate.

Has anyone had a problem with getting the wheels balanced on this type vehicle ? I hate to go back to the dealership for what seems to be the simplest of problems. Fiestone did note on my refund paperwork that some Lexus vehicles have uni-directional wheels. I don't know what that means and how that would effect anything!

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No have never had a problem, What kind of tires did you install? Also the original installer had to probably balance them... I have had bad new tires after about 5k miles. The belts seperated inside the tire and you could never get it balanced right....

by the way the stock wheels are not unidirectional ( what a bunch of gobbly !Removed!) I believe he meant some tires are only installed in one direction as the tread is designed for one direction only....

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Ask them how much weight it took to balance the rims. Maybe the rims are out of round? I don't understand how the tires could be causing the unbalance; usually it's the rim.

The weight needed should be no more than ~5oz. tell them to use the stick-on ones; the other ones might fly off if they're really out of round. Also, the worst rims should be placed in the rear.

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No have never had a problem, What kind of tires did you install? Also the original installer had to probably balance them... I have had bad new tires after about 5k miles. The belts seperated inside the tire and you could never get it balanced right....

by the way the stock wheels are not unidirectional ( what a bunch of gobbly !Removed!) I believe he meant some tires are only installed in one direction as the tread is designed for one direction only....

Thanks for the feedback!

I bought the RX used with Toyo Proxes S/T 255/60 R17 and after market wheels (Konig Prophet 17x17.5)The tire still have about 70% left. I really didn't notice any vibration when I first bought the vehicle (12/06). It seems to have started about 3 months ago and just gotten progressively worse. I did spot a tape-on-weight of about 1 3/4 oz in my driveway that I'm sure fell off one of the wheels. My thought was that it seemed like a lot of weight for 1 concentrated spot. Years ago when we bubble balanced wheels we used to distribute weights in sort of a Y. You know 2 points spread equally from the heavy side. I guess I'll have to take it the Lexus dealership and maybe they can get it right!

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