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I am getting ready to go on a road trip and while picking up supplies earlier, I notice the rear spring seems sagging on my 04 CL 119K miles. I do not have the car loaded yet, only has ~100 lbs in the rear seat + trunk (kid, food, water in cooler). The top of the rear wheel is close to being inside the fender Surely the springs is still in good shape at 119K miles, right?
What is the distance from fender to middle of the rear wheel assuming the spring is in good shape? While I am at it, how about for the front wheel? Not sure what measurement is usually used here to determine if the spring is sagging. I usually seen measurement for distance from fender to middle of the wheel at Land Cruiser forum.
The car has pretty new looking Monroe struts which was installed by the PO. I have a funny feeling maybe whomever doing the install, they install the wrong one and squeezed the spring? They did a poor job at installing the rear deck, so I have little faith at what they did.
Does yours have the sport suspension or stock? My car seems to sag a little less when loaded with 2-3 passengers in the rear plus some cargo than standard suspension models due to the slightly stiffer springs.
With about 20lbs of literal junk in the trunk (lol), I know that my sport suspension sits a hair lower in the rear than the front when visually comparing the distance from the center of the top of the tire to the center of the top of the wheel arch. Check out the slight difference between the front and rear on my car:
Now check out random images I pulled from Google image search of other sport and non-sport models and how they sit. After looking at some pictures of UL/air suspension models it seems they sit a little more level always, probably because of the auto-leveling, but it appears the non-air suspension 430s sit just a tad lower in the rear... (keep in mind that the pictures from a closer/higher up vantage point will accentuate this look due to the tires sitting ever so slightly further inboard from the fenders compared to the front tires on all models)
See? Nothing to worry about, totally normal just like this one...
Mine is stock suspension. Mine is definitely lower than yours or the pictures (thank you for including those). With 150 lbs in trunk and back seat, my rear tires are inside the fender the other day
I am going to empty the car, park it in flat surface, and measure again just to be sure when I return.
Mine is stock suspension. Mine is definitely lower than yours or the pictures (thank you for including those). With 150 lbs in trunk and back seat, my rear tires are inside the fender the other day
I am going to empty the car, park it in flat surface, and measure again just to be sure when I return.
Be sure to measure at the appropriate locations (see red arrows on sketch below) when determining if your LS430 is level.
The car drives straight, but I notice the rear tires are not worn evenly so I took my LS to Lexus dealer this morning to have alignment since they have coupons which make it cheaper than pretty much anyone in the city (yes I did call around).
They said they can get the rear close enough that I should not worry much, just rotate regularly. She will need rear camber arms to have the rear alignment properly done. This is what is written in the recommendation: "Replace rear camber arms to correct rear camber" for $1000. Holy $%&*!
Could someone enlighten me here, can rear camber arms go bad? Or maybe the bushings goes bad? From my limited understanding, camber arms are only needed when the car is lowered. My car has stock springs, with Monroe shocks. I have a funny feeling the spring or shocks or both is the real problem. On the way home, I made a quick stop at a level parking lot with car empty. I measured at middle of the wheel/center of the top of the wheel arch, distance from ground to the fender (I forget to measure per rkw77080 post above):
Front driver side 27 3/4 inch
Rear driver side 27 3/4 inch
Front passenger side 27 3/4 inch
Rear passenger side 27 1/4 inch
Does these number looks right? I always think that the rear should be higher than the front.
07-07-18, 08:57 PM
How to determine if the springs are sagging?
Surely the springs is still in good shape at 119K miles, right?
