Vibration At 60-70 Mph ?

[denslexusgx470]

I have a 2004 ES330 with the same vibration problem you guys are describing.  After MANY attempts to fix the problem at the dealers, the dealer is now lying to me saying they dont feel the vibration anymore.  I went to arbitration and found out 2 days ago, that I lost.  The arbitrators say i failed to show the problem.  It is a slight vibration, but the driver can feel it, and I hate that I spent so much money on this piece of .... I guess this means court now, so if anyone can help me....Id greatly appreciate it.

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I have Bridgestones on my ES330. There is absolutely zero vibration at any speed. There has to be a tire balance or possibly an alignment problem. One thing you may want to try is take your car to another Lexus dealership and have the vibration checked out or if that's not feasible, a Toyota dealership. I'm not sure what the credibility of the large chain tire/alignment shops are in arbitration or court.

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it probably is alignment

[lynnebeach]

ok take the truck to your dealer and tell them to do the following...(the should know what to do without this but who knows)

1.) separate the rear driveshaft

2.) clean the splines on the driveshaft with brake cleaner

3.) put valve lapping compound on the splines of the shaft

4.) rapidly slide the two halves of the shaft together and apart several times till you see a patern form in the lapping compound

5.) thoroughly clean both sides of the drive shaft splines and use GM i temp grease on the splines

6.) repeat step 4 till the two halves slide nicely together

7.) reinstall driveshaft

Lexus will not admit this fix to the public (yet)...don't ask me why.

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Hi LexTech2K3

Is it possible my 2004 ES330 could have this same problem? I guess my car would have to have the same driveshaft.

My problem cant have anything to do with tires, they've been balanced, changed from Bridgestones to Michelin, had new rims put on...its been in the shop enough times to qualify for the lemon law, which is where I have to go next. pain.

[gxtreme]

ok take the truck to your dealer and tell them to do the following...(the should know what to do without this but who knows)

1.) separate the rear driveshaft

2.) clean the splines on the driveshaft with brake cleaner

3.) put valve lapping compound on the splines of the shaft

4.) rapidly slide the two halves of the shaft together and apart several times till you see a patern form in the lapping compound

5.) thoroughly clean both sides of the drive shaft splines and use GM i temp grease on the splines

6.) repeat step 4 till the two halves slide nicely together

7.) reinstall driveshaft

Lexus will not admit this fix to the public (yet)...don't ask me why.

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Hi LexTech2K3

Is it possible my 2004 ES330 could have this same problem? I guess my car would have to have the same driveshaft.

My problem cant have anything to do with tires, they've been balanced, changed from Bridgestones to Michelin, had new rims put on...its been in the shop enough times to qualify for the lemon law, which is where I have to go next. pain.

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I thought this problem would and should occur only on rear wheel drive vehicles??

[Jim_Chow]

There is a fix for this problem. Various frame dampners, new skidplate, steering shaft and Michelin tires. Dunlop equipped tires are the main cause. This fix works as I have installed many at the dealer I work at.

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Interesting. Wonder if it's a quality control issue on the tires. Some guys in the 4Runner forum said their vibrations disappeared when they rebalanced the tires. One guy said his reappeared when it turned cold (pressure dropped?).

[lynnebeach]

There is a fix for this problem. Various frame dampners, new skidplate, steering shaft and Michelin tires. Dunlop equipped tires are the main cause. This fix works as I have installed many at the dealer I work at.

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Interesting. Wonder if it's a quality control issue on the tires. Some guys in the 4Runner forum said their vibrations disappeared when they rebalanced the tires. One guy said his reappeared when it turned cold (pressure dropped?).

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Hi Jim

I cant thank you enough for answering my question..this is very frustrating. SO, do I just tell my dealership to look at the frame dampners, put on a new skidplate and steering shaft? They did put on Michelin tires already.

What dealer do you work for? I'll go there.

thanks again!

[pedah3]

I guess I can be happy to report that my 1mth old '05 with sport pkg is smooth under all situations. No vibration, No 'thump', just a pleaseure to drive. I noticed that my car came with Michelins from the factory. Maybe these issues have been somewhat worked out in the new '05s?

[strindl]

I guess I can be happy to report that my 1mth old '05 with sport pkg is smooth under all situations.  No vibration, No 'thump', just a pleaseure to drive.  I noticed that my car came with Michelins from the factory.  Maybe these issues have been somewhat worked out in the new '05s?

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I think they were worked out in the latter 04's as well. I have a late 04, that came with the Bridgestone Dueler tires, and have never experienced any vibration or thumps, at any speeds.

[Jim_Chow]

A quick word about rebalancing tires. Toyota wheels (at least on their 4x4s through 2002), are lug-centric, not the more common hub-centric. This means the center of the lug pattern marks the center of the wheel while in the other case, the center of mass of the wheel marks the center. They are not the same. Many tire shops will try to balance the lug-centric wheels on a hub-centric machine. That doesn't work (you'll still feel vibration when you drive). While I doubt this is the problem since your Lexus/Toyota mechanic should know the difference, I merely mention it in case you bother to ask your dealer or have a tire shop balance your wheels (I'd recommend against this, as the idiots at my local Bridgestone/Firestone dealer dinged the coating on the wheels when they ripped off the old wheel weights [this was on my '01 honda sports car. Next time, I'll call around to see if anyone has stick on weights]).

Check out http://www.gadgetonline.com/vibration.htm

[lynnebeach]

There is a fix for this problem. Various frame dampners, new skidplate, steering shaft and Michelin tires. Dunlop equipped tires are the main cause. This fix works as I have installed many at the dealer I work at.

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Hi Mehullica

I have Michelins. What should I tell the dealer about your other suggestions. Can you tell me where you work?

[gxman]

Update 3-05

Still working on the vibration issues with my dealer. My car has 23k on it now and I am leaning with the tires. In my case the kit fixed it for only a while....Appointment today so we will see !

[lexus ls430]

it is a well known problem

[bliksem]

You might want to look into this. I found this on edmunds owner discussions. It seems that they need to change the dampers on the front diff due to driveline harmonics. Have the dealer do the service bulletin, it seems they are tolazy to look it up.

" took my car almost 6 months back to the dealer and gave them the reference of technical bulletin "ST004-04 Steering/Driveline - Vibration/Drone" released by Lexus on Feb 04 for this problem. Dealer was not aware of that. He ordered the parts (dampers) and installed those in a couple of day. 95% of the problem went away. I still feel slight vibartion at the speed of 60mph but I am used to that now. Good Luck! "

http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/WebX?disp...F3XS.0@.ef237a9

ALso see a more detailed description of the 120 Prado fix for it, very similar to Lexus and 4Runner drivetrain.

http://www.lcool.org/technical/120_series/...ation/90hz.html

Edit: Sorry seems like the bulletin is already discussed.

[denslexusgx470]

I guess I can be happy to report that my 1mth old '05 with sport pkg is smooth under all situations.  No vibration, No 'thump', just a pleaseure to drive.  I noticed that my car came with Michelins from the factory.  Maybe these issues have been somewhat worked out in the new '05s?

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i don't think the vibration issue concerns the tires.

btw, I have Michelins too, and was the first one to get Michelins in the first 10 GX470 sold at my dealer! ;)

[gxman]

Update*

The problem is basically gone in the warm weather ! Now that tems are above 40-50 I feel no drone/vibration...

Hmmmmmm

[jerrywin]

:(

I am wondering if anyone has had luck getting the vibration problem resolved at the dealer ? They are just telling me that it is a "known" problem and there is no fix right now. I have a call into Lexus corporate.

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Very interesting. I noticed this problem after buying my GX-470. I first thought it was a tire out of balance and took it back to the dealer. This didn't seem to fix it, but what I noticed was that the setting of the ride control seemed to eliminate the vibration. The softer the ride setting, the more it would vibrate. I then realized that Lexus must have a design problem in the suspension somewhere.

I keep in the ride control set in the middle and I really can't feel any vibration.