mpezzella

I have a 2003 LS 430 the other day out of the blue car felt like it had a flat tire. Got out to see that front passenger wheel well was lifted by about 6 inches above tire and driver side was sitting on tire. Took it to mechanic (not a specialist with Lexus but still a good mechanic) and he says I need front passenger ride height sensor. Some posts I have read say that if one side it raised, you need the opposite side. Mechanic says Lexus sells part for over $450. I found it on eBay for $115. Does anyone know if I should be getting the passenger side (as mechanic says) or the driver side (as post says) to fix this. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

StanVanDam

Go to a Toyota or Lexus dealer (or buy a mini-VCI cable) and use Techstream to obtain height sensor measurements and test each air strut individually.

If the sensor is defective, it will read "out of range" and you will need to replace it. If the sensor reads normally, then you just need to calibrate some/all of the sensors to level the car. I recommend getting a Lexus dealer to perform the recalibration unless you have a lot of free time.

The service manual specifies (to the millimeter) the ground clearance from various points of the suspension and wheels. I've attached 2 files showing the measurements and procedures.

NLLex

Wat do you exactly mean with "I recommend getting a Lexus dealer to perform the recalibration unless you have a lot of free time." ?
Is it like hours of measuring on the street?

I have the IT2 tester. Ill check tomorrow if I can test them with that.

StanVanDam

To recalibrate, you have to adjust the length of the nut on one corner (and per the manual, one revolution is approximately equal to 5mm), turn the engine on and wait for the airbag to deflate/inflate, settle the suspension by bouncing the car up and down on a level surface, then remeasuring all 4 corners. Adjusting one corner can affect the other 3 corners, so it can be a lot of back and forth with adjusting each corner millimetres at a time, plus securing the lock nuts. Usually you have to take the tire off to access the front height control rods, so you may end up removing and reinstalling your tires several times to get it right, unless you have ramps and can wiggle yourself at the proper angle to adjust everything with the tire on. I was just saying that it can be a hassle, but I suppose you can save a few hours of Lexus labor charges if you have the time and patience to do this yourself.

I also recall someone at Lexus telling me to be sure to never move the sensor bar past the normal operating range or else it will ruin the sensor, so I suggest being very careful with how far you adjust the rods - make very small changes at a time and don't accidentally let the control link go free. Others in this forum have suggested adding RTV or other waterproofing sealant to the sensors, which is probably a good idea but I haven't done it myself. If water gets inside the sensor, they will eventually read inaccurately and/or rust out and fail completely. Rear sensor part numbers are 89407-50060 and 89408-50060.

My front 2 are original and as far as I can tell, are working correctly without any extra waterproofing after 16 years in Canada. My rear 2 sensors were damaged and replaced by the dealer after someone rear-ended me on a dry road in broad daylight while I was already stopped for minutes waiting at a light. Even though my front sensors were not replaced or damaged, when the dealer first said my car was ready, the front and rear heights were totally messed up and the car was sitting super-crooked on all 4 corners. I had to take it back twice, and each time they worked 2-3 days on it. After long emails of me sending them the instructions on how to measure and adjust the suspension, along with me complaining about them not having my car fully repaired after they had it for 40+ days and raising the issue with the dealership owner, they eventually got the suspension levelled out perfectly. That was 8 years ago, and so far, those components are holding up.

Spdjnke