kj300

I just took my 2000 GS400 in for its annual inspection. It has 77,000 miles and is in excellent shape. The dealer called and said I needed to replace the front ball joints. He said this was common on GS and LS models at around 75,000 miles. He even showed me the old ball joints and pulled up on down on it to demonstrate the play.

Is this normal or have I have been had?

If you haven't already listen to the dealer and get them changed out. My ball joints on my 2000 GS300 did fail. I was lucky that I was only going about 5MPH into a car wash at the time. The entire suspension collapses when this happens. My wheel was sticking out almost 90 degrees. Then you have to think about how they are going to get your car on a tow truck. It took an hour and a half for the tow truck driver and I to get it on the flatbed because the front was so low to the ground and was scraping as it went up the ramp. We ended up using 2 floor jacks to keep the front end up as we took it off the truck. Still there was damage to the front bumper cover and the fender. thank goodness for insurance!! If this had happened on the freeway I could have easily been killed.

I've been doing some research on this and have concluded that the reason they are so picky about ball joints especially lower ones is because they know there is a flaw in the design. GS300's where recalled in 1997 for the lower front ball goint failing due to poor lubrication. And if you listen to me and look around the web you will find that the design is still defective.

Any auto parts store should have rebuilt racks available. I got mine at Carquest for something in the $300.00 range. The Lexus price for a new rack is +/- $1200.00. It takes a few hours and will require wheel alignment when complete. It's a bit messy, but not too difficult.

Just a side note, there are no adjustments to be made externally on the outside of the steering rack. When the rack is assembled, each piece is installed with a precise torque and position. Adjusting and or tampering with any adjustment is just plain unsafe. Of course, if you possess the correct tooling, experience, and knowledge to rebuild a steering rack, than you may disagree with the previous statement.

Wow I am having the EXACT same problem with my GS300. The steering wheel does not recenter and the steering is stiff. It also makes a whirling noise when I steer. I took it to a mechanic who suggested that it was the rack but then he didn't want to do the work based on a guess because of the high cost of parts and labor. I took it to another mechanic who says it might be the power steering pump causing the problem. I am sceptical about the power steering pump idea but it was cheep enough for me to try it out. I should have the results of this experiment after the weekend.