So I purchased my fsport a few months ago and the previous owners installed a hitch which looks to be homemade. Long story short whoever did the install removed the plastic that's supposed to be there which I already purchased and also I'm missing a piece which is called a suspension damper. Anyone know what this actually does? It's rather expensive at the dealer but I'm curious if it's worth trying to find used.

 

Technically it tries to even out the pull on the beams when the trailer is not straight behind the vehicle. Without the damper the pull on the two beams would be asymmetric. The damper tries to keep the rectangle formed by the two short portions of the beams, the cross member of the hitch and the damper itself, a perfect rectangle with damping motion [with a little give] in a flat plane. Note the actual load and motion of members also have a twisting [3rd dimension] action going on. In the pursuit if perfection ..

Salim

 

The F Sport has what Lexus calls lateral performance dampers front and rear. Basically they are strut tower bars or frame bracing bars with shock absorbers in the middle to reduce vibrations. Installing a hitch after removing it would not make any difference in your ride, handling or stiffnes because the hitch will provide more stiffness laterally than the removed damper. Save your money. There are probably very few to no used ones available. I did not see any on eBay. Rancho Used Lexus Parts may have some but you would have to call them.
See this old thread https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...ce-damper.html

And ths video from Lexus