lexie

Any one has experience failed air suspension ? I want to know how it happened? Did the car sag (drop half way to the ground) all at once or the car sagged slowly. Because my driveway slopes down (45 degree) and I worry if my air suspension failed inside my garage and I will not be able to drive my car out!!

Chucka

I have a 92 LS400 with air shocks with 215,000 miles and going strong. At about 160,000 miles one of my front shocks went bad and both were replaced, and at near 200,000 miles a rear shock went bad and both were replaced. When they wend bad, the car sagged in the direction of the bad shock when parked making it look like the car had a flat tire. As soon as the engine started, they pumped up to normal in a few seconds and I drove for another couple of thousand miles until I had time for Lexus to change them. No problem except they were costly to replace. I am not sure if I would want another car with the air shocks because of the replacement costs, but they do give a good ride.

Chucka

lexie

Thanks Chucka for your response. Now I feel much better knowing I will be able to drive my car out of my garage after the air shocks went bad! By the way you said you have your front shocks changed at 160,000 miles. Was it the first set or the second set ? Because at Lexus service dept, I saw one LS has only 87,000 miles and the front shocks was no good already. My 91 LS has 68,000 miles, so I think I do'nt have to worry about it for a while. I just wonder the failure of the shocks depend on the age of the car OR the mileage of the car

Chucka

First set on front and rear.

In addition in all of this millage, I have only had to replace one steering pump one water pump and one alternator as well as one rear bearing which was surprisingly low in cost to replace compared to what I had expected. All service is done by Lexus and I replace whatever they tell me needs replacing, yet I feel it is the least expensive car I have ever owned, though I admit it would have been less costly without the replacement costs of the air shocks.

I love this car but because of the high millage I put on the car, I hope to replace it in about 25,000 miles. I am trying to decide between another LS400 (98 to 2000), new ES300, and am looking at AWD cars - Audi A8, Mercedes E320, and BMW 330xi. The LS400 is poor on ice and snow even with the best snow tires on all 4's and my wife wants to see me in AWD, but it is hard to give up Lexus and even compare any car to my LS400. The ES300 may be my compromise.

Good luck with your LS400 and I hope you enjoy it and have as good a history with it as I have had with mine.

Chucka

wwest

If an air shock fails, leaks, and the pump cannot produce enough air volume to overcome the leak the body will ride on, contact, the tire. Damage to the tire will result.

Chucka

In both of my cases, the fairlure developed over time. At the end, it would take 6+ hours to deflate and usually showed no deflation if it sat for just a couple of hours. (First time showed when the car was parked in one place for nearly a week). I did worry about the pump, but I guess it depends upon how serious the air leak is. I would assume that most failures show up slowly so the pump can initially keep up with it. I am sure that had the pump been required to work continiously, it too would have failed. I really do not worry too much about my air shocks, but given a choice, I probably would not choose them in the future.

chucka