makulaf

I tried a search but could not find anything helpful, so I am hoping someone here might have some ideas...

I have a 2000 lx470 with 140k miles. I love this SUV. However, about 4 months ago, I was driving in a light rain on a slight curve on the interstate and all of a sudden, the front left tire almost locked up causing my back end to come around in the rain. It scared the crap out of me! I cannot remember whether the vsc light came on or not. I pulled over to the side of the road, and then it was like nothing ever happened. Then a couple of days later, I began having a problem when I would turn sharply to pull into a parking space; the brakes (or brake)would almost lock up. I am not talking pulling in fast, just regular parking and the brakes (or brake)would apply enough where the SUV would not move without a little gas. Then it would go away when I straightened it out.

I took it to a brake shop since it needed them anyway, and had the brakes and rotors replaced.

No problems until yesterday. I was driving about 50mph on a curved embankment and the front left tire began breaking heavily even though I was not on the breaks. Then everything was fine. It was not raining, not skidding, normal driving for this highway. This happened again about 5 minutes later. I drove carefully to work without incident, everything seemed ok, then on my way home, I pulled into a space, and it did the brake thing again and it seemed like the front of the car on the side that was braking was lower than the rest even though the car was not moving.

I am sure this does not sound like it makes any sense, but has this happened to anyone or does anyone have any idea what this might be? Could it be the VSC acting up? I have the LX parked until I can figure out what is wrong but thought I might ask some of the gurus here if they had any ideas before taking it to the dealership.

Thanks in advance for any help,
fish

PETEBJ75

Hi,

Sounds like you could have wheel bearing problem. When you turn the wheels it creates some load on the outside wheel bearing, if the bearing has some "free play" ypur brake disk could misaligment against brake pads and cause some unwanted behaviour.. Ok this was just wild quess, but maeby worth to check..

-Newbie-

makulaf

Thanks Petebj75, I appreciate the reply. I never thought of that. Could it happen intermittantly or would there be some signs even when not efffecting the driving like I had?

thanks again for your reply.

1uzfelbc

I have the exact problem and I am glad that I didn't have to search for it (thank you). My car is out on my lift now and looking at it, one thing I don't think its is the wheel bearing, so just push that back into the back of our minds. I just check the rear differential and the fluid is very low, I am draining it now and I am almost certain that this is the problem because there is no lubrication to the rear sensors, so that is why the sensor goes off. I'll try it and see if that is the problem and I let everyone else know of the progress.

Max707

Was factory recommended maintance performed on these vehicles?

spwallin

These are pretty old posts. I wonder -- was the issue ever resolved and if so, how? I have the same issue with my 2003 LX470 with 66Kmiles.

A little background:
I just had a front end alignment during which the tie rods were adjusted to correct the steering wheel center position which had been for a few months offset about 30 degrees to the left for some unexplained reason and without any driving issues. Then, after driving about 50 miles, the issue started with front brakes randomly applying hard (sometimes left, sometimes right, sometimes both) for a couple seconds, accompanied by the skid icon and audible alarm but no error lights. Gets your attention!

I use an excellent and fully certified independent Toyota/Lexus mechanic who is mystified. The computer shows nothing useful so far.

Is it likely that the mechanical steering center position adjustment could have affected the variable gear ratio steering control and caused an interaction with skid control somehow? I understand this vehicle has 17 computers that interact.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Steve

dasgeek

I have had the same problem. I had to drive with Toyota service tech in car until it happened. (The is a place in the road where I can make it happen fairly consistently.) Toyota service tested a sensor on the steering wheel that senses angle of turn on the steering wheel. The sensor was bad and indicating that the steering wheel was turned all the way to one side. We have ordered the part in and I will let you know if it fixes the problem.

JBSLX470

Did the repalcement of the steering wheel sensor fix the problem?

I have a 2001 LX470 with 175k miles. Last week the VSC activated light (yellow car image with squiggly lines) came on while I was driving at 45mph, straight on a dry road. The audible alarm also came on and the brakes started activating randomly on each wheel. Some of the front wheel braking was so hard it caused the truck to veer to the right or the left. It continued until I was able to find a safe place to pull over and apply the brakes. When I slowed down to about 10mph, the light and alarm went off and it drove normal. On some occasions, it started again when I resumed speed. Other times it would be a couple of days before it reoccurred. It also happened while I was towig a trailer.

sardou

I have a LX 2000 470 with about 135,000 miles. Over the weekend experienced similar problems to what I am reading here. On a straight dry road my VSC warning light and audible alarm came on and vehicle began swerving violently back and forth apparently due to left and right brakes engaging alternately. Happened a second time about 100 miles later. I disabled VSC and drove about 300 miles with no additional problems but have to enable it before speed drops below about 30mph otherwise I lose ability to control vehicle at very low speeds. Any ideas of what is causing this would be greatly appreciated.

Cibao

I have the same vehicle as you do, but with 89,000 miles and mine had a similar situation as you're describing: Suddenly the car lighted ABS and VSC TRAC, VSC OFF. I've noticed that when the car has those lights on it doesn't accelerates or performs as should be.
Then, I talked to my mechanic and have it checked with this scanner (Professional Toyota Scanner, not my generic OBDII Tool bought on ebay's, which doesn't read ABS/Trac).
It resulted in a bad wheel (ABS) speed sensor on my front LH wheel and a loose connection of the ABS/Brake Pump. Replaced the sensor and verify the loose connection and the vehicle is fine....... for now (cross fingers).

ENGINELAND

I own a 2000 LEXUS LX470 with 155 km. I had problem with my abs vsc track and vsc light was on and i had problem with shifter locked and no brake light and no abs. when i start my research on the net i come across this forum it was interesting that is why i am posting and the truck runs raf. basickly after i went to the dealer couldn't fix it. it was throuing all kind of code we i scan it. finally i took my time checked every single wire and plug one by one. i found the problem i had a short circute with the third brake light.

socallex

I own a 2001 LX470 with 130k miles. I also was traveling 75 mph straight on a clear morning when vehicles brake engaged and surged right. It then felt as if the brakes were being applied on all wheels at different times. Also,the VSC alarm and lights went on. The surge was so extreme I at first thought I had a blowout. I was fortunately able to pull over turn the vehicle off and the problem went away on restart.

Unless you have experienced this problem you can NOT appreciate the risk that it put you, your family and others on the road in.

I took it to my local Lexus dealership and they weren't able to find any error codes and had never heard of this occurring.

So now I have a huge dilemma! This is my wifes car and I obviously don't feel comfortable with her driving it. How do i in good conscience sell it to someone knowing this could occur?

What makes matters worse is she loves her LX and doesn't care much for any of the SUV's she has test drove.

This is a really difficult situation to be in!

Any thoughts or suggestions will be greatly appreciated

ChrisW

Anyone have any luck sorting out their problem with the vsc? I have replaced my bearings and the left front cv joint which had a bit of play, the problem still seems to be occurring. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Living in South Africa and noone seems able to help.
Kind regards
Chris Warren

volvofixer

I had a similar problem with a 2000 Landcruiser. Our shop replaced the ABS control ECM and that fixed the problem. Hope this helps.

JuanPa

Ok. I had these problems too in Puerto Rico roads (hills, curves, etc). It started when going uphill on my 2000 Lexus LX 470, when I used the cruise control it shut down without pressing the brake or canceling it. I thought this was a problem with the oxygen sensor, which needed replacement, but I replaced them, the code of the oxygen sensor went off, but the cruise control problem still occuring. After that, I had the VSC problems on long smooth curves at highway speeds (sometimes 65mph) when the vsc starter to lit and breaks in the outer wheels started to being apply automatically. It "scared the crap out of me", like I read on this forum. I noticed that the LX 470 had some missalignment, so after trying to look for the problem in various forums I though the missalignment should have something to do with this.
I went to the Alignment Shop ( a good one) and I had this diagnostic:

- Left front ball joint needs replacement
- Both front inner "tie rod ends" (I don't know if I named these correctly, but in spanish we say "terminales de adentro") needed replacement. These typically give misalignment problems.
- Rack and pinion Bushings needed replacement (hope I named them correctly too).

I thought this was a huge repair expense, but here in Puerto Rico parts cost me around $330 and labor was around $170, including alignment! So I let them do the work and now the VSC problems no longer occur, and neither the cruise control shuts down, and the LX is driving like new again. I love this car!!!