Steering Wheel

[The Dunk]

I have a problem with my steering wheel not retracting sometimes. It will retract sometimes all the way up and at other times it will stick in different positions. Any help will be appreciated. Any advice will be welcomed! I am a newbie to this site and I am glad I found it! Thanks to all in advance My car is a 1996 LS400

[Jim_Chow]

I have a problem with my steering wheel not retracting sometimes. It will retract sometimes all the way up and at other times it will stick in different positions. Any help will be appreciated. Any advice will be welcomed! I am a newbie to this site and I am glad I found it! Thanks to all in advance My car is a 1996 LS400

The motors are notorious for failing from constantly retracting and extending everytime you drive the car. Some of us including myself have had the dealer disable the auto retract feature, which saves the motor. The wheel will still retract/extend automatically with the memory settings. My guess is you'd have to replace the motor if you want it to work like new.

[Alexander the o.k.]

I wonder if a faulty memory setting switch could interfere with the retract function.

Try this: Disconnect battery ground for 60 seconds, re-attach, then test the manual retract button several times.

If all is well, then re-set your mem. settings. Then re-test manually. If it does not work this time, there may be a mem. switch problem.

[raymsixsix]

Welcome to the LOC, The Dunk! There is also a TSB for the problem you're speaking of. Lexus realized that cables were wrapped a bit too tightly so when the wheel would start retracting, it would ever so slightly disconnect itself and cause it to stop retracting. If you know of someone who has a membership or access to alldata.com could print it off for you and you could try the fix yourself. It may be you need a new motor, but this is a cheaper try than maybe jumping the gun and buying the new motor ;)

[santiagol]

Welcome to the LOC, The Dunk! There is also a TSB for the problem you're speaking of. Lexus realized that cables were wrapped a bit too tightly so when the wheel would start retracting, it would ever so slightly disconnect itself and cause it to stop retracting. If you know of someone who has a membership or access to alldata.com could print it off for you and you could try the fix yourself. It may be you need a new motor, but this is a cheaper try than maybe jumping the gun and buying the new motor ;)

Keep looking around - the telescoping function gears wear out so the teeth do not engage. you can build a shim from spare parts that will solve this in 20 minutes with minimal skills - a 2 babana job. There is a major write up with images and everything.

[nc211]

Welcome to the LOC, The Dunk! There is also a TSB for the problem you're speaking of. Lexus realized that cables were wrapped a bit too tightly so when the wheel would start retracting, it would ever so slightly disconnect itself and cause it to stop retracting. If you know of someone who has a membership or access to alldata.com could print it off for you and you could try the fix yourself. It may be you need a new motor, but this is a cheaper try than maybe jumping the gun and buying the new motor ;)

Bingo! If you take the lower portion of the steering wheel cover off, you'll see some wires that are wrapped in black tape. Just unwind that tape a little, giving some extra slack, and it should fix it. The car is so well built, it's almost too well built and those wires are so tightly wound together that when they get cold (like from your ac), the casing gets hard and stiffens them, preventing mobility. When the wheel goes up, it tugs on the wires too much and pulls on the connecter within the dash, causing a bad connection.