Looking at buying this with 116k miles.
Anyone know if the air ride suspension is troublesome? Other problems with all the options on this 01 LS430?

 

The air suspension usually leaks on these cars. It can happen as early as 40,000 miles from what I've seen on here. I have an 05 Ultra Luxury with 97,000 miles on it and it's air was already leaking when I bought the car at 89,000 miles. I recently swapped it out to a set of Megan coilovers due to how expensive it is to replace the factory setup.

Some people will have issues with the factory Mark Levinson amps and subwoofers going out on them. They're fairly expensive to replace so I recommend going aftermarket with the speakers.

That's just off the top of my head. I'll do some research and find a few threads with other issues people had and get you some links.

 

I had an 01 UL up until a month ago. Bought it with 80K miles on it, and drove it for 5 years. Just sold it last month with 175K miles on it. The only problem is the air suspension went out at about 120K. Other than that, I had the brake light sensor go, and the valve cover gaskets start to leak. Both of those were easy fixes and the valve covers were understandable based on the mileage. NO other problems at all. All the UL features worked on the car and while I never actually rode in the back seat, the people that did loved the control panel back there. I loved the air suspension ride, probably the only reason I would ever buy another UL one day. If another LS430 that I really wanted had not come up for sale, I would still be driving it no problem at all. It was a great car.

 

LS430FL, how much was the air suspension repair?

 

I personally did not bother to repair it because it was not a bad failure like some other members describe. Lexus said they were leaking but slowly. They recommended it as a repair down the road if I wanted, but each air shock is almost $2000, and I think they quoted me a little over $9,000 to repair. Obviously that is just crazy which is why you will see basically every member on here replacing with coil overs, etc instead. Is this car for sale through lexus?

 

No, a trade in to a Honda dealer thats selling it. I think I'll look for a non-air ride suspension. Too bad, love the UL package.

 

I mean it becomes completely a personal preference. To me getting what I want is more important than saving a little bit of money. If I wanted the UL package but didn't care about the air suspension I would buy it and make sure to budget to change out the suspension down the road if it does go bad (What I did when I bought my 01 UL). Otherwise, buy an LS with the custom luxury package. I believe that car has pretty much all the bells and whistles of the UL minus the rear control panel and the air suspension. But regardless, make sure to have a pre-purchase inspection. If you do consider that UL at the honda dealer or another one, take it to lexus and have them thoroughly inspect the ir suspension and ask them to give you an idea about how much longer you have before it goes. As Ive done some reading on here and like KIRA X mentioned above, some reported failure at 40,000 miles some not until 100K+ and some never at all.

 

Good advice. Thanks, I'll see if they will let me take it for inspection before I pull the trigger. They want $2800 for 3 yr bumper to bumper extended warranty, seems high.

 

Honestly, if they don't let you take it to lexus for inspection,then personally if it was me buying the car, I would not buy it. (Are they hiding something?) As far as the warranty goes lots of people have their opinions about dumping a lot of cash for a warranty or not but in this case I think that if you do consider the warranty a very important factor is whether or not the air suspension is covered under the warranty. If it is then it would more than pay for itself in that one repair. Although, I highly doubt that it is covered.