Steering Tilt Motor Access Info Needed

The-Acre · February 25, 2015

I can't find this doing a search, so can someone tell me how to remove the plastic housing around the steering column? All I can see is one screw underneath, but that doesn't seem to release anything. Thanks

hihihi · February 25, 2015

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Chris Skelton · February 25, 2015

Annoyingly, I recall seeing a pictorial on this-perhaps hidden in a post.......

cruisermark · February 25, 2015

there 3 screws - 2 behind the steering wheel and one below on the side around the drivers knee area

The-Acre · February 25, 2015

there 3 screws - 2 behind the steering wheel and one below on the side around the drivers knee area

Is it the two that release the air bag?

hihihi · February 25, 2015

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Titch LS · February 25, 2015

Phil, ------No, the two screws hidden by the steering wheel are NOT connected with the airbag. I've removed this plastic shroud myself. Easy peasy.

The-Acre · February 26, 2015

Thanks all for the info, I'll give it a go tomorrow.

jonthetourist · February 26, 2015

Phil, ------No, the two screws hidden by the steering wheel are NOT connected with the airbag. I've removed this plastic shroud myself. Easy peasy.

Just checking, for safety sake. Is the above statement definitely true for the 430, as well as the 400?

Cheers

Jon

cruisermark · February 26, 2015

jon there is pics and instructions here:

http://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls430/757395-diy-the-step-by-step-telescopic-steering-write-up.html

ls400lpg · February 26, 2015

On my Ls400. It has nothing to do with the airbag. You can see when you look at the 2 screws

The-Acre · February 26, 2015

On my Ls400. It has nothing to do with the airbag. You can see when you look at the 2 screws

I didn't realise two screws were hidden by the steering wheel, easy when you know! I was actually only wanting to get the housing off to get access to the clock spring which I'm hoping will arrive tomorrow. I thought that if I asked for info for that I may not get any replies, it's apparently not a very common issue with a Lexus. Anyway, it's all in bits, all I've got to do now is get the steering wheel off the splines!

One thing I've learned from this is the importance of letting the capacitors in the air bag loose their power for a good 15 minutes before removal. I've not had to learn the hard way I hasten to add!

£244 for a new clock spring from Lexus, hopefully my German purchase for £30 will be OK. The horn not working was the only reason for an MOT failure, more than happy with that!

Thanks again for the help.

hihihi · February 26, 2015

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The-Acre · February 26, 2015

Sounds like things are working out ok for you, I'm pleased.

Yes, "not a very common issue", certainly not here in this forum.

Would you add some pictures to show this "clock spring", maybe including the spring in situ, thanks.

I will do for sure, just in case it happens to someone else. If it comes tomorrow I'll post over the weekend, otherwise I'll be working away in London so it'll have to wait until April.

The-Acre · February 27, 2015

Well the new clock spring arrived from Germany today. Unusually for a Lexus it was a very easy job, about 15 in all. And lo and behold, still no horn!

After using a multi meter I was 99% certain it was the clock spring, fortunately it was only £30.

It can now only be an earth issue (I hope) as when I yank the steering wheel round with the engine off, the horn will sometimes work with the tension kept on the wheel.

Looking on line it seems that a horn not working due to a steering column not earthing properly isn't so uncommon. I've run out of time now so it has to go in next week to a local garage.

Anyway, here's a picture of a Lexus clock spring (of which I now have two!) and which you are very unlikely to ever need to get to.

PS

The multi meter only showed 7-9 volts, which isn't enough to fire a 12V horn!

steve2006 · February 27, 2015

IIRC the way the horn circuit works is that the horn push completes the circuit by connection to earth when the pad is pressed, if you only have 7-9 volts present that would suggest the supply voltage is low as opposed to the earth connection.

On the earlier LS400s the earth wire is actually rivioted to the steering wheel centre boss.

Personally I would run a wire from the existing loom to a discrete switch to bypass the horn pad.

I only have wiring diagrams up to the 2000 model year LS400 but the wiring should be similar, there is a fuse 10A (HORN) this feeds the 12v supply to the horn relay,from there the 12V supply goes to the horn pad on the steering wheel and pressing it completes the circuit to earth.

12 volt to pad should be coloured green with a red stripe,try connecting this to earth using a piece of wire to see if the horn then sounds.

The-Acre · February 27, 2015

Not sure what happened here!

The-Acre · February 28, 2015

At last! After probably three hours or more trying to get to the bottom of this, the horn is working again with just 10 minutes work. Thanks to Steve's last post it made me think a bit more logically.

The problem was that the steering column wasn't earthing properly, and as I found out, not at all uncommon, and on many different types of car. So all I did was add an earth link as seen in the photos.