Caflashbob

after purchasing our low mileage 2008 recently I have been going through the needed fixes and wanted mods to improve the ownership experience and need some possible feedback from the longer term owners here if possible.

my questions today involve ride and handling issues I see have been mentioned here.

our 2008 has 21,000 miles and rides stiffly and leans on turns.

the stiff ride does not seem to be mentioned before the 06 model refresh mid cycle?

i think Lexus did a poor job on the shocks in the 2006-2010 and the poor suspension compliance on uneven surfaces probably contributed to the lower sales and final discontinuance of the model.

I was wondering if by now anyone has replaced the OEM production shocks with newer OEM parts and noticed any difference in the nervous harsh ride?

not unusual for a manufacturer to change replacement parts. Just wonder if anyone with a 2006-2010 has noticed this.

maybe my 2008 was different than a 2006-2007? Maybe all 06-10's are stiff?

if anyone replaced their 06-10 shocks did they notice any difference in the ride?

versus I buy expensive top quality aftermarket coil overs for street driving?

thanks in advance for any feedback you might be able to give me.

bob

ccurtin1

Do you have run flat (forklift) tires on the 2008? I owned a 2006 and the ride got so much better with a Z rated tire versus the run flats.

I now have a 2008 with 37k miles that came with 4 brand new run flats and I am debating whether to go to a good Z rated tire when it is time.

There was this past discussion too. https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc4...008-sc430.html

rudyH

I bought my 2006 about 2 years ago and changed all the shocks and fluids immediately. It rode OK but wasn't smooth on bumpy surfaces. The lean on curves was acceptable to me. The car had a torn boot on one upper ball joint and had a leaky rear axle but was toldthose could wait. So a few months ago I took it to a dealer and this time I told them to go ahead and change those parts out. I doubt the axle affected much but the changed balljoints made a huge, I mean huge, difference in the ride and stability. It became a different much better car. My car has about 127k miles on it though so it's not exactly the same situation as you're in. My car wad bought with run flats snd I'm keeping those until they're worn out. My 2¢.

OBP

Op, most owners get a good ride quality upgrade once they get rid of the runflat tires.

Caflashbob

what shocks did you use?

Caflashbob

Interesting observation today. Picked up our sc430 today from steve after he installed the luxlink and the poly sway bar bushings and the Osram low beam HID's.

no sway bar change just the bushings.

noticeably smoother ride on sharp edges on out so cal freeways.

only thing I can attribute this to is the stock bushings were binding on the sway bars.

The poly bushings came with squeeze tubes of silicone clesr grease.

Noticeable difference. Have not pushed the car hard in turns yet so no real feedback on that part.

lube your sway bar bushings?

Bgw70

if you don't use the lube, you will have squeaks from the poly bushings...

Harold57

Is there a way to add lube later? It seems like it would all make its way out of there after some time and then you'd have squeaks.

Caflashbob

have to drop the bars and relube I guess. The silicone is waterproof I think

mrblister

I have the front and rear Daizen sway bars with the poly bushings it came with. I went and bought for the front aftermarket Energy suspension brackets which came with grease zerks and there own 32 mm poly bushing sets that allow you to grease them without having to remove. The poly bushing has a channel in it to allow the grease to enter when you use the hand held grease gun I bought daizen water proof grease and used a small hand held grease gun and I re-grease every oil change.

Caflashbob

thanks for the lead. I live right around the corner from energy in San Juan Capistrano, ca. Like the grease idea.

did you lose any ride quality with the bigger sway bars?

how did you bypass the nav screen?

mrblister

The ride quality is not effected the handling is. Front end is tighter in the curves and fun to drive I also have toms tower bar in the front band also some frame stiffeners . All in all I get less twist when top is down and the car is very stable

The navigation override was a kit from beatsonic That is just a regular switch and a harness that you plug in to the rear unit in the trunk and then plug the harness into the t harness supplied. You can simply do it same way with out the harness you just need to cut one wire and then run the two cut ends to a switch when switch is activated your normal when you open switch you can use nav while your driving.
I also did a phone hack by cutting a wire in the dash behind navigation unit and then installing a switch hidden under dash so you can turn switch on or off Net effect is when circuit is open you can use phone while driving also when circuit is closed your back to normal cant make calls unless your stopped or you use speed dial

Buddy.