evgyo

TLDR: I have an 08 350 and I recently replaced all my rotors, pads and rear hubs and started running to issues. I have an ABS, Brake, Traction and Power Steering light on my dash and also my fuel gauge is jumping back and forth between 1/4 and 1/2 (should be around 1/2). I understand the ABS, Traction and Brake light as I may have damaged the rear wheel speed sensor in the process of installing the new hubs but the others don’t make sense.



Please read further for detailed process of what happened.



Replacing my front rotors and pads were a breeze, nothing hard and looked good to me. The rears were the hardest to do. The hubs were rusted shut in place and wouldn’t come off the back shield or knuckle after unbolting the Allen type bolts from the back. Me and my friend first attempted to disassemble the suspension and tilt the knuckle but the ball joints would not slide off the mounts that attached to the knuckle so we decided to rent a gear puller kit to pull the hub by pushing in the axle. The rear left was what we started with and I believe due to us trying to hammer/vibrate the hub off, it moved enough to allow the hub come off as one (rear rights were a different story). It came off quickly and there was lots of corrosion debris where the hub sat. The axle guard or whatever it is, that holds the wheel speed sensor came off with the axle and we didn’t find this to be concerning until later on. After that we moved onto the rear right and since we didn’t try to hammer/vibrate the hub and jumped straight to the gear puller, only the inner race came flying off and the outer race of the hub remained on the knuckle. We tried PB Blaster and brake clean but it didn’t work, however luckily we ran into a Lexus tech when going out for food and he recommended to pour brake fluid into the crack where the hub is against the back shield and chisel/pry it out. This surprisingly worked and that side was free, this time the axle guard with the hole for wheel speed sensor was still in the knuckle, instead of on the axle. With everything off, we moved to installing the new rear hubs, rotors and pads.



After cleaning off the corrosion, this is a northern state car, the rear right hub went on okay, getting the Allen type bolts on is hard enough as it is, handing tightening as much as we could. The rotor was simple to put on but the caliper looked like an issue as it seemed the pads closest to you didn’t have much space to go in, while the farthest from you had a bunch of space. My friend realized that the caliper pin inside is probably seized as the caliper should be able to slide in and out fairly easily. This would then happen on the other rear caliper. The rear right was finished up and it did seem hard to turn by hand but I don’t know if that’s due to powertrain friction or just the new hubs needing to be driven around first. We could still do it by putting lug nuts on the rotor and using a pry bar to turn it, having the castle nut torqued made it worse, but just speculations we had. Moving onto the rear left, this is where we had the issues with the wheel speed sensor. We had to put the axle in with the guard over the axle and the hub attached to push the original wheel speed sensor back in. The guard area with the hole for the sensor had some sort of plastic/spongy material that I wasn’t sure of, potentially the remains of the sensor after we gear pulled the original hub off and the guard going with the axle or just a sort of seal to hold it in place. I didn’t notice it on the rear right as it was already in and didn’t take note of it. We removed the wheel speed sensor off the rear left so we could drop it into the axle guard hole with some pliers as it was very stuck on or possibly corroded in the knuckle for the hole of the sensor. After the sensor was aligned and bolted into the bracket, we bolted the hub all the way in and started installing the rotors and pads. The pads has the same issue with the rear right but we pushed out the caliper and granted a lot more space, still feeling seized however. We torqued all the wheels down and started the car and pumped the brakes, it felt good and we didn’t lose any brake fluid from doing all this over night.



We checked the ebrake and the regular brakes and they worked. Then we moved onto the point of braking the pads in. Once I got out of the driveway, I had the Brake, ABS and Traction lights come on. I read the codes and they were C0215, C1241, B2620 which seemed to relate to the wheel speed sensor. I had no reading from the speedometer on the dash either, it was always 0. We started the brake in process anyways. Initially, the power steering felt smoother than usual and out of nowhere it became stiff and a moment later the power steering light came on. When decelerating hard, the rear abs didn’t work and it locked up the rear wheels. Still ignoring these and doing the brake in process, the fuel gauge started jumping around. I’m not sure if this was due to the brake in process decelerations sloshing the fuel around but this still continued even when driving at a constant speed. After we finished the brake in process, we lifted the rear, took the wheels off and saw that the rear calipers didn’t fully push in the pads and the pads were wobbling around, making the rears accelerate then decelerate when just keeping it in drive. There’s a constant whirling and we assume it’s coming from the pads. I later drove 30 miles home with no issue, just the sound coming from the rotor/pad. Retuning home, the pad marks on the rotor looked nothing special. I have yet to check the codes after being mentioned above but will update tomorrow with pictures included.



I am not sure what to do, the Lexus tech we spoke to earlier that day did say those wheel speed sensors go bad so it’s best to replace so I will do that. I’m not sure whether or not to replace the rear calipers however. Regarding power steering and the fuel gauge, I’m completely lost on that. Please let me know if you know anything about this particular issue and if I didn’t make the most sense in this explanation.

2013FSport

iTrader: (2)

The loss of wheel speed sensors impacts, ABS, VDIM, and potentially EPS.

The dust sheilds that came off will be a concern as most are not able to install them and keep them out of the sensor until the axle comes out.

Not all wheel bearings align with the speed sensors and/or generate the correct signal strength for the sensor. Hopefully replacing the sensors fixes your issue, do make sure those dust shields are secure or you risk it spinning on the axle killing your sensor.

Brake calipers. They need to slide freely or your pads and rotors will be destroyed. I'd suggest you replace them if greasing them is not possible.

Also, it is bad practice to press the piston in and shove all that debris back in the line. Open the bleeder and let it out. It is not lifetime fluid and needs flushed every 3 to 4 years as it attracts moisture.

Not knowing what suspension bits were undone, some can be damaged by tightening them in place while hanging down. Do a search on this site or read the sticky.

Last little bit, if after a short drive where you use the brake very minimal, mist some water on the rotors. If it steams, you have a stuck caliper.

Gas gauge. How was it jacked and supported? Any chance you pinched something under the car?

GL

evgyo

All the codes I'm getting are regarding the wheel speed sensors: C1541, C0210, C0215

I do believe the power steering issue is related to the wheel speed sensors afer doing some researching, however it does seem weird that it was smooth at first then stiff.

I'm still not sure if the axle guards that hold the wheel speed sensor need that plastic/spongy material around the hole, you can see it in the picture I will link below.

We only regreased the pin in the rear right caliper, but I believe it was still hard to slide that one freely (rear left caliper was the only one that was pushed out for pad space). In the picture link below, the rear right wear on the rotor is smoother than the rear left and I'm not sure if that's because the rear left pin wasn't regreased. The rear left also has these small outward grooves (not eating into the rotor) and I'm not sure what this issue is, the previous brakes had a significant groove into the rotor which will also be in the pictures linked below. Most likely will replace both calipers.

I believe the suspension should be fine because we either pressed the ball joint in so the nut can get grip and not spin the ball joint bolt or used a jack to push up on the LCA to make it easier to reinstall.

I'll do the steam rotor method to check for a stuck caliper sometime soon.

Here are the pictures that include how I jacked up the car (Red showing where the jack stands were placed and Blue showing where we jacked up the car with the hydraulic jack), the axle guard and the brakes after driving home: https://imgur.com/a/xU74dAy
I don't know how to properly use the forum's picture feature without making it huge so I used imgur to make it easier and included captions.

2013FSport

iTrader: (2)

Yikes! If you jack the front again, please don't use the oil pan as a jack point. That could easily destroy the engine mounts and other stuff if one breaks, not to mention inducing oil leaks.

Ya, the rust on them calipers looks bad. I'd replace them. The two guide pine on each need to slide freely. This is a common problem for for these calipers.

Dust shields. Not sure about plastic sponge thingy. The axle sests in the bearing with nothing between it.

Look at the 1 O'clock position. Those two points are the sensor which needs to be close to the outer seal of the bearing. Under the seal is a tone ring.

Were you able to seat the dust shields?


I will suggest to anyone else who needs to get an axle out, it takes about an hour to drop the rear diff without unbolting ANY suspension components from their pivot points.

Bonded rubber joints can be damaged from over rotation if tightened while hanging down.

evgyo

I circled the oil pan in the pictures, we didn’t Jack from that, we used the cross member behind it.

2013FSport

iTrader: (2)

Ten character

evgyo

That's a good picture, is that for the second gen? When I pushed the sensor all the way in, it didn't look like that though, it was just a rectangular thing that sits lower than in the picture. I don't know if bolting the hub in touched the sensor in any way or defected it. I'll definitely replace it and try to see how far it sit.

evgyo

Like this one, at 5 oclock position: https://www.ebay.com/itm/32573533582...RoC4_MQAvD_BwE

Zmon

iTrader: (2)

Funnily enough, I'm going through the same exact thing as you right now. Right rear bearing was going, so I bought both to do at once. I have access to a shop with lifts/Alldata/TIS, and did these bearings before on a buddy's IS250. One of my rear calipers was seized, so I replaced that too. Put everything back together, no speedo/abs/vsc/traction lights are on. I bought a generic set on Amazon, installed, still nothing. Going to try again thursday when another set comes in from a different brand. You shouldn't need to take the hubs off again to replace the sensors.

EPS will feel weird with all those lights on. It's even stiffer than normal right now and I have a 12 IS-F steering ECU installed which already upped the stiffness a bit. Only thing that seems odd compared to you is I don't have the steering light on.

2013FSport

iTrader: (2)

Zmon, were you able to pull the hubs and not dislodge those dust shields? Ive never done this on this car and don't know if the shields are pressed onto hub or into the spindle. Did you take any pictures?

And what brand of bearing went into yours?

Zmon

iTrader: (2)

No pictures, wanted to get it done fairly quickly due to the heat, dust shields didn't get dislodged. Going to play with it again Friday when it cools down, hopefully new sensors round 2 will solve my issue, I'll get some good pictures as well.

I'm still trying to figure out why the OP's EPS light came on, and why his fuel gauge is acting up. My only guess is it was accidentally lifted onto a loose cable, or something got disconnected on accident. If possible, I would get the car on a lift and double check all connections around any area that was worked on.

evgyo

I'm most likely gonna do the thing 13FSport did by unbolting the diff and firmly pressing in the axle guards from the back. Just got my new sensors and gonna get new rear calipers soon. Nothing changed with the lights, all of them still on and fuel gauge still giving issues, here's a video of it: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YzFYId7yPnY. It only gives me an accurate reading when I'm not moving; when I accelerate, it drops and then when I decelerate it goes up. Not too sure if it's because I jacked it around the area where the fuel pump would sit, but will try to have it on a lift and check out the connections.

Zmon, I believe the EPS gets reading from the wheel speeds and judges how much assist is needed. I was no where near the rack and pinion or the electronic units so I don't think I messed anything up there.

Thank you for all the info guys, will give updates as soon as I get the time.

Zmon

iTrader: (2)

if you want an easier way to check the fuel pump connectors, remove your rear seat cushion (it simply comes out if you give it a good yank) and then pop the lid off the fuel pump cover.

Just a note that if your new sensors still don't work, it's likely the hub you bought. No matter how many sensors I tried, aftermarket, or OEM, I could just not get a speed reading from the right rear sensor. Even replaced the harness. Found a Moog hub locally, installed it, and all lights are off instantly. Guess that Duralast hub I had just didn't like the sensors at all, left side was some random hub Advance Auto had but I had no issues with it.

evgyo

I don't think I have fuel pump issues, probably a sensor that I messed up when on jacks.

Here's the link to the hubs I got: https://www.carparts.com/Wheel-Hub/TrueDrive/REPL283707
But yeah, if these new sensors don't work I will get those Moog ones.

evgyo

Here's some videos I took:
Rear Calipers: https://youtube.com/shorts/AHC2Ilw4L7A
Driver side axle guard: Passenger side axle guard:
Calipers look in better shape than before, properly closing in.
Driver side axle guard isn't pressed in and is sliding with axle and then being caught on the end of the sensor?
Passenger side axle guard looks pressed in like how it was when I put the new hubs on. I wanted to swap the sensor but it would just not budge off. Vice grips on it, even put brake fluid around the bracket to hopefully get rid of some corrosion but I think the axle guard is just caught on the sensor, I have no other explaination for it. I'd have to take the hub off again/unbolt diff to just see what's going on and I'm not sure if I wanna do that again. Honestly might just have a shop do it for me as I don't have a garage or anything to work at.