Moondoggy1

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this strange steering issue on their ES350 and can tell me what's causing it?

About 10 days ago I left my home on the dry, flat, straight street and I notice that my ES350 was pulling strongly to the right. I drove 3 miles to a convenience store for gas and was going to head directly to the auto repair shop but when I restarted the car it was no longer pulling to the right which I thought was very strange. Kept driving the car for another 10 days and no issues but yesterday and today the car exhibited the same behavior. Yesterday I stopped at the same convenience store and again when I started the car, no issue. Today it was pulling again when I left my home but this time I didn't have time to stop and drove 35 miles and the car pulled strongly right the whole way there but after spending 5 hours at my destination the behavior of the car was normal again. Now when I say that it was pulling right on a relatively flat roadway I'm saying that if you took your hand off the wheel for a second you were heading quickly toward the ditch. Note that the first thing I did after the first two pulling instances was check the tire pressure and all 4 tires had the same pressure.

So, has anyone else seen this behavior where your car starts pulling very strongly in one direction but after you stop and turn off the car and then start it back up again about 10-15 minutes later the steering returns to normal? Anyone have any ideas as to what might be the issue with my 2016 ES350? Any and all help or suggestions regarding this problem will be greatly appreciated.

2018ES350

Was your right front wheel warm after your 35 mile drive? What you described sounds like the rt front brake dragging.

Moondoggy1

Thanks. That's certainly a possibility that I will check out over the next few days assuming that it starts up again. I think I could understand that happening on the first 2 instances where the head from the short term drive was enough to set it free but 35 miles of stop and go I would have hoped that it would have freed up somewhere along the line before the trip ended. Again thanks as that's a good start.

rmak

I have had that issue before and it was my Rack and Pinion unit. How many miles on the car?

Moondoggy1

I have 71,100 miles on my car. After I posted my inquiry the problem has gone away again. To me this is a strange thing as in my mind it should not start pulling then stop pulling and continue to not pull.

2018ES350

Your car has the lane assist right? My ‘18 will push the steering wheel over if you wander out of your lane in the highway. A dragging brake is unlikely on a newer car, so that only leaves one alternative issue. I’m not familiar how these systems work, but this is a big issue if it’s a factory defect, and worth investigating IMO.

Moondoggy1

Nope. The 2016 does not have Lane Assist. My wife's Rav4 has it and I know what that feels like when it's engaged.

bc6152

Do you feel resistance when attempting to correct the right pull?

jgscott

iTrader: (1)

There are a few diffrent things that could do this. Seems you said that each, or sometimes you stopped cut the car off, sometimes let it sit a few min's also. Next stop, for a min or 2, dont cut the car off and start to drive safetly again. See if it does the same still or stops, without cutting the car off.

Moondoggy1

I'm not sure of what you're asking but normally it doesn't take any pressure at all to hold onto the steering wheel but when it's pulling I have to keep a noticeable amount of pressure on the wheel to keep the car from heading toward the ditch so I would say yes, there is a lot of resistance.

Moondoggy1

Well, in some respects I think I did that. The 35 mile trip that I took involved a lot of stop and go driving due to traffic lights. I know that some of the lights were very long. The only thing that might be different than what you're suggesting is that during the trip I did not take the car out of gear at the lights.

rmak

Here are the items that could possibly cause this;
- Rack and Pinion unit failing. Unlikely with mileage, but it is dependent on fluid pressure to work correctly. Still fits the description more than others though. Maybe try a PS fluid change.
- Wheel bearing failure. In my experience if a bearing starts to seize it does not ever return to normal.
- brake dragging. Very unlikely that it would apply pressure on its own. If the car pulled during/after brake application then it would be suspect.

If the power steering pump was failing it would be harder to turn in either direction and would likely make a noise when turning.

Just my thoughts. Good luck with your troubleshooting.

FWIW, when my rack and pinion steering went out, it pulled very hard and was very intermittent. Got progressively worse until no power steering.

bc6152

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think that our cars have power steering fluid. The PS is electrically assisted...

autotech13

All cars today have electric power steering! No fluid and no pump!

jgscott

iTrader: (1)

Yes it's Electric power steering. There is also a way to reset or something that has it Calibrate at restart, but I dont know that much about it. Has something to do with the wheel being calibarated in the start position being straight?

Reason why I asked about the stop while doing put in Park for a min with wheel straight. Also Lexus/Toyota did have a problem wide spread with the Steering Racks, big problems you can google for it. But if I remember correctly the symtoms were it being non responsive at speed and not reacting much while one turned the wheel as if there was a slight disconnect at the steering wheel to the cars wheels.