Steering When In Europe

[Dmg]

I drive in Europe 4 months of the year and my RHD RX400h on straight roads wants to drift to the right all the time , I have had it on the laser alignment at the dealers twice now, once as a check and once when they changed the rack on a recall. This did improve it a little but I still have to hold the wheel with a slight left lock on all the time which gets to be a strain after half an hour or so. In the UK I can let go of the wheel and the car will go straight no problem..

The camber is making the car steer down the slope and if the camber is severe in the UK it will pull to the left also.

The dealer checked with Luxes UK who said the LHD and RHD have the same settings and don’t need any adjustments but if I lived in France all the time I would return the car to Lexus until they fixed it.

The problem is they cant test drive it here on the wrong side of the road very well.

Before you ask I have not curbed the car and the last time I went to France was the week after the rack was changed.

Is the caster angle adjustable and is it checked on the laser alignment at the dealers ?.

Can I adjust it myself with a shim (I am an engineer who restores vintage cars and

understand the general principles involved)

This is the only gripe I have with the car and want to buy a new one again but this is stopping me .

Any help gratefully received.

[paolo137]

Since the roads are not perfectly flat, but higher in the center and lower on the sides, when driving keepin your right, as in Continental Europe, it's perfectly normal to have the car drifting to that side. It's the gravity pull. For the same reason, I would expect my car to coast to the left when driving in the UK.

Could it be that you're just not accustomed to that feeling on the "wrong" side? Or maybe the roads you usually travel in France are subject to flooding and they're even more arched than the average?

Don't think there's anything wrong with your car: problem must be somewhere else.

[Jolliffee]

I have the same problem with my Merc, I have always put it down to the tyres being worn for the UK road camber. Not had the RX over the water yet so no idea what it will be like but there is a section of road near me with weird road camber and all the cars I have had pull to the right on it!

[Dmg]

Thanks for the reply

Lexus UK say the suspension and steering alignment is the same for UK and France

So if the car drifted down the slope in France it should do the same here and it wont unless it a very steep camber. If it did we would all take them back to be fixed.

One option is that the car has a natural tendency to drift down the camber which requires the steering to setup far driving on the left or right and Lexus are not being straight with us , The other is that the Dealers in Bradford have not got it set up right..(at £200 a go its not cheep)

Not all cars have this problem; I have not had this problem before with my Range Rovers or Audi,

The main component assuming the rest of the alignment is correct i.e. front wheel camber , Toe in – Toe out , rear wheels correctly in line with the same wheelbase on both sides , that controls the cars return to center after a turn and hands off keeping straight on is the camber angle.

I will get under and have a look to see if I can adjust it myself if need be.

What I can report is that adjusting the tracking (Toe in or Toe out) makes no difference as I have done that.

Tire wear is perfect with no feathering nor is it uneven.

I am hoping someone else here has first hand experience of driving on the other side, Left or right and if they have no problem then its my car, Then I will get it checked again or get it done in France and then see how it behaves back in the UK

[SJG]

Hi.

Have driven my RX 300 Mk 1 all over France on good and bad roads, country lanes and autoroutes, also over the Pyrenees into Spain on some very poor roads. A fair proportion of this has been towing and I haven't noticed the problem.

[Rob]

forget taking it to lexus/toyota to have the geometry done as most dont know what they are doing.

try dury lane manchester or if you can do the drive go to wheels in motion ( WIM) http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/blackboots-location.php

[Jolliffee]

Forgot about wheels in motion ( WIM) http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/blackboots-location.php, they sorted my IS300 so I would try these guys fisrts.

[Dmg]

Forgot about wheels in motion ( WIM) http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/blackboots-location.php, they sorted my IS300 so I would try these guys fisrts.

Thanks Is this he right place http://www.drurylaneservices.com/ ?

[Great Dane]

Unless the drifting is extreme, I should leave it. Our Rx400 does exatly the same (spending six months/year in the Algarve) we have got used to it. It only really comes into play if you take both hands of the steering wheel.

Once back on UK roads, you can take both hands off the steering wheel without it drifting.

Thinking of buying a second hand left hand drive Rx400 and leave it down there, since they have come down in price so drasticly. Have driven a LHD version in the Algarve and it does not drift when you take your hands off the steering wheel, so it must have something to do with the set-up for the country of purchase.

My thoughts for what they are worth....................

[paolo137]

Been talking about this issue with a friend.

He told me he'd had the same problem with a VW Passat, and he had investigated a bit further.

Apparantly, the more the suspension scheme is complex (Multilink, for instance), the more it is prone to show this behavior. Furthermore, it seems that actually the roads in southern Europe have a higher degree of camber.

Looks like VW even issued an official document requesting all its dealers in Italy NOT to change the settings of their cars under warranty, as there's really nothing wrong with them. Apparently, there was also a hint that driving with just one hand on the wheel (very common down here ) enhances the "problem".