sojah

iTrader: (1)

i messed with my front UL height control rods this past saturday for about an hour straight; raise car up, mess with rod, lower, measure, repeat.

i finally got the fronts as even as possible. and now i'm driving down the road and my rear right is like 2 inches higher than the rest now.

i am wondering if the front height sensor control rods (either left or right) controls something other than the corresponding ride height of the vehicle for that side??

would one of the front rods mess with the rear height of one of the rear corners??

i haven't touched the rear sensor only the fronts.

thank you.

DDLexus

i don't believe so. i think all rods/sensor work independently. I modified my 2001 UL a few year back physically adjusted each rod at all 4 locations around the car. Make sure the car is running when doing the adjusting.

sojah

iTrader: (1)

yes of course i made sure the car was running, made this mistake my first time adjusting and have since learned my lesson. my dilemma now is that my car seems to fluctuate between heights and never seems to want to go back to exactly the same height each time.

example:

controller is set on 9 for everything, then i put just front left at F (highest off the ground setting) and wait till it finishes raising then make my adjustments and then set all 4 back to 9 again. when it settles it will be for example height X well if I then raise the front right all the way up, make adjustments then put back to 9 say this is height Y. well if i just raise the car all the way up on either side again and lower back to 9 with no adjustments made its like they are not at height x or y anymore but now at height x.1 or -x.1 or y.1 or -y.1 depending. its like it settles at a slightly different height + or - each time i do it. it is very irritating and then if i drive the car a little then re-measure now it seems that the height can again be ever more different plus or minus a little. so so damn annoying.

this happen to anyone else on here?

vcheng

It may be an erratic sensor or sensors. I would suggest checking each one in turn as part of your trouble shooting.

sojah

iTrader: (1)

how do you recommend i check these sensors or sensor out? i am about at a loss with this. however this morning driving to work was almost perfect. the rear right was still an inch to high but all of the other 3 were dead on. i know there are some known issues with the rear right sticking or being really stubborn but i have never had mine be stubborn for more than a day before.

vcheng

You can check them according to my post in your other thread. You can also just open them up and check if the contacts are clean, and everything operates smoothly. Given your symptoms, try checking the rear sensors first.

htpham

How coincidence! I also spend hours to adjust the sensors rod on my 06ul last sunday.
I had my car about 2 years and it's my 1st time to mess with the sensor rods ( the back were almost 3" lower than front and it's only 25k on the odometer). As i recalled, my car not used to be that sagged before.
Well i wrote down the height of each corner everytime i adjust the rod, and i notice the opposite corner height does also raise or lower with it(depend on i raise it up or down).
It's very frustrated on the first hour, I never quite get it right. I also get the right corner were 1" higher than the other, what i did is raise leftfront up a little bit, and lower the right corner just a little. When i raise the leftfront, the rightfront also raise with it(but not much like the leftfront), so i had to raise the rightfront until it match-up with the opposite side.
I loose all the nuts in front(top and bottom) and be patience to adjust just a little at a time, until i satisfy with it, then i tied down the nuts.
I'm sorry if my english is not that great, it's my second language.

sojah

iTrader: (1)

thats cool, i'm still learning english everyday as well (even though it is my first language), trying to learn japanese is teaching me a lot about the english language that i never thought of in certain ways before.

i will try this by raising the left front a little, raise right front to match and hopefully this will somehow make the rear right a little more in spec... i have never messed with my rears at all and would rather avoid that altogether (dont' want more variables to worry about).

vcheng: your last post was very detailed and involved a lot of steps that i cannot do on my own, so unless i take it to a dealership i am at a loss, unless you live in the dc area and can help a brother out??

it will still drop all the way down (100% even) on L and raise back up to whatever setting i choose just fine but presently when i drive the rear right is like an inch or 2 higher. taking it to a dealership is a last resort, know why, because they won't help to troubleshoot this problem, they will just say my sensors need to be replaced, charge me for them to take an hour to decide this then tell me it will be $1k + to replace them. this is not my ideal situation...

vcheng

Sojah:

I am in Upstate NY, otherwise I would have loved to help you out. If I am ever down that way, or you are up here, give me a shout! I'll have a cold one with you anytime.

Short of taking it to the dealer (and I agree with your concerns about the dealer) you can check the sensors yourself.

Remove the sensor completely and clear the outside of loose dirt etc. Check for smooth movement of the shaft itself. If it is seized, chances are that you will need a new sensor.

If it moves but with irregular resistance, you may want to check the innards. On the back, there are three (or four, depending on model) screws that hold the sensor together. Note that this is not the shaft side but the opposite side of the sensor.

Pull apart gently and watch for the O-ring. There are three contacts inside with three spring loaded contacts on one side and three gold plated contacts on the main body of the sensor. Everything should be clean, and I mean *clean* like a surgical suite. If there is any discolouration or corrosion on any part including the springs, clear it off thoroughly.

Fill the O-ring groove with contact grease to improve the seal. Also check the seal on the other side where the shaft comes out of the sensor. Check for smooth operation once reassembled.

If you have a multimeter, check for a smooth change in resistance across pin 1 and 4 as you move the shaft through its full range of motion. If you don't just put it back in and see of it has improved matters.

Otherwise, the worst is that you will need to buy new sensors off the internet and put them in yourself. Even this is likely to be much cheaper than the dealer's way of doing things.

Please let me know if you need any other information. I am glad to help.

sojah

iTrader: (1)

vcheng, i have a contact at a lex dealership in this area that i will see if he want to help me out with this maybe in his off time. he is a mechanic and claims to have worked on lots of ls's not sure if this includes knowledge with the UL's suspension pieces but hopefully he can lend some assistance with this. i have no doubt i could take all the pieces apart and even verify if they are clean or not, however i have a bad past history of not being able to put stuff back together properly again. this leads me to doubt my abilities halfway through reading your above examples but i will print this off and see if i can get the lex mechanic guy to look it over to see if he feels confident with this. thanks, i'll be print this and your last set of instructions out (this one sounds much better though).