97 Lexus lX450 Play in Steering Wheel (1 Viewer)

[Kamran Khan]

Greeting everyone! I had recently replaced all the tie rod ends front and back along with the steering damper and did the alignment today but still I got play in the steering wheel and When I drive the car on the road I have to keep correcting the steering wheel, I wounder what could cause this problem.
I am not an expert on alignment but I am going to upload it's results and maybe you guys can find some thing wrong with it.
I took it to Lexus dealership but they told me that I have to change steering gearbox and give me a quote of 4200 dollars but I don't see anything wrong with the steering gearbox because I don't see any oil leaking from it.
I need your expert opinion.

Thanks!

 

[shocktower]

Are see sawing your wheel back and forth to to correct, or does it wander, also is there play in the wheel??

 

[IdahoDoug]

The knuckle (trunion) bearings can cause some wander if they're really worn. Any idea when the birfields and these were serviced last?

 

[NLXTACY]

Look at your LCA bushings, particularly the ones at the axle.

 

[Kamran Khan]

I did knuckle rebuild last year myself but hub nut is keep getting loose for some reason, maybe I am not torquing it properly. My steering wheel has like one inch play. The car does wander a little bit to the right and the steering doesn't feel tight and I have to keep moving the steering left and right quite a lot to keep the car straight.
Right brifield does make clicking noise on tight steering cut.

 

[-Spike-]

At higher mileage it's very common to have play in the steering box. You can rebuild it and put pre-load on the bearings, which will take all the play out of it.

 

[Bigdrewbowski]

I have play in my steering wheel as well. 1997 LX450. I have replaced the steering pump and the steering box (not because of play), and I have the same amount of play as before.
Also, if they quoted you $4200 you need to tell them to go fxxx themselves, and find a mechanic who isn't a crook. That is stupid high.
I sourced the steering box myself and payed about $500-600 for the parts and labor. Again, it did not help to correct the play in the steering wheel.

 

[jpoole]

Did you replace the trunion bearings when you serviced your front end?
When did you last check your wheel bearings for play?
Have you checked torque on the nuts at the bottom of the knuckles?
Can you get someone to move the steering wheel back and forth from just into tension in each direction and back while you inspect for slack throughout the system?

My guess is that you need to torque your wheel bearings properly and possibly address other wear areas including suspension bushings, slack in steering box, trunion bearings, etc. to get it really dialed in. It's unlikely to be one problem/solution but instead a few small issues adding up.

Read here on mud for front wheel bearing torque thoughts. For stock tires I'm in the 25+ ft lbs, 45 ft lbs camp. I torque wheel bearings with the wheel/tire on but in the air so that I can easily spin the wheel to get things seated and also so that I can check for slop/feel before and after I lock the outer nut down. Keep fresh star/lock washers on hand as they start to fall apart after one or two uses.

 

[Tools R Us]

IIRC, the FSM spec for play at the steering wheel is ~1.5". It's a reciprocating ball/straight axle system, so has more play than the more common rack and pinion/IFS setup. There are a bunch of parts that can cause play, rod ends, bushings, loose steering arm nuts, wheel and knuckle bearings, etc, the whole system has to be evaluated.

 

[Warpigg]

Your tires could be the cause of it as well.

 

[hammerheadfistpunch]

Mine is mildly lifted so its probably not apples to apples with yours but my control arm bushings were to blame for my wandering. I had poly castor correction bushings and they were spinning in the housing. replaced with factory rubber and drop brackets and its gone. That being said I also had a wander issue caused by a spun bearing on the spindle that wasn't allowing the bearing preload to stay.

 

[Kamran Khan]

Did you replace the trunion bearings when you serviced your front end?
When did you last check your wheel bearings for play?
Have you checked torque on the nuts at the bottom of the knuckles?
Can you get someone to move the steering wheel back and forth from just into tension in each direction and back while you inspect for slack throughout the system?

My guess is that you need to torque your wheel bearings properly and possibly address other wear areas including suspension bushings, slack in steering box, trunion bearings, etc. to get it really dialed in. It's unlikely to be one problem/solution but instead a few small issues adding up.

Read here on mud for front wheel bearing torque thoughts. For stock tires I'm in the 25+ ft lbs, 45 ft lbs camp. I torque wheel bearings with the wheel/tire on but in the air so that I can easily spin the wheel to get things seated and also so that I can check for slop/feel before and after I lock the outer nut down. Keep fresh star/lock washers on hand as they start to fall apart after one or two uses.

I did replace the trunion bearings but I used the same old bearing for the hubs because those had no wear, reason I did the knuckle job is because grease was leaking out of it via back side. But I believe that the reason of grease leakage was due to overfilled differentials.
It has 185 thousand miles on the clock and it's in stock condition. I learned from my search that there is a screw in steering box, by tightening the screw a little bit tight may solve the problem but I haven't tried that yet.
Tires are still stock tires and looks fairly new. And it has no play at 12/6 or 9/3 O clock.

 

[Kamran Khan]

I have play in my steering wheel as well. 1997 LX450. I have replaced the steering pump and the steering box (not because of play), and I have the same amount of play as before.
Also, if they quoted you $4200 you need to tell them to go f*** themselves, and find a mechanic who isn't a crook. That is stupid high.
I sourced the steering box myself and payed about $500-600 for the parts and labor. Again, it did not help to correct the play in the steering wheel.

I took my car to local Lexus dealership (Kendall Lexus of Alaska) in Anchorage, and told them point blank I just need an alignment, they took my car and kept it over night and the next day they called to inform me that they can't do the alignment and I need to change this and that etc in order do alignment and the total will be actually $4762.25. I told that's crazy I can buy another fj80 for that much.

 

[jpoole]

@Kamran Khan

It's hard to say much without inspecting and driving the truck but tightening the screw on your steering box may not help with the wandering much, if at all. It will, if the steering box has loosened in a way that the screw can help, help take out some of the steering wheel play. I've used the following guides, roughly, to tighten up a few 80 boxes with positive effect.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/attachments/fsm-steering-jpg.56213/
Adjusting 80 series steering box

You need to also inspect for slack/slop/looseness throughout the system to make sure there aren't other issues causing front wheels to move independently of each other or causing steering slack.

Let us know what you find as you proceed.

 

[shocktower]

I did knuckle rebuild last year myself but hub nut is keep getting loose for some reason, maybe I am not torquing it properly. My steering wheel has like one inch play. The car does wander a little bit to the right and the steering doesn't feel tight and I have to keep moving the steering left and right quite a lot to keep the car straight.
Right brifield does make clicking noise on tight steering cut.

Buy both new washers and on the star the tabs go both ways, oh and new nuts too

 

[jstew0903]

@Kamran Khan

It's hard to say much without inspecting and driving the truck but tightening the screw on your steering box may not help with the wandering much, if at all. It will, if the steering box has loosened in a way that the screw can help, help take out some of the steering wheel play. I've used the following guides, roughly, to tighten up a few 80 boxes with positive effect.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/attachments/fsm-steering-jpg.56213/
Adjusting 80 series steering box

You need to also inspect for slack/slop/looseness throughout the system to make sure there aren't other issues causing front wheels to move independently of each other or causing steering slack.

Let us know what you find as you proceed.

This will most likely be the problem. Tie rods and this adjustment take most of the play out in my past experiences. Just don't over tighten.

 

[lumbee1]

Do you have offset bushings installed in the control arms? If so, they might have gone bad. This can lead to uncontrollable wandering on the road. The bad news is that it will only get worse as the bushings begin to loosen up.

The other option is to tighten the adjustment shaft on top of the steering box. There is a lock nut that needs to be loosened. The threaded shaft has a slot for a screwdriver however I removed the fender flap and used a right angle bit driver. Only turn the shaft a 1/4 turn at a time, righty-tighty. Hold the shaft with the screwdriver and tighten the lock nut. Some fluid will come out but don't worry about it. Go for a drive. The play in the steering wheel should be 40mm according to the FSM. IF you have more than 40mm, repeat the process again and tighten the shaft another 1/4. Rinse and repeat. The top of the shaft should be 2 to 4mm above the top of the lock nut.

I've rebuilt my steering box three times, built drop brackets for my control arms, replaced all my tie rod ends, replaced the failing offset bushings with OEM. My alignment is perfect except that the drivers side camber is .2* out of spec.

 

[Qball]

I did knuckle rebuild last year myself but hub nut is keep getting loose for some reason, maybe I am not torquing it properly. My steering wheel has like one inch play. The car does wander a little bit to the right and the steering doesn't feel tight and I have to keep moving the steering left and right quite a lot to keep the car straight.
Right brifield does make clicking noise on tight steering cut.

Check your bearing again, most likely it’s loose! Tighten your inner bearing to 30ftlb.

 

[Kamran Khan]

Update on my steering problem.
After alignment my steering was crooked and I never have had time to fix it myself. So today I took it to the same guy who did the alignment and told him that my steering wheel isn't straight.
He took the car and checked the alignment, which according to him was still fine but anyway he did the alignment again and straighten my steering wheel and now all the problem is gone. No more wandering to the side, it does have like inch and half play but i am alright with that.
I have an odd my problem in my car since the day I bought it. Whenever I depress brake pedal it pulls to the right. I have changed brake rotors and brake pads but it didn't solve the problem. I even checked all the 4 brake clippers and non of them are sticking. One of the rear brake bleeding valve had no hole for bleeding but I replaced that.