PHCMA

While if you are all about dropping your car this info will mean nothing to you. For one a car equipped with air ride starts by riding higher from the factory. front w/o air and 17" tires 105mm rear 91mm 18" tires front 104mm rear 89mm.
Air ride front 115mm rear 109mm. Ride height is the first spec you have to meet before you can do a Alignment. That means if you are changing your height or do not meet these specs your car is not being used as designed by the engineers. Also you will fail the drive shaft angle spec. also a 1" change in ride height in the back can change front camber by 1 degree. Another interesting misconception is that air ride gives you a better smoother ride, seems to make sense as you think you are riding on air but in fact the air bladders have a small range in which they are designed to operate compared to springs. Springs can be wound to operate in a non linear fashion, as in tighter on top and bottom so as you get closer to the limits the spring rate increases. Also you can buy springs to completely change the way your car responses to up and down motion.You can't with air ride. Also your air bladder will fail sooner if you operate to far (which isn't much ) out of it's range. Of course the real difference maker in cornering is the sway bars. If you want to make your Lex corner flatter without killing the ride than sway bars will do that. The air ride is just for adjusting the height of the car to keep it in the designed ride height if you put a load in the trunk or you have people in the back seat. The real change in handing when you go to the sport mode is the change in the electronic controlled shocks. This is what many get confused with the air ride, the control of the rebound and damping is what stiffens things up. So before getting all up there with air ride you will be better off putting on adjustable shock with a remote controller. This of course only if dropping for looks your only goal then fine but you certainly will change every thing your car was designed to in the handling and ride department. Our group went though the ride thing back in the Lincoln days, did alot of testing even pulled off the shocks to test the air ride vs spring and came up with if you carry things in the trunk or back seat passengers and keep your headlights aligned at the same time buy air ride if not forget it, I look at it as a negative because of the cost and upkeep. IMO

sojah

iTrader: (1)

couple things. first i have an 05 UL w/ controller and usually keep it in sport mode and drop it to like 7 for better cornering ability, how much is this hurting my air suspension?? should i get sway bars to make this better??

also, i am about to get my car aligned (front & rear) at a ride height 7 so that it is aligned to my most driven height setting. i am just taking it to a normal mom & pop shop to do the alignment, is there anything special i should tell them so that they can do it properly without making something worse?? what are the proper settings for alignment of front & rear w/ controller (UL) on an 05? thanks,

sojah

iTrader: (1)

I got these specifications from a previous post by BNR34, can anyone tell me if these are all that is required to correctly align an 05 UL LS w/ controller (on setting 7), thanks???

Front: -1 degree camber, 1/8" total toe in.

Rear: -1.75 degree camber, 1/8" total toe in.

GRAND_LS 4

iTrader: (2)

Ive noticed and abundance of threads about the air ride as of recently. I have suspected that we will be seeing more of these threads once LS430 models reached closer to 100,000.

Best you can do is purchase warranty if you want the piece of mind and enjoy your car.

hoonunya

So, air suspension sits higher normally, does not soften ride, and is useful "if you carry things in the trunk or back seat passengers."

I thought air suspension rode softer and sat lower from the factory. My CL is lookin' better.

airtime

I'm aware of the OP issue with lowering an air ride car. I'll still be doing it because I like the way it looks. You can say the same with buying larger wheels with lower profile tires. You loose ride quality but most of us do it anyway. All these threads about air suspension worries has been rehashed to death in my opinion. Ultimately two choices. If it goes bad replace with springs like BNR did (with a fantastic writeup) or spend the $$ and get factory parts to fix it. That's it. If you have the extended warranty until 100k, even better.

sojah

iTrader: (1)

anyone know anything about alignment for a UL? ^ ^

JP2SEA

iTrader: (3)

I'm with Airtime, I do it for the looks. I will replace the air shock if it goes bad. (I've replaced the right front alreday at 60K).

PHCMA

Factory alignment specs right out of the book 430

.pdf

PHCMA

Factory alignment specs right out of the book 430

PHCMA

Factory alignment specs right out of the book 430

PHCMA

Factory alignment specs right out of the book 430

GRAND_LS 4

iTrader: (2)

I agree. This A/S scare is getting more airtime *pun not intended* then its worth.

sojah

iTrader: (1)

PHCMA i just read both of those, not sure what they hell i'm really looking at, hopefully this will make sense to a mechanic?? what about rear alignment?? if i show these papers for example to a PepBoys or Autozone mechanic will they be able to comprehend and set to proper specs??? thanks,

BNR34

iTrader: (1)

Well it could be pretty scary for a guy that don't know much about it, for someone that only knows to bring the car to the dealer to fix anything, if all 4 air struts needs to be replace, my own Lexus dealer wanted $6400 to do the job.

$6400 is a pretty big amount to most of us here, it is 20% of the value of a 05/06 UL now a days.