OffTheBeatenPath

Mobile 1 - 10W30 in summer, 5W30 in winter with the Japanese Denso Lexus oil filter.

I am sorry to hear that the alignment did not resolve your wheel shake. I will be at my dealership tomorrow for a carwash and will ask their master tech if he has seen or has been trained on this problem with other LXs. I know that they corrected this issue on my 01 with the specific alignment and details that I provided you. In troubleshooting this issue has the dealership tried rotating the tires front to back? If so, is the shake exactly the same magnitude at speed?

Also...Does your steering wheel shake/tremor occur on all road surfaces, be it concrete, asphalt, or (?), either old or new? Does it gradually get worse to a maximum as your speed increases to 65? Does it decrease at speeds beyond 65? What setting do you normally have your Adaptive Variable Suspension (AVS) set at?

My experience with my new 03 has been absolutely stellar to date, with only the steering wheel needing to be re-centered to the VGSR (less than a one minute process with the tech's "game boy" controller). I have not experienced any steering wheel shake at any speed over a variety of road surfaces during several thousand miles of driving so far.

I am also anxious to hear of gslx4s dealership's solution... Please keep us informed.

If the dealership has verified your wheels are correctly balanced on a recently calibrated machine, then you have a front-end alignment issue causing your steering wheel to shake at speed.

The 1998-2003 LX470s for some reason are very susceptible to a toe setting misalignment. Don’t worry as this is easily fixed. Have your dealership’s master tech, and only the master tech, align the front wheels to balance Left and Right sides EXACTLY and to the following specs (all in degrees): Caster, 2.3 (min) and 3.8 (max), 2.0 to 2.3 preferred; Camber, –0.8 (min) to 0.8 (max), 0.0 ideal; Toe, -0.10 (min) to 0.10 (max), 0.00 ideal.

The toe and camber settings are the most critical. While a 0.00-degree toe will reduce your straight ahead tracking slightly, this will all but eliminate the steering wheel shaking at speed. Also, ask the dealership to run an alignment report showing the initial and final settings to verify their work and the alignment to the correct settings.

If this does not solve your problem have the dealership contact Lexus’ regional master tech with this problem, they have heard of this problem at least one time in the past…I had the same issue on my LX and this alignment solved my problem.

Good luck! :)