BNR34

iTrader: (1)

I love the features and ride of the air suspension, thinking about getting a LS with it, but a little worry about it's reliability and longevity.

I have done the search and read some threads about the air suspension, I still got a mix feeling about it's reliability and longevity. But it is more good then bad.

I plan to own and drive the car to 150k miles.

Can everyone share their experience with their air suspension? Both good and bad opinions please. Please be details with the problems you have and the cost to repaired it.

Also please post the current mileage on your car.

Thank you very much

sonyman

When it fails, it's very, very expensive to repair. One or more air struts will inevitably fail, but the question of when is very hard to answer. Supposedly the ride of the coil suspension is almost as good, although it can never quite match the air suspension's comfort and handling. Keep in mind that a new air strut is $1300 from the dealer if one fails, but when the system works it's brilliant. I personally bought my 1995 with the standard coil suspension, but I would not hesitate to buy one with an air suspension, even with the potential repair costs in mind. Additionally, if it ever comes down to it, and the system does fail in whatever car you have in mind, you can always convert it to a standard coil suspension for less than the cost of one air strut, or for roughly the same cost you can convert it to a full coilover suspension.

BNR34

iTrader: (1)

Thank you sonyman

Yeah I just loves how the air suspension works, and being a Toyota, the chance of it failing is lower then the chance of it not failing, but I still want to hear some people's opinions of it.

You answered my other question as well, the mounting points of the regular steel spring strut are the same as the air strut, so they are interchangable.

Thank you

sonyman

The bolt pattern is the same at the individual mounting points, but there are peripheral components in addition to the struts that need to be changed as well. From looking at my repair manual, they don't look like expensive parts. For example, the coil suspension has a "plug" on the top of each shock tower in the front, whereas the air suspension has a different part instead called the "actuator cover." You can see this small difference in two pictures from www.lexls.com, here:

With the air suspension:


With the standard coil suspension:


Edit: It looks to be the same case in the rear. I'm also unsure what would be done with unneeded connections, such as the air tube going to each individual pneumatic cylinder. ("air strut")

Edit2: It's also possible that you may not even need to change the actuator cover, if you can get away with leaving the actuators installed. However, I don't know enough to say if this is possible or not.

BNR34

iTrader: (1)

sonyman, I really appreciate your detail explainations, with pics too, wow!

Yes, the 2 different system uses different strut top is expected. The important thing is the chassis mounting points are the same, which looks like they are so different hardwares all bolt up the same way. I would imagine it to be this way, it makes no sense to have different chassis for the different suspension, it is very nice to have confirmations though, thank you

sonyman

Exactly.

You're quite welcome.

BNR34

iTrader: (1)

Balling

no, do not get it

it has a funky thing of not working when youw ant it to
and working when you dont care if it does

if you KNEW how many LS's have problems here in japan with factory air, youw ould never get it

BNR34

iTrader: (1)

ummmm, that doesn't sounds good

I am looking for actual owner's experiences here, thank you for your comment though.

I don't understand how anyone would don't care if the air suspension is working

Balling

ude
i own one

this is what happened to me

front low rear raised, no controller onboard, just randomly did it
dealer cant even figure it out.

so i bought coilovers
3 of the guys i know personally have ahd the same thing happen

richonenz

Well I go the other way , here in Aus with the Celsiors me and my buddys all have the air and wouldn't have anything else !!
There's about 8 of us and we all got about 16 years out of the struts , I now run Arnotts front struts at Aus $500.00 each and they have been in over 18 mths with no probs and I'm very happy with them .
Over here you can get genuine Lexus new struts for $800.00 each , so you must be able to get them a bit cheaper over there .
I run new genuines in the back as I'm just not exactly sure what Arnotts do with the rears they have , the fronts have a complete new alloy billet top where as the rears don't .
Take in mind the air struts don't just hold the car up , they have antisquat and anti dive built in to them , I also run a good quality controller that even allows me to harden the TEMS up even more that the sport mode .
I also personally know of 3 people who are really pissed off with their coil-overs , not being able to get the ride they want , the cheaper units tend to go off and lose their dampening and if you have a body kit you have to have set the car higher than the best look just so you can clear stuff like driveways !!
Not so easy to get out and lift it up , I can do it at the touch of a button .
Another point is that really good quality coil-overs that will last cost just as much as replacement air struts or very close with none of the instant adjustabilty .
Anybody that thinks that the original strut spring suspension is even close to the air obviously hasn't had a decent ride in an air Lexus with the struts in good nick , the original spring suspension is good , but the air is awesome !!

Balling

see, the whole thing is, i can do everything you can with my setup, and it rides 100% better. well in a performance aspect

this is my current setup


all the adjustability of coilovers, including the ride, with the adjustability of air.

it allows me to go from this

to this


the celsior now has Lock Smice coilovers, and will get the same exact setup.

Factory air is stoneage technology compared to what is avaliable today
for 2500.00 + shocks/coilovers you can have one of hte most reliable, and adjustable setup you haev ever seen.

if your satisfied with the boat like ride of factory air ride then cool. but even my wife hates it....

richonenz

You haven't added how much it cost or how long it took to install it !!
I was simply comparing to a standard spring set up or off the shelf coil-overs , my car is the family day car and as such my wife mostly drives it , we clock up over 40,000 K's a year including some big trips to vist the in-laws .
As an all round suspension system it's pretty good and for what it cost me it's pretty hard to beat , especially when you consider my aftermarket controller which allows me to drop the car so low it can't be driven like that !!
Not quite as low as yours but very close .
I don't actually see the point of that , but it can do it .
This post was about air or springs , nice custom air system but just not practical for most people considering cost and install time .

PR FIEBRU

Ok. My buddy is about to buy a 1995 LS400 with air suspension. I press the button that reads high / normal and nothing happened. I rocked the car and it seems to have no stiffness.

Is it worth to buy this car or will it cost too much to fix.

I know its not relevant to the post but the a/c system and heating is not working. Is this a common problem.

thanks