cvgolfer

Mine is also not so bad that my dealer will ever listen to me but it seems to have gotten worse since I changed from the Dunlop runflats to Michelin Pilot A/S tires. Since you said that an alignment helped a bit, maybe I need to follow suit as my car almost doesn't want to self-center the steering after making a slight correction. Back in the day I used to autocross and had my cars aligned to turn rather than necessarily go straight and they also did not like to track and were a bit "darty". Thanks for the idea.

MC, I misunderstood you, I thought the recall was for the mirrors, not the steering. As my own dealer seems to be less than helpful with warranty repairs versus normal service work (I'm guessing it is smaller warranty dollars ($) versus bigger customer dollars ($$$) due to their attitude), I will need to get my facts straight when I approach them to get my steering fixed. I look forward to hearing your thoughts after your fix. Thanks. CVGolfer

Sorry that I can't add much to this post but I would like to ask you about what you said to your dealer to get your steering rack replaced and to also further explain the "how the steering felt while driving down the highway" comment. The reason I ask is that my '06 GS 430 has "dead" spots when making small changes to the steering wheel like when keeping the car centered in the lane. But the problem I am experiencing is most noticeable when I am on an on or off ramp on the highway. The steering almost seems to stick in spots, however it is only once in a while but it is happening more and more often. Is this what you were referring to? I was resigned to thinking it was typical of the electric power steering systems in our cars. I also had the dealer replace a dead driver's side outside mirror because the motor died but they did not replace the passenger side. Unfortunately, I was not aware of any recall campaign and am disappointed that my dealer didn't go ahead and fix both sides when they had it in a couple of days ago. Thanks for your input.

"I just got back from replacing my Yokohama junk tires. Hands down, those tires were a discrace to the Lexus brand. Put on the Michelin pilot sport A/S. Huge improvement...ride, performance and they are relatively quiet. I now feel like I'm driving what I bought.....a solid sports sedan." Give the Michelin's a few miles to quiet down. I have about 3,000 miles on mine and they are very quiet now but I do recall that they were a little noisy between 35 to 40 miles per hour when new.

I drive an '06 GS430. The original Dunlop run flats were replaced at 15,000 miles because three of the four would not hold air (the dealer remounted them several times which only made them leak air more quickly :cries: ). Yes they had a rough ride but that is a characteristic of the very stiff sidewalls that run flats must have that makes them run flats in the first place. I didn't particularly like the rough ride but I was OK with it. But when I had to replace the Dunlops, I switched to Michelin Pilot Sport A/S, a non run flat tire, based in part to what other LOC posters have said about run flats in general. I am glad I did because the difference in the ride is like night and day. Very smooth, very quiet, and still have a lot of grip for spirited driving. And a bit less expensive too.

I just changed the oil and filter along with the cabin filter a couple of thousand miles ago at 15,000 miles (bought it certified with 12,000 miles). Jack up the passenger side enough to get under the front of the car and look for a 8" by 10" panel a couple of feet back from the front bumper that is held in place by 6 to 8 screws. The small panel is part of the larger belly pan under most of the engine compartment and is removed to gain access to the spin on (not cartridge) oil filter. Remove the screws and the filter is right there. The oil pan drain plug (14mm) is located toward the rear of the car just past the end of the engine compartment belly pan pretty much even with the firewall of the car. It is so far back from the front bumper that I first thought it was the drain for the transmission. The drain plug faces the rear of the car so just feel around for it. BTW, the cabin filter can be accessed through the glove compartment. Just remove the divider tray and the access panel for the cabin filter will stare you in the face. All in all, the car is very easy to work on. I installed a VAIS Tech iPod adapter last week and it took me about an hour to finish the job even though I had to take apart the center console and pull the ML nav unit. A little prying, two screws and 4 10mm bolts did the job.