Thank You Lexus Forum

[Chuck118]

My GS300 (1999) had a slight shimmy when driving.. New tires and alignment made it better but did not resolve it and the tire dealer found nothing wrong with the front end. Lexus dealer found $2700 worth of items to fix so needless to say they lost credibility. Shade tree mechanic could find nothing wrong. After reading your posts on the GS300 lower ball joint failures I took it to an independent who specializes in Lexus. When on the lift rack he showed me the 3/4 inch play in each of the lower front ball joints. He said they were in very bad shape (after 144k miles). I left the car at the shop and would not drive it. He said he gets about two GS a year in with complete ball joint failure with the wheel separating from the lower ball joint. Makes a mess at when they come apart.

I would not have been so focused on the problem had I not read your posts on the failures and would probably have had an accident when they failed. the driving symptoms were only slight even when they were in very bad shape so I can see how people might not pick up on the symptoms before they failed. If you have a GS get a competent mechanic to check them periodically. My guy said they tend to get bad around 100k but I would have them looked at earlier.

thanks again for your forum .