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:( I have a 99 gs 400 with stock 16 inch chrome wheels. These wheels are new with new tires. The car vibrates at 60 MPH and above the vibration seems to be coming from the back. The dealer said it was the ball joints and worn tie rods, i have those replaced and also have a four wheel alignment. I balanced these wheels over and over with no success. they cant figured out what is causing it, has anyone have this problem?

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:( I have a 99 gs 400 with stock 16 inch chrome wheels. These wheels are new with new tires. The car vibrates at 60 MPH and above the vibration seems to be coming from the back. The dealer said it was the ball joints and worn tie rods, i have those replaced and also have a four wheel alignment. I balanced these wheels over and over with no success. they cant figured out what is causing it, has anyone have this problem?

mine vibrated around that, but i was due to my tires being warped. did you make sure the counters weights are still attached to the rim?

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Yes, the weights are still attached to the rim, even after I took them to the shop for balancing again some came out 0.0 but yet still the vibration occurs. I took the wheels off my GS after being balanced and placed them on my cousins GS to see if it was the wheel and tires but it did not vibrate on his GS400 at all.

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Depending on if it gets worse it could be a number of things...

Wheels/Tires are the first to check. Esp wheel bearings.

Suspension components next.

Finally, check out the driveshaft. Dont remember but there may be a shaft bearing that could cause the vibration. unsure with lexus but it has happened on other real wheel drive toyotas i've owned.

good luck

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the dealer checked the shaft and replaced the drive shaft flange, but the problem still exist. under 50 mph it drives smooth but over and the tremor comes in. strangely though over 80 MPH it smoothes out again, I owned nothing but acura in the past this my first lexus, with the acuras I had no problem whatsoever my 2001 has over 85K and my 1991 legend has over 279k with no vibration or problems whatsoever. I hope the GS 400 is not the start to my problems, thanks for all the advice. I will let the dealer check on all of the suggestions you guys put forward and I would let you know. I am still open to suggestions.

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I have had a TERRIBLE vibration in my GS400 as well and have been trying to find the problem for the past 7 months...I have gone so far as to have the dealership I bought the car from replace the rims and tires...but I have 20" on mine...but they ended up sending me to a guy who did an amazing job, probably the closest yet...of getting rid of the vibration...what he did was put a balancing compound (noramlly used for balancing tractor trailer tires)...they sprayed it into the tires (the same way you do with fix-a flat)..and the compound is like a sand that rolls in the tire and spreads out to the places the the tire shimmies to...balancing the tires...so now...the vibration I had is almost gone...but still there...at the exact same speeds you are talking about...so if you do get a fix..let me k now what you end up with...cuz I may need to do the same...good luck! :(

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The head mechanic at the dealer tried to tell me that it is common with the GS 400. He also was saying just ignore it because that is the way it was made, I told him when this car was brand new no one was going to buy an expensive car and dirve it vibrating off the lot. I told the service tech resolve the problem or I will speak to his service manager. They sell and repair this product and then because they don't have the expertise or the qualified people to resolve this problem they tell you all kind of crap. I explained that I have family members and friends with GS400 and GS 300's and they don't have any vibration problems, so it is definetley something wrong with the car. I have new tires and new factory chrome wheels and the vibration persist. they changed the Tie rods and the vibration is still there. If any suggestions I am still open to them. Reigns 7703 I will keep you informed.

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Have you tried another set of wheels/tires on your car? If it still vibrates, then its your suspension or driveline. If not, its your wheels and/or tires. Change tires on your wheels and see. I am betting wheels. Many put there are not round. Also, not all shops balance the same. Use lifetime computer spin balancing and not at Lexus. I had this problem on another car and it was the wheels AND a badly warped brake drum. Check your brake calipers/hub as well.

-Leo

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I have a similar problem with my 400. After balancing many times, I happened to notice the one of the wheels was bent while spin balancing. I then check the others and 3 out of 4 were slightly bent. This was just enough that the wheels could balance out perfect but once up to speed the wheels hit their resonance frequency and all hell broke loose. It feels like the car is hopping. You might check this out. It was the last thing I would have though of.

-Nick

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The lexus dealer finally located the problem, they say the tires were moving on the rim becuase they were chrome. That sounded stupid to me but they said if it dont fix the problem that they would keep the car until it was resolved, the tech removed the tires from the wheels and clean off the rims and added what he called making the tires stick to the rims. I could not believe it but it took care of the vibration until I hit 75 MPH it started o vibrate from what it seems like the back especially when I have passengers. I took it back to them and explained the problem and have one of their Techs test drive the car. They came back and said the vibration is from the drive or rear differential, I did noticed that the keep hearing a clunk sound whenever I engaged Drive or Reverse so I said OK fix it since I had warranty. They replaced the rear differential and evreything seems OK now. If the problem returns I will let you guys know.

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A clunk when going to drive certainly could be the differential, but the U-joint is the most common cause there.......I wonder if they replaced that too?

Turbo GS300 brought up a very good point, and you will find a BUNCH of different threads on this board about this same "GS400 vibration" problem. It really is common.

By the way, mine does it too and if you are on a flat road, and it's quiet, you can barely feel it at even 40mph. (and 50, 55, etc) up to around 80mph where it clears out a bit.

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The lexus dealer actually did a lot of work to resolve the vibration, they changed both tie rods, both the ball joints, both control arms, drive shaft flange anhd finally the rear differential. All this repair on a 99 GS400 with 76000 should las for a while. The tech actually proved that the tires were actually moving on the rim and he says its really common. He marked the wheel and tires then we take it for a ride when we came back and put the car up on the lift 3 out of the 4 tires moved by at least an inch I saw this myself. he then dismounted the tires and clean the rims, after cleaning the wheels he put on a sort of sticky paste around the wheel then remounted the tires. After the remount and balance the car ran smoothe from 10 - 100 MPH.

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