marcus428

I had the same problem (grinding noise but steering column would not go up and down). I took it apart and discovered the blue plastic gear had a dead spot with stripped teeth. In my case, the teeth on the outside of the gear were worn but the inside part of the gear was not. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the housing and inserted a machine screw with a round rubber grommet and tightened it with a nut. The purpose of the rubber grommet is to push on the bottom of the blue plastic gear so that it is always at an angle. This exposes the inside teeth of the blue plastic gear to the screw mechanism at the top of housing. Works like a charm.

airahcaz

but this applies to an SC, how does one do it for a 98 GS400? or if anyone knows how to disable the auto tilt???

phisig

Mine had a faint squeek in it, however I removed the schroud around the steering column and oiled up the moving parts with WD-40 and everything runs smooth as butter now.

airahcaz

can you give a little more detail on how to do this or is it complicated? mechanic?

phisig

I have a GS400 and was directed here from our section of the Forum, what I did was remove 3 screws on bottom of the steering column schroud. On the GS one is at the bottom, then turn the wheel 90 degrees in each direction to find the other two screws. After they are all taken off the bottom part of the schroud should be loose, gently pull it off. If you play with the telescoping wheel, you will see various parts move, lubracate them really well with WD-40 and play with the telecoping button until the WD has worked its way throughout the moving parts. Bolt everything back together and your done.

lincoln30

I tried this fix last night and it didn't work. It seems like the motor is not strong enough to turn the gear when the gear is in good contact with the worm gear. I can hear the circuit breaker click off when I try to operate the wheel now. I don't have any new grease for this yet just large amounts of 11 year old stuff that's already in the housing...it's clean, yellow and probably is not as viscous as it used to be. I tried smearing some of the excess back into the teeth on the blue gear and it worked for a few seconds and then quit again (it throws this old grease right off the gear back into the housing). I'm inclined to just put the wheel in a good position and remove the gear so it can't be moved again if new grease doesn't work.

So now here's my question: if I get new grease from the dealer what should be used to remove/clean off the old grease before the application of the new stuff???

TWISTED II

do you think dealer grease is any better than autozone grease? don't pay crazy prices for "dealer" stuff when autozone has it for prolly 3 dollars. i used vasaline when i did my new gear and it worked fine.

airahcaz

please let me know what has worked for you, although it is getting colder so I may not have this issue till next summer

BillTSC300

Well I just took mine out and cleaned it. The motor was actually really really dirt and full of crud. I stripped everything down and cleaned it all including the brushes but its still low on power. It turns better but slowly gets weak ann won't even go one way. This is using a direct battery connection also so I guess its a new motor. I was thinking also about taking it to the local Starter repair place and seeing if they could fix as its basically just a small starter motor.

CrazySC

I just got off the phone with the dealer that told me I had to order the motor at $540, then it would be another $297 for the labor!!! THANK GOD I CAME HERE BEFORE ORDERING IT!!! This thread just saved me $837 minus the 27 cents for the washer!! THANK YOU!!!

spheezy

yea this thread is kick ****....had no power tilt for about 1 month now and its in a pretty high position. hopefully now i can lower it. i always missed how it automatcially retracts when u take the key out. biggie ups and massive props to c_irie for the DIY repair

TheLexor

Having two 93 ls4's I found the info on fixing the tilt mechanism most useful, especially when they both went bad within a week of one another. Both cars have about 140K on them, so maybe that is the built in break down period. The fix was pretty easy after viewing c_irie's photos. Thanks much for the expert guidance. My Lexus shop in West Palm Beach is asking more than $500 for the tilt motor assembly, plus labor. Hard to belive for a fix that cost me about 5-cents utilizing a fiber washer I had saved from some other project. Luckily, it only needed slight help from my trusty Dremmel to size it properly. By the way, I spent a couple extra minutes cleaning the old grease from the cog and surrounding housing, then lubed with a premium lithium grease, just to make sure the repair would not be compromised by remnants from the factory install. Tomorrow, I tackle my other ls4 with the same problem. The repair should be even easier now that I know how everything comes apart and goes back together. After that, I get to see how to fix a serious hesitation problem that just developed in one of my LS's. This is the same one that several members have been having a devil of a time trying to isolate and remedy. I did try cleaning the MAF. No luck - it still bucks like a sassy bronco when I lay on the throttle. Think I'll go for the quick fuel filter change first, then see if the prob goes away. It probably won't, but it's a quick and cheap maintenance item and prolly should be done anyway.

Panerai127

I have 01 gs430, and i have the problem also, i have 100k on it now. When my mechanic looked at it, he told me it is the motor and not that is dirty. So he just disconected the cable, so my tilt is in one position and does not move. The problem I had was that my steering wheel would move and sound like it is dying and hesitating, then sometimes, it would just get stock on the top and would not go down, when he took it apart, he showed me that when the motor would get stocj and he would take a srewdriver and hit the tilt motor, the wheel would tild then, he said I need a new one, the motor is dead?! Do you think I can do this procedure and see if it works? Is it hard to do it on my car and is there pics on DIY??

SLEXC400

I did the washer thing years ago (before I found this forum) and it worked for quite awhile, but then I started experiencing the "dying out" problem. The wheel will move up or down or in or out for a couple of seconds, then just stop (like no power). You can hear the relay click, but nothing moves. If I let it sit for a minute I can coax it to move again. I just assumed it was a controller problem. Anyone else have this problem and have you been able to fix it? I just leave it one place, but it would be nice if I could get it working again (but not for over $500.00!) ...

TheLexor

Wish I could help you, but I am unfamiliar with your model. I would have hoped that Lexus would have solved the problem on its own by now.