Is there a way to turn this feature off without having to go to the dealer?

TIA for any advice!

 

unless you know how to bypass the lexus personalized setting manually you're stuck with having to go to the dealer.

Lexus should have left the auto-tilt bypass switch like they had on the 1st gen Sc.

 

you don't like the auto tilt away?

 

Guess I might just have to go to the dealer. They want about $65 to do it. That seems kind of lame that I have to pay to get something like that done. Even my 2004 Corvette has an option to enable/disable that feature. Why Lexus does not allow the owner of the car to adjust that feature is beyond me; after all, some people are obviously not going to like the feature.


No, it is honestly just annoying. And since the car is my fiance's daily driver, the wheel is doing a lot of moving every day; as such, I would expect the components to wear out at some point (maybe before we're done with the car). Given that the feature is of no benefit to us, and given that it could easily wear out/ break, it doesn't seem to make sense to continue to use it...

 

Hi nkx1,

While I do not want to disable that feature on my car, I do agree with you that it would be nice to be able to disable any feature that we do not want.

I thought life was supposed to be all about choice.

I drove a '97 BMW 840 for six years and they had a lot of this stuff; one of the very few things that I did not like about that car.

This is just what I call the 'microsoft mentality,' we know what you want.

Jerry Baumchen

 

I think if you set it all the way in then it does not auto tilt.

 

That's interesting. Thanks for the suggestion; that would probably work if it were just me driving the car, but the fiance's arms are a bit shorter than my long monkey arms...

 

Just use the seat memory, no need to keep adjusting the steering wheel

 

Absolutely. In fact, that's why there are 2 memory buttons. The memory remembers the seating position, the steering wheel position and the outside mirror positions. Going from one driver to another then becomes a simple matter of pushing the memory button and adjusting the inside mirror (and fix your hair, touch up the lipstick, check the smile, call mom and you're on your way).

 

We have the seat memory set, but that doesn't help the auto tilt at all. The steering wheel still tilts up when you exit the car regardless of the seat memory setting.

 

Sorry but the Tilt & Telescope are CBEST programmable so it has to be done by a dealer. I've included that portion of the CBEST document in the graphic below.

What I have a hard time believe is $65 for less that five minutes "work".... they just plug and go to the setting area of the application and change the feature from "ON" to "OFF". If you're going to your "regular" dealer I would PROTEST vigorously... Although dealers are independently owned, this is NOT conform to the Lexus Customer Service pledge. If the dealer won't back down from the charge I'd lodge a complaint, in writing, to Lexus Corporate.

 

I read this thread again to see why the OP wants to disable the automatic retracting of the steering wheel. Apart from the issue of allowing all settings to be done by the owner as a general principle, which I think has been pretty well implemented on newer cars, the objection seems to be that the wheel is doing a lot of moving and might wear out at some point. First, Lexus overbuilds most of its moving parts to prevent breakdown as much as possible; I have friends and relatives with some of the first LX and SC cars, all of which have this feature and all of which are still working. I have not seen any posts on this forum at all complaining of this feature breaking.
My suggestion would be to let it move; you say it's of no benefit to you, but it is moving out of the way to make ingress and egress easier, so take advantage of it and should it ever fail in the future, then you can have the dealer repair or disable it. Just because something may wear out or break in the future is no reason to stop using it. I'd have no iPhone if I lived by that axiom, and I'd be afraid to use my garage door opener.

 

Let me add one more thought. In my experience, (3 Lexus cars so far over about 15 years), I have never paid extra to have the dealer set or re-set a C-Best setting. However, if that's the only reason for your visit, you will be charged for it.
However, when in the service department for some other service, I have simply mentioned to the service manager that it would be nice to have something reset to work differently (I have the whole list, available on this forum, so I know what can be done), and he says "sure," and it's done at no charge, since the incremental time is about 5 minutes, if they work real slow.
If you really want this disabled, try something like that, and I doubt that you will be hit with a $65.00 bill (which is a little high, but might be the shop's minimum charge to do anything). Still, a dealership that will wash your car for free at any time should be glad to accommodate you. Generally they treat SC owners very, very well.

 

I understand what you're stating, but as I tried to convey above, neither of us like the feature. Even if we were 100 percent sure it would never break, we would still disable it. It’s pretty much just an annoyance when you want to pop out of the car and you have to wait for or avoid a crazy steering wheel moving around.


Thanks for the advice (as well as VVTiBob); I'll take it in for an oil change and ask them to disable it. Hopefully they still do it free when I use a coupon for the oil change! It's wierd, I called three dealers around here (Orange County, CA), and they all wanted about the same amount to disable the tilt-away.

 

I just picked up my car from service at the dealership. While I was there talking with the service manager, I asked him about disabling the "annoying" steering wheel.
His first reaction was to wonder if such a setting even existed, as he has not had such a request for any Lexus model in his 20 or so years doing this stuff. I assured him it existed in C-Best. If the switch is there, we can easily change it, he said. As for breaking after years of moving back and forth, he said he cannot recall an instance where this feature required service.
Of course, we never want to generalize from insufficient data, but the reliability of the feature reflected on this forum seems to be similar to the history at this dealership, at least.
On the other hand, if I were annoyed by someone holding a door open for me all the time, I would easily pay $65.00 to have him stop.