jmcraney

No doubt there are better riding and quieter tires than the Turanzas however mine are acceptable.

Because of the shallow knowledge about the TPMS many of the dealers, and owners too, over-inflate their tires to prevent false alarms. I set my tires at 33 PSI (cold) and I never have a false alarm and the ride is reasonable. I do notice that if the tires are over-inflated then the ride becomes rather harsh.

OBRon

Neither the 2011 L nor AWD models come standard with air suspension. In both cases, it's an optional extra. So, when I say standard suspension on my L, it's just that, not air. One of the changes for the 2011 LS was the separation of the air suspension from the AWD models. Maybe that was to make the AWD option more affordable but I also wonder if air has maintenance issues.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

i really wish you were in cali so i can sit with you and see what kind of noise problem you are having. i have worked on a lot of swb, although ride is not the same as air, but i think it's still very quiet and smooth

CJITTY

LS is the smoothest car i have ever had, but I always had Honda's and Acura's, so no comparison. But, i do want to drive an L model to see how much better the air is..i'm afraid to do so because I may want it more than my SWB. my ride experience is flawed right now because my rotors are warped..i also get a slight shimmy from time to time with my 20s, but my rotors may be contributing to that..at least I hope..my car came from NYC, so I think my suspension isn't probably in the best shape with those rough roads they have there...

rominl

iTrader: (4)

just keep in mind not all lwb have air. most do, but i have seen a few without

lockedlex

I know exactly what you mean! I thought I was going crazy and kept bringing it back to the dealer (at least 2x). I would describe the ride as jarringly harsh where you FELT every single tar strip, crack, etc. The car is still quiet like a vault, but you FEEL so many road defects and undulations that it made my car feel like the suspension was "busy". Rather than a smooth glass ride, I always had this general vibration/harshness, even on the smoothest road. Of course, each time I brought it to the dealer, they couldn't find anything wrong. And I DO have the air suspension.

So after some research, I realized that it was caused by two issues: tire pressure and in my case, the use of Turanza EL-4, perhaps the worse tire on the planet (Tirerack ratings and consensus on boards agree, even BMW owners got some kind of replacement because those tires were just so bad).

I was using my tire guage, it always read lower than the car's but I trusted it so I kept it at 33 (when the car would read ~37 cold). Turns out after looking at the fine print, the guage has a +/- of 5 PSI!!! Admittedly it was a cheap 10 dollar digital find at Autozone, so I opted to follow the Lexus tire pressure reading and when cold, lowered it to 30 PSI (which would have read 27 on my guage)--after trying 31-33. Now, is that lower than the 33 recommended, yes, but let me tell you (for this tire at least) what a world of difference! The ride is now smooth and buttery, I don't feel like my back is going to break over cracks, etc. and if I tie it in with the Comfort setting, wow, what a huge difference. And with the sport setting, I still get that responsive tight turn in and no body roll and still very nicely dampened road defects.

I did test drive 2 other LS's LWB with Air Suspension with the tech and one had the 19" rims--I thought my car was bad, that was terrible. The other 18" LS I drove also drove harshly (but I didn't check what kind of tire it was or the tire pressure), but not as bad the 19"s. I also had a 2011 ES loaner with 18" or perhaps 17", but in any case, that was one of the worse driving cars I've had (and the FWD didn't help)--it read 32 cold. On the highway, it bounced like crazy, etc. That car did come with the MXV4 Energy (but I suspect the "Energy" made it some kind of low rolling resistance, so it would drive harsher).

As a reference, I've had an E46 M3 w/ the 19" rims, a Boxster with 17", M5 with 18-19 staggered and those still drove better (had Pilot Sports on it). Can't wait for these to wear down and swap them out with some PS2s, which I've always placed on my cars anyway.

Now it's an absolute pleasure to drive this car! Luxurious, with all cracks/bumps/etc evanescing to a passing thought.

Just my .02

adamls2

after driving my dad's ls430 with he air suspension it rides a little bit more floaty(er) than my ls460 and others that i have driven. i have driven a few L's with the air suspension and i can say that there is a definite difference between the ride. BUT also i have the rock hard bridge stone potenzas and that does make for a little bit of a harsher ride than a normal tire would. anyways just my thoughts...BUT still nothing compares to the ride of an LS

Needone

My '10 LWB has AWD and therefore air suspension. with 35 psi cold the car slaps bumps pretty badly up to 55 mph, or so. Lexus is out of stock nationally on rear struts which have become very noisy on my model. I am really getting weary of the groaning and squeaking from the rear suspension and look forward to the fix. I have also heard that rarely a car with the pre-collision system will not release the firm suspension setting that automatically engages with panic stops and maneuvers. Your dealer should be able to detect this.

CJITTY

agreed with lockedlex. My trusty air gauge shows my PSI lower than my car TPMS displays. Also tried it with another gauge i just happened to have and it matches the other gauge. There is about +3-5 psi difference from what the TMPS displays, so I inflate my tires (cold) to 32 on my gauge and my display always shows 35 psi or so..when driving for a while, they bump up to 37 or 38 on my dash..so, i treat the TPMS as "suggestions" vs the really real. 3-5 psi makes a huge difference in ride quality.

jmcraney

I think you are making a mistake to doubt the accuracy of your tire sensors on your car. You need to think about how the TPMS works. It employs 5 independent air gauges, the tire sensors, and when they compare favorably to each other when the tires are set with an independent gauge that would only be possible if they were 1% or better accuracy devices. If you think about it none of the TPMSs would work very well or be fixable with a replacement sensor unless they were accurate. The TPMS is probably as accurate or more accurate than most tire gauges. Good 2% dial type gauges with bleed valves are available for about $40. A .5% accuracy gauge is pretty expensive, at about $150. Using a dial type gauge with bleed valve you can set your tires to within a few hundredths PSI of each other.

CJITTY

well, even when tire shops worked on the car and wrote down they put pressure at 33psi on the checkout sheet, my TPMS would read 36 psi or higher. I'm not sure if other people have noticed the differences also..i don't have a high end psi guage, so I am not saying this as a matter of fact, just what i noticed for my car. Has anyone with one of those high end psi gauges put our TPMS to the test to see the true +/- difference?

vancouverl

mine is out no matter what gauge i use .my dash preasure changes between 1 and 2 psi whenever it feels like .I doubt the ls readings are true .

jmcraney

Do you understand the relationship of tire pressure and temperature? The pressure changes about 1 PSI for a temperature change of 10 degrees F. Try parking your car, on a cool day, so that the tires on one side are exposed to the sun and the tires on the oposite side are in the shade. After about 1 hour make a note of the five pressures that are displayed on the dash. Then move the car such that the tires that were on the shaded side are on the sunny side. Wait about an hour and record the pressures again. You will see that two of the pressures will go up two or three PSI and two of the pressures will go down two or three PSI and one of the pressures will not change or only change 1 PSI - that would be the spare.

mhampton

The OP is spot on, in my opinion. My '07 LS460 SWB rides more harshly than previous LS models. Getting new tires helped, and lowering the pressure to 30psi definitely helped. But the car still doesn't ride as smoothly as previous LS models, nor the air-suspension models.

At highway speeds road imperfections like tar strips and slightly washboarded highways are transmitted directly into he cabin. It's the little bumps that are most annoying because every highway has them, they're frequent, and you often can't avoid them. I'll grant that the car is quiet, and it doesn't squeak. Mechanically it seems fine. It simply transmits more NVH into the cabin than I'd prefer.

I looked for after-market shocks that might improve the right, but all I found were "performance" shocks that would more-than-likely make the problem worse. So it's either replace the LS460 with one that has the air suspension, or maybe try a different car, like and S-class.

jallegrett

you might hav the same problem I have with my 2009 ls 460. I have a broken rear strut and I get the sam boom or loud noise when I hit a bump. At first I was told it was due to the cold weather but after a test drive the mechanic diagnosed a broken rear air strut. There is a 3 week (at least) delay in getting the new part.