I'm (probably) going to look at an very low mileage 430 tomorrow, *if* all the answers
from the Seller sound good, and he sends a clean carfax for starters.
Have seen photos of the dash, it's the U/L with the height adjustable (air?) suspension.
I already know that this suspension wears out and parts are a$tronomical.
Question is when does the suspension give trouble, is it miles, time or a bit of both?
Car supposedly has only 18k miles
I only put on 10k/year or so, so if I hold it 4 years, will I probably run into failures?
How can I tell if it's already in trouble?
Thanks in advance.

It's both age and miles, but with that low of miles, my guess is the odds are in your favor that you have several years before they'll need replacement.

The cycles of inflation and deflation as well as just the fact that rubber just degrades with age is what kills them. It probably also kills them faster if you live in a really dry climate.

There's some people that have well over 100k miles on their original air shocks, so there's no set miles, but I think you're on borrowed time when they get to 100k miles and over 10 years old.

The only caveat is I'm not sure what happens to these struts if they've been sitting unused for long periods of time. Seeing the low miles, it could have been sitting for years.

Regardless, just don't pay stupid money for an LS with ultra low miles. I don't think it buys you much but a lot of depreciation.

Mine started giving first signs at around 100k. Saw identical car as mine with 80k and air shocks were leaking already.

I just hit 100k and my right rear shock started leaking, the car bottoms out on good bumps. I'm choosing to go aftermarket with my air system rather than replacing stock setup, the stock ride height is to erratic for me

All four of my struts were leaking at 89,000 miles. It still rode fine but I switched over to coilovers.

I hit 200k Km (120k miles) just last week, and struts going strong so far (not to jinx it).

Maybe I'm one of the luckier ones?

When I was shopping the ultra luxury package cars I noticed the air failures seem to be most common between 75-100k with a few exceptions of them lasting to 120-150k miles. Age, use and climate will obviously affect how long they last especially now that these cars are 10+ years old.

If you're going the ultra route I'd budget in for coil overs or aftermarket air. Spending thousands at a lexus dealer would be insane these days.

Unless you like the fridge I'd shop for a custom luxury.

Don't overlook the fact that the UL has an independent rear A/C system to cool the rear passengers. It merely uses some of that air to provide cooling for the fridge. If you live in a very hot climate, the additional real cooling is really a huge benefit, and not just for the fridge.

Yes I'm aware of all the extras it comes with double pane glass, extra leather, fridge, separate rear ac etc. I drove enough of them in my shopping process over 6 months to make me sick lol. I found the fridge to be a gimmick, separate ac takes up more trunk space, half the air suspension cars didn't sit level, the nav units extremely outdated like an old Nintendo and the double pane Windows get foggy looking in between the panes of glass as they age. Maybe the east coast ones don't age as well. I would love to have an ultra with the saddle interior tho just to have.

I hate to imagine, how rude and harsh are you guys to your cars... My airsus is still original, over 200k miles. Not a glitch.

I would not do it. A huge expense just waiting to happen.

It's not really a huge expense if you don't replace with brand new OEM air-shocks as they run about a grand each. There are many options to choose from. Standard coils and shocks, coilovers, aftermarket air, used OEM units, etc.. Also, most cars with about 130K need new shocks anyway.

I have 114K on my 04 UL and the previous owner had one replaced under the extended warranty around 85k, otherwise mine work great and the car sits level.

Anyway, I just find it curious why there is this constant non UL owners bashing the setup and telling everyone to avoid it. If you don't actually own one why don't you non UL owners refer to us to actually have one... I have YET to see one UL owner tell others to avoid UL models.

To answer your question. They fail anywhere from 75K - 250k. It depends on climate, road conditions, was the car a garage queen, was it in an area that snows in the winter and may be affected by salt and rust, etc. As mentioned, there is not an exact time or mileage when they fail but they will fail eventually. Just like a normal shock. They are just much more expensive to replace new. I love my UL and have no regrets getting the air suspension.

I almost bought your car and was getting ready to book a ticket out of baltimore but you beat me to it since you were local lol. Only way I was going ultra luxury was with that saddle interior. I found more ultra luxury cars at cheaper price points than the premium and modern lux cars. Our local lexus dealer won't even put ultras on their used lot anymore because the air issues and cost to repair now that all of these cars can't be cpo'd anymore.

I've had a dealer tell me that too. I've seen quite a few on corner lots around, but never see them on Lexus dealer lots around here.

The air suspension is a big, expensive problem on the LS430, and you don't have to own one to know about it. In fact, the air suspension is the ONLY reason I didn't get a UL. Risk vs reward didn't work for me. There were several other items I'd love to have from the UL, but none were worth the risk of the air suspension.

I can believe that, a Lexus dealership doesn't have the luxury of swapping out with an aftermarket system or modifying it, there could be all sorts of liability issues. Plus they don't want a customer returning a few months later with issues that they would probably have to cover. Even a dealership that can get the parts and labor "at cost", they're probably looking at a $3000 to replace 4 air shocks. That wipes out a lot of profit margin.

If I had an air shock that went out, I'd probably go directly to a conventional, coil conversion for the whole car, but some people are funny about that sort of thing and will want it to remain stock.

Unless you have one with really low miles, it's smart to just budget the cost of replacing them when looking at a UL. Even if you think the system gets an unfair bad rap, you have to concede they do go out eventually and replacement is expensive. For some people that feature is worth it. If that's going to be a devastating repair financially, get one without that feature,