Power Steering Failure

[kns]

On Saturday I had to take my car to Lexus Twickenham to have a faulty trim on the driver’s side 'B' pillar replaced. As I have said before the care is hardly used living under a dust cover in my garage. In fact the car will be three years old in October and has so far covered just 5,600 odd miles. On my journey there and back the car ran faultlessly and its levels of refinement show how good the current GS is against even one of its newest rivals- the Jaguar XF which I had tried over the previos weekend.The trim was replaced efficiently by the Service department and all seemed to be well.

Later after the car had been parked for about an hour, I got in started, and thought it must have stalled because there was no power assistance. I tried restarting the car a couple of times thinking maybe it was some electronic glitch that would clear itself, but regrettably not.

I rang the service department for Twickenham who were still open, the technician I spoke to was 99% certain from what was happening - no assistance just strange pulsing through the steering wheel when it was turned- that it was the motors attached to the steering rack that had failed.

In order to get the car into the workshop for Monday morning, I elected to drive the car back to the dealer. I was told it would be safe just very heavy to drive. As bad luck would have it, I got caught in an enormous traffic jam meaning that the service centre in Iselworth were closed when I got there, and then had to drive on to the showroom in Twickenham. At least they were able to loan me a replacement car, an IS250.

In 25 years of car ownership this is the first time I have owned a car that has effectively left me stranded, and off course needless to say has somewhat tarnished the Lexus reputation for peerless reliability. Ironically earlier in the day I was discussing the extended warranty (about £860 for twelve months), I think given Saturdays episode I need be in no doubt about whether I should take it out. If after all the power steering should fail after just 5,600 miles, I can only wonder what other surprises are in store!!!

I will naturally speak to the dealer today to find out when the work will be completed, but my plans for Saturday were completely ruined and as I said to the technician "and it was all going so well".

I got the impression though, that this isn’t the first time this has happened, and am wondering if anyone else has had the same problem.

Regards

Keith

[knitware]

On Saturday I had to take my car to Lexus Twickenham to have a faulty trim on the driver’s side 'B' pillar replaced. As I have said before the care is hardly used living under a dust cover in my garage. In fact the car will be three years old in October and has so far covered just 5,600 odd miles. On my journey there and back the car ran faultlessly and its levels of refinement show how good the current GS is against even one of its newest rivals- the Jaguar XF which I had tried over the previos weekend.The trim was replaced efficiently by the Service department and all seemed to be well.

Later after the car had been parked for about an hour, I got in started, and thought it must have stalled because there was no power assistance. I tried restarting the car a couple of times thinking maybe it was some electronic glitch that would clear itself, but regrettably not.

I rang the service department for Twickenham who were still open, the technician I spoke to was 99% certain from what was happening - no assistance just strange pulsing through the steering wheel when it was turned- that it was the motors attached to the steering rack that had failed.

In order to get the car into the workshop for Monday morning, I elected to drive the car back to the dealer. I was told it would be safe just very heavy to drive. As bad luck would have it, I got caught in an enormous traffic jam meaning that the service centre in Iselworth were closed when I got there, and then had to drive on to the showroom in Twickenham. At least they were able to loan me a replacement car, an IS250.

In 25 years of car ownership this is the first time I have owned a car that has effectively left me stranded, and off course needless to say has somewhat tarnished the Lexus reputation for peerless reliability. Ironically earlier in the day I was discussing the extended warranty (about £860 for twelve months), I think given Saturdays episode I need be in no doubt about whether I should take it out. If after all the power steering should fail after just 5,600 miles, I can only wonder what other surprises are in store!!!

I will naturally speak to the dealer today to find out when the work will be completed, but my plans for Saturday were completely ruined and as I said to the technician "and it was all going so well".

I got the impression though, that this isn’t the first time this has happened, and am wondering if anyone else has had the same problem.

Regards

Keith

Hi, sorry to hear about your problem. I too have have expensive problems with my GS300. It's only 4 years old, low mileage, 28k and it needed over 3k of work. Replacement ECU etc. I'm beginning to think that the Lexus, the GS anyway, isn't a marvel of engineering.

Regarding warranty, give Warranty Direct a call, they will match a Lexus warranty for half the cost!

[tonyricha]

On Saturday I had to take my car to Lexus Twickenham to have a faulty trim on the driver’s side 'B' pillar replaced. As I have said before the care is hardly used living under a dust cover in my garage. In fact the car will be three years old in October and has so far covered just 5,600 odd miles. On my journey there and back the car ran faultlessly and its levels of refinement show how good the current GS is against even one of its newest rivals- the Jaguar XF which I had tried over the previos weekend.The trim was replaced efficiently by the Service department and all seemed to be well.

Later after the car had been parked for about an hour, I got in started, and thought it must have stalled because there was no power assistance. I tried restarting the car a couple of times thinking maybe it was some electronic glitch that would clear itself, but regrettably not.

I rang the service department for Twickenham who were still open, the technician I spoke to was 99% certain from what was happening - no assistance just strange pulsing through the steering wheel when it was turned- that it was the motors attached to the steering rack that had failed.

In order to get the car into the workshop for Monday morning, I elected to drive the car back to the dealer. I was told it would be safe just very heavy to drive. As bad luck would have it, I got caught in an enormous traffic jam meaning that the service centre in Iselworth were closed when I got there, and then had to drive on to the showroom in Twickenham. At least they were able to loan me a replacement car, an IS250.

In 25 years of car ownership this is the first time I have owned a car that has effectively left me stranded, and off course needless to say has somewhat tarnished the Lexus reputation for peerless reliability. Ironically earlier in the day I was discussing the extended warranty (about £860 for twelve months), I think given Saturdays episode I need be in no doubt about whether I should take it out. If after all the power steering should fail after just 5,600 miles, I can only wonder what other surprises are in store!!!

I will naturally speak to the dealer today to find out when the work will be completed, but my plans for Saturday were completely ruined and as I said to the technician "and it was all going so well".

I got the impression though, that this isn’t the first time this has happened, and am wondering if anyone else has had the same problem.

Regards

Keith

Hi Keith, my 450h SE l was supplied by the same garage about 1 month earlier than yours but then re sold to myself by Lexus Bracknell this year who re called it this March for a power steering related issue and rear brake modification, was yours re called ? and if so surley this problem would have beed rectified, if the same issue ??

Hope it gets resolved to your satisfaction

Regards Tony

[Dilbert D]

Hi there,

There was a service campaign (ie non safety related recall) on the power steering linkage for the GS300 (the CS450h is most likely affected too).

I had my 2006 GS300 in to Lexus Newcastle a few weeks ago for new tyres and they advised me that the power steering and rear brakes calipers were both service campaigns which were outstanding on my car. They fitted a new electric steering rack and new rear calipers free of charge and even put some petrol in the car for the inconvenience.

I think (hopefully) you will find that you have suffered one of the rare but possible failures of the steering the service campaign was meant to catch.

Hopefully Lexus will drop in a new electric power steering rack free of charge !

[kns]

Hi there,

There was a service campaign (ie non safety related recall) on the power steering linkage for the GS300 (the CS450h is most likely affected too).

I had my 2006 GS300 in to Lexus Newcastle a few weeks ago for new tyres and they advised me that the power steering and rear brakes calipers were both service campaigns which were outstanding on my car. They fitted a new electric steering rack and new rear calipers free of charge and even put some petrol in the car for the inconvenience.

I think (hopefully) you will find that you have suffered one of the rare but possible failures of the steering the service campaign was meant to catch.

Hopefully Lexus will drop in a new electric power steering rack free of charge !

Many thanks for all the responses. I have spoken to Lexus who confirmed the known issue with the Power Steering. It seems as though the known fault is within the motor which is mounted to the rack. I spoke to Lexus Twickenham today who said they would be looking at my car this afternoon, and if it proves that this is the fault they have a replacement rack in stock.

Did anyone notice any adverse effects after they had a new rack fitted? Such as alignement issues or the steering wheel being off centre when going straight?

As I said in my post luckily the car is still under warrenty as this work is around £1,000.00 !!!!

However an exteneded warranty seems to be an essential.

Regards

Keith.

[tonyricha]

Hi there,

There was a service campaign (ie non safety related recall) on the power steering linkage for the GS300 (the CS450h is most likely affected too).

I had my 2006 GS300 in to Lexus Newcastle a few weeks ago for new tyres and they advised me that the power steering and rear brakes calipers were both service campaigns which were outstanding on my car. They fitted a new electric steering rack and new rear calipers free of charge and even put some petrol in the car for the inconvenience.

I think (hopefully) you will find that you have suffered one of the rare but possible failures of the steering the service campaign was meant to catch.

Hopefully Lexus will drop in a new electric power steering rack free of charge !

Many thanks for all the responses. I have spoken to Lexus who confirmed the known issue with the Power Steering. It seems as though the known fault is within the motor which is mounted to the rack. I spoke to Lexus Twickenham today who said they would be looking at my car this afternoon, and if it proves that this is the fault they have a replacement rack in stock.

Did anyone notice any adverse effects after they had a new rack fitted? Such as alignement issues or the steering wheel being off centre when going straight?

As I said in my post luckily the car is still under warrenty as this work is around £1,000.00 !!!!

However an exteneded warranty seems to be an essential.

Regards

Keith.

Hi Keith, no side effects noticed, Bracknell made a big issue of re setting the tracking but she suffers the same strange lifeless steering and tendancy to follow repairs on the road surface as did my last GS300, also no uneven front tyre wear ( unlike the rears too much right foot ! )

Tony

[Dilbert D]

Never noticed any difference whatsoever, apart from the fact that fuel gauge was up due to them putting some petrol in for the inconvenience !

Excellent service !