So I don't drive my car much as I have a company car (thank god). I started my car up early evening yesterday for a date. Car is clean and looking pimped! Car started fine about to pull out from driveway, as soon as I moved the steering wheel the P/S light came on. No power steering. Along with that the stabilty/traction control light came on, check VSC, and brake light on. Turn off car and thought it maybe a fluke... WRONG!!! on restart it seem fine again but as soon as I moved steering wheel all the lights on cluster came on again looking like a christmas tree.

I know it has electric assist steering. Anyone experience this problem? Is it a ecu or electric gear motor, or rack n pinion issue? Any specific TSB recall/campaign?

Any suggestion as to what went wrong here?! Car is 2006 Lexus GS430 with 70k odo. No extended warranty.


Thanks,

 

Any beeping sound?

best take it to dealer.

My car hit 118k miles when my alternator died and this happen + beeping sound when driving on highway. Go get a battery tender and plug it in. It'll fully charge your car battery and I believe it can go 30+ miles with a full charge battery without alternator. Make sure you turn everything else off.

 

I will take a look at alternator but I don't think that's it. I replaced battery 6 months ago. It starts up fine but it's just when I attempt to move steering wheel is when the P/S light and P/S doesn't work. Everything else is fine.

 

there is a service bulletin for this, I had this completed on my GS430 ~ 3 years ago before I had sold it. someone else can probably link the info or call your dealer and explain what the issue is. I'm pretty sure this is covered regardless of mileage/age.

 

SSC6LE JUL 06 Campaign - Electric Power Steering (EPS) Replacement

I have also had this done on my vehicle with exact same symptoms as yours, they replaced the entire rack on mine.
Cross your fingers that your covered, I remember the rep telling me it was a expensive part to replace ($2000 - if i remember correctly).

 

I'll keep my fingers crossed, I will call dealership tomorrow to verify. thanks for your help guys.

 

btw... does anyone think it maybe the steering column assembly?? i wanna rule out any other possibilities. if all else fails i will prolly buy a rack n pinion from dealer at discount and install myself.

 

maybe if you rotate the air in the tires it would help lol j/k

 

more than likely the rack. i had the same problem on my car even after i had the recall done. the new rack i had only had like 5k on it before it went again. like you i hardly ever drove the car so i was past the 1 year/12k miles for the part. thankfully for the extended warranty i got it replaced again.

i did research on this when i had my problem and it could be 1 of 2 things. the rack or the ecu. have you installed any new electronics in the car? I remember reading a thread a while ago in the 2IS forum where people had a problem when they installed HIDs and located the ballast in the engine bay.