OMG

For months now, Lexus has been unable to help me figure out what is wrong with my suspension. The FEELS LIKE SH$# when rolling on the highway. I have the control arms changed, Lexus said the springs and struts look fine, but the car feels very unstable. It wanders all over the highway and I don't like the feeling.

Here is a description of the ride. Imagine you are rolling on 80 series tires and you are going through a slalom course. The "swishy" ride is F'n horrible for a car of this class (BTW we are talking about my 07 GS 350).

i don't know what to do............... I want to take my car to a place that I know will help me with this problem. I have changed tires 3x (two sets of pilots A/S 2 &3 and now I have those new continential s ---HATE THEM). I still think I have an issue somewhere.....

Does anybody know a good shop that could help me trouble shoot.............?

Or MAYBE THis is how this car is suppose to feel........

Help!!

 

Have an alignment been performed after the suspension components were replaced?

 

To me the factory suspension is really soft and in the past when I've past a car my car would sway sorta like what you described I changed to coilovers and will never go back to stock.

 

Lexus have been known to be "floaty" instead of "sporty". That's probably why the F-Sport line was introduced, to decrease the overwhelming floaty comfort characteristics in favor of stable, taut and firm characteristics (sporty).

 

Try getting stiffer springs and sway bar kit. That solve the floating issue on my GS.

 

were you the only owner of the car? has the springs/struts ever been replaced. The IS and GS350 shares suspension components and I can imagine the GS being heavier and having firmer springs. Could it be the car has the wrong type of springs

 

Hummm. Okay. Thanks

 

I believe I am. I seen all of the records from the previous owner and springs were not replaced.

I am going to replace the corners. Car has 150k and struts have never been replaced.

 

If your issue is body roll from side-to-side cornering, I would start with a larger sway bar in the rear. If that doesn't help, then I would lower the vehicle's center of gravity with a good coilover kit. That will also give you the ability to stiffen the shock dampening and reduce the body roll.

I would also be curious to see what your alignment specs look like...I have seen people damage caster/camber adjustments on Toyota/Lexus vehicles before if they didn't know what they were doing, which can cause the car to wander and handle goofy...

 

Well there is your problem. The average life time of factory struts is about 50 to 80,000 miles. Depending on the condition of the car, and surrounding factors, they can either last much longer than the average or much shorter than the average. I would take a look in the wheel well and see if any of your struts are leaking or blown because that can create that boat type of feel. I bet with fresh struts, you would be much happier with performance and less of a boat feeling.

if you dont care to get underneath the car, the best way to determine is to go to each corner of the vehicle and kind of bounce the car up and down. The car should have a steady firm stance. If the whole corner bounces excessively or wobbles the whole car, then your struts/shocks are blown. Its best to always replace in pairs so if you replace the left front, its probably best to replace the right front and same for the rear. Its not required but recommended to keep the car balanced. Scroll to about 2:48 in this video, its a good example of what I mean


OR YOUR CAR SHOULD NOT DO THIS!!

 

Thanks for the links. 2nd video is hilarious. My car isn't that bad. Will change front struts first. Wish me luck