Shimmy In Steering Whell

[lglover79]

My 2000 Lexus lx470 has a noticeable vibration in the steering wheel when I go over 60 mph. Should an alignment fix this or do you think it might be the brakes and rotors? I had it serviced 3,000 miles ago and they said the brakes were okay. Any advice would be appreciated.

[scrappyslexus]

My 2000 Lexus lx470 has a noticeable vibration in the steering wheel when I go over 60 mph. Should an alignment fix this or do you think it might be the brakes and rotors? I had it serviced 3,000 miles ago and they said the brakes were okay. Any advice would be appreciated.

I have a 2000 with 80,000 miles on it. I had a vibration but only when braking. I just had the brakes done and upon the dealer checking the bearings in the front wheel hubs they found that one of the bearings had totally destroyed itself, a ball bearing actually fell out. The service advisor said never saw anything like it in his 14 years. The brakes have been done and the bearings replaced. The truck rides like a new car.

[Jim_Chow]

When was the last time you had your front wheel bearings repacked? The recommended is every 30K miles (in reality, you can push it to 50K or maybe 60K if you don't submerge your hubs). If you don't repack them in a timely fashion, they will loosen over time (grease wears out, bearings wear, etc.). I would have guessed your bearings are loose. The Koyo bearings are top quality if you maintain them according to the recommended service intervals (if you submerge the hub, repack them ASAP). A toyota tech once told me they should last at least 200k mi. The Koyo bearings on my 4Runner front hubs are still the original at 22 yrs/210K mi.

If you feel a shudder only when braking, the front calipers could be loose (I doubt this is your problem). BTW, when I installed my performance rotors last year, I noticed both front calipers did not have the plate washers (2 per caliper), as if a tech (bearings were repacked once by Lexus by PO [CPO] and once by a toyota tech) who repacked the bearings forgot to reinstall them. They are clearly listed in the diagrams in the big factory service manual, and I know my 4runner has them since I've done those bearings numerous times and the front hub construction is identical to that on the LX/LC. Anyways, I had to mailorder them from a toyota dealer in the next state and had them shipped overnight so I could finish my brake job.