I got some Tein He coilovers installed last week and the car was handling pretty damn good. Now all of a sudden, the car is twitchy. When I drive straight down a road it wants to wander around. Forget taking curves fast, I cant even go STRAIGHT fast!! I had my tires balanced and rotated 3 days ago along with complete alignment 3 days ago as well. The problem started today, 3 days after doing those things. WTF is wrong?

 

No one knows??

 

How are the bushings?

 

I dont know. Car has 250k miles though. I'm assuming they've been changed in that time.

 

I doubt they've been changed....but let's try something a little more simple....how are your tires?

 

The tires have 5k miles on them, so its not that. I'm pretty sure its one of the bushings, be it steering, control arm, or some other. I just want to find out which one so I dont end up wasting my money on the temporarily un needed ones.

 

I dont think you would be wasting any money... if i were you i would have replaced all the bushing anyway. If you cant figure out the problem take it back to the mechanics who did the work, tell them to fix it or find out whats wrong.

 

if the tires are good and your alignment it right. (excessive toe in or out would make it twitchy as well) then it's tiem for you to change your bushings....and doing all of them at once is what i'd reccomend

 

DId they give you a printout that shows the before and after specs?? If so post up the results. A LOT of shops will only adjust the toe and nothing else, like their motto is "Toe and go". It saves the the real trouble of spending 2-3 hours of actually making all the adjustments to set it up right. Also have the specs you want them to set it at.

 

ah i had that problem, i put stiffer springs in, hit the curvers, and bam my steering went ot crap, car would wonder everywhere...

Steering rack bushings, the 2 round ones that take 15mins to replace.

Just open the hood and have a buddy turn the wheel and look at the steering rack, $1 says it moves left to right. Very easy to replace, bout $4-50 for the bushings (daizen, and various ebay sellers for urathane)

I have the ebay ones on my car, daizen wasnt selling them at the time. They were very easy to install, fit good, and still work 3 months later. Lexus doesnt sell factory rubbar replacements.

 

I was with the guy when he was doing the alignment. It took him about 2 hrs and he told me what he's adjusting the whole way.

VJ- thanks for the advice. I think thats the first thing I'm going to try because I dont want to spend $1k on the control arm bushings. Could you explain what you mean by the rack moving left to right?

 

there are 2 round bushings that keep the steering rack from moving back and forth... those wear out and make the car drive like your constantly drunk!!

With the car in park, running or not, pop the hood and take a look at the steering rack, have someone turn the wheel back and forth, if u see it move, bushings are bad. Its a very easy fix.

They got tore up 2-3 days after i put my intrax springs in, i took one corner really hard, and thats all it took. They were a pain in the buttttt to find before daizen made em. Lexus dont sell em, they make u buy the whole rack and pinion unit for $$$$$$

 

1k for control arm bushings? where are you getting yours from.... heaven itself? are they made of gold?

 

To replace the bushings on BOTH upper and lower control arms or get new ones along with labor, it will exceed $1k.

 

Ummm, that sucks. Why not buy all the bushings and install yourself? I guess not everyone has free time.