I’ve had the stiff rear shock problem with my wife’s 06 GX470. I took the car to the dealer over a year ago (while it was under warranty) and they said everything was fine and "within spec".

Today, I took it in for services and had the same dealer check the rear shocks and was told they are “leaky” and need to be replaced. $1700 out of pocket.

I’m planning to raise hell, about them telling me all was good and now that the car is off of warranty, there’s a problem…

I did a little research and found this rear air suspension conversion kit. I wanted to find out if anybody has had any experience with this?
http://www.strutmasters.com/Lexus-GX.../-gx470-r1.htm

Thanks in advance!

 

sounds like a "snake Oil" add when I read the page.

 

The Toyota Prado in Africa/Latin America = Lexus GX470 in US = Land Cruiser in Europe. When you travel abroad you see Toyota Prados all over. It is a model sold throughout the world. It would be interesting to find out what suspension the Toyota Prado uses. Since the Prado is sold in areas of the world with much less sophisticated maintenance network, I would be surprised if the Prado uses the same air suspension as the GX470, but you never know.

 

The more I think about it, we should be able to use 4Runner suspension pieces when it comes time to replace leaking GX470 shocks. I would be surprised if we are the first tackling this issue.

 

Someone on here posted that they installed the strutmasters conversion. I remember a couple people asking how they liked it (myself included), but I don't think there was any response.

 

I own a prado TZG (top of line Model) this model comes with the air suspension standard. All the others and the majority of prados around the world are not sold with the air suspension.

 

Therefore, it should not be that difficult to go from air suspension to shocks/spring.

 

The post below has many modified GX's.

The first one (Lexwoody) show him changing out all shocks and air bags. His is lifted but you can get normal height springs. I would use OME brand springs and shocks. Another good brand would be Bilstein HD shocks.

http://www.toyota120.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14731

Another good source is the 4runner forums.