GS 450h ride quality

[Vlady]

Hi all,

Couple of weeks ago a friend of mine took my GS for a ride (little test drive) and I was following him on his Skoda Supeb and I noticed that the rear of my GS is moving a lot up and down, wafting/floating I think is another word, I thought this is normal and that what gives me a fantastic comfortable ride so I just left it.

Yesterday my boss was driving behind me and this morning his words were - are your shocks fine as the rear of your car moving a lot up and down and your previous 5 series looked very planted and stable, so it got me thinking, may be something is not right!

The  car feels normal and at motorway speeds doesn't feel loose or all over the place, before I bought the car it went to Lexus Edinburgh for Battery health check and there was no advisories and after I bought the car I took it to Lexus Glasgow for TPMS issue and they did an overall health check and again there was nothing about worn or leaked shocks!

Has any of you GS owners had a chance to drive behind your car and noticed the same thing? Is it normal or shall I take it to the garage and get it checked?

Thanks for any comments everyone!

Vlady

[Britprius]

If the shock absorbers have lost there oil you will get this "floating" effect, but this is also followed with a crashing of the suspension on potholes, and bumps. If the oil leaked away some time ago there will be little or no trace of a leak as the oil is very thin.
I do not know the cost of shocks on your model, but the gen3 GS450H are expensive at circa £300 each plus fitting.

John.

[Vlady]

Thanks John, I would hear a crashing noise and usually when shock is gone your wheel/s is/are jumping on any pothole as only supported by a spring, I have seen this on my colleague's car and I have none of these, no noise and no jumping wheels up and down plus if you push the car and release it it still bounces, well, I need to check this as I have not done it - will do it on my lunch!

It could be just me being paranoid. I need a new set of screen wipers anyway so might book the car to check the shocks as well later in a month.

[Odysseus]

I recently had one of my rear shocks replaced (under warranty fortunately) and it was crashing/thumping prior to this, but I couldn’t honestly say the ride was too badly affected, or dramatically improved following replacement.

The thumping I experienced was definitely more noticeable if the suspension was under load, such as when encountering a bump mid corner and/or when the car was fully occupied by wife and children.


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[Britprius]

1 hour ago, Vlady said:

Thanks John, I would hear a crashing noise and usually when shock is gone your wheel/s is/are jumping on any pothole as only supported by a spring, I have seen this on my colleague's car and I have none of these, no noise and no jumping wheels up and down plus if you push the car and release it it still bounces, well, I need to check this as I have not done it - will do it on my lunch!

It could be just me being paranoid. I need a new set of screen wipers anyway so might book the car to check the shocks as well later in a month.

You may not notice any "bounce" when pressing on the rear of the car as the springs are quite stiff, and non compliant with the weight of one person. Keep us informed as to the outcome of any diagnosis. 

Aldi are selling Bosh wiper blades at £5 each in all sizes, and take 2 minutes to fit.

John.

[Vlady]

4 hours ago, Britprius said:

You may not notice any "bounce" when pressing on the rear of the car as the springs are quite stiff, and non compliant with the weight of one person. Keep us informed as to the outcome of any diagnosis. 

Aldi are selling Bosh wiper blades at £5 each in all sizes, and take 2 minutes to fit.

John.

Hi John, will keep you updated, no problem.

Regards wiper blades, with my previous cars I learned that wiper blades should be OEM only, I have tried before to use Bosch (Bosh) and others on my previous BMW and they all were crap, either noisy, short or not leaning against the window properly!, Yes, OEM are very expensive (very), from Lexus I have been quoted something like £70-75 but then you need to buy only the rubber strips when time comes, on my GS previous owner bought not OEM items so I can't get just rubber strips from Lexus that cost about £30-35.