For those who have modified their LS400's suspension I have a question. I have a 95 model and would like to know if anyone has successfully replaced the air suspension with the standard suspension. If so, did they take it to the dealer or did someplace else do it and approximate cost. My car is approaching 85k and the ride is getting rough. Rather than shelling out the $4k for replacement of the air system I was going to just see if I could replace it with the standard system.

 

Just wondering if anyone can provide some feedback. I've searched the archives, but have not seen any replies addressing similar threads.

 

Screen name kamtra had a post about replacing the air suspension with a regular set-up. You'll have to do a search, I don't recall the subject header.

Found part of it:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...threadid=96181

 

I have seen air struts and regular struts and they are interchangable, and you have to disconnect the air compressor. The dealer will not do this job you have to go a private owned shop.

 

Replacing the stock air suspension was very easy. I went to strutmasters and ordered their conversion kit. The kit comes preassembled and ready to install. It was simply a matter of pulling out the old air struts and replacing them with the new ones. If you contact them, they can offer a varity of setups for your vehicle. They can put lowered coils on there for you, or use a different type or brand of strut if you choose. The company was great to work with and even offered to help me disconnect the suspension computer after the conversion was complete. The price was pretty reasonable and the entire job took about an afternoon to complete. www.strutmasters.com Hope this provides a little info on the conversion. By the way, the car rides great and I have not had a problem since installing the conversion.

 

Hmmm,

For 800 bucks, I think you could get some Tokico blues, Eibach springs and some new strut top plates.

 

This is the setup I went with. Plan on doing the conversion this weekend. Anyone know how to disconnect the air suspension computer?

 

I ended up buying a non-air suspension from a salvage yard for $200 + shipping. I will probably see how they ride before deciding on replacing the absorbers w/stock ones. If the rubber and plastic pieces (bump stops, dust boots, etc) didn't cost as much as the struts themselves I would just replace the absorbers before installing.

I will have one working 93 left front air strut and both rear air struts for anyone interested. Call me at 813-417-8870.

Chad

 

I've finally given up on the air suspension. About 2 months ago I replaced the LR air strut @ $417. Now the front end doen't stay up when I turn the engine off. I found that the RF strut has a leak, priced a new one they told me $700 bucks for one. I told the dude he was crazy and there's no way I'm going to spend that type of money for one strut on a ten year old. It was bad enough spending $400+ bucks in the recent past. I called www.strutmasters.com and ordered the conversion kit, of course I'm going to get a 1" drop can't wait. Will post pics of new look!

 

i have 1995 ls 400 with air suspension,i live in the middle east(U.A.E),the used air suspensions are very cheap here ,you can get 2 rear suspension for 250$ >>>>>>>but i prefer the coil spring,changing the whole system will cost me 1200$.

 

For that price you can do coil overs. I wanted to go that route, but Todd @ TM Engineering told me that they would have to be ordered from Japan and plus he never got back to me with a price.