ELITech

The rubbing issue as mentioned before is at the base of the intermediate shaft where it goes through the boot into the rack. The rubber rubs against the shaft and causes the noise.

I just fixed one this week. You undo the clamp holding the boot, pull the boot up, and you can see on the shaft where it is rubbing. Put a high temperature resistant grease on the shaft, and reinstall the boot & clamp.

Fixes the problem

SAPNY

Quatro40 - Now im a little skeptical about my choice of rx
i picked up the car from lexus of manhattan and im taking it there
which jersey dealer have you had goodluck with?
My car had 13k miles and i didnt pay for the cpo warranty as i paid for 100k/7 year extended warranty but they performed the 161 point inspection
Will keep you updated and I hope the mysterious climate/cd problems are resolved

ELItech - thanks for explaining the procedure, i will certainly sound smarter when i talk to the technician at the dealership


UPDATE: i went into the dealership and he test drove with me - he said the noise is normal and it only comes when i turn the steering wheel completely when i reverse the car, He acknoledged the fact that some cars made in 2009 had this issue but my car was made in August 2010 and should not have this issue. The allignment was off so they did it for me (didnt charge me) - so incase any of you buy cpo make sure they do an allignment when you pick up the car

CharlieP

I have a 2010 RX350 with 31,000 miles. There was a rattle coming from driver side front end when going over bumps, braking, and at 80+ MPH. Started on a trip at 27,000 miles and got worse. When I arrived home this month I brought it to the dealer and they found it to be a bad steering column. They replaced the entire column part #45250-0E081 from wheel to axle. Mentioned TSB 0020-11 on the invoice. Looked up part and it's $2500 + labor! Glad it went out under warranty...

Sevn86

Did that fix ur front end rattle?

Sevn86

My steering wheel has made that rubber to rubber noise since I bought it back in April with 21k miles, 5 months and 15 k miles later the noise is still there. What did y'all tell the dealership when y'all went in to have this issue fixed?

ThChinaman

Is the rubber to rubber a groan sound when turning steering wheel? Theres a TSB for that.

MEP7557

Thank you for posting the service bulletin. My RX has just started making the groaning sound, it is slight but, it never did it before.

MEP7557

Well, so much for that. I did the TSB today and I still have the groan when turning the wheel at slow speeds.

CharlieP

Seems to have fixed it.

smokey0066

looking at a 2010 rx450h and it has this same rubber to rubber groan/squeek type noise. this is unfortunate that it is a common problem. I'm on the verge of buying this car and I guess first thing will be to drop it off at the dealership along with the TSB.

Road Rage

You folks need to know there are 3 different noise issues with the RX steering.

There's the noisy boot fix with grease.
There's the column replacement.
And the one I found, the intermediate shaft u-joint.

All three are separate issues and can be tough to differentiate.

The grease fix problem is obvious as it is loud.
The other 2 are tricky. The column fix usually comes with a rattle and groan.
The intermediate shaft is a slight groan and can be felt in the steering wheel as well. The u-joint of the intermediate shaft becomes rough and binds. You end up replacing the shaft itself.

smokey0066

Road Rage: understood. I'm pretty sure the 450h I'm looking at has the noisy boot. My '04 camry has the intermediate shaft u-joint issue and I'll be replacing that soon. It just started acting up recently and upon reading about it I guess if it happened early enough dealers would replace the shaft but later on they were only lubing. Mine is way past warranty so I'll replace it myself as it gets worse. It is slowly developing play and there is a definite "notchy" feel where you can rock the wheel back and fourth.

2008M3

I have the same problem, a rubbing noise when you turn the steering wheel. You can hear it especially louder when just turning the steering wheel by itself without moving the car. Can anyone chime in on this?

sdloeffler

I just purchased a CPO 2010 RX350. It's almost flawless with 35,500 miles on it. I picked it up today and drove around with the stereo on most of the day. When driving later with no stereo I noticed the hellacious rattle coming from the steering column. It sounded like nuts and bolts rattling around. I only heard it when driving slowly over bumpy surfaces. Guess i've been bitten by the issue. Will be taking it into my dealer on Tuesday. Wish me luck!

GoGiantsNJ

Is the steering column problems mostly with the 2010's? Anyone with a 2011,or a 2012 (my RX model year) with the steering column problem? So far mine is ok.