GX550 Overtrail Vibration

All,
I took the car out early on a drive where I accelerated to a high speed and lightly dragged the brakes back down to speed. The vibration frequency did not change. I'm fairly certain it's not the brakes. The car also didn't pull in any particular direction too hard and the movement didn't feel lateral but vertical. It's leading me to believe that it's related to suspension dampening at this point.

I'm a Porsche guy and I remember when the 991 gen 1 GT3's were released, there were issues with early engines blowing up. On the Porsche forum Rennlist, there was a significant amount of feedback which led to the creation of the "Concerned Owners Group", a group of enthusiast forum members which took the concerns directly to Porsche corporate. All of that culminated into a Porsche taking action including a 10 year powertrain warranty, and ultimately the redesign of the engine released in Gen 2.

While this is not $150k supercars blowing engines, I do think there's merit to this group of owners/enthusiasts coming together rather than dealing with dealers who really are held to the mercy of the manufacturer (it's really out of their hands and to be honest, Toyota has their hands full). Maybe this deserves broader attention given that this thread has reached 23 pages.
 
All,
I took the car out early on a drive where I accelerated to a high speed and lightly dragged the brakes back down to speed. The vibration frequency did not change. I'm fairly certain it's not the brakes. The car also didn't pull in any particular direction too hard and the movement didn't feel lateral but vertical. It's leading me to believe that it's related to suspension dampening at this point.

I'm a Porsche guy and I remember when the 991 gen 1 GT3's were released, there were issues with early engines blowing up. On the Porsche forum Rennlist, there was a significant amount of feedback which led to the creation of the "Concerned Owners Group", a group of enthusiast forum members which took the concerns directly to Porsche corporate. All of that culminated into a Porsche taking action including a 10 year powertrain warranty, and ultimately the redesign of the engine released in Gen 2.

While this is not $150k supercars blowing engines, I do think there's merit to this group of owners/enthusiasts coming together rather than dealing with dealers who really are held to the mercy of the manufacturer (it's really out of their hands and to be honest, Toyota has their hands full). Maybe this deserves broader attention given that this thread has reached 23 pages.
Being a longtime Porsche owner I’m familiar with the example you sighted. IMHO it’s too early for Lexus/Toyota to get involved knowing they’ll wait it out until cases start piling up. If by “coming together” you mean troubleshooting and finding the root cause, I think it’s a great idea. I think it starts with owners who have no issues getting together with owners with the issue. This would eliminate individual perceptions of the vibrations. Once thats resolved then the problem solving can begin. That’s the easy part if the person has the willingness and time to dedicate. Getting a Lexus service tech to engage is going to be difficult.
 
Can someone make a list of the symptom (vibrations), pull all the case numbers so far in here and all the solutions tested to date by the different garages then we can raise a parent case number with Lexus to get this issue sorted once and for all. If the cars are lemons they need to be replaced. Would be interesting if anyone else having their car built in Japan for the Australian market has come across the same vibration issues on the OT. It may just be an issue with US model as well.
There is enough concern here to warrant a thorough investigation by Lexus.
 
Hi All- New to this forum and appreciate folks posting up to this point. I am getting my tires road force balanced today to see if this helps the bad "vibes". I've seen some posts here and on Reddit where some folks have had success mitigating vibration from tire rebalancing or just full on replacement with new tires of different make.

I am mostly city driving and the ride quality is terrible (this is coming from prior generation Sequoia w/ Fox shocks that rode much better). Seems better on the highway but my kids are still getting car-sick in the back seat. My sales guy at Lexus is aware and sympathetic but not getting much guidance from those around him.

I keep going back to the other member who said their issue was fixed by brake system replacement. Do we know if they experienced the same washboard drive and jello-like reverberation at bumps? Perhaps they had an even more pronounced issue, different from what we are feeling, and that's why the brake replacement worked for them. I'm not a mechanic, but would a brake issue be easier to fix versus a suspension/AVS issue?
 
Hi All- New to this forum and appreciate folks posting up to this point. I am getting my tires road force balanced today to see if this helps the bad "vibes". I've seen some posts here and on Reddit where some folks have had success mitigating vibration from tire rebalancing or just full on replacement with new tires of different make.

I am mostly city driving and the ride quality is terrible (this is coming from prior generation Sequoia w/ Fox shocks that rode much better). Seems better on the highway but my kids are still getting car-sick in the back seat. My sales guy at Lexus is aware and sympathetic but not getting much guidance from those around him.

I keep going back to the other member who said their issue was fixed by brake system replacement. Do we know if they experienced the same washboard drive and jello-like reverberation at bumps? Perhaps they had an even more pronounced issue, different from what we are feeling, and that's why the brake replacement worked for them. I'm not a mechanic, but would a brake issue be easier to fix versus a suspension/AVS issue?
It does seem like 2 seperate issues brewing. You might try sending a pm to "sroberts" who was able to get her's fixed with the full brake system replacement. Have you been able to test drive a GX that doesn't have the vibration issues at your dealer? Being In NoCal I would think you'd have a decent chance of finding an unsold model you could compare too.
 
Hi All- New to this forum and appreciate folks posting up to this point. I am getting my tires road force balanced today to see if this helps the bad "vibes". I've seen some posts here and on Reddit where some folks have had success mitigating vibration from tire rebalancing or just full on replacement with new tires of different make.

I am mostly city driving and the ride quality is terrible (this is coming from prior generation Sequoia w/ Fox shocks that rode much better). Seems better on the highway but my kids are still getting car-sick in the back seat. My sales guy at Lexus is aware and sympathetic but not getting much guidance from those around him.

I keep going back to the other member who said their issue was fixed by brake system replacement. Do we know if they experienced the same washboard drive and jello-like reverberation at bumps? Perhaps they had an even more pronounced issue, different from what we are feeling, and that's why the brake replacement worked for them. I'm not a mechanic, but would a brake issue be easier to fix versus a suspension/AVS issue?
I am still wondering how it could actually be the brakes, at least what I am experiencing. So, I also think it could be two separate issues in this thread. For whatever it's worth.
 
Hi All- New to this forum and appreciate folks posting up to this point. I am getting my tires road force balanced today to see if this helps the bad "vibes". I've seen some posts here and on Reddit where some folks have had success mitigating vibration from tire rebalancing or just full on replacement with new tires of different make.

I am mostly city driving and the ride quality is terrible (this is coming from prior generation Sequoia w/ Fox shocks that rode much better). Seems better on the highway but my kids are still getting car-sick in the back seat. My sales guy at Lexus is aware and sympathetic but not getting much guidance from those around him.

I keep going back to the other member who said their issue was fixed by brake system replacement. Do we know if they experienced the same washboard drive and jello-like reverberation at bumps? Perhaps they had an even more pronounced issue, different from what we are feeling, and that's why the brake replacement worked for them. I'm not a mechanic, but would a brake issue be easier to fix versus a suspension/AVS issue?
What suspension mode have you set on the truck? I have found that in “comfort” the vibration is a lot less noticeable.

I still don’t know if this a brake issue, suspension issue or other. But I did start having brake squeal when it’s rainy and I’m backing up. So there is definitely something going on with the brakes that needs to be fixed.
 
What suspension mode have you set on the truck? I have found that in “comfort” the vibration is a lot less noticeable.

I still don’t know if this a brake issue, suspension issue or other. But I did start having brake squeal when it’s rainy and I’m backing up. So there is definitely something going on with the brakes that needs to be fixed.
I don't feel much difference in the drive modes on the vibration side. I do notice the car has larger suspension travel on comfort mode, but to me that seems like more of a normal truck feel similar to my how my old Sequoia drove.

I'm hung up on the sort of lateral shimmy I feel anytime I hit a bump or pothole, that I feel in the seat up through the steering wheel.

Turned out the tires were balanced so no smoking gun there.

I scrolled through a thread from '24 land cruiser owners and they seem to be experiencing similar brake squeal. If we think the brakes are at fault for vibration, wouldn't LC owners have similar vibration issues?
 
I don't feel much difference in the drive modes on the vibration side. I do notice the car has larger suspension travel on comfort mode, but to me that seems like more of a normal truck feel similar to my how my old Sequoia drove.

I'm hung up on the sort of lateral shimmy I feel anytime I hit a bump or pothole, that I feel in the seat up through the steering wheel.

Turned out the tires were balanced so no smoking gun there.

I scrolled through a thread from '24 land cruiser owners and they seem to be experiencing similar brake squeal. If we think the brakes are at fault for vibration, wouldn't LC owners have similar vibration issues?
I agree it’s a mystery still. My vibration is actually most noticeable on completely flat and smooth roads and creates a feeling like your driving on a washboard road. It’s not jarring. I have no idea if it’s related to the brakes or something else. How sroberts originally described their vibration feels different than mine. So who knows if they are separate issues or not.
 
I don't feel much difference in the drive modes on the vibration side. I do notice the car has larger suspension travel on comfort mode, but to me that seems like more of a normal truck feel similar to my how my old Sequoia drove.

I'm hung up on the sort of lateral shimmy I feel anytime I hit a bump or pothole, that I feel in the seat up through the steering wheel.

Turned out the tires were balanced so no smoking gun there.

I scrolled through a thread from '24 land cruiser owners and they seem to be experiencing similar brake squeal. If we think the brakes are at fault for vibration, wouldn't LC owners have similar vibration issues?
I aksed on a couple of FB groups if the LC owners have experienced any vibration and they have all said no. They also have different brakes on the LC than what is on the OT GX's.
 
Can someone make a list of the symptom (vibrations), pull all the case numbers so far in here and all the solutions tested to date by the different garages then we can raise a parent case number with Lexus to get this issue sorted once and for all. If the cars are lemons they need to be replaced. Would be interesting if anyone else having their car built in Japan for the Australian market has come across the same vibration issues on the OT. It may just be an issue with US model as well.
There is enough concern here to warrant a thorough investigation by Lexus.
I spoke with the GM of my dealership on Monday. He said that he has heard from other GX owners about vibration issues and said that feedback has only been from Overtrail owners.

As far as a "thorough investigation by Lexus" I can confirm there is a lot of mystery here. Several weeks ago my service adviser, the lead diagnostic technician both stated that "the brakes are being replaced on these cars." The REALLY WEIRD part is that since that conversation, they literally will not even speak about brakes. I think that Lexus knows these OT trims are flawed but they don't have a solution in place just yet. It seems their plan right now is to just try and quell the complainers (like myself) and deal with those scenarios one by one. I think alot of people have the flawed cars but they don't know it or don't recognize it's a problem. Slow speed driving is a little weird, but you don't realize (at least with mine) that there is an actual problem with the car until you go over 70 MPH.

I think Lexus needs to do a stop sale on ALL overtrail trims not delivered yet but that would look really bad so they won't do it.
 
I spoke with the GM of my dealership on Monday. He said that he has heard from other GX owners about vibration issues and said that feedback has only been from Overtrail owners.

As far as a "thorough investigation by Lexus" I can confirm there is a lot of mystery here. Several weeks ago my service adviser, the lead diagnostic technician both stated that "the brakes are being replaced on these cars." The REALLY WEIRD part is that since that conversation, they literally will not even speak about brakes. I think that Lexus knows these OT trims are flawed but they don't have a solution in place just yet. It seems their plan right now is to just try and quell the complainers (like myself) and deal with those scenarios one by one. I think alot of people have the flawed cars but they don't know it or don't recognize it's a problem. Slow speed driving is a little weird, but you don't realize (at least with mine) that there is an actual problem with the car until you go over 70 MPH.

I think Lexus needs to do a stop sale on ALL overtrail trims not delivered yet but that would look really bad so they won't do it.
Appreciate your follow-up on this. I am contemplating whether to bail on this puppy versus hoping there's a fix. Taking mine in for service next week to see what sort of intel I get and will base my decision on that.
 
I spoke with the GM of my dealership on Monday. He said that he has heard from other GX owners about vibration issues and said that feedback has only been from Overtrail owners.

As far as a "thorough investigation by Lexus" I can confirm there is a lot of mystery here. Several weeks ago my service adviser, the lead diagnostic technician both stated that "the brakes are being replaced on these cars." The REALLY WEIRD part is that since that conversation, they literally will not even speak about brakes. I think that Lexus knows these OT trims are flawed but they don't have a solution in place just yet. It seems their plan right now is to just try and quell the complainers (like myself) and deal with those scenarios one by one. I think alot of people have the flawed cars but they don't know it or don't recognize it's a problem. Slow speed driving is a little weird, but you don't realize (at least with mine) that there is an actual problem with the car until you go over 70 MPH.

I think Lexus needs to do a stop sale on ALL overtrail trims not delivered yet but that would look really bad so they won't do it.
Could this be just those vehicles manufactured in the US? Or does it impact vehicles world wide such as those coming from the Japan factory
 

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