rickgus

All well and good, but my car only has 40k miles. No way balljoints, bushings, ect should be worn. And the centering rings didn't do much either. Been driving lotsa vehicles for almost 40 years now, and have NEVER encountered a prob like this. Lexus has an issue here.

The centering rings didn't do much for my car. Helped, but "the shake" was still there. I posted awhile back about tightening the steering rack, as discussed. It helped a bunch. For while, maybe a month or so. But it's back. This is way stupid. Lexus should have an answer for this once and for all.

Not really answering your question, but I wondered the same thing a few months back. I decided to stay with the 16" rims mainly due to the fact that tire prices take quite a jump when you go to 17" for some stupid reason.

Not sure. This big wrench set was a cheap-o set from Harbor Freight tools. Don't see the set listed on their web site anymore.

I've got a huge wrench set, and used a 1-11/16" wrench(the "open" end). It's a bit sloppy, but did the job without damaging the nut. It's a bit touchy getting the adjustment just right, as they talked about in that post. First time I adjusted it, the steering wouldn't quite self-center like they said, but the shaking was virtually gone. I backed it off a little, self-centers ok, but some of the shake came back. I need to go about half-way between, and I think it'll be great. I'll do that at next oil change.

Was that Barrier Lexus by any chance? (Used to buy my Benz parts at Barrier Mercedes when I lived up there.)

I just double-nutted a 5/8" bolt. The head is the right size. Worked great.

Yeah, this whole issue is way wierd. Hard to believe Lexus would build a car with a stupid problem like this for so long. I bought a Toyota to AVOID stupid things like this. Aw well. I'm just hoping this is a long term fix, and not something that'll have to be done every so often.

Sorry. I assumed you'd read the older thread on this. My bad. They linked to this: http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210644 But I haven't run across how to adjust the older style steering rack yet. Keep digging. It may be out there somewhere.

ttt= to the top same as "bump" BTW, just did that rack adjustment on my '99 today, waaaay more better now!!!!!!!!

Yeah, but that's with TWICE the miles I have :P TWICE as wore out ;)

Coming in on this kinda late, but my bought a '99 last spring with only 34,000 miles on it, for $16k off Ebay. Like a brand new car!

I can hear ya breathing............... Ok, nevermind. Went up to Big-O today, and they are checking prices for me on Monday. I'll let ya'll know if/what I get here. Everything I can find points to these being decent brands.

Shopping for some new rims, and really don't like most of what the local shops have, and seems most of what they have are made in China. Gravity cast rims can't have good strength. Looking on line, I see Akita and Sacchi rims have some good looking rims for a decent price, but don't know anything about them. Anyone? Decent quality?

You can't fool me. That's no Lexus!

Trade it in for an old Benz diesel. They'll last for at least 500K with regular oil changes.

Yeah, I'm actually from up there. Grew up in Edmonds. But we moved down here a couple years ago. Couldn't take the damn rain anymore!! :D And the cost of living is getting ridiculous there too. Been out thru Sequim a couple times on the way to Port Angelos and Bremerton when I used to drive a delivery truck back in the 80's. Sequim was just a wide spot on the hiway then. We had snow coming down this morning here. Must be the storm that blew thru up there. You can have it back now. :P

Yeah, my 2 daughters just flew down from there yesterday, and said they had almost 2 inches when they left home just north of Everett. Didn't know they allowed Lexus in Sequim!

What did ya not like about an Infinity? I did consider them, but Edmunds.com showed a few too many issues.

The Mercedes I owned were old ones, back when they REALLY built a car. Had 2 '68 diesels, a '67 230 sedan, and the last was a '83 300SD(turbodiesel). The SD was one hell of a car. Hated to let it go. Had a little over 360k miles on it, and still solid as a rock. But a lot of "little" issues were happening, power windows, A/C marginal, ect. So I decided to step up a few years. Did lot's of research. Was going to buy a late 320E. Found too many issues. Looked at Audi's. Waaaayyyy too many issues. Not a Bimmer fan, so that was off the list. Caddies scared me. A few relatives have them, or had them. No thanks. Lincolns are plain wierd looking anymore. Then I thought "Hey, I like the Lexus GS series!". Bought one. Yeah, I'm not really trying to "convince" those fellas "over there" about the Lexus vs Benz issue. Lost cause. There's the whole status issue that's like trying to argue politics or religion. Not going to happen. But it's fun to bat it around with them. They're mostly a pretty good bunch, so it's MOSTLY in good fun. :D

I'm still pretty active over at the Mercedes forum I've haunted for about 7 years now, even though I've left that brand behind(for now). There's been alot of discussion over there lately, comparing quality and features of the major luxury brands, I.E: Benz, BMW, Audi, Jag, and Lexus mostly. Alot of those folks see Lexus as pretty much a joke, Japan's feeble effort to compete. Of course, anyone with a pulse can see Lexus has done well. But there's no convincing the dedicated Benz owners that Lexus is never going to be anything more than copy-cat wanna-bees. I've pointed out that I see alot more ex-Benz owners here, than ex-Lexus owners over there. So how about a bit of a roll-call?

Yeah, no kidding. I was tempted to make a comment like "sounds just like an L.A. attitude", but since I was born there, I left it alone ;)

Uh..........ok.................sure <_<

I hear there's a guy in plainfield thats honest. <_< Plainfield? where's plainfield?

Yeah, try an Audi, and you'll see how well these cars are built. ;) Owning a horse may be the only worse money pit than an Audi.