cmacfar

We just bought an 2008 GX470 w/ 68,000 miles from a local non-lexus dealer and I believe we may have an air suspension issue. We made note of it prior to purchase and as they don’t have mechanics on the weekend they weren’t able to look at it so it was written in our contract to be looked at. Otherwise the car is fantastic and had been dealer maintained on every service interval minus the 65,000 mile interval.

Anywhosie, when we were looking at the car it was parked in between two other GX’s and they both sat higher in the rear than the one we bought. I turned the car on and the compressor kicked on and raised the rear up to the same height as the others. I toggled between High and low and that seemed to work fine as well. My question is, should the car lower itself overtime (i.e not immediately after you turn it off but over the course of 1-2 hours it will lower down) or should it stay at normal height when you turn the car off? If it does lower why would it be sitting lower than the other two GX’s (unless they were recently driven)? There is also another GX at my work and I parked next to it today to see if it sat at a similar height and when I parked next to it in the morning they were similar heights and around lunch our GX was lower. I have a feeling there is a leak in a fitting or a line since it’s not leaning to one side or the other but wanted to get opinion of the experts prior to talking to the dealer’s mechanics. I’ve searched quite a bit and have found parts of answers to my questions but a lot of problems I see is that folks aren’t able to control the height at all or they have a bumpy ride which I have neither.

470SNC

I think its normal for the GX to lower itself after a certain time. I know mine would do that overnight, and as soon as I started it it would level itself back up. I thought I had leaking airbags, but when I was taking them out to convert to coils, they had no leaks in them.

cmacfar

Thanks for the reply, does yours end up sitting on the bump stops as well?

ALAN553

If it's landing on the bump stops there is a leak somewhere. The only time I ever found my truck that low the airbags were leaking. Never on bump stops in the morning,mid it does drop overnight, I could never notice. There is a problem.

470SNC

yeah if its on the bumpstops theres definitely a leak

cmacfar

Thank you both for the replies. I figured as much, maybe I,ll see if they'd give me the cost of parts so I could do a spring conversion as it's likely less cost and my plan is to turn this into an overland vehicle over the next couple years anyways and was planning on ditching the air suspension when it wore out.

BradTank

That's usually the beginning signs that the rear air bags are failing, it will seem lower in back after it's been sitting a while.

It's not always dramatic, mine started out just looking a bit low (but not collapsed). Within a few months it was bouncing off the bump stops. If you have an identical GX next to it and you can see the difference, it sounds like it's on its way out.

I would address it with the place you bought it from ASAP if you had some sort of agreement regarding a repair. Maybe have a dealer quote in your hand, say they can either go to the dealership and have it replaced or can give you the money to get it fixed.

You have a lot more leverage as far as consumer protections laws go immediately after the transaction.

cmacfar

I made an appt the Monday after we purchased and made sure we had it in the contract that it would be repaired. It goes in this coming Monday to be looked at and I have another appt on Wednesday at the local Lexus shop should they say they can't find anything wrong.

jrpease

I just did the Spring/Strut conversions yesterday bud. It's easy. Took 2 hours, and that was with a trip to Harbor Freight to get the spring compressors. There's a shield that is bolted under the left side of the frame so I kept a jack on the left side and a stand on the right. Once you know where the clips are holding the bags in place it's an easy swap. I went with the suncore springs and gas shocks. 357 plus shipping(free for me cause I'm military which was a nice bonus. UPS had them to me in Utah in 5 shipping days. Definitely worth not having to worry about the air ride system anymore. My right air bag had a silver dollar sized hole in it and the compressor burned out trying to keep the truck up. 550 for the compressor and 200 for each bag?? Plus there were signs of dryrot on my left bag so that was going soon too. No thanks, springs and struts it is. Now no more worries! Good luck

DirtyGX

JRPease- which part of UT? Currently sitting at my desk in dugway proving ground....

jrpease

Stationed at Hill AFB, just south of Ogden.

cmacfar

JRPease, thank you for your service.

The dealer we purchased from found a leak in each air bag and replaced them both free of charge and they included a 6 month warranty on their work. It looks like they put the arnott bags in which I'm ok with. The website says they have a lifetime warranty which is nice but I need to probably scrounge up the purchase info from the dealer if I need to make a claim. Attached are a couple pics of the bags incase anyone is interested.






One thing, I was not so happy about was when I got the car home and was looking at it with some better light, I found a pry bar wedged between the frame and body....Thank goodness it didn't fall out on the ride home and puncture a tire or worse flip up and get in someones windshield. Leaves my confidence a little shaky for sure in the work they did.

jrpease

I wouldn't sweat it too much. I'm still trying to figure out why they were prying the frame from the body. As far as replacing the bags goes, it's actually really quick as soon as you get the latch lined up to hook around the nipple at the top of the air bags. I never figured out how to get the air line out of the fitting though, ended up cutting them out since I didn't have the specialty tool to unlock it.

Look at it like this, you just added a prybar to your tool box!

470SNC

there is no specialty tool for the air lines, its a pain in the rear but doable with needle nose pliers, there a cut out on both top and bottom of the metal 90 degree piece that the air line feeds into, in those cutouts are tabs you push down on with the pliers to release the air line.

jrpease

There is definitely a specialty tool. There are ways to get the line out if you're patient enough, but the tool I am speaking of slides around the tube and you push it into the fitting. It then pushes the nubs out unlocking the tube and letting it slide in.