justincook

My perception is that Lexus uses extra soft rubber for its bushings that degrade or show the effects of degradation faster than the harder rubber used by other cars. What's your take?

Och

iTrader: (3)

No, not at all. Its just that Lexus uses way more bushings than many other manufacturers, to isolate as much noise and vibrations from the cabin.

Thermactor

iTrader: (1)

I hate how many non-replaceable (or almost impossible) and impossibly expensive rubber bushings they've put into the design of our cars. Awesome when new, problematic after a decade and a half.

justincook

Yeah I guess that's my point Therm. I was in a friend's low-mileage LS430 and it already had a noticeably clunk in the suspension when hitting bumps. I was not impressed when my transmission mount came out in two pieces. That would be my biggest fear in buying another LS.

Thermactor

iTrader: (1)

Oftentimes the only fix for the problem is to buy new urethane bushings that wreck the original ride quality. But at that point a lot of folks are already on huge wheels and have lowered their cars so that the ride is lousy to begin with.

Amskeptic

There are also many people who do not understand that suspension bushings must be tightened only at ride height. If they are subject to too much torsional stress over the long-term, they let go. So let's assume that somewhere before 150,000 to 200,000 miles, it is expected that bushings have to be replaced. I think it would be the premature failure of the replacement set that would make people curse out the cheap bushings when it was actually a rushed installation on a lift.
Or something. YMMV
Colin