I park the is350 in the garage as I do everynight. I reverse in the morning and when I get to the end of the drive way to where I would normally turn the steering wheel to get onto the street, I CANNOT turn the damn wheel. At first I thought, nice, a flat tire, (although no TPMS warning)...I do a walk around of the car and verify all tires look good.
I get back in the cars shut if off and restart...notice nothing unusual on the dash as far as warnings or lights.....I can not steer without being hercules. I call the service advisor, then call road side assistance, the car gets towed to the dealer yesterday and I'm told that tech will inspected it in the morning and I'll get my call following the tech's remark.
I get the call today....I'm told that the Rack & Pinion failed. I ask what does that mean....the service advisor (not sure she is technical at all although I'm told these people are suppose to attend a lot of tech classess as well) tells me she can not explain in detail and that Rack and Pinion assembly failed and it has to be replaced. Cost is about 2K for the part...she goes on to assure me that its all covered under warranty.
Has this happened to anyone??? Has anyone heard of this????
Jeez...I've owned honda's, acuras, audi's that lived 5-10 years without any steering issues.....a mechanical failure of rack & pinion on a 2006 is350 with less than 15K miles which has never been driven on a track. What the %$#@?????
I'll talk to the technician tomorrow when I pick up the car. I'm really *BLEEP*ed as that this could have failed while i was on my daily commute on the tollway in Houston which regularly sees 85MPH. Would lexus have stood behind a crash and admitted a rack and pinion failure????
People, talk to me - am I over exagerating or should I really be *BLEEP*ed.
Cheers,
DH