I've got a beautiful '04 Ultra, which of course means it has the goofy air suspension system. The car only has 20k miles in it, I bought it last year with only 11k on it. I think the car is about perfect in every way, except for an issue with the front suspension that I noticed when I bought the car, and seems to be even more annoying now. The car telegraphs road imperfections through the steering wheel at a level that I would describe as being totaly out of character for a car of this class and substance. Referring to the phenomenon as "Bump Steer" would not be an exageration. It seems to be more sensitive to road irregularities driven over by he left front wheel than the right front wheel, but both experience it to a degree.

Before buying this car, I have been a driver of Infinitis for the last 15 years. Neither of my Q45s or my M45 displayed this annoying behavior. Furthermore, I just got back from a 1,500 mile road trip driving my wife's '07 AWD RX350, and it certainly doesn't have the problem. Of course, none of those vehicles have air suspension, which is where I'm guessing the root of the problem lies.

It was after driving my wife's RX for eight days straight and then getting back into my LS, that the problem came to the forefront of my attention. I had the car in for a 20k service this week, and asked the mechanic by way of the service writer to road test the car, inspect the front suspension, and deal with any deficiencies. The car is under warranty. He reported that all the suspension bolts were at proper torque and that I should drive the car with the suspension set to normal mode rather than sport mode. What a bonehead. I'm having a hard time believing that Lexus would design the car to offer such unpleasant and obnoxious road feedback. I certainly don't recall such an issue being raised in any of the dozens of road tests and reviews I've read of the car.

My first question is if anyone here has experienced this problem on an Ultra of this generation, and if so, what might have been done to correct the problem.

Secondly, I intend to escalate this situation to a Lexus area representative, and characterize the problem as a safety issue. Since I'm fairly new to Lexus, I was wondering if anyone here can anyone can offer any advice as the best way to initiate and then manage the process with the Lexus area rep.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to be thorough. Many thanks in advance for any assistance offered.

Russ

 

Hey Russ. I currently own a 99 GS4, but the 04-06 LS430 will be my next car, so I've done some fairly extensive reseach. Others will tell you the same thing, but the search button is your friend. I specifically recall reading several threads about the deficiencies with the 01-06 LS430 Ultra air suspension. There are definitely quite a few people out there who have had problems with it similar to the issues that you're having. If you need help locating the threads, just post up a response to this thread and I'll try to help you find them.

e

 

Hey russ, I had the same problem you are talking about when I first got my LS. It was very, very disturbing. I then decided to take it to the dealer, and get an alignment. They had some problems, and it took me four trips to the dealer for them to really fix it. After a series of alignments, the problem isn't noticeable like before. Matter fact, I dont really remember having a problem with the direction of the car changing due to bumps. Also, check to see that your air suspension is leveled, and that the driver side isn't higher. That helps too.

But mainly, its due to tires, and bad alignment. At least it was in my case.

Does the car appear to drive out of alignment?

EDIT: I also got new front tires (not sure if it was related, but I needed new tires in the front, as the rear was brand new when i purchased it.)

 

Update:

Not long after posting my original report, I went out to the garage and decided to take a look at things myself. A quick inspection while lying on the floor with a flashlight revealed that I had three perfectly dry struts and one that was caked with grease and grime, clear and irrefutable evidence of a blown seal. Not surprisingly, the blown strut was the left front. I was able to make this diagnosis within 5 minutes, using a flashlight and my right front index finger. God only knows how a Lexus certified mechanic could have missed it, in either the road test or during the requested inspection of the front suspension with the car on the rack.

I went to my service writer on Monday and told him what I found. He asked if he could get the car in on Tuesday. I told him that his mechanic (each service writer writes for his own mechanic) would never get any where near either one of my cars again, and asked to be introduced to the service manager. I explained the situation to the service manager, and asked to be re-assigned to a different service writer and mechanic. He promptly did so, apologized for the situation, and introduced me to my new service writer. The new service writer ordered two new front struts based solely on my description of the problem.

The new struts were installed yesterday. The mechanic noted that the left front was completely blown, and that the right front was in a weakened state. I also had them do a four-wheel alignment, on my nickel. It seemed like the right thing to do. The car is now handles and rides like Lexus designed it to, and is pleasure to drive again.

A couple of thoughts come to mind. First, I believe this problem has been in motion and gradually deteriorating for some time. I suspect the problem was in its early stages when I bought the car with 11,500 miles on it, should have been caught with the inspection that came at 15,000 miles, and was unbelievably missed again at 20,000 miles. This seems to me like a very premature failure of the front struts. This was a relative's car, and was at the end of a 36 month lease with only 11,500 miles on it when I bought it for the residual value from Lexus Financial Services (very sweet deal). It spent most of its first three years in a garage in a dry climate. I wonder if the seal on the blown strut dried out? I don't believe the car suffered any trauma that would have blown the seal. Is it common for these struts to fail this early? Any thoughts?

Second, I can't understand how a mechanic, who is compensated by commission per job, could have possibly missed this most obvious of problems not once, but twice. I have no idea how much those air over hydraulic struts would have cost had the car not been in warranty, but I'm just glad it's over and I didn't have to write the check for the parts and labor.

Case closed.

 

Great post Russ. Glad to hear that you got it resolved. Is there something about the original shocks that are defective? How do they know that the replacement shocks won't suffer the same fate?

 

Well, in the case of the left front, the defect was a blown seal, causing the hydraulic fluid to bleed out. No fluid, no hydraulic dampening. In the case of the right front, I'm not really sure what the mechanic meant when he wrote that it was "weak". Unlike on the left front strut, there was no visible sign of fluid leaking down the right front strut that I saw in my cursory inspection. But I asked them to replace both front struts as a matched pair, so maybe he had to write that to justify the warranty replacement of the right strut.

As far as I know, the strut failure was purely in the hydraulic funtion of the shock, no failure in the air function, but I'm not really sure. All that I know for sure is that replacing the struts made the car perfect again, and that the original mechanic was grossly incompetent in not observing the leaking strut during inspection of the car and repairing same.

Here's the mechanic's comments on the invoice: "Left front strut is blown / right front strut is weak. Replaced left and right front strut assemblies."

Parts list is 2 each 48010-50130 Cylinder Assy, PN.

It would be interesting to know what the retail price of those struts are, and how many hours of labor would have been charged to replace them. I'm guessing at least $1k for the job, but it's just a guess.

 

Item Number MSRP Core Price Price
4801050130 $985.20 $0.00 $817.72
Front suspension - Suspension components - Strut
Strut, ls430, w/air suspension - ls430 2004 - 2006

 

Ouch! I am sooo glad I wrote the check to Lexus for the Platinum Extended Warranty, which will cover me for four years from the date I bought the car. Surprises like this I don't need. Thanks for the pricing info on the struts.