JonHsiung

I love the LS430 UL's air suspension adjustment switches on the dashboard, but as with any mechanical device, it's going to break someday.

I read through many articles on this board and one member mentioned that he parks it on "Sport" mode and drives in "Normal." Sometimes on a rough road, I'll set it on the "High" height setting.

Does anybody adjust their suspension everyday? Or leave it on "Sport" mode or "High?" Is wear any greater in those modes than on normal mode? I would imagine it would be, since it should require higher PSI. Would love to hear your personal experiences!

sojah

iTrader: (1)

you can only switch it approx 437 times before it breaks... just kidding, i rode around with mine on sport the whole time, and then i put the datasystems air controller on it and rode around on setting 9 and sport mode for another year until the air susp went out, now i'm on coilovers.

chris81964

My left rear is bad. I have had it on Sport for 30k miles

HiloDB1

iTrader: (3)

So does the strut go bad first or the air bag?

caddyowner

Don't laugh. I'll bet this is something Lexus tested - and somewhere they arrived at a failure rate that they deemed to be acceptable.

Bon

Sport and Normal do not affect the air suspension. The switch activates rotary motors that are at the top of the four shock absorbers. The motors change the damping rates of the shocks. Firm for sport and soft for normal.

On the other hand:
1) Setting the "High/Normal" to High activates the air suspension pump.
2) Loading extra luggage and/or people does the same.
3) Driving above ~60mph lowers the car and then slowing down runs the pump to raise the car back up.

Eventually everything wears out and so will this little pump. At >$1K for this pump it's still the least expensive thing to fix in the air suspension package!! Each air shock will cost you more than that little pump and you'll need four of them! I bailed on the whole thing and changed over to metal springs when I faced that dreaded day.

StanVanDam

Regarding the "breaking" of the air suspension system, you would have to define what kind of breaking you mean. Off-level sensors, failed shock absorber, compressor, dryer, or air lines? Most of the breaking that I've read about here is from uncalibrated sensors and failed shocks. The compressor, dryer, and air lines seem to be pretty solid in the LS430.

Sensors can be off-level by age, corrosion, being moved outside of their operating range, or maybe they weren't bolted down properly to begin with.

Some causes of air suspension failures are here: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikiped...nsion_problems

The Sport/Norm switch controls the damping of the spring inside the shock absorber. A firmer suspension would mean a more rapid change in response, and probably places more shock load on the metal spring instead of the rubber airbag, and therefore prevents the airbag from compressing too much and too fast. A softer suspension probably places more shock load on the airbag due to less damping force applied by the metal spring.

I think the Sport setting would very slightly extend the life of the airbags.

Many LS430s on air have a slightly lower rear right and slightly higher front left, probably due to deviation over time of one or more of the 4 height sensors.

I think the height sensors go bad first (or get out of adjustment). My suspension was very off-level after a minor rear-end collision (rear right was sunk, front left was jacked). Lexus said the sensors were reporting an "out of range" error.

After Lexus replaced both rear height sensors, performed calibration incorrectly, then performed calibration again, the car now sits perfectly level. Insurance covered the $1100 for the 2 sensors + $228 in labor + tax. I think that's almost as expensive as replacing one air strut.

I can say for sure that in my car, the cause of the rear right being lower was purely due to either the rear height sensors being bad and/or the overall calibration of all sensors was off. The shocks were not replaced and still work perfectly fine.

I recommend that if your car doesn't sit level, get someone experienced at Lexus to check that the height sensors report correct values, and that all 4 corners are calibrated together properly. A calibration should only take 2 hours of labor, which is much cheaper than buying new sensors, which is slightly cheaper than buying one new air shock.

The attached bulletin, SU001-06, shows the Lexus shock absorber replacement criteria. A certain amount of oil leak is considered normal.

For your reference, none of my struts had any visible oil leak when I had the gangsta lean, and still don't.

Bon

Good stuff Stan.

warminwisc

As usual from StanVanDAm!

94LSon20

My right rear sits a pinch lower than all of the other corners, only after sitting for hours without driving. After a small trip to the store or errand or work, it levels itself out. I modded my senors about 5 months back and the car is riding about a 3/4 of an inch lower all the way around. No problems as of yet.

I never put it in "high" only "sport" when im feeling spirited. I once took the sensor bars out of the front and lowered the sensors in the rear, the car was slammed to the ground. It felt like riding on struts slamming into bump stops on each bump in the road. DONT DO THIS. I drove around like this for about 10 miles before I was fed up. looked great but was not worth the wear & tear or the ride quality.

I have an 01 with 125K, rides like its new. When something goes, whether it be a pump or corner, I am converting to coilovers. You can buy a great set for $1000 which is LESS than the cost of a new corner.

I wonder if my WALD's Im bolting on this weekend will make my air suspension wear out quicker....

JonHsiung

Wow, thanks for all the info guys! This makes me want to not touch any switches on that panel. :P

So if the shocks cost $1k/piece and the air compressor is about the same, shouldn't we want to keep wear off the shocks? To our knowledge today, are there any aftermarket replacements or good complete air suspension replacement kits? Coming from a background of import car modding, I know air suspension kits are expensive, but even those kits are less expensive than replacing the entire system in our LS430 ULs.

FYI, I have 140k on the odometer and everything is running just fine. Planning to keep everything stock. I'm just fairly paranoid because I see all these threads with air suspension issues.

airtime

I wouldn't worry about the air susp. It'll happen when it happens. If it does, change over to coils, or replace the damage unit with another buying from a member here who has changed over to coil. It would a be straight swapout and much cheaper that from Lexus.

I would say other things may go bad before the air, things like steering wheel and mirror retraction.

Griff48

I am having ride issues with my '04 UL. It started riding rough as if the rear suspension was bottomed-out. The car was sitting normal so that wasn't the issue. If I set the ride height to 'high' the car raised and the ride seemed almost normal. I couldn't get an appt at Lexus of Portland, so I took the car to the local Toyota place who says they have Lexus-certified techs. The tech reported no signs of wear, leaks or any computer codes. They adjusted the height sensors and the car now seems a little better but still not what it should be. The rear still bottoms out over speed bumps (for example) and, strangely, seems to 'bounce' when making right turns. So, I am still in the dark. The car checks out fine but the ride quality is not what it was. I hate to start throwing parts at it, considering what they cost. Any ideas would be appreciated. BTW, 72,000 miles.

94LSon20

Just bolted the Wald's on. It's official, my rear air setup is leaking oil. Saw it while the car was on the lift.

Boomer01

I too have been worried about this issue. My 01 UL has around 157K miles and to my knowledge, still has the original struts/shocks/air bags. I don't seem to have any issues but don't really want to fork out all of the money to fix them when/if they go bad.

I have adjusted my rods a little to make the car sit lower. I don't use the sport mode and rarely use the "high" setting. Anytime I hit a bump in the road it feels like a hard thud in the car. The bags also seem to lose air and maybe are bottoming out (hence the hard thud on bumps). When I hit the high setting, let it adjust, and go back to normal the car seems to sit higher and ride better. Maybe my bags are going out or are already bad. The car rides fine other than that.