Does your LX (2016+) pull the right consistently?

Got our 18 LX about 6 weeks ago. The truck has been pulling to the right since the day we bought it.

We went to an indy alignment shop and they were kind enough to put the truck on rack multiple times and the car would still pull. They suggested taking it to the dealership for recalibrating some sensors.

I also searched up on ih8mud and noticed some LC and LX also experienced this issue. Fix for them was to recalibrate the VGRS. It didn't do it for me.

I decided to also change the tires (to the Yokohoma 21'') to eliminate another possibility and it did not help.

After changing to the new set of tires, took the car to my closest Lexus dealer 3 times and they still could not fix the issue. They did alignment multiple times and rotated the tires. They finally agreed to calibrate the VGRS on the third visit, but it still does not solve the issue.

I brought it up to the service director after the second visit as they told me both times the car was fixed and not pulling, but in fact the pull is obvious and I could feel it after pulling out from the dealer. On the third visit (after speaking to the director), the shop foremen went out with me and telling me how this truck is heavy and with big tires. The tires would dig in the road crown (usually to the right for drainage). In any case, they agreed to recalibrate the VGRS on this third visit.

Picked up the car after this third visit and car is still pulling to the right. Called the director and left a message waiting for his response for next step.

Do you have other suggestions? We love the car, but it is not fun on road trips with how the car handles as is.

 

Has the truck ever been in an accident? You’ve ruled out tires. It’s either something going on with a suspension component (tie rod) or it is not being aligned correctly. LX is tough to align and I’ve never had good success with Indy shops trying to align my LX. Dealer is usually only place considering the whole VGRS calibration etc. is all related to a good alignment. However I’ve learned not all dealers can align an LX and the closest dealer is not always the best dealer! My 13 LX570 pulled to left after dealer alignment (which they performed in about 20 mins). They tried to feed me the same bs about its normal crown of the road pull. I knew this was false because I was almost fighting to keep the car from going to the shoulder.

Dealer alignments are tricky as it’s all about who you get to align it. You might get the oil change rookie new to alignments who throws it on the rack and just tries to get the specs in green, or you can get the master tech specialized in suspension who takes his time and outs it back on the rack multiple times until it’s perfect. I had to take my LX to a farther dealer to get aligned after new upper and lower control arms, outer tie rods and sway links. The guy was experienced in alignments, but new to Lexus. It took him 5 tries! They had my car over a day, I had a loaner as I didn’t want them to rush.

I would advise you to find another dealer, talk to the service manager that you want their best alignment specialist on it, get a loaner and leave it as they check out the suspension and re-align. Let them know you don’t want it back still pulling it needs to be dead straight and front wheels slightly toed in.

 

My 2019 acts the exact same. Dealer has told me it’s normal for the LX. It’s starting to bother me more to the point where I might get rid of it. Mine also has what I consider excess shake of the steering wheel while going over certain bumps. Again the dealer says it’s normal and there is nothing wrong but something feels off in the front suspension.

 

Could be tire pressures (raise or lower to see if you notice improvement), could be alignment as many have been aligned by inexperienced techs who follow basics factory specs which are geared towards max tire wear and gas mileage and not properly toed in so the wheels aren’t fighting each other, or could be normal characteristic of large wheels and low profile tires on a 4x4 body on frame suv which transmits movement over road irregularities through the suspension.

 

I'd open a case with Lexus by calling corporate. They'll assign an engineer to your issue. The engineer will work with you as well as your dealer to fix your issue.

 

^^^ What handkind said (wrote). 👍

The best suggestion I’ve heard all day, anywhere.

I hope you all get this resolved. It’s a shame that anyone at a Lexus dealer would say that that’s normal. It most certainly is NOT. I have a 2018 LX and it’s never behaved that way. Nor did _any_ of my other vehicles.

 

Mine was doing that and it is called bump steer. It was solved by rebalancing the wheels.

 

This dealer has thus far been helping my case, but I think they just do not know what to do. I have a feeling that they are documenting my case.

The director did mention they may need to send the case to Lexus if nothing can be done at the dealership level.

I was not available when the director called me back, so I have no update yet. I will keep this thread updated when I have some progress (either good or bad).

 

Yes, for certain. I have owned and driven many cars in my life by now and have some knowledge about road crowns, weight, or whatever bs they were telling me. Whatever I am experiencing is certainly not normal. It would be a big shame for Lexus if it is normal.

I am still keeping my faith Lexus will fix this, but only time will tell.

 

Not from any report and two indy shops I brought the car to. Both said the car is in good shape mechanically and does not appear to be in any major accidents that would cause this issue.

At this point, I am still willing to work with this dealer as they are keeping the communication open (though slow but it is understandable as I am communicating with the service director) and of course it is to my advantage for not having to commute further in distance.

My last resort will be contacting the corporate directly. Not quite ready to give up on the car as we like everything about it (except the gas mileage and this alignment issue).

 

Definitely correct.

Dealer saying it's "normal" is a complete pile of BS. He doesn't know what he's doing and that's his excuse. Assuming a relatively normal paved road, I can take both hands off the wheel, and brake hard and the truck will stay straight.

 

just spitballing here, when you say it "pulls to the right", where are you driving. a lot of highways have a pretty pronounced crown on them (for rain shedding). so if you are driving in the right lane of a highway, the car will want to go right. Not sure where you can find a truly flat surface to drive on to test it, maybe a big parking lot somewhere?

another thing to check, if the suspension is truly messed up and pulling to the right, the tire wear will be very uneven.

 

It is safe to say that for most of us who can afford and willing to spend the money on these newer LXs have plenty of driving experiences. Personally, I am well aware of all those crowns and how they affect the handling. This truck is certainly not that.

We drove around 1.5k miles going to 3 road trips with the family and it is also a kids hauler since we bought it 5 weeks ago, so plenty of roads in different conditions are driven on. The truck just pulls to the right. It is more pronounced when the road crown is obvious and pulling less if it is on nice and smooth surface (it pulls very bad giving some gas).

 

Again, mine pulled to the left AFTER a dealer alignment which they said was normal pull with crown of road, but I knew this was false because it never pulled like this before. I took it to another dealer with a great service advisor and I talked to the tech working on my car and he confirmed the other dealers alignment was bad and it definitely was pulling. He aligned it 3 times, still said it was pulling, cross rotated the tires, still pulling, 4th alignment he got it not to pull but it still wasn’t right, 5th time on the rack + VGRS calibration it was perfect. My point is your current dealer techs may not be qualified enough or aren’t spending enough time aligning your LX. I was fortunate enough to get a tech who takes pride in his work, acknowledged the fact the truck was pulling and was willing to put in the time and effort to nail down why for whatever reason (toe, camber, caster).

You can cause yourself more wasted time and headaches fooling around with a dealership that just doesn’t have the expertise or try a different dealership with techs who actually care to fix your issue.

 

well i recenty bought a 2018 LX, and i can honestly say it does NOT pull any.

I am not sure what sort of suspension adjustments are underneath an LX, but back in the day you could adjust ALL of the parameters so there was a bit of a self-centering force.

for instance, if you added more positive caster, this will happen:
"The re-centering speed of the wheel will also increase with increased positive caster. "

https://suspensionsecrets.co.uk/caster-2/

Basically, if the car wants to wander, positive caster tilts the wheels slightly so that going left or right makes the car front end rise up a little, and gravity puling down will provide a restorative force to the wheels so that they "self-center" to fix the wander.

back in the day, we would just take the car in to our fav mechanic and tell them how we want it to behave, and poof, they would tune it up that way. It all came with the whole "hot rod" age, where mechanics were used to modifying the stock car settings to do what you wanted it to do.

Nowadays, not sure it still works like that! The dealer will probably insist that they only set it up to the book settings. maybe you need to take it to an independent mechanic, who has the equipment needed, and tell him the problem, and let him experiment around a little?

as someone said, if there is an electronic module screwing with the steering position (to cure lane wander), then that might be the problem.

also, worn bushings, tie rod ends, etc, might be causing it. i.e. it tunes up one way in the dealers shop, but while actually travelling down a highway, the worn out parts have enough play to act differently? Also, i suppose the previous owner might have got in trouble off-roading, and bent something in the front end that needs to be found/fixed. I would look for evidence, like big scrapes in the skid plates underneath.