Sky1961

I am new to club Lexus, so please forgive any newbie errors. I am planning to purchase an SC 430 and ride quality is important to me. I understand that, coming out of the factory, the second generation cars offered better ride quality than the first generation. My question: would the right tires (or other changes) bring the first gen up to second gen in terms of ride quality? Or am I just better off focusing on second gen? Thanks in advance for any guidance

OBP

I am assuming by ride quality you mean a harder ride vs a softer ride. I believe from my year ( 2005 ) onwards, there was a change in the suspension set up vs earlier years ( 2004 and before ) so my SC rides "softer" than a friend's 2003. But my 2005 has the original non facelifted appearance. The facelift only started in the 2006 MY.

When riding on RFTs I still found my ride too harsh so as many owners here will tell you, switching to regular tires will make a very big difference. Nowadays, some mobility enhanced tires are actually quite OK on ride quality so you could still get around on RFT equivalents and not suffer as much as we did in the early days of RFTs. But I will be sticking with regular tires for the foreseeable future.

mandyfig

Good advise OBP!

Lexicon1

Well, bought the wife an SC400 1997 many years ago. She loved it..... after many years, it was time to do a timing belt. and new tires , she loved that car. When it became time to spend the extra money on that car..... I told her to come w me to the Lexus dealer for a ride in a 2006 SC430. She was reluctant, and based on what I read, I knew she was gonna like it. She reluctantly went to the dealer, she drove the car and I drove the car.... after 10 min of driving it, we returned to the dealer.... she came back w a smile and a nod....yup, loved the S30.
Quieter, firmer steering feel, tighter handling, just seemed more solid and more luxurious of a ride and feel than the older SC400. She still loves the car, The 6 speed transmission yielded 28 mpg on open highway for a 1500 mile trip..... she gets 18 mpg in short trip city driving.... its a different car than the SC400. Drive the two and decide.....

Sky1961

Thanks so much for the information. Very help and appreciated.

Caflashbob

My 08 sc430’s shocks had too much high speed compression dampening and too little low speed and too long of springs and too small of sway bars. The 40 series tires ride rougher.

Thankfully everything is fixable. The results are one of the finest cars ever made imo.

what? You have to fix these? You have to remember in Japan they drive slowly for short distances on smoooth roads. And are smaller people.

‘’MeisterR struts and 45 series tires are where I would start. Best $3k you could spend. Remember you asked for smooth.

‘’if you have smooth roads you may not notice the high speed stiff dampening. But the body roll is noticeable.

‘’best quality car made but the suspension needs fine tuning. If you live in so cal come by for a ride

deltadawn

We have both 1st and 2nd gen cars and the ride difference is negligible, probably best described as slightly softer shock rebound on later cars. Tires make a huge difference in how the car rides and the noise level and I would never put directional tires on an SC430. We have Kumho Ecsta PA51 on the early car and just put Dunlop Sport FM800 on the later car, having done 50k on Pirelli Dragon Sport. We are looking for quiet comfortable tires and these 2 brands fill the bill nicely. If buying an SC430 don't overlook a very well looked after low mileage early car, our 2002 ex Japan was a 1 lady owner 60k miles and it shows. The gearing difference in 5 and 6 speed trans does have the early cars pulling a few more revs in top ratio, but here in NZ our Govt is dropping open highways speeds back to 1950's speeds on many roads and the 5 speed trans comes into it's own. And the 5 speed trans has a dip stick so you can check the color of the fluid and see if servicing has been done.

Lexicon1

Ride difference ? what is your definition of ride? Please elaborate.... The driving experience or passenger experience in my opinion is quite different.....

deltadawn

Yes I agree, the driver has the feel of the steering wheel/column and scuttle shake is noticeable on bumpy road..most convertibles suffer from this. When I'm in the passenger seat I can't detect this very much at all. The question often arises about the shock setting change between 5sp and later 6sp cars, hence my comments on our 2 cars. We think the tire side wall 40 profile contributes a lot to the rather bumpy ride or harsh ride some owners complain of, but much worse with run-flat tires. I have a 1999 Toyota with similar suspension to the SC but with 60 series profile tires and the ride is much softer on the undulating surface most of our roads have, both cars have new Dunlop Sport FM800 tires, so a very good comparison.

ridearedhog

I recently purchases a 2008 SC430 with about 47000 miles. Pardon my mechanical ignorance, but does it have shock absorbers or struts? The ride is nice but a little soft and a bit leaning in turns. Would replacing the shocks/struts make the ride more firm?
Thanks,

Bgw70

I always thought they were shocks…you don’t have many options.
for the front, you can purchase Gabriel, OEM or Coilovers.
for the rear, you can purchase OEM or Coilovers.

iolmaster

iTrader: (1)

It has both. the front suspension is a MacPherson strut assembly. Inside the strut is a shock absorber.

Caflashbob

see my post. In my opinion the low miles on these cars were because of the suspension issues you asked about

ridearedhog

Thanks for the information. Can I also ask how to detrrmine whether the shocks/struts need to be replaced? The car seems to "bounce" more than expected when hitting a bump.

Caflashbob

read my post. Shock design is poor