wxm Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 I have just got a major 96K mile service including the suspension works (for swap bar and bushes) at Freehold Lexus dealer, NJ. After the service, however, the car is having some kind of rubbing noise at low speed (< 35 MPH). It feels like it was dragging (with slightly vibration along with the noise). The noise is quite obvious during accelerating and coasting. I have since sent the car back to the dealer twice for check up. I was told it was just tire noise. I have never experienced such noise before the service, and other than the tire rotation, they did not do any tire or brake service. Any idea what could this be? Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rookie Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 More info please. What exactly did you have done to the suspension? Just replacement of the sway bar and sway bar bushings? Is the noise a vibration or rub... you should be able to distinguish which? And you hear when driving in a straight line as well as turning? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxm Posted July 14, 2008 Author Share Posted July 14, 2008 More info please.What exactly did you have done to the suspension? Just replacement of the sway bar and sway bar bushings? Is the noise a vibration or rub... you should be able to distinguish which? And you hear when driving in a straight line as well as turning? Thanks Rookie. It was just replacing front & rear suspension bushing as well as rear swaybar bushing and tire rotation. The noise could be heard when I was driving in a straight line at low speed. (both accelerating and coasting). I am thinking to take the tires for a re-balancing, not sure whether it will help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rookie Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 More info please.What exactly did you have done to the suspension? Just replacement of the sway bar and sway bar bushings? Is the noise a vibration or rub... you should be able to distinguish which? And you hear when driving in a straight line as well as turning? Thanks Rookie. It was just replacing front & rear suspension bushing as well as rear swaybar bushing and tire rotation. The noise could be heard when I was driving in a straight line at low speed. (both accelerating and coasting). I am thinking to take the tires for a re-balancing, not sure whether it will help. Yeh, that one's kind of hard to tell. You can get some new driveline vibrations a lot of times when you make a change to the suspension setup that changes the angle between the driveshafts and differential... such as when you add lift to the vehicle. But it doesn't sound like anything you've done should affect that. I would look under the vehicle and see if you can see anything that would be rubbing against moving parts, say the driveshafts. When I bought my vehicle, part of the exhaust pipe was bent into and rubbed against the driveshaft. If it's pretty load or definitely a rub, something somewhere should be showing signs of it. Curious, can't recall of hearing folks replace the sway bar bushings. What was the reason? Regards, Rolkie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxm Posted July 15, 2008 Author Share Posted July 15, 2008 More info please.What exactly did you have done to the suspension? Just replacement of the sway bar and sway bar bushings? Is the noise a vibration or rub... you should be able to distinguish which? And you hear when driving in a straight line as well as turning? Thanks Rookie. It was just replacing front & rear suspension bushing as well as rear swaybar bushing and tire rotation. The noise could be heard when I was driving in a straight line at low speed. (both accelerating and coasting). I am thinking to take the tires for a re-balancing, not sure whether it will help. Yeh, that one's kind of hard to tell. You can get some new driveline vibrations a lot of times when you make a change to the suspension setup that changes the angle between the driveshafts and differential... such as when you add lift to the vehicle. But it doesn't sound like anything you've done should affect that. I would look under the vehicle and see if you can see anything that would be rubbing against moving parts, say the driveshafts. When I bought my vehicle, part of the exhaust pipe was bent into and rubbed against the driveshaft. If it's pretty load or definitely a rub, something somewhere should be showing signs of it. Curious, can't recall of hearing folks replace the sway bar bushings. What was the reason? Regards, Rolkie It was the Freehold Lexus dealer suggested replacing the bushings for suspension and swaybar. They told me the bushings had cracks and needed to be replaced. Kind of regret now, specially with this noise. Just wondering if it is the driveshafts angle changes due to the suspension setup, is there anyway to correct it? Or it will correct by itself throughout time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rookie Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Do you know if they changed out the control arm bushings as well? The control arm bushings are a little tricky to put back in right. By design the hole in the control arm bushings is located off center of the bushing, so when you go to press it into the control arm, if it's not put in with the right orientation, then you end up having to rotate the axle housing to get the control arm to bolt back up (which can also messes up your castor). Anyways, rotating the axle changes the angle of the driveshaft to the differential, and "can" cause some driveline vibrations. Also if both sides weren't done the same, I could image that would cause a vibration. I'm surprised these guys can't figure out what the problem is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxm Posted July 15, 2008 Author Share Posted July 15, 2008 Do you know if they changed out the control arm bushings as well? The control arm bushings are a little tricky to put back in right. By design the hole in the control arm bushings is located off center of the bushing, so when you go to press it into the control arm, if it's not put in with the right orientation, then you end up having to rotate the axle housing to get the control arm to bolt back up (which can also messes up your castor). Anyways, rotating the axle changes the angle of the driveshaft to the differential, and "can" cause some driveline vibrations. Also if both sides weren't done the same, I could image that would cause a vibration.I'm surprised these guys can't figure out what the problem is. Thanks again! Speak of differential, I recall they have also flush and refill the differential fluid. Is there a way to check myself to confirm that they did not screwed up there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rookie Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Thanks again!Speak of differential, I recall they have also flush and refill the differential fluid. Is there a way to check myself to confirm that they did not screwed up there? Well, you could check the level to make sure they added enough fluid. Remove the fill plug (24mm IIRC) on the differential. Fluid level should be just below the bottom edge of the fill plug hole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxm Posted July 23, 2008 Author Share Posted July 23, 2008 Thanks again!Speak of differential, I recall they have also flush and refill the differential fluid. Is there a way to check myself to confirm that they did not screwed up there? Well, you could check the level to make sure they added enough fluid. Remove the fill plug (24mm IIRC) on the differential. Fluid level should be just below the bottom edge of the fill plug hole. Problem solved. It turned out that the noise came left front bearing which had quite bad play. After $664 at Freehold Lexus, the noise seems to went away. It remains mystery to me why the bearing problem became more noticeable after the suspension work. Nevertheless, I am glad to get my truck back. Thanks again Rookie... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rookie Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 Problem solved. It turned out that the noise came left front bearing which had quite bad play. After $664 at Freehold Lexus, the noise seems to went away. It remains mystery to me why the bearing problem became more noticeable after the suspension work. Nevertheless, I am glad to get my truck back. Thanks again Rookie... It's funny how noises can pop up after doing work to something completely unrelated. Been there, done that. It may be that you're a little more attentive after having work done. The preload (amount of torque on the spindle lock nut) for the front bearings is one of those head scratching items. If you follow the procedure in the FSM, quite often when you come back to check play in a 1000 miles or so, there will be some present. You can check for play by jacking the front wheel off the ground, grab the tire at 6 o'clock and 12 o'clock and with opposing force (pushing with one hand, pulling with the other) see if you feel any movement. You probably won't be able to see it move, but if there's play you can feel it bump as you go back and forth. If you have play, you need to reset the preload, otherwise it can eventually trash the wheel bearings. You should do this 500 to 1000 miles after any service on the front end that requires removing the hub such as repacking bearings, replace rotors, axle seals etc... Glad you got it fixed. Sorry you had to drop that kind of cash. If you have any inclination to work on you're own vehicle, you should consider getting a Factory Service Manual and taking over the maintenance of you're rig. It was a $200 dollar brake pad replacement job 4 1/2 years ago that made me decide to learn to do my own maintenance. These vehicles are not overly complex and are pretty easy to work on. In addition to that there are some very good web forums out there for these vehicles, and a lot of folks that do their own work on them. Most any repair you can come up with (and a lot you would have never known of until stuck on the side of the road) have been done and fairly well documented. Regards, Rookie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxm Posted July 24, 2008 Author Share Posted July 24, 2008 Problem solved. It turned out that the noise came left front bearing which had quite bad play. After $664 at Freehold Lexus, the noise seems to went away. It remains mystery to me why the bearing problem became more noticeable after the suspension work. Nevertheless, I am glad to get my truck back. Thanks again Rookie... It's funny how noises can pop up after doing work to something completely unrelated. Been there, done that. It may be that you're a little more attentive after having work done. The preload (amount of torque on the spindle lock nut) for the front bearings is one of those head scratching items. If you follow the procedure in the FSM, quite often when you come back to check play in a 1000 miles or so, there will be some present. You can check for play by jacking the front wheel off the ground, grab the tire at 6 o'clock and 12 o'clock and with opposing force (pushing with one hand, pulling with the other) see if you feel any movement. You probably won't be able to see it move, but if there's play you can feel it bump as you go back and forth. If you have play, you need to reset the preload, otherwise it can eventually trash the wheel bearings. You should do this 500 to 1000 miles after any service on the front end that requires removing the hub such as repacking bearings, replace rotors, axle seals etc... Glad you got it fixed. Sorry you had to drop that kind of cash. If you have any inclination to work on you're own vehicle, you should consider getting a Factory Service Manual and taking over the maintenance of you're rig. It was a $200 dollar brake pad replacement job 4 1/2 years ago that made me decide to learn to do my own maintenance. These vehicles are not overly complex and are pretty easy to work on. In addition to that there are some very good web forums out there for these vehicles, and a lot of folks that do their own work on them. Most any repair you can come up with (and a lot you would have never known of until stuck on the side of the road) have been done and fairly well documented. Regards, Rookie Thanks again, Rookie. Based on the recent experiences, that is exactly what I decided to do - to get my hands dirty. Just picked up a floor jack and a pair of jack stands. I am ready to learn as it goes... I am sure you will hear from me from time to time... Cheers, Xin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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