rocketpope

Took both front wheels off tugged around nothing in both those areas what could it be also the rubber gromet by my feet on the steering link going through the firewall makes a groaning noise when i turn it but its done that before this wheel play happened. Please help!

Bylan

Do you mean there is several inches of steering wheel travel in each direction before your wheels turn? We're definitely going to want to know what model year you have, though the steering system should be similar among all of em. My 1997 has about 1/4 inch of play in the steering wheel each way before the wheels really do anything, and theres a small clunk that occurs when the contact point is reached and the wheels turn. It isnt enough for me to warrant taking it off the road, its just a boat with 210K but I have wondered where the slop is. Now your problem may lie in one of the U-joints in your column, theres one you can see down at the foot-well behind your pedals, and one under the hood on the drivers side, below the brake fluid reservoir. It should be visible from both above and from below the car, right at the steering rack. I've replaced my lower Ujoint with one off rockauto, about $40 and took ~1 hour, as it seized up on me once and made me think my power steering had died, and after lubing it it had noticeable play in it. Id check each of these U-joints first, otherwise its probably your steering rack which is $$$. I wish I could find where the slop in my steering is from, I've even put polyurethane steering rack bushings in to tighten it up, and while it is tighter, there's still mechanical play somewhere. I believe there's an old thread on here about steering column clunk, where a bearing on the column is poorly secured and can allow the column to get sloppy, maybe dig back to that. Those are all my ideas, I'd appreciate input on my situation as well from the clublexus community. Oh and is there any way to adjust the steering rack? I know theres a large nut right by where the lower steering shaft U-joint connects to the rack which is intended to adjust the gears inside the rack, anyone ever messed with it??