Harsh suspension IS300h

Ian C Taylor · February 25, 2018

I purchased a new IS300h Advance last September and have been very pleased with the car, with one important exception. I find the suspension to be very harsh and as a result quite uncomfortable, other than on smooth road surfaces. My previous car was a Mercedes 350 C class diesel which had firm, but not as harsh, suspension. I have been surprised at the absence of comments by other IS 300h owners. I queried the harsh ride with the dealership, only to be told that they could find no difference between the suspension on my car and the norm. I would welcome hearing from other owners as to their experience.

ColinBarber · February 25, 2018

I find the F Sport suspension harsh, with the 18" wheels combined with stiffer suspension, but not the other models - the 17" wheel grades I find very comfortable.

Rebecca · February 25, 2018

I find the Lexus IS in general to be a harsh ride. Even my previous SE-L on 17's wasn't exactly comfy. My 250 F-sport on 18's was extremely harsh to the point of being uncomfortable.

chris_fletcher · February 25, 2018

My 64 plate IS300H Premier on 18" wheels was not harsh at all and whilst not as soft as the gen 2 RX300 it was much more Lexus like than the CT200H I owned before it.

I really enjoyed the IS300H

rayaans · February 26, 2018

6 hours ago, Ian C Taylor said:

I purchased a new IS300h Advance last September and have been very pleased with the car, with one important exception. I find the suspension to be very harsh and as a result quite uncomfortable, other than on smooth road surfaces. My previous car was a Mercedes 350 C class diesel which had firm, but not as harsh, suspension. I have been surprised at the absence of comments by other IS 300h owners. I queried the harsh ride with the dealership, only to be told that they could find no difference between the suspension on my car and the norm. I would welcome hearing from other owners as to their experience.

I find all variants comfortable. The cars with 17" and 16" wheels have a much better ride

I didn't notice a huge difference in ride on the Premier models compared to the F-Sport

Was the C350 a W204? My Father in law has a Sport version running on the same tyres as the IS F-Sport and I found that bone jarring when it hit any kind of bump or expansion joint

Ian C Taylor · March 10, 2018

On ‎26‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 12:16 AM, rayaans said:

I find all variants comfortable. The cars with 17" and 16" wheels have a much better ride

I didn't notice a huge difference in ride on the Premier models compared to the F-Sport

Was the C350 a W204? My Father in law has a Sport version running on the same tyres as the IS F-Sport and I found that bone jarring when it hit any kind of bump or expansion joint

Thank you to those who have left comments to my observation re harsh suspension. Although only a small sample, it would seem to indicate that there is an issue here. I will be discussing the matter again with the dealership which supplied the car new. I am particularly sensitive to this issue as, before deciding to buy the car, I specified that I was looking for something with a smoother ride than that of my Mercedes and tried several demo versions of the IS300h and did not feel that the suspension was harsh, with the exception of the Sport model. In this case the dealership mentioned that the Sport did indeed have a firmer ride set up. It occurs to me that perhaps the weight of the batteries requires a a slightly firmer ride set up than that of a conventional model. In the absence of an explanation, I am at a loss to understand why Lexus would choose to equip what is, in all other aspects, an excellent model with such harsh suspension.

ColinBarber · March 10, 2018

I haven't heard of this occurring for years but suspension packing blocks have been known to be left in place - they are installed for the vehicle's boat trip half way around the world.

paulrnx · March 14, 2018

On 2/25/2018 at 9:21 PM, Rebecca said:

I find the Lexus IS in general to be a harsh ride. Even my previous SE-L on 17's wasn't exactly comfy. My 250 F-sport on 18's was extremely harsh to the point of being uncomfortable.

Yes, I found my 3rd gen IS250 F-Sport to be the same. I couldn't drive it in the end and sold it for this reason. It would have been ok if it had a 5 litre V8 under the bonnet because it woudl have been worth it!

paulrnx · March 14, 2018

On 2/25/2018 at 5:40 PM, Ian C Taylor said:

I purchased a new IS300h Advance last September and have been very pleased with the car, with one important exception. I find the suspension to be very harsh and as a result quite uncomfortable, other than on smooth road surfaces. My previous car was a Mercedes 350 C class diesel which had firm, but not as harsh, suspension. I have been surprised at the absence of comments by other IS 300h owners. I queried the harsh ride with the dealership, only to be told that they could find no difference between the suspension on my car and the norm. I would welcome hearing from other owners as to their experience.

Yes, agreed, I also think the 3rd generation IS has a very harsh ride. I think it's too harsh personally but then again some of this has to do with the general state of our roads and my advancing years. Doubt it would have bothered me 10-15 years ago.

Have you checked all tyre pressures - when tyres are cold and ambient air temperature is above 5-6 degrees? Worth doing to make sure you don't have over-inflated tyres. Also play around with the pressures a little - try running them at 1 PSI less all round to see if this makes a difference. It did for me.

Ian C Taylor · March 14, 2018

55 minutes ago, paulrnx said:

Yes, agreed, I also think the 3rd generation IS has a very harsh ride. I think it's too harsh personally but then again some of this has to do with the general state of our roads and my advancing years. Doubt it would have bothered me 10-15 years ago.

Have you checked all tyre pressures - when tyres are cold and ambient air temperature is above 5-6 degrees? Worth doing to make sure you don't have over-inflated tyres. Also play around with the pressures a little - try running them at 1 PSI less all round to see if this makes a difference. It did for me.

After speaking with the dealership I did indeed drop the tyre pressure to 2.2 (metric) which has helped marginally, but has by no means resolved the issue. I may have to consider changing the wheels, so that I can run on non-low profile tyres, which has been mentioned as a possible way to improve the ride.

paulrnx · March 14, 2018

2 hours ago, Ian C Taylor said:

After speaking with the dealership I did indeed drop the tyre pressure to 2.2 (metric) which has helped marginally, but has by no means resolved the issue. I may have to consider changing the wheels, so that I can run on non-low profile tyres, which has been mentioned as a possible way to improve the ride.

From memory I think I also tried 2.1 bar

ColinBarber · March 14, 2018

6 hours ago, paulrnx said:

From memory I think I also tried 2.1 bar

That really is too low to be recommended.

chris_fletcher · March 14, 2018

I cant understand all the comments re harsh suspension. I found mine to be really smooth and very comfortable. My previous CT200H was a very hard ride so perhaps I didnt notice it so much because of that

ColinBarber · March 15, 2018

On 14/03/2018 at 9:56 AM, paulrnx said:

Yes, I found my 3rd gen IS250 F-Sport to be the same. I couldn't drive it in the end and sold it for this reason. It would have been ok if it had a 5 litre V8 under the bonnet because it woudl have been worth it!

I think the GS F with a 5 litre V8, is very slightly more refined that my old IS300h F-Sport. There is a small cut out in a road I travel on every day and which caused me to wince every time in the IS front wheels hit in, whereas in the GS it is just a hard jolt. In my wife's Prius you have to make an effort to look out for it otherwise you don't even notice it.

But all the non F-Sports loan vehicles I've driven have been fine, including the 18" wheeled Premier. It is just the 18" wheels in combination with the firmer F-Sport suspension that make it too hard.

paulrnx · March 16, 2018

On 3/14/2018 at 8:51 PM, ColinBarber said:

That really is too low to be recommended.

I tried it, I didn't say I left it at 2.1

paulrnx · March 16, 2018

On 3/14/2018 at 9:50 PM, chris_fletcher said:

I cant understand all the comments re harsh suspension. I found mine to be really smooth and very comfortable. My previous CT200H was a very hard ride so perhaps I didnt notice it so much because of that

You've answered your question Chris. You're comparing it to a CT200h which I agree has a terribly hard ride. The OP is comparing his IS300h to his previous car and he thinks it's harsh. No right or wrong, just different opinions based on experience and feel. I think they're on the harsh side too. You started off by saying you couldn't understand the comments and then admitted that perhaps you didn't notice it so much because of your own experience.

paulrnx · March 16, 2018

17 hours ago, ColinBarber said:

I think the GS F with a 5 litre V8, is very slightly more refined that my old IS300h F-Sport. There is a small cut out in a road I travel on every day and which caused me to wince every time in the IS front wheels hit in, whereas in the GS it is just a hard jolt. In my wife's Prius you have to make an effort to look out for it otherwise you don't even notice it.

But all the non F-Sports loan vehicles I've driven have been fine, including the 18" wheeled Premier. It is just the 18" wheels in combination with the firmer F-Sport suspension that make it too hard.

Suspect the GS, model for model. is more refined than the IS anyway? Certainly my brother-in-law's GS300h Luxury was way more refined than my IS300h Executive at the time. His was running on 18" wheels too whereas my IS was on 17" wheels. It's possibly just the way that Lexus have set the IS up, leaning more towards a harder and sportier feel plus also the size, weight and wheelbase length differences between the two models. In all cars I've owned I can accept a compromised ride if the performance is there. Unfortunately Lexus builds a fairly compromised car (IS) in terms of ride with little in the way of a performance return. Especially now that they've dropped the 200t from the UK market. It may well be that market research and sales shows all of this to be the correct approach so not necessarily the wrong things to do. It will be very interesting to see what the 4th generation IS is like.

rayaans · March 16, 2018

Just seems very odd though. I also find the IS300h F-Sport suspension quite comfortable. Its firm but not harsh. Its better than the 3RX was and marginally less comfy than a 4RX F-Sport.

Ive also been in every Merc and BMW since 2005 and found their suspensions are much harder almost across the board unless you start putting on fancy air suspension and the like.

OPs previous car was a Merc C350 CDI - presumably the W204 - we have one in the family and its fine on normal roads but hit an expansion joint and it properly thumps

ColinBarber · March 16, 2018

2 hours ago, paulrnx said:

I tried it, I didn't say I left it at 2.1

I'm sure you didn't, just being clear to other readers that they shouldn't be going that low.

paulrnx · March 16, 2018

11 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

I'm sure you didn't, just being clear to other readers that they shouldn't be going that low.

chris_fletcher · March 16, 2018

12 hours ago, paulrnx said:

You've answered your question Chris. You're comparing it to a CT200h which I agree has a terribly hard ride. The OP is comparing his IS300h to his previous car and he thinks it's harsh. No right or wrong, just different opinions based on experience and feel. I think they're on the harsh side too. You started off by saying you couldn't understand the comments and then admitted that perhaps you didn't notice it so much because of your own experience.

I still disagree that the IS300H is "harsh" I have had Gen1 GS, Gen 1&2 RX for comparison, followed by CT then IS300H Premier and it was not harsh at all. Th CT was hard but not harsh so stand by my comment. I now have a Gen 4 RX FSport which is not as plush as previous RX`s but its still nice and smooth. It has rattles when cold that drive me nuts though which is disappointing but love the car despite that

paulrnx · March 19, 2018

On 3/16/2018 at 11:49 PM, chris_fletcher said:

I still disagree that the IS300H is "harsh" I have had Gen1 GS, Gen 1&2 RX for comparison, followed by CT then IS300H Premier and it was not harsh at all. Th CT was hard but not harsh so stand by my comment. I now have a Gen 4 RX FSport which is not as plush as previous RX`s but its still nice and smooth. It has rattles when cold that drive me nuts though which is disappointing but love the car despite that

Just different opinions by two different people really. No right or wrong. In fact we're both right based on our own experiences which of course are different hence why we have the different opinions. Age probably comes into it too.

chris_fletcher · March 19, 2018

so are you saying I am an old fart lol? I am rather awkward too and grumpy if my wife is to be believed.

I see you have an NX which I thought was jittery compared to my IS300H Premier hence the change to an gen 4 RX. Couldnt afford the Premier and really liked the red with black roof liner of the FSport which is a little harder ride and noiser with the sound generator. Would prefer silence but accepted the trade off. As I get older I want quiet and plush ride

paulrnx · April 5, 2018

On 3/19/2018 at 11:29 PM, chris_fletcher said:

so are you saying I am an old fart lol? I am rather awkward too and grumpy if my wife is to be believed.

I see you have an NX which I thought was jittery compared to my IS300H Premier hence the change to an gen 4 RX. Couldnt afford the Premier and really liked the red with black roof liner of the FSport which is a little harder ride and noiser with the sound generator. Would prefer silence but accepted the trade off. As I get older I want quiet and plush ride

I think I was saying I was an old fart to be honest. My NX, now gone, was massively improved with different tyres. The OE Yokohamas are particularly poor over short sharp ridges, expansion joints, etc. To me anyway. Plenty find it perfectly acceptable.

Ian C Taylor · April 18, 2018

After speaking again with the dealership about the, in my opinion, harsh ride on my new (September 2017) IS 300h (Advance), it would seem that the only possible, partial solution is a change of wheel down to 16 inch, from the present low profile Yokohamas 17 inch. Have any other IS 300h owners done this and what were the results and what were the wheel/tyre combinations used?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.