I love my GS but this loose steering issue is really starting to bother me. Im afraid to drive the car when i go past 75mph bec i feel i have no control of where its going.

The only suspension mods my car has are Espelir springs, Ltuned shocks and 18in wheels.
Recently i had the alignment done and wheels balanced, this fixed my wheel shaking problem and made the steering feel much tighter....... But after a few weeks the steering began to be loose again, at least the shaking problem is fixed.

What advice can u guys give me to fix the problem? Besides getting the Ltuned steering ECU, what else can i do??

Thanks in advance.

 

Henry (Rominl) had the steering rack actually tightened and notice a LARGE difference.

Many Lexus dealer's may not do it for you citing safety issues but a local shop in your area should have no trouble helping you out.

You might also be able to improve the handling (not neccesarily the wheel itself) by installing Daizen or TRD sways. That will kill any roll or looseness you may feel otherwise.

Good luck and keep us updated,
-Anthony

 

Captain Bone,
Thanks for your advice. I will check on the steering rack.

Im satisfied with the way my car handles, and i know the TRD sways will make it much better. But the main problem is the loose feel i get from the steering. I know it wasnt this bad before, so it can be fixed, i just dont know how.

 

Yup, get the steering wheel pretensioner tightned. L-tuned ECU helps for a firmer, tighter feel too.

 

Out of curiosity, does your RX have tighter steering? I have a 2003 GS430 and a 2000 RX300 and the RX has firm and direct steering - the GS is just scary.

 

doug_999,

The RX is my parent's car, but i do drive it at times. The 2000 RX we had, the steering was really messed up, but i think it was because it was involved in a big accident right after my dad got it. He now has the 2004 RX and the steering on this car is much tighter.

As far as my GS i dont know what to do.........When i drive on the highway there is no feel from the steering.....So when im goin 80mph and i want to switch lanes, it gets scary

Anyone else have any suggestions how to fix this? Would tightening up the suspension components help?

 

Hey Raphael, Its Zack form the neighbrhood , I got the same problem, the steering vibration that i havent been able to get rid off for a year now. I got to get new tires soon, and i will try again to get balance and alignment but I learned that the supension and rack and pinion is ****ty on the GS, it just multiplies the vibrations from the front and shoots through to the steering wheel. I didnt have any vibrations on the 16" rims because the thick sidewall absorbs some of the vibrations but low profile 17"which i got now increases it. We are left with trying to tighten the steering pretensioner. Let me know what you do to fix this annoying vibration, it makes me dislike my car too.

 

Check the ball joints on the front suspension...worn ball joints can make the steering feel kinda unsure...but it's also dangerous....but I would imagine that they would have seen that if they rotated and realigned your car...

Another thing to check is to see if the endlinks popped off the front sway bar....that would make the front end feel kinda unresponsive...

 

I've gotta that pretensioner tightening! the car feels good at low speeds, but the soft steering/soft brakes/mushy suspension create some 'nervous' moments at high speeds

 

actually i still havent' gotten my pretensioner tightened up. it's not for every car though, you have to match the vin in order to get the tsb done. but i heard that does the most for handling (steering wheel wise)

 

Hey Zack, whats up bro........The problem is not the steering vibration, but that the steering is not precise, especially at highway speeds.
I did have the vibration problem ur talking about.......The way i fixed was i balanced the wheels on the Hunter GSP9700 machine.....Def try it, it will fix the vibration.

My car is fairly new (2002) and i only have about 19,000 miles on it so i dont think its because of wear and tear to the suspension or other parts, but who knows.

As far as the steering pretisioner, i agree with Rominl that the TSB was for only certain 98 GS cars, but im not sure........Im gonna try to tighten it anyway.

 

I had similar problems with the steering and the problem disappeared/lessened when you add the suspension upgrades. I think that out of the upgrades, the sway bars trd/daizen would help with the l-tuned ecu. This was the best improvement to reduce the weird floating feel when driving at higher speeds. You may want to check if the sway bars end links are tightened also.

 

supergs400,

I wanna add sway bars, but driving in NYC thats not a good idea. My ride is bad enough already with just being lowered and having 18in rims. Im thinking of getting coilovers (TEIN CS) though, which would give me better handling than i have now but almost the same ride comfort.

For now, i wanna get the steering ECU and front STB.
I know the STB will improve handling, but do u guys know if it makes the steering tighter and more precise??

 

The front stb helped out when I put this on first before the sway bars, but the improvement will be very minimal. I would suggest the front cross member upgrade either trd or tom's before the front stb. If adding in the sway bars, the ride quality would not be affected that much. Daizen sway bars are hollow so the ride quality would not be as bad as the trd blue unless you get the trd sportivo (white). If you are trying to lower the car, the coilovers will work and I hear that sometimes this may work well with no further suspension upgrades. I placed the trd (blue) shocks and springs first, but some of the floating feel of the front swaying was still there. By far the sway bars have been the night/day difference with eliminating the front from being loose. The l-tuned steering ecu will tighten up the steering wheel when driving, but will not be much of an improvement with the handling.

 

i think daizen would suit your needs, i like them. honestly all the braces and stuff, they can't compete with what the sways do