Has anyone experience the electric power steering failing when starting the car and driving right away without warming it up?

My 2009 ISF has recently started doing this occasionally. It was when I started the car for the first time of the day, and pulled away within 10 seconds or so. When I let it "warm up" for a minute I have not had it happen.

But the thing is, I've had the car for a few months and have never had this happen until now. My mechanic plugged it in to the computer and there are no codes up, or in the history.

Any thoughts?

 

only time I had that happen was when my battery was about shot and had to replace it.

 

I had this happen to me the second day after driving the car. I pulled out of the driveway and the power steering went out. The next time i turned the car on, it was fine and it didnt happen again til about another year. It went out driving down the street in my neighborhood, i pulled over, turned the car off and on and it was fine. Took it to the dealership and the first time no code was found but the second time they found a code. The code had something to do with the steering column. Their procedures for that code is to simply reset the ecu and that's it. I haven't had it happen a 3rd time yet.

 

I would have a Lexus dealership look at it. Have you had it serviced through Lexus since you bought the car?

 

This is why I sold the car and bought a GT-R.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...sue-again.html

I took it to the dealer 2 or 3 times, they had it for quite a while, said they figured it out, but after a while the light would pop back on the and steering would go out. Very annoying!

I finally traded it in on a GT-R for this reason...

But now I'm ISF shopping again!

 

before I purchase my 2010 ISF I test drove an 09 ISF from CarMax, in the middle of the test drive power steering went away and light came on, I stopped and had the sale guy drive back, did not purchase that car even though it was the color combination that I wanted, Found a better deal 2 weeks later

 

This car has been at Lexus more than its been with me! Rear Diff replaced, airbag wiring redo, trunk closure adjustment.

Last time I dropped it off, the nav/radio was cutting out for a second, and coming back on. My warranty company never followed up on that claim for some reason, when I picked up the car, battery was dead.

So I got a new battery put in just a week ago, and since then, the power steering problem has started up, maybe coincidence?

 

I have a 2008 F, 87k miles.

About 2 months ago my power steering would fail intermittently. Light came on and steering was incredibly difficult at low speeds. I was unable to find a link between modes, speeds, or whatever as to how and when it would fail. Usually a restart would clear the problem.

So I changed to an Interstate battery and even HID fogs to LED fog lights and thought that would solve the problem after reading some other posts about the same issue. But today it happened again.

Anyone else having this problem and were able to solve it?

 

I've also had the electric power steering fail on my 2011. First few times it happened was at night, so both the dealer and myself thought it was the battery since it only happened when there was more of a load on the car. Replaced the battery and no incident for about a month but then it occurred during the day w/o extra load (headlights and AC were off) on the car. Took it back to the dealer and this time they hooked up the diagnostic tool to the ECU (power steering) and they found the ECU itself had a short. They immediately ordered and replaced the ECU.

 

Damn thats wild. That can be a safety issue...

 

Oh definitely, I stressed my concerns with them on several occasions. I think that's why they were so quick to replace the ECU and apologized several times for the misdiagnosis the first visit. Luckily it only happened to me less than a hand full of times and each time I wasn't in any danger (except maybe my inability to turn a car with a v8 in front; not the same as a Civic hatch with a swap). haha
The first time it happened I was mid turn but in a residential area so I wasn't going fast. The 2nd and 3rd time I was on the freeway but going straight.

 

Im sure the liability element will get them to jump a bit

 

I have felt mine very recently get slightly heavier for a second and go totally normal again. Need to keep an eye on this. So is the ECO relfash or replacement a permanent fix or have some have it pop up again ?

 

I'm wondering if in any of these cases if the owners were running some sort of Aftermarket HID kit or ballasts in their headlights or fog lights..
(fogs more likely)

Joe Z

 

Ive been telling people for years ( since the LS460 forum ) that those bulbs can cause all kinds of annoying and confusing crap. Its a kids mod anyway .