Help! Alignment Issues And I Need Some Advice!

[CrunchySkippy]

Just curious...why is this thread a "sticky"?

[Gentry]

I noticed this post is a bit old but thought I would respond anyway. I have had problems with aligning my car since it had about 15K miles on it. I took it to the Lexus dealer multiple times & everytime they told me the alignment is not out & that there were no problems with it. Finally I went straight from the dealer to a Les Schwab & had it checked. I was told it was 1/2" out on toe (which is huge!!). I had it aligned & literally less than 1000 miles later it was back pulling to the right again. I cannot keep this car aligned! I have also gone through numerous sets of tires due to bad wear. They went as far as to replace the rack & pinion at some point & didnt even tell me or put it on the work order (the service advisor slipped & told me it was done), yet it still has not fixed the problem.

[emadrigal1125]

i'm having issues with my 08 IS250 RWD. alignment is also bad, car pulls to the left. has 54k miles on it and as of today will be on my 3rd set of front tires 18"s. (originals died at 25k, hankook died at 54k, Getting hankook again)

The rear tires are fine. Because of the car always pulling to the left my front left tire is completely worn on the outer edge/lip, the right tire is fine and looks like it could last a while longer.

But my question is has anyone also experienced alignment issues with this car? It just seems even after I get it re-aligned it begins to sway to the left again. When I replace tires I always replace the pair since I know that oculd be an issue. but please someone have any insight into this?

[LEXIE52]

I think it's a "sticky" because you just can't shake it. This problem keeps happening. I have a 2007 IS350 that had the shaking and alignment problem along with the purchase of a few tires early on and it was bent wheels. After I purchased the insurance, I didn't seem to have much of a problem anymore. Go figure. The bent wheels were due to hitting pot holes...a lot of them here. Now, I am having problems again after a couple of years. Had another bent wheel, tried to fix rather than replace, per the dealership. Did not really work. Latest news is the car is buckling on the top, i.e. suspension problem and they have seen this before on the IS. I've never heard of this?? The only explanation I get is it is again related to hitting potholes/curbs, etc. I really don't deliberately drive around town trying to hit potholes if you know what I mean. I'm just wondering if anyone else has ever heard of this? I have been told to take it to the body shop for a look-over and that insurance will cover it so the jury is still out. Any thoughts or similar experiences?

[kimseongjae62]

I have a 07, LS460 and experiencing the same extreme inside tire wear problem on all 4 tires. The rear tires are worse. maybe due to it being a RWD.

Symptom:

Extreme tire wear on the inside- just 1" from the inside tread only- consistent 1" extreme wear all the way around the wheel. No wear on the outside of the wheel what so ever. Almost brand new. It's not a gradual wear from the inside. It's a extreme difference in abnormal inside wear to the point the insides are exposed. I have to replace all 4 tires prematurely for safety. The first OEM ( Dunlop) set of tire were not perfectly worn but not this extreme. This second set was replaced at 33K miles with Kumho Ecsta Platinum LX. AFTER THE NEW TIRES WERE INSTALLED, I took it to a dealer for proper alignment in order to maximize wear. At that time, I was told the car was already in alignment to proper factory specs.

At first I thought the irregular wear was caused by low air pressure and was told it was not the cause. The replacement tire had the same size spec to -.1" dia. from the OEM tire.

I went to the dealer today prior to getting the tire replaced to get some answers. The dealer looked at it and told me I needed 4 new tires as if i didn't know. So, I said what is the problem??? The dealer recommended me to replace the tires and get an alignment- then they could look into it more. I told them that I spend $180 for an alignment when I got the tires last time. To make the long story short, dealer could not guaranty their work even if I was willing to spend the money to get to the bottom of the problem. They had no answer.

After some research, I am finding that it may be a toe out alignment spec. on these cars from the factory in order to gain better handling. This information was confirmed by the service advisor who was familiar with this problem (but did not admit to it) more so with IS series than than the LS due to higher demand for handling. Is this true? I've thought it was the camber setting. However, the camber setting cannot be changed on the rear wheels on the LS.

Prior to this, I had the same issue with my 05 Toyota Prius. I am beginning to think this may be a Toyota problem in general.

So, is it the toe out setting that's causing this problem?

Is this a gradual progression of alignment problem causing the tire to wear more irregular as time passes? The car not able to hold alignment setting over a period?

I don't think it's attributed to a warn out suspension parts since the dealer inspected the car today on the rack.

Any help to resolve this problem would be greatly appreciated.

[smooth1]

You don't have a toe out or in problem. That causes your tread to "feather". Feathering is where the tread develops a ridge on a corner of the grooves, and you can usually see an angle pattern to it. What you have is a camber issue, or a suspension sag issue. You can correct the tire wear by decreasing your camber setting, but remember that this will effect the overall stability of the car. Stability being the cars tendancy to stay on track. Another words the car will drift to the left and right alot at higher speeds. Also, you will lose some grip on cornering, and more understeer will result.

[kimseongjae62]

Thanks for the reply smooth1.

I though the camber was a suspect too at first and your explanation of feather wear symptom is a logical one.

Another reason that I found to have similar wear patterns were bad shocks/struts. However, I would think that bad shocks would produce more irregular balding patterns. As the car is in sitting position, the rear wheel visibly looks to be sagging- bottom of the wheels being wider. However, I was told that the rear wheel camber is not adjustable. Is this true with LS models? Also, was told that when the car is in motion, the camber sagging position is corrected to a more upright position. I really don't know what to do. when you say sagging suspension, which suspension part is suspect?

-shock/struts?- I believe fronts are strut and rear is a coil over shocks. Aside from better handling from a HD/Sports suspension, would a beefier suspension raise the car elevation and thus reversing the sagging camber position/problem?

-suspension bushings?

Provided that it is not a suspension problem, the alignment scale has a min. and a max. allowable factory setting range. Would setting the toe and the camber settings to a factory minimum help?

[smooth1]

Suspension sag comes from worn out bushings and bearings between all the connections of each part. I would do that first, then do a camber adjustment.

[beginner]

Depending on road condition, for example, there are many pot holes in New Jersey, so car alignment is required every 6-12 months to avoid the tires having uneven wear out. I pay for the alignment not because I have a luxury car but because the road condition is so bad. It is part of the cost to drive in New Jersey.

Although performance tires tend to wear out faster, my tires still last for 50,000 miles.

[Clay Easton]

I have the same issues as everyone else with my 07 AWD. What I have done is had the tires taken OFF the wheels and had the right side tires put on the left side of the car. The tires are still rolling in the same direction, just on the opposite side of the car. This means that what was the inside of the tire (the side that is wearing out) is now the outside of the tire. This will get me a ton of extra tire life. I have the Michelin Pilot Sport AS tires. I had them moved to the opposite side of the car at about 30,000 miles. I expect to get at least 50,000 from these tires.

[tex2670]

All this jabber jawing over an alignment problem? I have an 07 is250. I did read the owners manual when I bought the car and saw the note on low tire mileage which I was ok with. My complaint is about the lack of alignment adjustability.

The front camber can be adjusted only so much and that is it. It is set that way for handling. My front tires were not cupping but wearing on the inside edges which caused me to replace them. Yes I had 18,000 miles on them but the rest of the tire had many more good miles in them. I think that lexus should fix that part of the car. Just my 2 cents as I really like the car and have had no other problems except for the brake dust issue that my dealer took care of.

Just curious...why is this thread a "sticky"?

I'm glad it's pinned--I totally forgot about this battle.

At 48,000 mi, I just put my 3rd set of tires on. OEM Bridgestones went at 21,000, but no one showed me excess wear ont the inner edge (I think I was still taking it to the dealer then...). I replaced them with Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 2's. I got 27,000 mi out of them, and my local shop showed me the wear. It's a shame because, otherwise, they still had 6/32ds left. The guy at the shop told me he's seen this on other 2nd Gen IS's; his quote is that the car is "hard" on tires. The guy at Costco said he sees it alot too. Costco covered 41% of the replacement cost under the treadwear warranty, which I replaced with Michelin Prmiacy MXV4's. I'm hoping that a touring tire will have better wear issues.

Is doing an annual alignment the solution??

[carlos3366]

I have had lots of problems with my car pulling to the left, the dealer keeps blaming my new Michellin tires. They also gave me that high performance low profile tires bs. If I have to deal with these headaches just 'cuz of low profile tires, then I don't want the car. I am ready to get rid of it but financially I can't right now. I want a reliable car with no drama!!! Seems like lots of IS's have similar problems with the tires BS.

[carlos3366]

Just get another car. I'm having similar tire problems, just put 4 new ones and alignment. if these new tires get destroyed again, im dumping this car. aint got time for dat!

[kimseongjae62]

Update on the extreme tire wear from my previous post.

Since the problem, I've put on a new set of Kumho tires with a new alignment. I've deviated from the factory specs.

Front L: before, -0.1/after, 0.01 Front R: before, -0.3/after, -0.01 Camber, 0.0

Rear L: before, -1.5/ after, 0.02 Rear R: before, -1.4/after, 0.03 Camber, 0.04

After 2 years of driving w/o rotating the wheel and approx. 30-35K miles driven, The inside tire wear is much less however, it's still there. The car seems to drive, corner and holds the road as same. Then again, I'am talking about a lux. sedan as opposed to better cornering IS series. I am taking it in for a additional alignment to push the toe in a little more to see if the problem goes away.

I'll keep you posted.

[AngelaE]

Yes, I th

I need some advice from ANYONE who has heard anything similar about what I am going through with my IS250. I have had problem after problem with this car and I am about to pull my hair out!! The car is an '07 with 27k miles on it. I am currently in need of my THIRD set of tires on the front and am on my second set on the back. Let me first mention that I do not drive this car hard.....never over 70mph and I baby it to the point of ridiculousness. Anyway, we took the car back to the dealership when it had less than 10,000 miles on it because although there was very little wear on the back tires, the front tires were cupped so extremely that the road noise was horrendous and it felt as if the vehicle was out of alignment. Anyway, the lexus dealership argued that the vehicle met specs, and it could not be an alignment issue. They suggested that we contact the tire manufacturer because the tires were probably defective. We argued back and to make a long story short, lexus put two new tires on the front and "fixed" the alignment problem (that they originally said did not exist). We've heard the whole "they are sport performance tires, so don't expect them to last much more than 15,000 miles" but I just took the vehicle by a shop yesterday and once again the front two tires are not worn excessively, but excessively cupped unevenly and need to be replaced. This repair shop checked the alignment and although it read to be within lexus's specs, we were told that it is so close to being out of spec that I will never be able to keep tires on the car because of the camber (not sure if I am explaining this just right). They also told us there is no way to repair this issue by just "aligning" the vehicle. Now I am in the process of contacting Lexus again, but I am afraid that what I'll hear is....the vehicle meets specs, end of story. I am just SICK thinking that my first "luxury" car will be one that will cost me a small fortune in tires and drives worse than our Chevy Pickup that has 200k miles on it!! Not to mention I've had MANY other trips to the shop with this thing.....squeaky dash that had to be removed, rottinfile:///var/folders/jh/2jczcnjd7nd6c8xd5klbd77h0000gn/T/com.apple.iChat/Messages/Transfers/IMG_0865.JPGg trim around windshield, etc. If anyone can give me ANY advice on what to do at this point I would GREATLY appreciate it! Thanks in

I have had this problem, too. Mine is IS250, 2014, AWD. Scared the crap out of me! A low tire pressure light came on which led to the discovery of two incredibly worn front tires, but only on the inside edges (see pics). This car has only 11,500 total mileage. It had been serviced as required at 5k and 10k. It was aligned at 5k, but no one in service mentioned my tire wear and tear at the 10K! This did not happen in the last 1500 miles! Lexus service replaced the tires and said that they wanted to recheck alignment in another 1000 miles. They do not want to admit this is a wide-spread problem, but just google it, and it is more than obvious that it is. I was informed in this last service visit that the tires will need to be replaced every 15k miles. I would have never bought this car had this been disclosed at the time of sale. Also, it was not disclosed that this car only runs premium fuel. At Flow Lexus in Winston-Salem, the new sports Lexus' now all have stickers on the windows indicating that the tires will need to be replace at relatively low mileage.

advance!file:///var/folders/jh/2jczcnjd7nd6c8xd5klbd77h0000gn/T/com.apple.iChat/Messages/Transfers/IMG_0865.JPG

[bazzle]

An old post I know but some insight from me.

I had similar issues with inner tread wear on Vw R32 and an Audi S3.

It was :mainly" due to the camber settings (even when in spec.)

Fixed the issues on both vehicles by fitting Michelin PS3's. Both cars wore tyres to the limit pretty evenly.

I have just purchased an IS 350 F Sport (2012) fitted with Bridgestones Turanzas.

The dealer changed the front pair before I put my money doen as they had also worn the edges as noted earlier in this thread. 

Today I swapped all the tyres out for Michelins PS4's (Similar and supercedes the PS3)

Time will tell if the issue shows itself on the car later.

The Michelins have a more closed edge with I believe a varying rubber compound across the tread..who knows :)

 

[bazzle]

Been on for over a year now. Even wear across the tread. When it was aligned at fitment I opted for '0' toe.

Michelin's and toe seems to of done the trick