handoverfi

iTrader: (7)

like the title says. I am looking to maybe sellling the GS just because i hate adjusting my megan coilovers! Lately i been having people sitting in the back and its giving me slight rubbing issues. Im runing a 255/35/20 on a 20x10.5+29 my fronts are 20x9+30 with a 245/35/20. Now the front tires are hitting the lips of the front fenders. And now they are starting the flip out. i want to get the fronts rolled to prevent this issue. But im getting sick of dealing with these fender issues. I know i should run smaller tires but i like the 35 series and that gives me just enough rubber to drive daily around houston with the crap roads here.

Welll that is my issue with the GS. Reason i want a LS430 UL, More options, more luxurious, def a bigger car, more power, and most of all factory air ride.

I am very scared to buy one just because of all the air ride problems everyone is having and running into. How many miles you guys got on your LS UL when the airride went out. Hell some people pay a G per air strust just to get it fixed from the dealer. I rather just dump that money into a aftermarket airride and go that route.

What do you guys think? i like to ride dropped and if have a full load in the rear i can just push a button and raise the car up and not worry about my car rubbing. I cant even have 1 person in the back of my car without it rubbing. And trying to raise the car up will pretty much eliminate the purpose of having the drop so air ride is the way to go.

maybe none of this makes any sense to some people but basically to have a bigger car with factory equipped air where i can conveniently raise and lower when i want and need to with more room in a car.

any thoughts? and post up milage when your air started to crap out on you guys.

thanks!

sojah

iTrader: (1)

well i recently purchased an 05 ls430 UL and got the controller installed and i use it for this very reason you stated above. i just hit 35k miles and from my reading about the air ride issues it seems to me that most people started complaining about them around 65k miles. some people didn't have problems at all but the ones that did said around 65k i believe.

i just love being able to raise and lower the car at the touch of a button, even if it does take a little time to go all the way down...

mafpolo

One of the things that we need to keep in mind is that our paradigm on this forum may be quite flawed. Statistically, we are a small group, and our incidents with air suspension failures could be few in comparison to the rest of the Ultra population out there.

Keep in mind - "could be." Doesn't necessarly mean it is, but we tend to be vocal about it, enthusiasts rather than just luxury car owners, and some of us (like myself) sought this forum out for the very reason of problems we are having.

Just a thought.

mafpolo

Even with my above post in mind, I will do all I can to not own another car with air suspension. It is just one more system to potentially fail. Also, it "seems" to have too high a failure rate.

AlexusAnja

Exactly. I like coming on the forum to help others out and to give my 2 cents worth at times... but nothing more. We are a big community, but I really do wonder how many unique members (active within last 90 days, not all time) are on and what percentage this is to the Lexus owner community. I figure if Lexus has 300,000 owners (I have no idea the number) but our forum is 1,000 strong, then we're only 1/3 of 1% of the owners.

It does give people like the OP a "rough" very rough idea of when things might fail for people that have had it fail... but say all of us here have the air go at 80K, that doesn't translate to that the general public will fail at 80K also, it could mean that 1/3 of 1% have had it fail at 80K.

Heck, I'm no statistician, but it's fun speculating and theorizing what the real numbers might be...

campisi

Heck, for that matter does the general LS430 population go around tweaking the ride height with the sensors or slamming the car or putting 20"wheels on it? I wonder if those things have something to do with premature air sus failure?

Ay-nako

iTrader: (25)

Uh oh your on here too now!





haha just kidding, bro just to give you a heads up like we're said you in the GS fourms search!! Most of the LS guys now are going aftermarket, taking the air out of their UL and going with coilovers or aftermarket air.. and just talking with some UL owners they also have this weird drift when the car just starts to shift in the lane because of the floaty ride its got!

-David

sojah

iTrader: (1)

referring to the drift thing, i was a valet for a minute a few years back and also a private driver for a little while as well, a lot of big soft floaty sedans will kind of sway when driving down the highway because of something in their setup. i didn't think the 05 ls 430 had it nearly as bad as other big sedans i have driven but it did get my attention when switching from my old gs400 to this ls 430.

and i think that the majority of people with problems with their air probably modified something outside the normal stock setup,, i.e. ride height, or rims, or both; so like someone else mentioned this is probably more so the reason for the air susp failure...

Boomer01

I have 125,000 miles on my 01 UL and have had no issues.

BNR34

iTrader: (1)

From me reading every threads related to air suspension problems, and asking everyone about it, here is my conclusion:

The passenger side rear strut is the 1st to go bad, mostly around 50k~60k miles, one car's went bad as early as 35k miles. Then after that, other struts failed at 80k~90k.

Some have no problems at all for 120k miles.

I guess it depends on how lucky you are!

See my threads:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...to-go-bad.html

junjdm

*knocking on wood* but I have 102K and i'm still ok so far.............

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

^^^as long as it lasts more than 75k miles, I'm happy because that's the cutoff for the extended warranty.

I agree about failure rate due to "tweaking" it. I asked a lexus tech and he said he doesn't hear too much of it failing that early.

Junjdm-are you lowered the datacontroller?

Boomer-are you lowered also or at stock height?

I wonder if the 04-06 aren't as reliable as the 01-03?

junjdm

yea I'm on data controller, I ride on 6 front and 5 rear ...daily....

Boomer01

No data controller but I have adjusted the rods down almost as much as they go.

junjdm

how do you know when your air ride is going bad? For example....BNR34 says they usually notice the rear passenger side is the first to go.......how can you tell? Does it make a squeeking noise? does it sit lower? Just curious.....in case I need to look out for signs..........