Peredhil

Hi. New to the forum but not new to Lexus. I've a 2006 Lexus IS 350 that I am the original owner on. It has about 13000 miles. It doesn't get driven very much at all.

In fact, it mostly sits under a cover with a trickle charger. Anyway, I have had no problems with it. I take it out at least once a month to keep her healthy and keep the tires from flattening. About a month ago, I got home with no issues, backed it in the garage and that was that. Then it sat for about a month.

Yesterday I was going to take it out but the alignment is severely off. Not a slight pull, but a very severe wheel turn. Just in the short drive down my driveway (say 15 feet) my steering wheel turns about 180 degrees.

It does not seem safe to drive. I'm worried I may have to get her towed. I do not understand how alignment can go so severely out like this.

First thing I did was turn wheels back and forth. Then I checked air pressure (no electronic signal that it was off) and found all tires a little low. Aired them all up. No change. So not a pressure problem.

Maybe the tire(s) warped but not sure how I can check this. Visually, they look round but not sure of a good test for that.

Any ideas or thoughts?

Thanks

Sango

iTrader: (10)

As for tires being out of spec, it would be hard to see visually. A tire place would need to take out the tire and use a micrometer to measure, the circumference of the outside of the tire, as as well as the inner (where the wheel meets the tire). to see if they are are true.

I recall my co-workers M3 had that where the inner was not true (as in it was more like an oval) but it looked perfectly fine visually. It was immediately replaced under warranty as that shouldn't happen because it could make the car vibrate at high speeds and unsafe since he uses the car on the track specifically.

The steering, could be something went lose and the alignment went out of whack. Probably have it brought to a dedicated alignment shop to take a look at it to see what they can do.

Seems like a resemblance to my 99 Toyota Solara Camry where the car at to get aligned 5 times before a problem was solved. Car was aligned but the moment I drove it off, the car got out of alignment within minutes and the steering almost turned like 180 or the car could not even drive straight even thou the wheel was centered. Turned out that a sub-frame bolt was loose after Toyota started to check all the bolts (which I would say should of checked them during the first alignment!!) which caused the sub-frame to literally shift under load while the car was moving on the road which made the steering almost virtually unpredictable.

Peredhil

Thought I'd give an update.

Apparently the belt *inside* the tire snapped. Once they got the wheel off, they could see the big lump. I saw it too. I must have hit something and it finally gave way while it was sitting in the garage...

I don't remember hitting anything but the tires are original (2006 but only 13k miles) so I went ahead and changed both fronts. I had changed the rears back in January.

Interesting XP: Lexus dealer no longer carries Dunlop that came w/the car. I wasn't about to have mismatching tires front to back so the dealer sourced them from an NTB - with a small up fee. As the dealer is an hour from me, it was worth it to me to pay the up fee than go pick up the tires myself in my gas guzzling Tundra.

Anyway, wanted to have a resolution on the thread for others

Gville350

iTrader: (10)

I had something similar happen; my passenger side front tire developed an internal bubble when I ran over a tree branch in the road at night. I could feel it at certain MPHs, but couldn't see anything on the outside of the tire. Discount Tire found it out when it was dismounted, and thanks to my "tire insurance" I got a brand new BFG KDW tire for $25.

Glad it wasn't something too major!