LC 500 Steering / Wheel alignment problems

[aalmos]

Hi mighty Lexus fellas,

I recently had a wheel alignment (in an official dealership) on my LC 500 Sport+. The car used to slightly lean left. When I got it back I noticed the steering had become stiffer, and it was leaning right (e.g. when I hold the steering wheel straight the car goes right slightly). I took it to a professional garage specialized for wheel alignments with lasers and whatnot. They said the angles had been restored to factory positions and the steering wheel position is perfectly horizontal. Yet the car still leans right noticably, and I think the steering wheel has become harder to turn especially on lower speeds. Any ideas? The wheel alignment dude told me that it might be a miscalibrated steering angle sensor, but the dealer says it's impossible. I'm really frustrated because it's a virtually new car.

In the attached picture you can see the "straight" position of the steering wheel.

 

[PCM]

Happened to me once.

New tyres fixed it.

[wendle]

I haven't got any issues with mine, although i haven't had a alterations in my tracking done.

I have always understood that is you let go of the steering wheel that the car will drift left, ( or right in your case as you drive on the right ), this is so if you fall a sleep the car will drift towards the hard shoulder.

however the steering wheel should stay straight.

[NemesisUK]

I always understood this was due to the camber of the road? If one drives on the right, on UK roads, the car will drift right and obviously drift left when driving normally on the left.

Try it on a large flat surface such as a car park? The car should track straight.

The steering wheel as said, should always be horizontal when driving straight. If not and tracking adjustments have been done it is usually because any adjustment has been done more on one side, instead of equally side to side (which takes more time to get correct)

[malcolmw]

I had my alignment reset by my Lexus dealer when my V8 went in for its 2 year service. There were only very slight adjustments made and the printout from their fancy machine shows it was reset exactly to nominal.

The car runs very slightly to the left (in the UK) down the camber of the road but on a flat surface rolls exactly straight ahead. The steering wheel is very slightly turned to the left under these conditions, by eye, about half as much deflection shown in your photograph.

I think this has got slightly worse as the tyres have worn but it is only very marginal and I don't worry about it.

[NemesisUK]

2 hours ago, aalmos said:

The wheel alignment dude told me that it might be a miscalibrated steering angle sensor, but the dealer says it's impossible. I'm really frustrated because it's a virtually new car.

It certainly is possible!

The recalibration of the steering angle and torque sensor zero position is quite involved and must be carried out in the correct sequence. I'd suggest taking the car to a different dealer and ask them to reset the power steering system?

[aalmos]

Honestly at this point I'm kinda desperate. I've been at 3 different wheel alignment workshops by now, I'm getting the same vague theories everywhere: tires, the camber of the road etc. Ever since I brought my car to the dealership for an alignment the power steering feels inconsistent, something is a bit off with the ride, and the car drifts right. Everybody looks at me as if I went mad. I've only driven this car 5K miles so far so I think it's a fair expectation that on a straight, flat surface it should go straight as long as I hold the steering wheel horizontal. I got an appointment for resetting the power steering system at a Toyota garage on Monday (thanks for the suggestion). Let's see if that helps.

[NemesisUK]

After 2 attempts to get my steering sorted, I had to take a technician out with me before Lexus would accept my (brand new) RC steering wheel wasn't horizontal when driving straight. 

So I know your frustration and also know the calibration procedure is complex and time consuming, which is presumably why service centres are reluctant to launch into it...

Do keep us updated on how things go.

[aalmos]

Today they recalibrated the VGRS and configured the horizontal position of the steering wheel. It seems to be good now.

[Delp]

Did they do a zero point calibration via computer? 

[aalmos]

I submitted my complaints to the local Toyota HQ regarding the dealership messing up my wheel alignment. They reached out to the dealership. They say that my car was probably damaged and this is why they couldn't properly align the wheels. They state this because the plastic right side spoiler had some scratch and it was taken off to be repainted by the time I took the car for wheel alignment. This case is getting ridiculous.