My LS430 UL needs some TLC in the shock/air shock dept. I have one shock leaking fliud and the car wiggles side-to-side when i hit bumps. So, i know one side is out of whack. Take a look at the image below and let my know which shock would need replacing.

At over $800/shock, i want to make sure i replace the one causing the problem.

 

DDLexus,

The leaking one ( driver's side ) is the one you want to replace. If you drive over a speed bump slowly or bounce the car yourself, you will notice that the driver's side is harder then the passenger side. This is what is causing your side-to-side wiggle.

Are you going to do it yourself or have a shop do it ? If you are having a shop do it, you might want to consider replacing both at the same time. The labor costs would be only a little bit more. It is also better to replace both as a set so that you will not have any handling issues with one worn shock and one new shock.

That being said, I only replaced one shock. There was no real detriment to the handling however I do feel the new shock has a slightly firmer damping/rebound. I fixed this by tweeking the normal/sport setting screw on the top of the shock to a slightly softer setting. Factory setting is 40 degrees from center, I set mine between 40-45 degrees

 

That highly talked about gansta lean sure looks like the infamous passenger side rear air shock. Are you sure that one too isn't leaking?

 

check around. i know that not too far away from me there is a shop that rebuilds air suspension at about $300 each. if you look around im sure you can find something like that in your area...

from my experience, fastest way to find out which shock/strut is blown is to go and push down on every corner of the car and the corner that will go down more/easier is the bad one. also it will be more bouncy.

i owned plenty of daily drivers and 3 track cars (total of 16 cars and 4 motorcycles) and i have blown out and broken quiet a few parts =)

very generally speaking of suspension...
*springs and air bags is what keeps your car of the ground
*shocks and struts is what keeps your springs/bags from moving too fast, thus creating a smooth ride

 

100% sure. I removed the wheels and inspected both sides. ONLY THE DRIVER SIDE HAS A LEAK.

 

I know they are expensive, but you should always replace them in pairs. If one has failed after x number of miles, the other one is probably nearing failure too. Also, by replacing only one, the overall handling of the car will be off - the side with the new unit will perform somewhat better than the side with some age on it.

 

I got quite a bit of experience in this subject, both my rear air shocks failed 6 months ago, here are my inputs:

The right rear is pretty much always the shock that goes bad 1st, the lower ride height doesn't mean it is bad though, is just a setting issue. A leaking shock usually means that it is going bad, but when both my rear shocks "completely" failed, both of the shock's body was 100% dry. With all that being said, you can't tell visually which shock is bad. If I have to bet, my guess is your right rear is bad, because that one usually goes bad 1st, unless it was replaced already.

The way to tell is, push on the car, bounce the car up and down and see which side is softer, the softer side is where the bad shock is, when the shock goes bad, it loses resistance. It could be easier to drive over speed bump one side at a time, the side that bounces up and down more/feels softer, is the bad side.

Although it is nice to replace both sides at the same time, you don't have to. Yes a new shock would be firmer, but not by much, the car would feel fine with just 1 new shock. BUT the chance is, if one side failed, the other side would follow soon after. My right rear shock failed 1st, then my left rear shock failed 1 month/500 miles later. If it is my car, I would only replace which ever shock failed, one at a time. Because it is possible that the other shocks would last for a while longer.

Those are my 2 cents, hope it helps