Steering wheel feels loose

[lexusisfan]

Hi All,

I have a Lexus Is250 on a 06 plate and I've started noticing that the steering wheel feels loose and when braking the car steers to the left.

I felt really uncomfortable driving it so I toke the car to my mechanic who checked all the brakes (asked him to greeze all the sliding pins while he was at it) and checked the bushes etc and he was unable to find any faults.

He suggested tracking may solve the issue. 

Has anyone had similar issues with their cars and how they got them resolved?

 

Many thanks

 

 

[johnatg]

In my experience, this sort of feeling etc is due to wear in the joints in the tie rods at the inner end. See the drawing which is, hopefully, attached. People have heard of track rod ends - that's the short bit that screws on to the tie rod. It has a ball joint which often wears, but if bushes etc have been checked these may be OK. But see the inner end - there's a joint where the tie rod screws onto the steering rack, covered by a gaiter. (NB - tie rod, track rod - same thing)

I am not sure just how easily accessible the gaiter is on our cars - you may need to remove the under tray. But if you grip the gaiter with your hand and get someone to turn the steering wheel slightly, you may be able to feel obvious movement within the joint.

The tie rods are easily replaced and shouldn't cost too much. (Relatively - no Lexus parts are actually cheap!)

This wear is caused, IMHO, by turning the steering wheel when the car is stationary. In the days before we had power steering you almost never did this because it was too hard to turn the wheel. But power steering is very powerful so the wheel is easy to turn. Go to any high street or car park and you see people doing it all the time. It puts enormous stresses on the tie rod joints , both inner and outer ends. Don't do it, folks - make sure the car is moving, even if only slightly, when turning the steering wheel.

[Texas]

+1 on all the above info ( especially not turning without moving!) but for sure your next course in logically solving this abnormal behaviour definitely should be to get the cars steering geometry checked/adjusted, this should be done periodically anyway even if no symptoms are apparent to prolong the life of the tyres for a start as these will be one of the first to show abnormal conditions.

note: a full alinement should include the rear wheels also, so don't let a centre just 'Track the Front end''

paul m.

[johnatg]

I'd try and get a free check. If l'm right, and l'm 99% certain I am, you'll need a full geometry check and reset anyway once the job is done.

I'm staggered to see that RockAuto list the inner tie rods for £5.06 each (plus carriage etc)

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[johnatg]

Although I'd get the premium ones @ £25 ish if it was me!

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[lexusisfan]

Dear All,

First of all, I would like to thank you all for taking your time in helping out with your advice and suggestions which have been much appreciated.

I've been to three different garages that checked the suspension bushes and rods and it was all fine.

I then went to a trusted local garage to check the geometry and the front was slightly out, but not massively out to cause the issue.

After adjusting the geometry, I took the car for a test drive and there was no significant improvement, which at this point I thought that either I'm going crazy or its probably about time to think about changing the car.

Now this is embarrassing, the gentlemen that did the geometry asked prior to checking whether the tyres had the correct pressure which I replied yes. ( I had checked two weeks before).  He decided to check the tyre pressures, and to my surprise, the front offside was down to 22 psi while its normally at around 35psi. Immediately after inflating the tyre, the car drove as it should.

It turn out the tyre had a nail stuck to it and it was slowly losing pressure, I've ended up replacing the tyre for a brand new one and the problem is now solved.

 

 

 

 

[Texas]

Goes to show that fault finding should always be done in a logical sequence and not to assume anything is good but to check the easiest/cheapest things first before getting into the intricate/expensive bits!

Glad you got a ( relatively) inexpensive outcome..

paul m.