Hi, all,

Just bought a 92 LS400 after a lot of research and the great words I've heard from LS400 owners. So far, it's a great car, especially for the money! Wish I had realized it sooner.

Anyway, I don't think my air shocks are working. The indicator light on the dash which is supposed to indicate lo, med, hi does not read the current setting, and setting the switch on the center console doesn't seem to make a difference. The rear end also seems to be really stiff when going slow over a speed bump, so I'm thinking either the air compressor or some sensor is out. It drives fine otherwise so I think the shocks themselves are ok.

Not knowing much about this car yet or where to look, was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance!
Tony

 

Check the switch in the left hand side of the boot under the fold down tool tray , it sounds like it's not switched on .

 

Thanks. I did and still no luck. If the switch is in the off position, do the "hi" "normal" suspension indicator lights on the dash go out completely? Maybe the switch just went bad?

 

From what I can tell, the system isn't getting any power at all. I had a mechanic look at it and he said everything he can see tests ok. So he'd have to go pin by pin. Is there something that could have burned out electronically (aside from fuses) that could cause something like this? Like an electronic module that controls the suspension?

I guess next question is, does anyone know of a good place to get a shop manual for a 92 LS 400 that details this well?

 

theres a switch for the A/S in the trunk i believe, somewhere near the CD changer

 

Thanks. Already tried that, in addition to ripping the whole trunk apart looking for a loose connection. No luck.

 

so did the mechanic say it wasn't the shock itself? if he didn't, then it's your shock. good luck. BTW, which side is the one that's not working?

ps: in what part of TX are you located?

 

It's in the shop now. No word yet on the outcome. But I don't think it's the shocks themselves. The car only has 106K on it and everything looks solid, but I guess you never know. Frankly, I think it's a short somewhere. The right rear door light and map lights don't work, and the wiring harness that goes to the rear shock solenoids seems to run through that area, so my guess is either a disconnected/severed wire, or bad electronic module. Even though no fuses are blown. Really odd. I'll let you know what they discover.

I'm in San Antonio.

 

Well, I found out what the cause of the problem was. Apparently the wiring harness under the dash that powers the air shocks and right rear interior lights was disconnected. The mechanic said it looked like it was pulled out and not put back in, like as if someone were doing an evaporator changeout. Bing! I remembered the people I just bought the vehicle from mentioned that the only major work done to the car was a recent replacement of the evaporator. Their mechanic apparently didn't plug everything back in.

That cost $200 to find (ouch!), but hey, it coulld have been a lot worse given the issues I've read about air suspension here. And now the car rides "oh so smooth!"

 

The air system gets a lot of bad press here but it is really neat when working correctly. You may or may not know that when highway driving around 80 mph for a couple of minutes, the system will lower the car to the low setting, then comes back up as your speed drops. The console switch won't allow the low setting for USA cars in normal driving. I have heard the Celsior does have the low ability.

 

.....my car rides very smooth sometimes.....very harsh sometimes (front shocks) - like there is no flexibility in the shock at all (bangs, and very stiff over bumps). Just recently installed brand new front air shocks. I had recently installed an Alpine Nav system, and the HORRENDOUS Audio shop that did the installation, AL AND EDS AUTOSOUND on Hawthorne Blvd in the South Bay (California), was hunting for the speed sensor wire, among a ton of other things that they messed up. Maybe they screwed up something under the dash causing a loose connection, which is the culprit of my intermittently harsh ride!!!!

On a sidenote, if you have any audio/video work to be done on your vehicle, avoid Al & Eds Autosound at any cost. These are the most despicable bunch of crooks, that cheated me outright and left me high and dry in the middle of an installation!!!!

FYI, I've done everything humanly possible to figure out the issue, and the Lexus dealership, after runing all kinds of diagnostics etc., swears everything is "working as designed".