krispl

Update! I have 2001 Gs430 with l tuned shocks and tanabe springs.

Throughout the last 2 years I have done the following to my suspension and steering in conjunction with shaky steering wheel and to improve overall handling:

1) lower ball joints - more to have a peace of mind that they don't break
2) all new tires, tires balanced twice and about 3-4 alignments
3) steering rack daizen bushings - made very light improvement in shaking and handling
4) all front suspension daizen bushings - mad big improvement in HANDLING but NOT IN steering wheel shake
5) pretensioner adjusted

After all of these repairs/adjustments, my overall handling improved a lot but I still had random steering wheel shake at roughly 70-75mph.

Anyways... I recently decided to give these a shot and so I bought new inner AND outer tie rod ends by Moog. Paid roughly $100 for all of them from rockauto.

I replaced them yesterday and took car for alignment this morning.

After alignment I took it to Sacramento back and forth (driving 60-85mph, total about 90 miles) and so far NO SHAKING AT ALL!!!

I'm really excited so far and hopefully this won't change. Steering wheel and front suspension has never felt this good before. It really feels like BMW's steering now.

Jeff thanks for your diy and therefore for motivating me to change them out

I will keep you all posted if anything changes but for now just enjoying my shake-free steering and finally solid front end suspension!!!

justjosh

iTrader: (5)

Just ordered the inner tie rod ends for my GS400 (already replaced the outer) . Will give it a try and if it makes a difference I will order them for my GS300 too.

jedi_k

Jeff,

Just wondering if your alignment is still fine. My tires are having exessive wear after 5 months of an alignment. Took it to the shop today and they said the passenger side is bad and the driver side should be replaced too but don't look as bad. Thanks for your feedback and DYI.

JeffTsai

iTrader: (1)

Glad this guide helped you guys out.

Jedi, yes my alignment is good now. These cars have very sensitive suspension geometry especially when lowered. Every ounce you can get the suspension tighter and closer to new will help with alignment and tirewear. Really, it's this way for most any car out there but this car is especially susceptible to these tire wear issues.

gtmuggs

i think i need this done on my 400

JeffTsai

iTrader: (1)

IMPORTANT UPDATE!

My alignment was a bit better after replacing inner the tie rod, but toe alignment would randomly drift out of spec after a while. I took it to my friend that works at Lexus and we put it up on the lift to check everything out. He even got a few of the senior techs out there to come to try and diagnose the problem. Well, turns out it was something extremely stupid. The camber adjustment eccentric bolt needs to be REALLY cranked down. The senior tech told him to get a 3ft long breaker bar and just lay into it.

I didn't want to bug my friend at Lexus because they usually have to stay after hours to work on personal cars or on cars not coming through the shop. So I had firestone do my alignment previously because I also have the lifetime alignment plan with them so it was free. Their(Firestone) problem was that they didn't crank the camber bolt down enough and it caused the camber to drift around every time I would hit a major bump. Some days the toe would be in and some days it would be out. They would set the camber and toe dead on according to the Hunter alignment machine, but I guess the tech didn't crank the bolt down tight enough. My friend cranked the bolt down, we threw it back on the alignment machine, and then dialed in all the settings to perfect. After that, I haven't had a single problem and I've been driving it hard for a while now since we've set the alignment.

So, for you guys that are getting whacky alignments that drift out of spec after a few days or weeks...MAKE SURE you check that camber bolt!!!! I've gone though 3-4 sets of tires and replaced every possible balljoint/bushing trying to figure out the stupid problem!

Update: Posted picture of camber bolt location.

justjosh

iTrader: (5)

Stupid question but which bolt is the camber bolt? Did the inner tie rods today and am bringing it in for an alignment tomorrow. Will tighten the bolt before i bring it in.

AZGS4

^^^ I would like to know this too please. Thanks.

Update: Thanks for the clarification in your picture Jeff.

d7620

great information here Jeff. Thanks

airahcaz

Jeff,
I brought my car in cause I was hearing cracking noises, like with a lower ball joint issue, but my LBJ's are new. Turns out my camber bolt was also loose after a Firestone lifetime alignment. My mechanic tightened it. Did you hear any noises as your camber bolt was loose?

JeffTsai

iTrader: (1)

No noises with mine, but it was just barely loose enough to allow the camber to jump around every time I would hit a major bump. That's why I couldn't diagnose it myself. If there was a weird noise then I would of known to look around for it, but mine had no noises at all.

airahcaz

Right. It is tightened now but my steering is off so another alignment needed, again.

Contemplating changing the inner and outer tie rods, but is it really necessary, especially after what was found with loose camber bolt?

JeffTsai

iTrader: (1)

With your car being 14 years old and 120k miles, it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and do the tie rods, ball joints, and busings. If you just want to save money then you can try to just get another alignment after you cranked down the camber bolt.

RamAirRckt

Should be doing mine here in the next week or 2. Got one BJ done, need to do the other and going to do tie rods while I am at it...

vwynn

iTrader: (4)

Jeff, if youre camber bolt was not as tight wouldnt your camber setting drift off as well? and when camber gets adjusted toe goes outta whack as well.