So... my ES330 has no steering issues... EXCEPT the steering wheel moves slightly from side to side. It doesn't affect anything but I'd still like to get it fixed as I love this car. Any ideas what could be causing this?

 

do you mean when the car is sitting and off, you can grab the wheel and get side to side movement, or this happens at speed driving down the road? If its the latter, always start with tire balance after a good front end shakedown (check for looseness in the front end), if its the former, something is seriously loose/broken not in your steering but in your actual column... you'd start by identifying where its looks. I think the column is bolted only to the under dash, the rest of the connections are just the yoke to the rack

 

I should have also confirmed that you mean laterally, not rotationally....

 

Thanks for the reply... Lateral movement both when the car is off and while driving. It doesn't affect steering... Just seems like a loose column. So I should probably just look under there and see if something is loose?

 

yea for sure. I am attaching a photo of your column. there are clearly visible 3 mounting holes. Start there. This wouldn't affect steering as it is north of the yoke (or the rack for that matter), if that makes sense. It would need to move outside the working angles of the universal joints and even then you'd be hard pressed to notice in normal driving. Please report back I am curious

 

I finally got around to doing this today... it's been freezing here in Minnesota until recently. The 2 mounting holes on the sides appear to be clips that fit over solid metal piece connected to the column. Those clips are REALLY loose. I tightened those bolts up as much as possible without destroying them (the bolts) and it still moves. It's like those 2 bolts are worthless! Do you know if the clips are supposed to be loose?

I should add that I can see "clips" just moving over the metal piece when I move the column side to side... they hold the column in the UP position but don't hold it from moving side to side.

Thanks!

 

This might mean either asking Lexus if they can provide just those clips and see if that helps or, what I’d do, a trip to the tractor supply or similar for the hardware isle and figure out a way to firm things up

 

Update - torquing them down did actually help. The wheel isn't totally loose now.... I can still move it but I'd have to try. All in all I'd say it's fixed enough for me! Thanks again for the help!