Wheel vibration/wobble

Daveyboy20 · October 29, 2018

Hi guys - recently had all 4 wheels balanced and just had 4 wheel laser alignment but there's still a slight wheel wobble between 55 and 75ish mph.

Any thoughts?

The-Acre · October 29, 2018

1 hour ago, Daveyboy20 said:

Hi guys - recently had all 4 wheels balanced and just had 4 wheel laser alignment but there's still a slight wheel wobble between 55 and 75ish mph.

Any thoughts?

So many possibilities. Sticking caliper, worn steering parts, worn bushes, out of shape tyres and more! Any other symptoms/noises? Even wrongly inflated tyres can cause it.

Farqui · October 29, 2018

Worn suspension bushes, all easily testable.

As the steering wheel wobbles then it's unlikely to be the prop and/or drive shafts.

Shiner · October 29, 2018

So what could it be Lee? When the steering wheel wobbles..as mine does! My Indy thought it could be the worn bushes (?) but that turned out NOT to be the case!

Shiner · October 29, 2018

Sorry, should have mentioned that I have had the suspension bushes checked

Daveyboy20 · October 30, 2018

10 hours ago, The-Acre said:

So many possibilities. Sticking caliper, worn steering parts, worn bushes, out of shape tyres and more! Any other symptoms/noises? Even wrongly inflated tyres can cause it.

No it drives beautifully around town. It doesn't pull left or right - is just at increasing speeds the slight wobble begins.

May be unrelated - but I noticed, yesterday, after I was forced to brake with some force on the motorway - that there was a judder from the brakes as I approached the slip road to exit. That's never happened before, and I don't seem to get an undulating pedal coming to a stop. Simply very hot brakes from the hard braking at speed?

The-Acre · October 30, 2018

1 hour ago, Daveyboy20 said:

No it drives beautifully around town. It doesn't pull left or right - is just at increasing speeds the slight wobble begins.

May be unrelated - but I noticed, yesterday, after I was forced to brake with some force on the motorway - that there was a judder from the brakes as I approached the slip road to exit. That's never happened before, and I don't seem to get an undulating pedal coming to a stop. Simply very hot brakes from the hard braking at speed?

A judder from the brakes is something my Celsior had when braking at speed, I changed the front discs and had the rear lower control arm bushes replaced and it's gone. That wouldn't necessarily cause a wobble with normal driving though (assuming the wheels were balanced correctly) I'm speaking to a mechanic who knows much about Lexus this morning, I'll ask for his initial thoughts.

Farqui · October 30, 2018

Hmmmm, if you've had the bushes checked already then maybe a tyre has gone out of round?

The wife recently had what turned out to be a bad tyre on her rear NS and it sounded like a wheel bearing at certain speeds. On the front it would have fed back thru the steering.

Are your tyres old and/or worn?

You've just had them checked but it could be a slightly poor balanced wheel? Maybe a weight has fallen off? You could swap wheels front to rear and see if the vibes stop or change.

Malc · October 30, 2018

I remember long back on an Alfa Romeo the tyres had a habit of going out of round and caused problems like yours ........ we know the wheels aren't susceptible to causing that on the Lexus so maybe, just maybe it's one tyre ( or more ) that's not performing quite correctly ............... as mentioned before

Malc

cornershop · October 30, 2018

Try swapping rear wheels with front.

Could the wheel itself be buckled?

Shiner · October 30, 2018

Tyres were checked as part of the service earlier this month. The tread is fine but they are five or six years old. I only do about 2000 to 3000 miles per yr.

will have them checked and balanced at a tyre centre next.

The wobbles only happen when the road surface is rough. Otherwise everything works ok.

My mechanic , thinks it could be the steering column! God forbid.

Daveyboy20 · October 30, 2018

I think the thread is a little confusing as there are 2 cars being spoken about..

To clarify:

Mine is a '98 LS400

It has had wheels balanced recently, but the tyres are quite old and worn.

It only happens at speed (55-75ish)

High speed braking had a brake pedal judder.

Round town it's fine.

Shiner · October 30, 2018

I am sorry for muddying the issue. I’ll stop!

Daveyboy20 · October 30, 2018

Haha - no worries, I'm easily confused 😂

The-Acre · October 30, 2018

1 hour ago, Daveyboy20 said:

I think the thread is a little confusing as there are 2 cars being spoken about..

To clarify:

Mine is a '98 LS400

It has had wheels balanced recently, but the tyres are quite old and worn.

It only happens at speed (55-75ish)

High speed braking had a brake pedal judder.

Round town it's fine.

If all of your bushes and ball joints are sound, I can't help wondering if the clue is in your statement "the tyres are quite old and worn"

Tulpen · October 30, 2018

I agree with Phil.

Tyres that old could have suffered some internal damage which isn't obvious to the naked eye. When you speed up, the tyres can go out of shape and cause a wobble.

OldTrout · October 30, 2018

Did you have this bother before you had wheels balanced and alignment done?

John

19 hours ago, Daveyboy20 said:

Hi guys - recently had all 4 wheels balanced and just had 4 wheel laser alignment but there's still a slight wheel wobble between 55 and 75ish mph.

Any thoughts?

Vince Donald · October 30, 2018

Had something like this on my Honda CRV, got progressively worse, was looked at several times, in the end it had to be sorted as it became a violent shaking, front drive shafts was the cause, the rear was discounted by temporarily removing the prop shaft.

Vince

Daveyboy20 · October 31, 2018

22 hours ago, OldTrout said:

Did you have this bother before you had wheels balanced and alignment done?

John

I did indeed. I hoped the tracking and alignment would help - it didn't. It's only slight but as it drives so well it annoys me and detracts from its comfort 😏

On 10/30/2018 at 11:48 AM, The-Acre said:

If all of your bushes and ball joints are sound, I can't help wondering if the clue is in your statement "the tyres are quite old and worn"

Could be the case.. they have enough tread left just not an awful lot. Be a shame to spend a fortune before I need to on new tyres and still have a vibration!

The-Acre · October 31, 2018

3 minutes ago, Daveyboy20 said:

I did indeed. I hoped the tracking and alignment would help - it didn't. It's only slight but as it drives so well it annoys me and detracts from its comfort 😏

Could be the case.. they have enough tread left just not an awful lot. Be a shame to spend a fortune before I need to on new tyres and still have a vibration!

You could swap front to back to see if it helps but it's a lot of hassle. It sounds like you need new tyres soon anyway so it wouldn't be a bad move methinks.

Daveyboy20 · October 31, 2018

4 minutes ago, The-Acre said:

You could swap front to back to see if it helps but it's a lot of hassle. It sounds like you need new tyres soon anyway so it wouldn't be a bad move methinks.

Yeah, you're right. I've just shelled out a fortune for cambelt, waterpump, exhaust repair, and the wheel alignment - about a grand all in! My wallet's taken too heavy a beating to buy tyres, too! I'll have to wait till it's recovered a little....

The-Acre · October 31, 2018

1 hour ago, Daveyboy20 said:

Yeah, you're right. I've just shelled out a fortune for cambelt, waterpump, exhaust repair, and the wheel alignment - about a grand all in! My wallet's taken too heavy a beating to buy tyres, too! I'll have to wait till it's recovered a little....

At least the LS400 is worth investing that kind of money in, not every car would be!👍

Malc · October 31, 2018

I've done exactly that this year so far on mine

About £850 for the service and MOT with cambelt, pulleys, waterpump etc ..and ... 4 x new tyres .......... £1250 in all.........

and now the rear o/s UCA and front drop links very soon ......... a few £00s but not quite sure how much yet . it's only money and where else can you spend so little on a brilliant car and KNOW that it's really worth it

Malc

Daveyboy20 · October 31, 2018

So I'm a passenger in it on the motorway now and I can feel the vibration - still potentially tyres?

The-Acre · October 31, 2018

2 hours ago, Daveyboy20 said:

So I'm a passenger in it on the motorway now and I can feel the vibration - still potentially tyres?

The problem is that it could potentially be anything. Maybe you need to get to a good specialist who will do a thorough check. If it's tyres causing it and you can feel it as a passenger I'd want them replaced. I still wouldn't rule out a sticking caliper, have you checked how hot the wheels get?