bam

I'm writing about my mom's 2004 GS430. I don't drive it at all so I don't have the opportunity to hear or feel if anything is amiss on her car so I'm thinking that it might be time to just do some preventative maintenance on her car. This is especially the case because I don't want her driving down the street and then have the front wheels fall off especially if she has my kids with her.

In any case, I know the lower ball joints should be replaced but when I take it to the Lexus dealer, what else should I either have them check or just replace at the same time? I've asked them to inspect the joints every time I've taken the car in for the last few services but they keep saying that when they look at them, they still look good.

Is it just the front lower ball joints or should I be worried about any suspension parts for the rear as well? Maybe we should replace the shocks as well as she's still running on the original from the factory.

Capitone

If your just looking to avoid the possibility of a catastrophic suspension failure, the lower ball joints are definitely where you want to look: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sus...with-pics.html

If your just looking to improve your Mom's riding experience, Shocks and castor arm bushings are probably going to be your basic things too look at. There's a whole slew of other bushings and things to consider for handling, but these two items will probably provide your most noticeable improvement.

bruceb58

When I went and replaced my ball joints at 180K, I took a look at all my suspension parts and decided to basically replace most everything while I had it all apart.

1) Lower ball joints
2) Both lower control arms. That includes the arm with the caster bushing.
3) Outer Tie rod
4) Upper control arm.
5) Sway bar links

Probably should also replace the inner tie rod too.

Drives like a new car now.

While I was in there, I should have replaced the shock cartridges as well. I have changed them once but it would have been really easy to throw some new ones in there.