alexulan

I'm also watching this thread very closely.

Just replaced my two front tires a few weeks ago due to bad inside wear.

Now the car is in the shop for two new rear tires (Staggered Setup).

Apparently my tow on the rear driver side is out of spec and totally ate the inside of the rear tire.

The alignment could not get the rear tow to aligned and the front was still off by a few tenths on the camber.

I will need to take back to the suspension shop to see if anything is damaged in the rear driver side, I have no clue why the rear can't be aligned.

You think it's possible to hit a pothole or something and actually bend/damage something in the rear suspension? (I have no damage on any of my rims all straight and true)

The car has only 45K miles on it.
I have the bilstein and eibach combo. on 18"x8.5 and 18"x9.5 in the rear.

The GS appetite for tires is disturbing.

e-man

Hey DetMich. Did you ever look into replacing the shocks on either the GS or the SC? Also, with respect to replacing the bushings on the SC, was that a labor intensive job? I know it's not a DIY, but I'm just trying to get an idea as to labor costs. It sounds like the hard part is getting the old bushing out, regardless of what you're replacing it with.

DetMich1

I have replaced shocks on both. For the SC I bought what tire rack had available for the car. For the GS I went with the L-tuned set-up from Sewell Lexus (lexus-parts.com) when they had a sale on them a while back. Yes, the bushing replacement was labor intensive. I think I paid around $300 for the work but my mechanic said he would never do it again for that price. Take a look at the website for VFT bushings (Australia) lot of good info even if you don't end up buying from him. The Australians had no Lexus dealers for many years , not sure if that has changed, but owners became very resourceful at refurbishing worn out components that they could not easily replace at the Lexus parts counter. Its interesting to read their owners' club forums. They have self taught a tremendous amount of technical knowlege.

DetMich1

You don't mention if you dropped the car with the suspension mods. If you did, its possible that the change in geometry is enough that you can no longer align the car to factory specs. The are ways to compensate for one problem by adjusting one of the other parameters depending on your driving style and other requirements. Since you live in the Bay Area, I can strongly recommend you go to Custom Alignment in Mountain View. They hosted the End of Summer meet last August. Very knowlegeable and do meticulous work on alignment, brakes and suspensions.

LEXSOOS

No problem man, In re/ to your question about rust, i say external parts they do rust but it doesn't have nothing to do with worn ball joints, maybe cold weather+salt+snow destroys rubber bushings but most likely BAD roads have negative influance on your suspention. I live in Chicagoland area and i can't complain but they are not the best, after what i've seen in NYC, WOW hands down for all Lexus owners, it is suicide, You guys (West coast) have best of best roads i have to admit it, also no winter. Uhhh i must stop dreaming about west coast cuz i'm gonna pack all my ***t and move tomorrow.

If i would be you i've asked myself :
1. Why do i need alignment done every 3 months? Once a year should be more than enough
2. No rust is no indication that your suspention is OK!!! Check your ball joints, bushings and if everything is ok save your money and do alignment once a year, unless it's free of charge than whatever, I wouldn't waste my time for alignment every 3 months

I've spent over 1K to upgrade my suspention, and just 5 months later i'm going to rip it apart again just because OEM bushings are ***t, Daizen kit is sitting in my room and screaming , but it's too cold to work on my car now, i don't have garage and only few tools left in my trunk. That's how it is when you turn your mechanical skills into real estate saleperson, i gotta go to work now, see ya later

e-man

Thanks to everyone who has responded. My issue could be the shocks, it could be some of the other suspension components, I don't really know. What I am trying to accomplish is to tighten up the front of the car, particularly over uneven surfaces. I don't want a firmer/stiffer ride necessarily. I just want the suspension to feel more connected to the car. Sometimes on uneven surfaces the car shudders, shakes, shimmies, etc. Something up front just isn't doing its job right. It's most likely one of the parts discussed in this thread, but could it be something else?

Here's where I'm going with this. I would probably be better off posting this as a completely different topic, but I'll try here first. Could what I am trying to fix be accomplished with a strut tower brace and lower chassis brace (I think that's what these things are called). As I'm sitting here doing tons of research, it just occurred to me that maybe I'm looking at this with a bit of tunnel vision. Hey, I plan on replacing my front lower ball joints anyway, and I don't mind putting on some new shocks, but maybe what I'm looking to fix is really more a problem that's inherent in the stock design of the car. There are so many people that talk about the floatiness of the GS. Floatiness doesn't bother me. It's the front end shudders and shakes that really take away from the enjoyment of driving the car sometimes. Let me know what you think.

e

EDIT: You can ignore this last post. I did some searching and found the answers to my questions. The STB and LCB won't make a noticeable improvement for what I'm looking for.

b1gredek

wow i had the same problem on my car..... same side could not get aligned,,, took an hour then we finally got that one wheel perfect...everything was fine then,,, bam,,,, one of the arms fell the other night,,, wasnt too big of a safety issue,,, but the car was not drivable cause the arm was rubbing against my rims..... funny thing is that i am running the same size wheels as you too.... now my car is back in the shop making sure all bushings,,, ball joints are all fine

alexulan

Thanks, I might go check them out.
Actualy my post does say droped on ebiach and belstiens.

DetMich1

Check 'em out you will definitely be impressed by their expertise. Glen (RMMGS4) can also vouch for their performance.
BTW, your post only said that you were on Eibach and Bilstiens ("I have the bilstein and eibach combo. on 18"x8.5 and 18"x9.5 in the rear.") Made no mention of whether you were dropped or not. Eibach makes more than one design of spring. Some result in stock height, some minor drop some major drop. You just didn't specify.
Regardless, Custom Alignment can definitely rectify your alignment and suspension problems.
Custom Alignment

ShaneC

i have a 2000 gs400
when you hear the clunking noise, does it happen through out your drive or only at slow speeds when wheels is turned. i hear it only at low speeds and usually i am braking at the same time. i took a look at the bushings and they seem to look fine. i even tried to shake them, but doenst move.. the whole car just shakes on the lift. any advice on what's wrong. or should i just change the bushings and ball joints to be safe because my car does have 80K miles.

thanks

the hustler07

I have some of the issues, but i wasn't going to come forward as the threadstarter did. After reading through this thread, I do have that clunk noise when i put my car in reverse from park, and when going over bumps.. I know my shocks are shot.

I figured from this thread to change my brushings, shocks and springs, and ball joints.
My car is about to be on 120K, my driver side ball joint went out about 95k, and i replaced it.