draco

I have looked on these forums to try and find a way to reduce the noise of the telescopic steering wheel especially on the in and out. The gear makes the "normal" noise when it goes up and down, however on the in and out it's quite noisy. Comparing this to my last RX, this one sounds worse. I took a recording of the steering wheel moving in and out. The out noise is slightly quieter, but this is probably cause it has warmed up a bit, in the morning it's a bit noisy.


From some of the fixes I have read on this forum, I tried adding some grease to the winding gear (at full extension and short by greasing the gear itself and hopefully thinking that this would help) but this doesn't seem to have done anything to be honest. The noise seems to be more motor potentially?? Can anyone suggest any other fixes so that I can reduce this noise for the in/out operation of the steering wheel.

I want to keep the feature, it's one of the features I like and always wanted in my car so it is staying on, so it won't be disabled (as a "fix").

neelnaik

Draco, are you talking about this DIY?
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...c-wheel-2.html

Did removing and cleaning out the motor not do anything to help this?

mpatton

I haven't seen this DIY. Hm. This is the first lexus I've owned and I guess I assumed it was supposed to just be that loud. From the video, mine is just as loud as his and I never thought it was supposed to be any quieter. Is it?

neelnaik

The DIY I posted is from the 2nd gen GS forum. Some of the steering wheels from the 1st and 2nd gen LS/GS are starting to fail, but cleaning out the motor fixes it.

In all honesty, the video that Draco posted didn't work the first time I posted, but it is working now. Looking at the video, it seems normal to me. Mine is about that loud too. However, perhaps cleaning out the motor might quiet it down a little bit, seeing as my 04 RX330 is already more than 10 years old.

Some Lexus models may be a little quieter than others, but it's never really stood out to me on any the Lexuses I've driven (which is a good number).

mpatton

Yeah, I have an 04 also and it's not that loud I don't think. I mean, it's a truck that has a fancy automatic telescoping steering wheel, I just never thought about it being unnecessarily loud.

MNSC3

iTrader: (1)

On my '98 SC300 you can turn off the auto function by pulling on the adjustment ****, wish my '08 RX 350 had the same feature, kinda disappointed when I bought it. So now it has to be programmed by Lexus to be turned off ( owners manual ) and then it can't be turned on again except by Lexus ????? What's wrong with an on off switch Lexus ????
Kind of a joke.


______________________________________________________
2008 Lexus RX 350 Flint MIca/blk 81,000 miles
1998 Lexus SC 300 DWP/beige 144,000 miles

neelnaik

MNSC3, you are correct in that the newer Lexuses do not have an on/off switch for the auto tilt/telescopic feature. What you need to turn this feature on and off (and MANY others) is TIS (Toyota Information Service) Techstream. I cannot go into detail due to forum rules, but I will say that the internet is your friend, especially the site that shares it's name with the great Brazilian river, and of course everyone's favorite search engine. I STRONGLY recommend reading up on TIS Techstream.

Moderates: I tried really hard to not violate forum rules. If anything I said here was in violation of forum rules, please have mercy and just remove this post (instead of kicking me). I'm just trying to help out our fellow Lexus owners in need.

draco

I can't see why this would not be allowed by the mods, as there already exists an article elsewhere in these forums(https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...s-allowed.html).

Now to just find out about this and how to get it to work. Safe me some precious dollars!!!

That aside

I had not seen that specifically before, so I will look into getting this done and sorted ASAP. Now to lock in a time where I won't get disturbed by the wife and kids (almost 3 year old and 3 week old ). Sounds like a "I'll do it around lunch time thing when they are both asleep"

Carver

Congrats on the new baby!

neelnaik

Congratulations!!

Good catch. Idk if it is this forum or toyotanation that doesn't allow posting of TIS stuff and links to 3rd party sites other than sponsors.

That being said it's about $30 USD from Amazon. You do need 32bit windows (XP-7), or you can always VM or dual boot if you know how. The drivers will NOT work on 64bit. I have already tried it, and drivers are only good for 32bit. Other than that, just be sure to read the instructions on the disc before you open anything else, and it's pretty straight forward from there. Oh, and will need a CD drive (or access to one) that can support mini CDs, as that is what comes with it. Techstream itself is really straightforward to use, but I will warn you that the car takes FOREVER to respond to stuff, so patience is key. The adapter for the car just plugs into the OBD 2 port under the dash. You can also use it to do functions like read and clear CEL.

If you are going to take the motor apart, would you take and post pictures of the process of getting the motor out, cleaned, and relubed, so we have something to reference that is RX specific? It would be a great resource to all of us another 10 years down the line when the lube dries up and the motor needs to be cleaned out to get it to work again. Thanks in advance!

draco

I did intend to post as many pictures as possible so that there was reference material for the RX specifically.

sgmstr

04 330 FWD. It works fine, but it started whining/squeaking when key is inserted. Anyone know how to regrease/fix this issue or clean? how do i get to the gears/motor?

I'm pretty sure this was discussed in the past so i searched for it, but with no luck.

Rainbird

This is a scan of the 2007 RX350 steering column. I would assume the RX330 would be similar or the same. This is not something I would work on, but you may be more comfortable doing that. In any event, you MUST remove the negative terminal from the battery for 90 seconds before doing any work on the steering column. The last thing you want to happen is an airbag activation.

Reynold

jmu2004

Fixed this noise last weekend. Get some white lithium grease, remove the 3 screws on the bottom steering column cover. You will see 2 telescoping bolts towards the rear of the column.

Layer those up with grease. Let the wheel telescope back and forth a few times and re-pack it with more grease.

Issue fixed.