400fanboy

Future me edit: This turned out to be my lower ball joints. Replacing those tightened everything right up. How they affected the steering wheel is beyond me, but hey, it did the trick.








I'm getting quite a lot of feedback from small bumps and cracks in the road from the steering wheel itself. It feels like the entire wheel\column assembly is loose and judders around when the front end hits a bump. Not a lot of movement, nothing that makes it feel dangerous, but enough. I also get a very slight auditory judder\wobble from it as well coming from somewhere on the driver-front side of the car.

Here is an audio clip of the sounds:
https://instaud.io/3zSN

EDIT: I've replaced the front swaybar links, didn't fix it. I found a TSB of a steering rack universal joint I posted later in the thread.

My first thought is (steering) rack bushings. I've been quoted $250-300 (in a high cost of labor city) to do the job.

I did some searching but all of the "Steering wheel" queries are related to the tilt motor, strut bars, gigantic aftermarket wheels or warped rotors.

It seems to fit these symptoms described here:
https://www.yourmechanic.com/article...nting-bushings

Can I get some 2nd opinions on my analysis of this? Thank you.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

Will have to get in there and wiggle the various sections to see if there is looseness. These typically will need to have the soft rubber bushings replaced and by the 250K+ range most definitely. Tie rod ends, ball joints, steering rack bushings, etc.

400fanboy

Car has been visually inspected by 3 different shops and they all agree that the suspension components look and feel fine. I would imagine they did all the normal tests. They were honest shops too, otherwise they would have wanted to sell parts or try and sell services to see if they could figure it out. But they all said "dude it looks good".

The car has 130k on the clock and is a 1998.

Strut bars upfront have been replaced. They are brand new Lexus OEM parts. Otherwise, the front suspension is of unknown age as I do not have any records of what was done by previous owners.

Here is an audio clip of the sounds. I removed the bass to distill the road noise so that it is clearer:

https://instaud.io/3zSN

The sound also seems to get worse once the car has been driven for 30+ minutes. It sounds like it is coming from the steering column or the front driver suspension.

______________________________

Extra information:

I also am getting a little bit of "rusty hinge" affect after the car has been driven for a long time as well. It did this today, and seemed to become audible when this clunk got worse as well. The rusty hinge seems to be much rarer, as it has only happened a few times. It was quiet today, but a few weeks ago it was VERY loud. It never happens when the car is cold.

The clunk\judder has been happening throughout my entire ownership. I do not believe it has gotten worse over time. The only thing that makes it louder is driving the car for extended periods. It does not seem to be affected by hot\cold weather.

This is driving me crazy... what can I do? I'd really like to not just start throwing parts at this and hope one of them works.

jbickhard

My 98 is doing the same thing, but at 230k miles. The only stuff I can find that could possibly be causing it is my front castor bushings look dry rotted to hell and the alignment is ever so slightly off and can't be adjusted because all of the eccentrics and tie rod jam-nuts are seized solid despite the car being totally rust-free.

400fanboy

My alignment is fine and everything visually looks great. This is going to be a difficult one to track down.

Replaced the front swaybar endlinks as it was my best guess after watching dozens of youtube videos of similar problems and listening to ones that had a very similar sound\feeling...

and it didn't fix it. Still there, present as ever. Both the judder from the front left, and the creak from the front right.

Must investigate further - Rorschach

valex

400fanboy,
I have a 99LS and had a bit of looseness in steering wheel when driving on gravel and bumps years ago.
New steering rack insulators/bushings tightened things up. I was surprised that the old ones didn't look bad at all when I pulled them out, but the improvement after replacement was noticeable.
The bushings are different part numbers, I think (left and right).

KKOG

Change the front sway bar bushings.

They can cause the symptoms you describe and are also cheap and easy to replace.

400fanboy

This guy's rusty door fits half of my problem. Not the noise my OP is talking about, but the 2ndary noise sure is this. Lines up with what you guys are saying as well.

I will do sway bar bushings next then. Hopefully it fixes the judder, but we'll see.

400fanboy

So interesting update:

I finally arrived at a local shop who was able to give a (in their view) definite diagnosis. My first thought was steering rack bushings (hence this thread title), because it did feel like it was coming up through the steering column. I didn't tell him this, I let them come to their own conclusions, and the gentleman there agreed. He said the feeling and noise was coming from the steering wheel itself. He did not think the rack bushings would be the cause because those are so far removed from the steering wheel itself, he thought it would be very very very unlikely that bad rack bushings would affect the steering so much. You'd hear them, but you wouldn't get feedback.

He found this technical bulletin ST001-04:

http://australiancar.reviews/_pdfs/L...B-ST001-04.pdf


Which has almost no information on the web about. There is one forum post about someone talking about a noise similar to mine (link), but everyone else is talking about a failing telescoping motor in the steering wheel, usually the sound is a grinding one, not the judder I experience. And sadly one of the parts that's necessary to perform this repair is out of stock.

Additionally, the bulliten itself says 98-00 model year, but then directly below it the VIN ranges say 99-00. My car is a 98. I am very confused.

This is where I'm at now.

Sway bar bushings will fix the 2nd, unrelated, rusty door problem. Super easy to do, but not at the top of my priority since that problem does not present itself very often.

More investigation continuing.

LexusNAZ

Quick note on year in Japan they released the Celsior one year before it was an LS400 here. IE a 1994 Toyota Celsior is a 1995 LS400 so you could very well have newer parts that would be in that notice.

I am glad I found this post I have a slight clunking noise in just the steering wheel when going over bumps. Everything else is in exceptional shape the noise reminded me of the steering wheel clunk I had in my Tahoe that just needed to be greased. I wonder how much the steering shaft universal joint assembly costs.

400fanboy

Supposedly one of the parts you need (45766--60011) isn't available. According to Lexus at least. However, you can find it here:

https://www.lexuspartsnow.com/parts/...766-60011.html

The parts themselves are actually rather cheap. 90% of the cost here is labor, since it's 2 hours to do the job.

Did you listen to the audio clip above? Is that the same sound you're experiencing?

LexusNAZ

I am guessing the steering wheel judder is just annoying more than its dangerous.

400fanboy

Somewhat. It's not dangerous, but in certain situations it can affect fine steering inputs and cause vagueness. Especially over bumps at highway onramp speeds.

But the primary reason is yes annoying. It's the only thing that isn't perfect with the car.

AndrewRM

Very glad I saw this post. I have the very same steering wheel issue. It's over small bumps and gravel. Very annoying and it sounds worse than it probably is. I will start replacing some bushings soon.