Skaldsyn

My car (a 2002 Lexus ls430) has a persistent strange steering feel and shake that I cannot seem to get rid of.

Things I have fixed/replaced:

Brand new tires front and rear.

Inner tie-rods replaced as they were very loose.

All 4 wheels have been balanced and aligned.

Suspension bushings have been checked, no cracks or rot.

No clunks from suspension.

No noise from steering.

Car tracks straight, no highway wandering on its own.

The wheel is fine at parking lot speeds unless I drive on gravel or bumpy surfaces. While doing so, I can feel the wheel shaking or jolting around slightly as I hit bumps, certainly too much to be normal. This shaking is not enough to be dangerous but it is certainly annoying.

When I get to around 50+, the wheel will sometimes start rhythmically shaking as if a wheel is imbalanced even though I had them all balanced recently. This can sometimes shake the whole car very minutely due to the constant movement in the steering wheel.

I have read on this forum that people have replaced their steering rack bushings, could these bushings be the case?



Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated

kos

iTrader: (1)

Intermediate shaft? Mine will make a similar wheel shake / judder over poor road surfaces and at lower speeds.

Jinya1004

I’ve got the same issue.

I thought it had something to do with my brakes needing replaced as my steering wheel was shaking when braking, but I also get the shaking/clunking of the steering wheel driving slowly on gravel or bumpy roads

ls430w140

+1 i would look at that part, and also maybe i can advise to double check the lower ball joints condition.

MonSmash

I don't notice anything when braking. I only feel it when traveling slowly on bumpy road. I've swapped out the rear lower control arm bushings as they were torn and replaced the sway bar bushings as they're cheap and easy. That helped only slightly so I assume they're muffling the feeling some but the underlying cause is still there.

I don't feel any play when moving the wheel at 3 & 9 or 6 & 12 so I don't think I have ball joint problems. I was wondering if the front lower control arm bushing was a possible cause. Will check out my intermediate shaft but I didn't notice any play in it when I checked previously.

MonSmash

I'll be checking out the bolts as noted by @bradland in this link. https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...aft-clunk.html

Striker223

Get it in the air, check all the ball joints and tie rod ends for any play, put large prys on each bushing/arm and check for excessive deflection, do the same for the actual rack and front sway bar bushings and also make sure the links have no play. After that lower it down and check the strut mounts since when those are worn it can have this effect and a clunk over really bad pavement that sound/feels very similar to worn bushings in the arms.

I doubt it's the shaft itself since those have play you can easily detect by trying to move the wheels and observing if there is any steering wheel movement before the tires move assuming perfect tie rods and rack bushings.

I can elaborate more when you have inspected it further

Hipatchy

I am on the hunt for the same noise. My suspension was completely thrashed.
I have replaced lower ball joints, shocks, upper shock mounts, upper control arms, LCA bushing. These made a huge improvement but this little noise over rough roads is left.
Tie rods feel tight. I have sway bar bushings on my table I intend to put in on the weekend but I doubt it will solve it.
Only things left are rack bushings which I have ordered, tightening those bolts on the steering shaft and maybe lower control arms but those are expensive as hell. Hopefully the steering shaft isn't the culprit. Good luck and share if you find a solution.

xjfish

Loose/worn rack bushings seem likely to be the culprit here. Worn sway bar bushings won't contribute to steering feel, although they will certainly cause a clunk. Good Luck.

Wizard650

I also had a similar issue and had my LCAs and tie-rods replaced which did not solve the problem. I took it to another Lexus dealer and they recommended replacing the steering rack - they wanted $3k. That's a little rich for my blood right now, so I opted to defer for the time being. Interestingly enough, I decided to see if the steering wheel telescope distance effected the feel, and lo and behold once I fully retracted the it I can no longer feel any jolts or shakes when driving slowly over uneven or gravely road. I know it sounds simplistic, but it can't hurt to give it a shot.

MonSmash

Looks my movement is coming from the steering rack. When turning the wheel from right to left you can see the rack move side to side. I have an 06 and they don't call out the steering rack bushings as a part you can buy but they were available for 01-03 and on another thread a user installed them and they worked. I've ordered these today so hopefully they arrive by Friday and I'll install them next Saturday.

While I was under my car I found my oil leak is coming from the dip stick o-ring so I ordered one of those and a new PCV valve at the same time. Had to make the most of shipping charges and extra 10% off from Bell Lexus.

Lavrishevo

iTrader: (1)

+1 on steering rack bushings.

Thecar

Did the steering rack bushings work out for you?

warminwisc

How costly are steering rack bushing at an indie ? Thx

MonSmash

They seemed to help a little but definitely didn't fix the problem. Only seems to have dampened it slightly. I measured the old and the new with calipers and the new was slightly larger which I attributed to a slight compression of the old ones but it wasn't much of a difference. Didn't notice anything different in hardness of the old one being mushy or soft.

I haven't looked further into it to see what other possibilities there could be.