I have a 2015 gs350 and when I turn the steering wheel completely right or left and am driving say making a u turn or circle, the steering wheel does not retract by its self and needs my assistance to help it retract or straighten the tires out.

Is this normal or do I have an issue?

 

Depends. Not normal if you make a u-turn and accelerating out of the turn. The steering wheel won't completely straighten itself out, but should go back to straight. Making a u-turn and completely stopping while in the turn is somewhat "normal" to not have the steering wheel retract to straight.

Hate to ask a question that may seem obvious, but have you checked the air pressure in your front tires? I've only had this steering wheel issue once (in one of my old AWD 4-Runners) and it was because the front passenger tire had a slow leak that caused the pressure to drop below 20psi. Once fixed, life was good. Have not had this issue on my last 2013 or my current 2018.

Let us know what you find, and good luck

 

I'm assuming that is for a low speed turn since you are at the stops. The GS has a very tight turning circle for such a big car and it could very well be that the alignment is off enough to cause this phenomenon. If it is AWD, I could see this being more true as the CV joints could be binding up and helping to keep the wheels locked.

I can't say I've noticed it going forward. How much effort does it take to bring them off of lock? Once you pull it back a bit, does it self center? If not, you definitely have a power steering rack or alignment issue.

 

So, I conducted a test in my 2013 AWD this morning. I pulled out of the garage and cut the wheel all the way to the right. It stayed mostly to the right. Upon throttle is somewhat locked into place. Once 1/2 turn off of lock it again started to self center. I'm gong to call this known/expected behavior for long wheel base/aggressive turn vehicles. If it did anything like this going down the road with a slight curve and having to recenter yourself, I'd be very worried.

 

So I just tried with my f sport RWD and there is no pause at all. The wheel begins an immediate rebound as soon as the vehicle starts moving. I wonder if this is an AWD thing? Not sure what OP is in.

 

same with my 2015 AWD.. i noticed this even when the car is new.. but i didn't care

 

Pretty much what I suspected. We need the OP to say if he's AWD or RWD because the AWD is going to act this way due to the CV joints binding up and holding it there at the extreme turning angles.

 

My car is RWD.. I will try this again in an open parking lot. So far only experienced it when making a full turn and felt steering does not retract completely as quick as I'm used to on other cars.